Umm, where have we been?

So we've obviously not been the most diligent bloggers in the past few months. We've had so many things going on that unfortunately we just let the blog slip. BUT, we have committed to catch up the blog and we wanted to start with a few posts about the trip we just finished.  So without further ado...

Our Big European Road Trip (part 1)

A map of our 2,400 kilometer journey.

So a few months ago we decided that we wanted to take a trip in July to see some other sights within Europe.  E has always wanted to see Amsterdam/Holland and we wanted to do something fun with the kids, so we decided on doing a few days in the Netherlands and few days in Denmark at Legoland and a day in Copenhagen & Sweden.  The only problem was that all these destinations were so far apart. Ultimately after driving over 2,400 kilometers or around 1,5000 miles in a week we had a trip that we will not soon forget (for good reasons, not bad).

Our trusty "Dory" who took us on the journey.

We finally understand the need for a rooftop carrier...

General Motors believes that 7 people can fit in this car, we can definitely fit 7 small bodies in this car, but whether they can move is another question.  But we're grateful for the car and for the opportunity it gives us to travel around.

After researching like only he can, K created a trip that would take 8 days and 7 nights, and that would allow us to do this for a reasonable price.  The only issue... we would have to camp everywhere.  While E was not thrilled at first at the idea, we finally figured everything out and made all the plans.  We left last Sunday and headed-up after church to Amsterdam.

Amsterdam / Holland

We stayed at this campsite in Amsterdam called Gasper Camping, it was a very nice campsite and within walking distance of the subway.  It was awesome.  Our opinion of camping was definitely changed during this trip, at least european camping.  We had nice hot showers everyday, toilets were within a minute of our tent, and the kids loved sleeping in a tent.  The one interesting element that camping so far up north presented was the fact that it wouldn't get dark until around 11pm and then around 4am it was already light again. We thought that we would have big issues with getting the kids to sleep given the light, but we just ran them around until they were so tired they crashed at night.

Outside of the campsite in Amsterdam.  

At night the site was completely locked and access was limited.

Our home away from home for the week.  

We've decided we need a bigger tent!

We had some friends from church join us for the first part of our trip in Amsterdam. It was great for Ms. A & Mr. L to have some other kids to play with and they all really enjoyed doing the trip together.

At the subway station waiting for the subway to come.  

These were bags made out of cement.  The kids loved them.

On our first day in Amsterdam we rented a boat and drove around the canals looking at all the buildings and architecture that Amsterdam has to offer.  It was a very fun experience.  We did learn though that to the locals a 10-15 minute walk in Amsterdam is not a 10-15 walk anywhere else.  Numerous people told us that the dock for our boat was only a few minutes away from the train station...  An hour and 15 minutes later we finally found it.  Luckily the kids loved it, and it was a great way to see Amsterdam.  It kept the kids occupied "driving" the boat for the whole day.

The family in front of the main channel in Amsterdam city.

One of the fun things about using a boat is that you can stop along the way 

and look at sites.  Unfortunately our stops were mainly focused on going 

potty.  We got to know the location of the neighborhood McDonalds very well.

We ate at the Chinese restaurant that is behind Ms. A.  It was really fun.

Mr. L was quite disappointed that we didn't have a 

speedboat, but just a slow touring boat.

One of the more surprising things that we found in Amsterdam was the biking population.  It seriously appeared as if everyone in the city had a bike and used it as their car.  Check out the pictures below of the bike racks at the train station.

Yes, these are all bikes and there is a whole sea of them.  

We have no idea how people figure out which bike is theirs.

We saw a lot of fun things in Amsterdam and really enjoyed the city.  Here are just a few more random pictures of us out on the town.

There is a life size replica of an old Dutch East-India ship from the 18th century.

We floated by it a couple times as the kids liked to look at all the different parts

of the ship.

The Rest of Holland

The next day of our trip was spent in a town called Zaanse Schans.  This town was a very fun town.  It is basically the remnants of the old industrial town that used to occupy this area.  The town still has a lot of the elements and industries that it had back 100-200 years ago, but now it is for everyone to come and watch how things used to be.

