Reminiscing

Today, is a very beautiful day. It is well deserved--it's been rainy and gloomy for several days in a row, and I needed some sunshine. I was at the zoo with some friends, and we were noticing the daffodils, and talking about how much we love spring flowers. They give us the feeling of hope, that the cold weather is on it's way out. It made me wish I could go back to Europe. In 2006, my sister, her husband, and her Mother- and Father-in-law, came to Germany to visit us. One of the trips we took was to Holland. I thought I'd share some pictures of one of my favorite trips.

We stayed at a hotel on the coast of the North Sea, but I can't remember the name of the town. It was pretty chilly, but we managed a walk along the beach.

Amsterdam was an interesting place. Pretty much anything goes, there. We tried our best to avoid the red light district. The architecture is great, and I loved all the bikes lining the streets. While we were there, we went to the Anne Frank House, the Rijks Museum, and the Van Gogh Museum. All, very worth while excursions.

Our next trip was to Lisse, Holland, where the Kukenhof Gardens are. WOW! I loved it. I think this is where I fell in love with tulips.

My favorite are the red tipped with yellow tulips.

I got some great pictures of Maryn. She was hamming it up while we took pictures. She was about 10 months old at the time...and still toothleess.

Silly girl!

Driving along the roads, we would see fields of flowers.

We stopped at little shop out in the middle of nowhere. Thankfully the Dutch are very friendly people, and a man jogging down the road helped us find our way. At this shop, they demonstrated how to make clogs, and the history behind clogs. Then we had a demo on cheese making. Mmmmm. Cheese.

Me, in a ginormous pair of clogs.

Our final trip in Holland was to a place called Kinderdijk, where several old windmills line a canal. They were nonfunctioning, but still very cool to see.

On Sylivia's (my sister's Mother-in-law) list of things to visit in Europe, was a WWII American Cemetary at the border of Germany and Holland.

This is where her father was buried, after he died in WWII. It was very touching to be able to go with her to "meet" her father, and to take in the reality of the sacrifice those men made.

Thanks, Jill, for a fun time!