Chania, Crete

For memorial 4 day, we really wanted to go somewhere that was warm and relaxing. We didn't really want to be going from sight to sight. Although we love visiting the site and making the most of our time in Europe, we really wanted a relaxing beach vacation. No where to go, no time frame just sitting on the beach and going where ever and whenever we wanted.

Greece was amazing! We chose this because it was going to be warm, had a beach and we got cheap RyanAir tickets into Chania. We knew we wanted to go back to Greece before we even left as this was a short but relaxing trip.

We stay at Villas Michalis. It is run by Michalis and his wife and they couldn't of been more hospitable. Our plane arrived late, after 11:00pm, but Michalis was nice enough to pick us up from the airport in his personal vehicle. When we arrived he took time to explain several different things to us and there was coke, wine and beer in the fridge along with apples, nuts and some candy all for us to have. The next day he arranged for a rental car to be delivered. He took care of returning it also and took us back to the airport when we left. We had an amazing view of the sea and the mountains of Crete. They also had a pool and each villa had a patio facing the sea.

the kids chilling by the pool at the villa's 

Our first day we decided to drive an hour and a half through the mountains on many twisty, turny narrow roads to get the Elafonisi, the beach with pink sand. It was a drive but it was amazing. The beach was lovely, the weather was great and the pink sand was very interesting. 

That night we enjoyed some greek food at a restaurant at the Old Venetian Harbor. After supper we took a walk along the sea wall to get to lighthouse. Since it was later in the evening we were able to enjoy a beautiful sunset over the sea from the sea wall. 

 the light house, sea wall and harbor. 

The next day we visited two different beaches. We enjoyed the water, sand and food. We even were able to build a sandcastle with the kids. Late afternoon we headed out to Old Town and the harbor again. There were several shops with tourist items and Cretan works. The side streets were all very narrow with barley enough space for a couple people to walk side by side. We also found a Starbucks in the middle of everything so we were able to get some frappacinos. They also had several fish spas around. I really wanted to do it and Harper did too but we ended up running out of time and not really wanting to spend the money after supper. Besides there wouldn't of been anything for the boys to do while we did that. 

For super we ate along the Harbor again. Every restaurant along the harbor has someone who stands outside and tries to get you to go into their restaurant. I really wanted mussels and we found a nice, not so pushy lady at a restaurant while looking at the menu. They had a mixed seafood plate for 2 available. It was 50 euro, so more then I really wanted but she said it included mussels and looked huge! Well when it came out it didn't have mussels on it. I was kind of disappointed but the food on it was delicious. We enjoyed octopus, red mullet, swordfish, salmon (I think), squid, sardine and shrimp. I don't eat shrimp though. We didn't finish the whole thing but ate all the big pieces of seafood. I enjoyed it.  

We had a wonderful relaxing time in Crete and I can not wait to go back to Greece and see the difference in the islands and mainland. 

Mom & Dad visit: Northern Netherlands

The last leg of our Netherlands tour was the northern part of the country. My dad's family is Dutch. My grandma is 100% Dutch and my dad is 50%. When my parents were planning to come visit us we knew we were going to spend more time in the Netherlands then Germany on this trip. My mom did some asking around and found out were my dad's ancestors were from so we headed there.

Along our way we saw lots of beautiful fields of tulips along with some windmills. We also crosses a man made road over the North Sea to go to the northern part of the Netherlands. We went to the state/providence of Friesland. We stopped in some very small villages and saw very nice countryside. 

Our last stop was in the biggest city Dokkum. It is a very nice place and we probably could of made a short vacation out of that city and the area. We wondered around the downtown area looking for graveyards to see any headstones with the family name on it. We didn't see any but enjoyed the view of there canal and windmill. We also at a this nice little cafe called Place 2 be. The waitress didn't really speak much english so that was interesting. Colby speaks some german which is similar to dutch but we made do and were able to communicate enough to get some amazing food.

We were able to sign there guest book too so everyone knows some Americans ate there. I would rather go back to this little city/area instead of Amsterdam. Although I wouldn't made another trip the the Netherlands. 

Mom & Dad visit: Zaanse Schans

About 20 minutes north of Amsterdam is the Zaanse Schans open air museum. It is free entrance and cheap parking. Once on the grounds you can pay to go up in several of the working windmills. 

It was a rainy cool day when we were there. I'm sure it would of been a lot more fun and exciting had the weather not put a damper on our day. We were still able to go into the cheese making building where Colby bought, you guessed it, more cheese. He also got a mustard to go with his cheese. I don't really know much about cheese and that kind of thing but he tired samples and ended up getting mostly goat cheese. Definitely stuff you wouldn't get in the states.

The place we spend the most time was the wooden shoe shop. Outside they had the really cool display pictured above of different sizes and designs of wooden shoes. A perfect picture opportunity for sure.

