Europe 2013 - The Netherlands

Happy Monday! Did you all have a great weekend? Mine was busy with a mini family reunion, which meant a trip down to Arkansas and the usual cleaning, shopping, gardening, working out, etc.  I certainly did not finish any of the felting that I wanted to do.  But, I did finally finish sorting through a couple thousand pictures from our vacation. 

So, in case you didn't know, my husband and I took a trip to Europe in April.  I thought I'd chat about the places we visited and maybe write a post or two on travel tips later.  This was our fourth trip to Europe, and though it was definitely fun, it had a different feel from our other trips.

We traveled to the Netherlands, Belgium, and France and were gone for three weeks.  So today, I'd like to show you a bit of the Netherlands part of our trip.

We started in Amsterdam.  Unfortunately, it was chilly and rainy for about half the time we were there.  They had a late start to their Spring season, much like we did.  But, of course you can't let a little precipitation stop your vacation!  We bought a cheap umbrella and dealt with the dampness. 

Amsterdam is such a fun city.  We had great food, visited wonderful museums and really enjoyed the culture.  Also, it's Holland, and they grow a lot of tulips.  A lot.  They're my favorite flower. So we dedicated a major portion of one day to visit a place called Keukenhof, where they plant more than seven million bulbs of tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and crocuses.  I took way too many flower pictures.

We had to try some local foods, including fries with mayonnaise.  The fries were pretty tasty.  We also visited a couple markets, enjoying the bustling scenes and, of course, more tulips!

After Amersterdam, we hopped on a train and visited a town called Delft for one night.  Delft is known for its famous blue and white pottery (since the 15th century).  So we visited the factory from which the pottery originated.  Also in Delft, we spent the night in a gypsy caravan. We aim to find unique places to stay, and this was so quirky and fun!

Next week, we'll head to Belgium!