10th Anniversary in Netherlands

"God made the world, but the Dutch made the Netherlands." - a common phrase of the Dutch, according to Rick Steves. And it's true. A few hundred years ago, this country was submerged in water. Someone decided it should be drained, so they set up elaborate canal systems to move the water uphill, and this country below sea level was born.

It's a five hour drive from Luxembourg to Amsterdam, so we thought it'd make a pretty easy place to escape far, but not too far, to celebrate our 10th wedding anniversary.

Our first day, we drove through Bollenstreek, the road from Leiden to Haarlem, in hopes of seeing the tulips. We were too late, it was mostly brown fields. So we pressed on to our destination, Ransdorp, a tiny village four miles outside of Amsterdam. We got there early, so we took a walk.

It was way too cold for bare legs, but I was being irrationally optimistic anyway.

We met our host at 5 pm and settled into our little boat house (found on Airbnb).

This was the garage where the family kept their huge supply of bikes. We counted three for each person in the family. It's true, the bikes in Netherlands outnumber the people.

The host let us borrow their bikes and we took them on a ride to the next town over, Holysloot, for dinner at a darling restaurant Het Schoolhuis. The food was delicious and environment serene. 

I had the night's special of steak, potatoes au gratin and salad.

Adam had cod with potatoes and mystery vegetable (cross between asparagus and broccoli?)

Best brownies ever (every brownie should be covered with a layer of ganache), and my zingy and creamy lemon curd with cream and strawberry.

 At the end of our meal, we realized they only took cash. We did not have cash and there were no ATMs nearby. They told us, "You seem nice, just come back tomorrow and pay." They were unbelievably kind, but we felt dumb. Oh well, bicyling off into the sunset.

The next morning, we got in line early to visit the Anne Frank house. It was such a memorable visit. I loved her book when I read it a few years ago. Not only is she the face of the Holocaust, to me her work is a reminder to write down our own stories.  She found something to write about in a tiny space, with the curtains blacking out her entire world for two years. She shared details and thoughts and dreams and stories. It was an honor for me to see her actual handwriting. It offered another level of human connection. What a legacy. I bought a red checkered diary on sale at their gift shop. I stopped writing in a journal a couple years ago because I was overwhelmed transcribing all the journals I already had in digital form. But I've missed actually writing .... so here I go again.

After that tour, we walked all over the city.  Since visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa, I'd learned there are many other leaning buildings in the world that are worth noting (thank you, Wikipedia). Little did I know, the entire city of Amsterdam is like ToonTown with all of its buckled and swaying buildings. That's what you get when you build your country on marshland.

 Let's join in a round of applause for the people of Amsterdam and the Netherlands overall. They've reached a level of human achievement unlike any I've seen, and that achievement is called: bicycling everywhere. The children are trained from an early age on all the rules and they have to earn a certificate, like they've passed driver's ed. By age 9 and at the latest age 12, they are set free to take care of their own lives on their bicycles. The people of Netherlands started pushing bicycles as the main mode of transportation after WW2 when cars were becoming more common and too many children were dying in car accidents. The Kuwait war also caused oil shortages, which forced the bicycling way of life even further. Now, walking in Amsterdam, you don't have to worry about being hit by a car ... but you might be hit by a bike. Bikers rule all.

These waffles: chocolate covered with a KitKat on top. Whhhaaaat?

Do as the tourists do. #wheninamsterdam

Cheese. Didn't eat enough of it!

I wanted to try an Amsterdam street food specialty, haring, or salted, raw herring. I really liked it! But I'm weird like that. Adam liked it okay but wasn't springing for seconds.

See? What'd I tell you: ToonTown.

After lunch, we went on a canal boat tour. It was so cold out, I was looking for any excuse to be warm, and this boat did the trick. It was a great way to see the city.

Tourists crack me up.

 We had tickets to the Van Gogh museum at 4 pm. It was great. We had audio tours that hit the highlights and it took about an hour. Adam and I seem to be in sync when traveling to museums ... we want to go and see, but we don't want to be in there forever.

This roof shape is called a neck gable. There are various types of the gabled rooftops throughout the city. The land upon which they built was expensive, so they built narrow and tall. You see the beam jutting out of the top? It has a hook on the end which was used (and I believe is still used today) for just about anything - washer, couch, groceries. That's another reason many of the buildings bend forward - the weight of using this pulley system takes a toll on the structure.