Inside the building they had different display cases outlining a little bit of history of wooden shoes. They also had examples of different ways wooden shoes were used for example as ice skates! They had the cool display above on the ceiling showing step by step how the wooden shoe is made. They also gave a demonstration of how they make wooden shoes today on the machines below. They can make a lot more shoes in a shorter amount of time now a days even though they are mostly decorative. We were able to get Colby his own pair of wooden shoes here even though he didn't understand why he needed some. He was the only one without any. My grandma gave me a pair with my name on them when I was little and my parents have gotten shoes for each of the grandkids with their names on them. Now we just have to see if we can get Colby's name engraved on his at the arts and crafts center. 

After the wooden shoe shop and getting our souvenirs we decided it was time for some lunch before getting back on the road. We went to the pancake restaurant. It was nothing like I expected. You got your drinks and whatever else food wise you would want and then waited in line. It wasn't every well organized and most of the people had no idea what they were suppose to be doing. We finally made it to the one register they had open and were able to order our pancakes there. You have to wait for yours to be ready but it didn't take too long. The pancakes are not like American ones. They aren't fluffy. There are almost more like a crepe and the size of the plate. We got strawberry and cream and chocolate and cream. I thought the kids would want the chocolate one but they ended up eating a strawberry one. This was probably better since there was a lot of chocolate syrupiness going on. They were delicious none the less. I even got some strawberries and had chocolate strawberry pancakes.

mmmm pancakes!

Mom & Dad visit: Amsterdam

Amsterdam is usually the main attraction for people traveling to the Netherlands but for us it was just a quick stop. We arrived late Sunday afternoon at our hotel, The Golden Tulip Amsterdam West. The hotel was very nice and a little more then I would normally spend on a hotel. We wanted something on the outskirts of town, near a tram stop and with parking. This was our best option for a holiday weekend.

We headed out soon after arriving. Our first stop was going to be Hard Rock Cafe for Colby's sticks and supper. Well when we got on the tram and Colby asked for which stop we should get off on. Well the nice lady on the tram told us the wrong thing. We ended up in the very center of the city when we wanted to be on the outskirts of the downtown area. I was able to use the map and get us to the Hard Rock Cafe but the wait was too long. We were able to eat at a little outside cafe and still get the sticks.

The main thing we were doing in Amsterdam was a evening candlelight canal cruise. It was a 90 minute cruise that took us all over Amsterdam and through several canals. They had headphones to listen to history about Amsterdam but some of the hook ups didn't work.

Enjoying a Heineken on the cruise

These houses are crooked because of the sinking of the ground around the canal. Amsterdam is known for these types of house. The best part of doing the earlier night cruise was over half of the cruise it was still light enough to see stuff and get really good pictures but we also saw the lights on the building and bridges towards the end when it was getting darker. 

The next day my mom, Colby and I ventured out to the Anne Frank house. We pre purchased our tickets online. We were sure glad we did. Our tickets were for 8:40am and it doesn't even open until 9am. We arrived about 5 minutes before that and the line to buy tickets there was already over a block long.  You aren't allowed to take picture in the house but there are several things preserved in there original place. There were plaques with information on them to explain what was what and videos through out explaining events and situation from other peopled view also. 

We were in the house and the gift shop for a little over an hour and by the time we got out the line had basically tripled in size. It was down the block and winding its way down the alley. I couldn't imagine waiting that long to see it. It was cool but I wouldn't be willing to spend 4-6 hours of my vacation waiting and then viewing it. Definitely buy tickets online!

Mom & Dad visit: Keukenhof Gardens

Everything in the Netherlands in pretty close together as the country is not huge. So I was able to pack a lot into one day for us on Easter. Are next stop was Keukenhof Garden to admire all the pretty flowers! For it being a weekend and holiday the garden really wasn't too crowded while we were there. The entrance seemed to be crowded but once you made it past that and more into the garden it wasn't too bad really. The gardens are only open for about a month so I imagine it is almost always a little crowded. I didn't think it hindered the picture taking or viewing of flowers at all.

They do amazing designs with they flowers and have a mixture of different types of flowers in a lot of their designs. The above is there famous "river" design. The gardens also have a different theme each year. This years theme was Holland. So for there main display (below) they made an Amsterdam street line out of flowers. It was very cool and I could only get part of it in the picture because it was so big. 

The kids enjoyed smelling all the different flowers. They do this thing where they smell the flowers and then fake sneeze. I'm not sure where they got it but I'm sure from a cartoon!

They also had a petting zoo for the kids which was nice. My kids love animals and are used to being close to ones at the farm. They had momma sheep with their babies which we so cute.

The gardens have an amazing design and set up. The flow is nice but not everyone has to go in the same direction. They had several photo opportunities set up through out the garden which was really nice. The kids loved this giant wooden shoe. They also had the boat set up pictured below. They also had big wooden shoes you could put your feet in and take pictures. They kids loved all of that interactive stuff. 

