Pete and I celebrated our 10 year anniversary on May 4th. With Brian and Karen in the Netherlands on sabbatical, the timing was perfect for marking the big milestone with a 2 week trip to Europe. As hard as it was to leave the kids behind, we were unbelievably grateful to Arlene and Aldo for agreeing to sit on our rugrats for us. Needless to say, we had a wonderful 2 weeks exploring Belgium and Holland. Bri summarized our adventure best when he described us as being in "one big beer commercial". I'll try to elaborate a little further...
Brussels, Belgium
We flew in to Brussels and timed our arrival perfectly with Sue's arrival from Edinburgh (we managed to meet at the baggage carousel before we'd even had a chance to text one another). We were typical tourists lost in the train station for a bit but finally found our apartment and quickly set off to explore Brussels. We were right near Le Grand Place, which was easily accessed by walking past every chocolate shop imaginable (I can still smell it... mmmmm). We spent the day wandering around, from sight to sight to pub (not necessarily in that order) and Sue put up with Pete and me tagging off for naps while we fought through our jet lag. We went on an entertaining beer tour the next day and learned a ton of funny things - like how locals shake their heads at tourists' obsession with Belgian waffles: "it's a stupid treat we make for our kids!!". It poured down on us, but we barely noticed. We ended the day at a great restaurant recommended by our guide. On our last day, we walked Sue to the train station (she went off to tour Luxembourg) and Pete and I wandered some more around Brussels and tested some more Belgian beer before taking the train up to Nijmegen to see the Holland Corneils.
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| Mannekin Pis |
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| Le Grand Place |
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| Being tourists |
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| At the Cantillon Brewery |
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| Sue on Brewery Tour |
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| Wandering around Brussels |
Nijmegen, Holland
Bri picked us up at the train station and we were excited to hear that Kimmie and Eric were waiting up for us, despite our train delay. On Saturday we started the day off cheering Eric on in soccer. We then rode our bikes to the stable to watch Kimmie ride. We finished the day off with a walk through the backyard to the petting zoo, water park and soccer field - what a great location they live in!
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| Adrienne took no time to warm up to Uncle Pete! |
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| Eric scoring during the shoot-out |
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| Biking to the stable. |
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| Kimmie riding |
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| Kicking the ball around with Eric |
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| Holland looks good on these two!! |
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| Adrienne introducing us to "Grammy Goat" |
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| Jen and Eric - I sure loved getting my kid fix! |
Utrecht and Den Haag
Karen was able to get some great deals on train passes for us but they could only be used for weekend travel, so we declared Sunday a "travel day" and went off to explore The Netherlands!! We first got off the train in Utrecht and did a big walk through the city before finding a castle-turned-pub for a delicious lunch. We then boarded the train again and went all the way to the coast, getting off in Den Haag (The Hague). We took a tram down to the coast in order to check out the dunes and beach at Scheveningen. We then went to the centre of the city to take in KoninginneNach or "Queen's Night" - a big party marking the night before the Queen's birthday. We met up with Sue again who was in town visiting her friend Hilde and we managed to spend a bit of time together before Pete and I had to hop on the train to head back to Nijmegen.
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| The Dom Tower in Utrecht |
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| Self-portrait along the canals in Utrecht |
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| Walking the beach at Scheveningen |
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| Pete meets the North Sea |
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| A Heineken on the beach |
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| Sue and Hilde in Den Haag |
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| KoninginneNach well under way! |
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| Joking with the locals |
Koninginnedag in Nijmegen and Hoge Veluwe
As we were well aware by this point, the Dutch people sure know how to party!! Add in some sunshine and Koninginnedag in Nijmegen was an absolute hoot! We were so lucky to be there for what Bri claims was the nicest day they've had since they've lived in Nijmegen. We started the day off at the biggest flea market imaginable (even Karen and the kids participated by trying to sell some stuff off before coming back to Canada - but the kids shopped up a storm and they ended up buying more than they sold!). We then biked downtown and scoped out a couple of pubs in town and down by the water. The kids even made some money dancing in the square (much to their parents' embarrassment!!).
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| Karen and Eric selling |
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| Pete getting into the spirit with Eric |
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| The crowds |
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| I loved all the biking! |
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| At a pub in downtown Nijmegen |
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| Fun in the sun! |
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| The Holland Corneils! |
On Tuesday Bri had to work and Karen and the kids were busy getting ready for their upcoming camping trip, so Pete and I took off to explore Hoge Veluwe National Park. We took advantage of the free white bikes at the park's entrance, biked 25 kms around the grounds and took in the museum and sculpture garden.
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| The white bikes at Hoge Veluwe |
Amsterdam and Bruges
On Wednesday we took the train to Amsterdam and met up once again with Sue (she was en route to Stockholm and was in Amsterdam for one night). We found our apartment and then went for a canal tour right off the bat. Sue apparently was a little tired after her time in The Hague and we took full advantage... heh heh!!
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| Sue and Pete on the canal tour |
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| A typical Amsterdam scene |
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| Psst Pete, is she sleeping? |
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| Yep, she is!! |
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| In Amsterdam |
We had been told by at the Tourists' Office that there was a football game in town that night and we took the metro to the stadium hoping to buy tickets. Unfortunately it turned out to be the national finals (!!) and there wasn't so much as a scalper in sight. We made our way back downtown and found a pub (shocking, I know) to watch the game at. Amsterdam won the game and the city went crazy. Here's a video of them celebrating in the pub right after the win:
Sue left bright and early Thursday morning and Pete and I took in many of Amsterdam's sights over the next couple of days. We then took the train to Bruges for one more day of sightseeing before heading back to Brussels and flying home. It was a wonderful trip, made even greater by family reunions abroad and family support on the home front!!
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