This was by far our favorite part of our time in Holland.  On a side note, we asked some local people here about what to call The Netherlands, is it The Netherlands, or is it Holland. Ultimately, they all said, it depends as there are 12 provinces with 2 of the being called Holland, these two provinces are the most populated out of the country so that's why a lot of people call The Netherlands, Holland.  But either one is fine.  The official name is The Netherlands, but a lot of local people call it Holland first, because it is easier to say, second, because they most likely live in the actual Holland provinces, and most importantly because it is easier than the phrase "Netherlands" to chant during soccer games.

Anyways back to our experience in Zaanse Schans.  We arrived at the town and started to walk around.  It is a very cozy town with a lot of old buildings and a lot of windmills (although far less than the 1,700 that were once all located here!) . We stopped by the clog maker first and the kids loved playing in the big clogs that were made by the clog makers.

This is after Ms. H threw the temper tantrum of the century.

As she was throwing it and K was trying to calm her down

a crowd of about 10 asian school girls who were on a school

trip began to gather around K and Ms. H, and watched the

spectacle.  Tantrums can draw attentions, but this was our

first crowd gathering experience...

It was very interesting to learn about the reasons for the use of wooden clogs.  Ultimately they were/are a cheap and effective way to make a very safe and durable shoe.  The clogs are generally stronger than steel toed shoes and are still used by some people today in their daily work.

We also learned about some old traditions associated with the clogs, the one that was the most impressive related to wedding clogs.  When a man proposed to a woman, he would create a very intricate pair of clogs to demonstrate his love/dedication to her and their relationship.  Emphasis on intricate.  Take a look at the example below, it was crazy to see how detailed the clogs were.  The clogs were worn once the couple was officially engaged.  The tradition really isn't followed anymore, but it is very impressive!

We found a pair of wooden clogs that we liked, they were hand painted and small, but we were ok with that.  A lot of the clogs were huge and we would have had no place to display them.

After taking some time to visit the clog maker, we headed down to the cheese shop to check it out.  The cheese shop was very cool.  Gouda cheese is actually from The Netherlands, and man do they know how to make some good cheese.  For lunch we bought some baby gouda, some smoked cheese and some baguettes and just ate cheese sandwiches.  It was the best meal of the entire trip.

E with our friend C after the cheese fest.

After the cheese shop we wandered over to the chocolate shop and the girls took a class in how to make chocolate.  It was really interesting to learn about how many things are actually made or were created in The Netherlands.  For example, did you know that Oreos are actually made of cocoa that is only produced in The Netherlands?  The reason is that a man perfected the chocolate "Dutching" technique in The Netherlands, and as Oreos rely upon this technique for their unique flavor, all cocoa used to make Oreos comes straight from The Netherlands.  So next time you use Dutch Cocoa, you know why it is called Dutch cocoa...

Ms. A loved the chocolate class, and she was actually able to make chocolate from start to finish from cocoa beans (well with the help of a wonderful teacher who did a lot of the manual labor).

Ms. A grinding the cocoa beans on the warming 

stone to get them as fine as possible.

After the Chocolate shop, we headed over to the Windmills and took a tour of the oil mill.  Peanut allergy people be aware we're going to talk about peanuts!  For whatever reason we never really put together the name Wind-Mill.  Wind mills were actually used to mill various items back in the day.  For example, paint, wood, oil, clothing, etc...  It was very interesting to see a few of them actually in operation and to actually see how ingenious the Dutch people were in creating the mills to do all their work.

Here are 4 of the windmills at Zaanse Schans.  There were

a few more, but you get the idea.

Here was the oil mill that we visited.  They put large amounts

of peanuts on the milling stone and extract peanut oil for 

various uses. 

Here is a picture of the gears that are driven by the windmill.  All the

cogs and inner workings are made of wood.  It was very impressive.

We all climbed up the ladder to get on top of the mill

it was very steep and definitely would not exist in the

USA given the fairly dangerous climb.  But we're glad

we got the opportunity to stand on one and see the

blades so close up.

Overall, we really enjoyed The Netherlands and all that it had to offer.  We only spent two days there as we needed to take a whole day to drive further up north to Denmark, but we wish we could have stayed a couple more days, because honestly there was so much to see and learn.  Who knows we may just take a few more days to go exploring!

Stay tuned for the part II of our trip where we explore Denmark...