Oct 3, 2011 - Back in Rotterdam

We've made it back safely to Rotterdam but not without more excitement than I would have liked!!! The boys and I left Saturday morning to drive the van back from Paris and unfortunately the GPS doesn't like Paris and kept sending us in circles and telling me to turn when there wasn't a place to turn and basically glitching. So, we're lost in Paris without a map detailed enough to figure out where we are or what number of road to even look for to get out. I was a little stressed to put it mildly and stopped to reprogram the GPS to something...

Sep 20, 2011 - Getting ready for the France Adventure

We had a lovely day yesterday at the Openluchtmuseum or Open Air Museum near Arnhem where we learned about Dutch life since the 1600's. It's a museum that was started in 1940's and is like Fort Edmonton but with more history:-) There is a tram that you can ride around in and get from place to place. We saw a working wind mill and how they would have made flour. There were a lot of hands on things to try including riding bikes that had two wheels with a large front wheel with pedals and little back wheel that was hard to turn,saw a...

Aug 28, 2011 - Resistance Museum and Willemstad

Today was socked in rain for the whole morning and it came pouring down really hard!!! Dave and I made a trip to the supermarket named "Jumbo" which was about the size of a large Safeway at home, but is considered pretty big here. It definitely had more selection and some things in larger quantities than Albert Heijn's. (The usual grocery store) Since we weren't sure if the weather would hold out, we decided to try "The War and Resistance Museum." We walked to this little museum that had an information book in english and started out by...

Aug 27, 2011 - Road Trip to Urk and Giethoorn

Today was a road trip to the village of Urk in the northeast of Holland in the region of Flevoland. On the way there we saw a lot of flat land and windmill turbines. Urk was a lovely place on the ocean, and we walked around the old part of the town that had very narrow little cobblestone streets (our alley at home is wider!) It was very quiet with little old houses tucked in all over the place, but very well kept up and with a country feel. We had gelato (yum) and then made our way to Giethoorn which is called "the Venice of Holland" It's...

Aug 26, 2011 - More fun in Holland

Well, we've kind of slacked off as far as updates. The days have sneaked by. On Wednesday the 24th we used a Rotterdam Welcome card and spent a rainy day at the zoo. The rain does not stop people from getting out and about here. At some points it was a steady downnpour and other times a light mist. It was a warm rain and Lucas had to take off his raincoat and just use the umbrella because he was too hot. We bought another umbrella there. The zoo here is the second largest in Europe apparently and was quite good. Lots of gorillas, giraffes,...

Aug 23, 2011 - The Museum Trip!!!!!!!

Well, first I woke up at 11:30 again and then went to the Maritime Museum and learned about the port and it was pretty cool. Then we went on the Buffet and it was a boat that patrolled the coast for the Dutch navy. It was cool but the ceiling was low so if you were a tall person you hurt you're back. Then we went to a place that sells fries that are really good. Then we went to the Albert Heijn and got food, got home and played pool and then cards and I won three times :)and that was it. Jaime :) Mom's comments: The reason we slept in so...

Aug 22, 2011 - Mom getting us lost on a bike tour in europe

Today our goal was to rent bikes and ride around and explore Holland.We had Dad's bike and had to walk around the city till we found an information building that told us we can only rent at Central Station and apparently we could not rent the bikes at a hostel. Then we went to Delft on our bikes for a 20km circuit and got to eat Dominos Pizza. We ordered a creamy bacon pizza that had mushrooms and onions which tasted disgusting. (Mom and Sean liked it) While we were biking to our apartment it rained pretty hard. So yeah, that's about it....

Aug 21, 2011 - Race cars

Today started with a quiet morning and sleep in. Jaime started the day by trying a Dutch breakfast; shaved chocolate on toast. He liked it; surprise! We then made our way downtown to where there was a race car demonstration thingy. There were so many people you couldn't see over them to the cars. We saw how the Dutch dealt with it;by bringing stools and ladders from home to see over everyone. So we went back to the apartment to get ours! It was a very humid and muggy 25 degrees today, so Jaime and Lucas stayed in the apartment while Sean...

Aug 20, 2011 - Market and Cruise

We made it to the coast at Scheveningen to see the fire works last night. I think Jaime was a little worried because he knew Mom wasn't sure how it all worked, but we made it there and back! Canada and Brazil were doing the fire works for this international competition and if we were all the judges, I don't think Canada would win. There were ALOT of people there. Jaime was happy because we found a place that had churros like french fries and the kids are eating them in this picture. We had found a really nice spot where we could sit on a...

Aug 19, 2011 - Day in Rotterdam

Well, we're still suffering jet lag and Sean, Jaime and myself have been waking up at around 4am! The first night, I was cooking tortellini at 4am because they were starving! Lucas has been waking at 7am (on his own) and then going back to sleep. If you know Lucas, you know that him waking at 7am on his own is unheardof. Today we had a personal tour with Bernadette who is the wife of Terry Higgins who is also from the Edmonton plant. We walked all over downtown Rotterdam and now feel more comfortable with not getting lost. It's a beautiful...

Aug 17, 2011 - Aug 17 2011

I'm writing from the apartment:D I'm soooo tired:(Calgary to Amsterdam was 8 hours and 10 minutes. I watched movies the whole time. The dinner on the plane was good (chicken with noodles). The breakfast was an omleats and it had some green spinich looking thing, it was gross, and the vinilla yogurt was worse. There was six bathrooms on the plane and there was a constent line up for all of them. we departed ok then had to wait another 25minutes to get our bags. then we went in search of the Dave, who was waiting outside for us. then when we...

Jun 2, 2011 - Rotterdam

Today is Thursday and we ended our 16 day cruise today in Rotterdam (Netherlands). It is a city very similar to Adelaide with a million people, a tram through the city centre and is built next to a river(larger than the Torrens!). Paul and i took a tour to see the 19 working 'Windmills' in nearby Kinderdijk and it was very impressive to see the country side dotted with windmills. Up close they are huge and go around very fast. Here in Rotterdam there are more push bikes than cars and they have their own dedicated lanes on the streets. All...