The Netherlands

We were blessed with a really really great time of year to move here and start work...there were lots of German holidays that fell on work days in April and May. It was a great opportunity for us to get out and stretch our legs a little to visit some neighboring countries. This first trip was a recommendation from some friends who had always wanted to go see the Tulip Festival in Holland and had never been able to make it work out. So we decided to make it a group trip and took a long weekend to head up into the Netherlands to check out the Holland Tulip Festival, Amsterdam, and The Hague.

We have a fun group!!

I am grateful for everyone you see here :)

It was just over a three hour drive to our first stop and rental house in The Hague.

We carpooled with friends. Stopping by the bakery of course for some road snacks :)

We found our rental house, dropped off our things and headed to the beach.

The Hague is located on the East side of the Netherlands and is right on the North Sea. It was chilly. Even being May, I was still surprised by how cold the wind was.

We still found wind surfers and other spectators.

Dinner that first night was awesome! We found a gluten free Indonesian restaurant. 

So so yum! Our friend Tim, who is quite knowledgeable with this kind of thing, 

ordered all the food for the table and we just had to dig in.

Day two was Tulip Festival day.

We went into Keukenhof Gardens to check out the festival there. Keukenhof is one of the largest flower gardens in the world and is also known as the Garden of Europe.

They claim to have over 7 million spring flowering bulbs every year! It really is very impressive!

We saw so many beautiful things but we didn't make it to see everything. We didn't even find the orchid house. *swoon, orchids*

Oohs and aahs around every corner of the pathways :)

The tulips were all so pretty...I could post soooo many more pictures. 

We passed by many fields along the way just filled with flowers.
It was really neat to see in person.

Every spring, you can find the 'flower-bulb route' of 2500 acres of flowering fields. National Geographic even named it one of the world's ultimate road trips. It has become one of the longest and most colorful routes in Holland.

Taking after daddy with a love of the camera.

This boy is always up to something and into everything :)

This year was the 125th year since Vincent Van Gogh's death so to commemorate the anniversary they paid tribute by creating one of his paintings with tulips.

During our stay we were introduced to some delicious Dutch snacks and treats. Many of which we bought more of to bring home. P thoroughly enjoyed the chocolate shavings for sprinkling on toast.

After all this...we headed into Amsterdam for more site-seeing and some much needed food. 

We obviously needed to stop for some of this. We also learned that the Batman raincoat makes for a very good bib for ice cream, particularly needed for chocolate ice cream. 

Amsterdam is a city of bikes and canals. 

There really are bikes everywhere and I think it adds to the charm of the city.

By the time we found dinner, sat down and ate...I was so distracted with food and company I didn't take a single picture. We were all starved and ready to eat! Believe me though, we had a delicious dinner at an Indian/Nepalese restaurant :)

With all the kids down, we tried some more Dutch treats and had board games back at the rental house to round out the night. Tim brought a few wines for us and the boys bought several Dutch beers for the beer snobs lovers to sample. 

Before heading out of Amsterdam the next day we stopped for some bakery goods in search of the local flavors offered there. Everyone and every town has a special something only found there so we try to stop and look for them when we are in any new town :) All part of exploring, right? 

This trip we tried Stroopwafels.

This particular bakery even had some gluten free options!!

On our way back to Germany we discovered a super sweet gem...

Hello, Gouda! I love you. So quaint. So sweet.

More on Gouda tomorrow, Lord willing!