Saturday, June 20, 2009

Wonderful vacation!



We spent 5 wonderful days in the Netherlands and loved every minute of the trip! Each day was an adventure that I will be sharing very soon!

Our trip actually began on Monday when we completely filled up the Suburban with luggage, porta crib, food, and 5 kiddos which took a little longer than expected...it always does! We then began our adventure with a 6 hour drive to Volendam which is a quaint fishing village about 20-25 minutes north of Amsterdam. The drive took us from Germany through Belgium and then to the Netherlands. By the way, the GPS said it was a 4 hour drive....HOW did we ever lose 2 hours...amazing how long those bathroom breaks can take with kids!

What comes to mind when you hear the word Holland?
If you said windmills then you are right on track!
On the last round-about before our much anticipated destination we saw this windmill.


Can you see the 2 rabbits that snuck into the picture?

I really didn't know why there were so many windmills in the Netherlands....thought maybe as a source of energy or for farming. Well as it turns out, the Netherlands is increasing its size by reclaiming land from marshes, lakes, and the sea. The land mass has been increased by 10% since the 14th century! The windmills were used to pump out the water so the land underneath could be used. This provided rich soil for farmlands and has also provided new housing areas close to Amsterdam.

Stay tuned for our next adventure which begins here. Any guesses where this may be?





5 comments:

Pam said...

Yay for a vacation! We did a Baltic Cruise last summer and decided that the Netherlands was our favorite place and we'd like to go back! Gorgeous pics - can't wait to see where you go next!

As for your mystery pic - I'm going to guess you are getting on a ferry.....?

Jennifer said...

...and you'd be correct! It is a ferry to a really cool place:)

Tiffany said...

I have seen or heard of a suburban in Europe! Do you guys have the only one???

Stop already with all the beautiful pictures! :)

Jennifer said...

We don't exactly "blend in" that's for sure!!! There are some places we just can't drive it because it is just too big:) We barely fit on parts of the tiny curvy road that leads to our house. We got stuck trying to park in a parking garage in Trier and we had an audience watching us get out!

Andrea said...

Oh no! Did you get stuck in the parking lot that we went to ??

Loved the Netherlands pics. We need to get there and visit friends.