We closed out the evening at Bar B Burgers. 

Do you know how long its been since I ate a proper burger? Luxembourg doesn't do proper burgers, so it's been awhile.

This is me saying, "Do you see this? Huh? Do you even understand how excited I am?!" No you don't (because it's covered in lettuce, I was feeling Paleo), and no you can't (because you haven't lived in Luxembourg and felt that kind of deprivation).

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, another amazing sunset happening outside the boat house.

In the morning, I did the dishes with a view of swans floating in my canal. What is this life?! It was incredible.

We said goodbye to our boat house and headed to another town to bicycle through windmill territory. But first, lunch. With lots of raw fish on salad. 

 Leftover stroopwafels for dessert.

Another beautiful, windy, cold day in Netherlands. The Kinderdijk windmills were harnessing that energy and putting on a show for us. Such a cool place!

 We felt like we had the whole place to ourselves .... until we discovered on the other side the visitors' center and bus drop off zone. Cue tourist hoards.

 Still, we had the last half of the bike ride to go, which didn't cover the same ground as the tour buses.

Our last night we stayed in the cute little Fletcher Hotel in an industrial boat port in Huizen, several miles outside of Amsterdam.

 We went to dinner down the block and it was the perfect last evening of our trip. Our dinner choices were reversed, Adam had steak and I had cod.

The next morning, we drove toward home with a plan to stop in on the Liege-Bastogne-Liege bike race, one of the main five pro-cycling races of the year. Adam takes any chance he has to see these races in person. You only live in Europe once! He mapped out a little road near Bastogne, Belgium, where we could wait and watch without too much hubbub. We got there an hour early and I took a walk with my camera to keep warm while Adam ate his sandwich on the lawn chairs he brought.

 We were situated near the top of a grueling climb. I felt bad for the riders before they even showed up.

 Luxembourg's most famous native is Andy Schleck, a pro-cyclist who won the Tour de France a few years ago but has since retired. His brother, Frank, is still racing and must've been in this race because this road painter is saying something to him on the road.

 Locals waiting for the riders from the best seats in town.

 The breakaway aka the guys at the head of the race.

 Adam was standing next to some people handing out warm tea to their riders.

 About 10 minutes later, the pelaton came through.

 I snapped a million photos, not really knowing what I was looking at. It's crazy to be so close to a professional athlete. Their bodies are machines.

 Adam knew this turquoise guy, an Italian A-lister named Vincenzo Nibali.

 And the last folks to emerge: the videographer and his ride.

We found out later in the day that a half hour after we saw the racers about 100 of them quit the race due to safety concerns because of heavy rain and some snow. We did indeed see skiffs of snow on the evergreens on our way to the race and we drove home in the pouring rain. I kept saying, "I feel bad for those guys." Adam said, "Don't feel bad for those guys. They're living their dreams and making millions doing so." Ha!

It was such a wonderful weekend getaway. We had plenty of time to talk and just be a couple. It's so rare for that to happen post-kids, but you get used to it and don't realize how little time you have to just hang out, which is the only thing we did pre-kids. We talked about surprises in the past 10 years and what we thought would surprise us in the next decade. We felt renewed and happy.

The kids had fun, too! We farmed them out to two families we are lucky to call friends.
The first couple days they stayed with our neighbors, with their bestie Karolina. They all slept on the same air mattress, ate ice cream, rode the bus and had lunch on their porch.

My friend, Justyna, said she was worried about what to cook them since Noah turned down her boiled potatoes in the recent past. When I talked to her about the stay a few days ago, she said, "It went great. I just made them pasta and pizza!" She knows the American kids' diet well.

The next few days they stayed with some friends from church. Becky just had her fourth baby, and while she had her MIL and hubby there for help, I think they must've had several days of mad house. They sent us this sweet moment, Sienna holding baby Lincoln, who is less than a month old. 

When we picked up the kids Sunday afternoon, the first two things Sienna said to me were, "I thought you were coming home tomorrow!" and "I want to stay at Bennett and Ryan's house forever!" 

We should go away more often.