Another really cool thing they offered was these lily pads. You could jump from wooden disc to wooden disc along a path and get a picture of the fountain in the back. The jumps were a little too big for the kids so we had to help them. Harper could almost make it with a little help from my mom. Well one time Harper decided not to really jump and my mom only had a hold of one hand so her foot slipped into the water. She wasn't very happy but it was a beautiful day so they dried quickly. 

 We also had lunch in the gardens. They had several restaurant places and concession type things but I really have started to enjoy eating at food carts. They seem to serve more regional food. We had a croquette and waffles from the carts. The croquette was delicious. I'm not really sure what the filling was as it can vary but it seems to have a gravy type texture. The kids even liked it and especially liked the waffle which were more dense they ones I make and were sweeter too.

We ended up staying at the gardens for about 3 1/2 hours. We probably could of stayed longer because I am sure we didn't see everything but it was enough time to enjoy most of it and get our money worth. The kids and the guys were ready to be done by the time we left. My dad made the comment that all the flowers were starting to look the same! I think most people probably spent 4-5 hours there. 

Mom & Dad visit: Delft

After Noah's Ark we head about 30 minutes Northwest to Delft. This is where the blue delftware originated. We stayed a really nice hotel, Hotel Juliana. It was in a more residential area and within walking distance of the downtown area. The hotel was smaller and not a big chain hotel, which I enjoyed.

After checking into the hotel and dropping our stuff we headed out to find somewhere to eat and do a little shopping. The walk really wasn't bad once we kind of figured out the right direction. Delft, like the majority of the Netherlands, have several canals. The downtown area has several places to eat, shops and beautiful building and churches to look at.

 The main canal that goes around downtown

Most of the stores in the square where we ate had touristy stuff. There were also some delftware stores. My mom and I each got some nice stuff there including a plate clock and gifts for my mom and I got a pair of kissing dutch kids. The kissing couple is a very popular design and traditional dutch. The Netherlands is also a very large dairy producing country. Colby loves cheese. They had a cheese store with several different kinds of cheese. You could sample several different kinds and then he bought some cheese to bring home. They also had prefect picture opportunities in front of the store.

The next morning was Easter. So my mom had hid eggs in there room for the kids and had Easter stuff for them. After breakfast at the hotel we headed to where the car was parked and discovered it was right by the delftware factory we were going to next. The factory is an original factory from the 1600's.

We were able to see the process of how delftware is made including a master painter at work. They also have on display several pieces from different collections and limited editions piece they did for the Dutch royal family. 

This is the process of making delftware. They paint it in shades of black and then it turns blue when the piece is "cooked" in the kiln 

We found this to be the most interesting thing at the factory. A model actually wore this outfit made completely from delftware pieces. I can only imagine how heavy it must be!

After the self guided tour of the factory, you get headphones and push a number on the remote based on what you are looking at, they have a fairly large gift shop. The pieces there are quite expensive. The large pieces that are hand painted can be upwards of 400-500 euro. They also do stamping now with some designs and those pieces are much cheaper. For example we purchased tiles and a frame for the wall. We got 2 stamped tiles for 12 euro each. The hand painted ones were a little better quality of course but were 50 euro each I believe. The difference in quality was not worth it to me. We also didn't want to spend that much on something that could potential break in our many future moves as an Army family. 

Delft is a very cool town and much bigger then I expected. I wish we could of spent more time there. Although, if you want delftware its better to purchase it from stores downtown or around town instead of at the factory, or at least the factory we went to. 

Mom & Dad visit: Noah's Ark

After we picked my parents up at the airport we headed down to Dordrecht were a couple guys build a life size replica for Noah's Ark. This was something very unique as there are no others in the world.

Admission was a little more then I usually like to pay but knowing it would be fun and interactive for the kids helped. It was 12.50 euro for adult and 7.50 for kids 3-12. We were there for over 2 hours. We probably could of stayed longer if the kids weren't rushing from one thing to the next. 

Inside had a lot to see. There were games like the one above and recreations of room from the ark. They had displays showing the story of Noah's Ark and descriptions to go with each that were in several languages. They had a the creation story and several plastic animals spread through out. The kids favorite part was the real animals. they had some real animals mingling with the plastic ones. They had miniature ponies, rabbits, peacocks, and lots of different birds. 

 There is also a restaurant one the top level but we had already eaten. The whole place was really neat to see and experience. It was also huge and you could easily get lost! They had footprints to follow but they are starting to fade and not everyone follows. We tried to for the most part but also got kind of confused. We ended up going in the same room twice but that is ok.

They had this huge mural at the entrance/exit where you could put your face in the hole with all the animals now it. It certainly made for a great photo opportunity!