Train to Amsterdam

On Saturday, we and our friends headed to Amsterdam by train, kids and all. I love traveling by train anyway, but tulip season makes it all that more enjoyable (event though the trip is only 40 minutes or so from Leiden). This is a shot of Robert and Ben.We caught unbelievably perfect weather in Amsterdam. It was almost jacket weather in the shade but really warm in the sun. Since I’ve blogged multiple times about Amsterdam in the past, I’ll take it easy this time. Here are a few shots that prove than Amsterdam is gorgeous, on cloudy and sunny days.I’ll pick the best few shots I took there and post them in the next few days.

Brisk beach…

After a day lazily looking at tulips, we headed to Scheveningen in The Hague to have dinner on the beach, Dutch style. It’s early spring, so temperatures didn’t get much above 10 Celsius: about –211 with wind chill. Poposuda, our navigation system, decided to take us via the scenic route. However, we arrived safe and sound and managed to stay warm for most of our time there. The sand was brimming with tiny shells.There was a lot of kite surfing going on. It made for a very nice effect. Here’s a little video showing the strong winds, intrepid kite surfers and a suspicious foam that is hard to believe is natural (although someone in our party assured me it is).

After a very brief walk on a very cold beach, we found a nice bar to hang out in

Mo’ Keukenhof…

A few more shots of the kids and flowers.In the one below you find (left to right) Sophia, Madeline, Ben, Emily and Robert.As you can see, as the day went on, the weather got better.

Netherlands or bust…

Some friends of ours innocently mentioned a couple of weeks ago that they were headed to Holland to see the tulips. Imagine their shock when they, out of politeness, asked us if we wanted to go too and we said “Yes!”. I took Friday off so we packed the clan into the Family Truckster at around 6:30 and hit the autobahn. We cruised most of the way at a cool 100 mph, arriving in Leiden in less than 4 1/2 hours.

We met our friends at Keukenhof, a park in the middle of tulip country. We wondered around there a good part of the day and then headed to dinner at the beach.

The park is really beautiful, but the highlight was the vast tulip fields we passed on the way there. I keep finding reasons to love the Netherlands. Keukenhof has its own functional windmill. The view from up there is spectacular.Prepare yourself for multiple post on this incredible trip. Here’s a bit of video from up on the windmill.

Is it live, or is it…

Sophia. Robert taught her to “read” a Dr. Seuss book. I don’t think she can really sound out all the words, but can tell the difference between “foot” and “feet” and has a really good memory. I have but one word for her performance: C-U-T-E.

Easter Art…

The kids woke up inspired today. Robert, who has been obsessed with Footloose since we saw the play at the American high school a few weeks ago (a friend of ours directed it), drew a picture of the protagonist dancing while holding his sweatshirt. Looks a bit like stocks to me, so maybe he’s seen the medieval version.Emily’s hedgehog seems trapped somewhere between day and night, perhaps protected from harmful UV rays by his star-filled force field. At school, Emily made me an Easter bowl from papier-mâché, perfect for holding and displaying Easter chocolates (probably less suited for soup).However, if I had to give an award for kid art this year, it might go to Sophia, whose rabbit sculpture on a bed of Chia Pet-like sprouts could be her magnus opus.

Out with the old…

Spring, the season of renewal, seems to be the perfect time for Sophia to shed some baby teeth. She’s lost 2 in the last couple of weeks. The Tooth Fairy discovered on the night of the second that she had no change so left Sophia with a 10 Euro note while she slept (Sophia, not the Tooth Fairy). Congratulations Sophia!

An early start to Easter…

Emily outdid herself this morning waking me up at 4:30 to look for Easter eggs. My incoherent mumbling somehow convinced her to wait until  6:00 or so. The kids found all the eggs the Easter Bunny had hidden in no time.Thanks to their doting mother, Easter has become a gift-giving occasion. Is that normal or was I deprived as a child? Anyway, Robert got the movie “Up” (“Oben” in German) and the girls got Barbies.

Buffeted at the buffet…

Although the weather outside was a bit rough, we celebrated Andrea’s birthday at Wimmer’s a week or so ago.As usual, Thomas and I put a pretty good dent in the Hefeweizen stock. Andrea enjoyed some of Wimmer’s own wine.Brave souls that they are, they even invited the Prickril brood. The kids get an A for behavior. They seem to be getting the knack of party going, behaving themselves exceptionally well of late.Their eating habits are funny. Without any prodding (or even a good example) from us, Emily naturally stocks up on healthy grub. Wimmer has the biggest variety of food I’ve ever seen, but she made a beeline for the salad bar. The same can’t be said for Robert, who, although he’s broadening his culinary horizons, can’t resist the urge to improvise a donut\Danish-like concoction with a normal dinner role and chocolate pudding.Some time ago, Thomas turned me on to bitters as a digestif. His brand of choice (and now mine) is Fernet Branca. At Wimmer, we settled for Ramazzotti. This stuff really hits the spot after copious amounts of food and drink.