Carnival in Oss

On Thursday afternoon, the kids and I set off on the train to Oss.  We met Bill at the train station and we headed over to check out the carnival taking place in the town!  It was a great evening!  We scoped out the scene, rode a few rides, got Roman's hair cut, ate dinner, got cotton candy, and rode a few more rides.   Kayla is a total daredevil and her little brother isn't far behind.  Basically, if it went fast or had flips, they wanted to go on it!  The rides were set up all throughout the town center.   A fun time was had by all!   Bill and I commented a few times that Ocean City NJ needs to adopt a few of these amusements!

Walking on Water was our FAVORITE!

 Notice the water at the bottom of this snapshot

Roman's dutch haircut for the start of school

Go speed racers!

Bungee Trampoline

Spinny Roller Coaster 

Food, Glorious Food!

Grocery shopping is an almost daily event here!  While we've gotten pretty good and now pride ourselves in the days that we DON'T have to go, we still frequent our local AH several days a week.

We've now been in The Netherlands for 2 months and there are certainly foods that we LOVE and will miss dearly when we return back to the USA.  

We've found a few foods that we absolutely adore: 

- for Momma it's a hands down for all of the different types of olives

- Kayla gravitates towards the cheese section 

- Bill is on a mission to try to find Mexican cheese and a hot sauce that may slightly compare to our beloved Frank's Red Hot

- and little guy LOVES the yogurt that comes in a milk carton

The kids also love Vla Flip!  It's a combination of yogurt, custard, and a fruit syrup.  This has become their favorite dessert to request. 

Stroopwafels - OMG!   These are the best!  In my opinion, they are cookies that are a combination of two of my favorites - Pizzelles made by my grandmothers and Girl Scout Caramel Delight cookies!   The cookies are made in a press and they have a caramel center.  Often they are served along side of hot drinks at local establishments.  You sit the stroopwafel atop the drink and the caramel begins to melt within the center. DELISH!  You can buy them in the grocery store but the best ones are served up hot and fresh at the local outdoor markets.  

Licorice -  YUM!   Black licorice is very popular here!  It reminds me of going to Booth's Corner growing up and sucking down the black licorice shoe strings with my dad.   The kids have even taken a liking to the flavoring.  

We haven't really made attempts with the pasty meat products and K and I are still eyeing up the herring. We WILL eat it before we depart! 

Primate Heaven

Zoos are one of my favorite places to visit...no matter where we go on vacation.  The Netherlands zoos that we have visited on our trip have surpassed every zoo in the USA that I've ever gone to.   The animals are in large natural like areas...no cages and a lot of room!  Babies galore and very knowledgeable staff everywhere!

Today we ventured to the one place on Momma's Netherlands bucket list.  Apenheul!   It is a free range primate park situated just 45 minutes from us.  The monkeys were nothing short of spectacular!  There were silverback gorillas, gibbons, lemurs, marmosets, and tarmarins, among so many other breeds.   When you first walk into this zoo, you come to a trail that is filled with squirrel monkeys lining the pathway.   You are not allowed to pick them up but if one comes to you, you can certainly enjoy the company!  Needless to say, we spent a lot of time in this section of the park and went back to visit them again after we completed the loop.  They seemed to love pockets and climbing on my backpack.  There were also quite a few babies throughout the park and we loved watching them play with their older counterparts!   This should go without saying, but I did take a TON of pictures to document the awesome experience - 245 proofs are presently being downloaded onto our Snapfish account.

Here's the link to this beautiful primate park:    http://www.apenheul.com/   If you click on the British flag or use Google Chrome, everything will translate to English.  Many thanks go to my colleague Julie who told me about this wonderful gem!

Here's a small sampling of a few of our favorites from today's experience!

What do you have stashed in your pocket? 

Lunch time

The baby orangutan just hanging around 

 The family favorite - an Emperor Tamarin

Her three babies were in a nearby tree.

Momma in her glory!

Holding hands

Cheese and Windmills

Wow!  We are down to our last few weeks in the Netherlands before it's back to reality for the kids and Momma.  There's still so much that we want to see.   We got up early yesterday morning for a road trip. 

First up,  Gouda...Cheese capital of the world!  Living here, we quickly learned that the city name is actually pronounced How-da.   Thursdays are the market days in the city.  We got to witness the famous cheese auction, bought baked goods, watched a woodcarver make clogs, and sampled cheese galore before settling on a few to bring home with us.  My favorite flavors - pesto, italian herb, and wasabi cheese.  Kayla loved the various types of Gouda cheese - who knew that there were so many kinds to select from!?! The city center was beautiful...lined with old historic buildings, music playing throughout, and decorative cheese hanging above the streets!  

The second leg of our trip was to Kinderdijk.  It's a small little village that is famous for its 19 windmills - another UNESCO World Heritage Sight to cross off our list.  http://www.kinderdijk.com/     We walked along the paths that lined the waterways and even went into one mill that was preserved to its original state. We climbed to the top of the windmill and got to see the blades moving and the gears turning.  We even met a miller - complete with his blue overalls and clogs.   I cannot even begin to tell you how many wonderful pictures that I took.   The majority of these windmills are still inhabited!  Unbelievable! 

Here's just a sampling of the over 200 pictures that we snapped today.  

He's carving out wooden clogs

Hanging with a traditional cheese girl

This is a bid at the cheese auction. The potential buyer and seller 

barter back and forth slapping hands until a price is agreed upon mutually by both parties.  

Windmills at Kinderdijk

Waving hello from the top window of the mill

Windmills as far as the eye can see 

I love the reflection on the water in this picture.  

From the 5 year old photographer's point of view 

Low Key Start

The first few days of this week, we've been hanging low around Nijmegen.  We've gone shopping and purchased some postcards to send back home.   We have also sampled a few types of kaas (cheese) in preparation for our day trip to the Gouda (actually pronounced with an /h/ instead of a /g/).  We even packed up and had a picnic lunch in our favorite park. 

Momma got out for a nice run on Monday evening to kick off my 1/2 marathon training Dutch style.  I managed to go 5 miles and basically ran the outskirts of the city.   I took the Waalbridge out of the city, running above the bridge right as a barge passed below the was called the Carpe Diem, then ran along the shore line to the walking/bike path/train bridge that went back into the other end of the city centre. Yup...you read the right...Jen who hates hills apparently likes to run bridges. The view from the middle of the bridges are the payoff!   

It looks like today will be our first day hanging out inside for the majority of the day.  It's pouring rain.  I guess it had to rain during the day at some point during our trip.  We are gearing up for grocery shopping this evening.   

Tomorrow we are planning to go buy some cheese and seeing some working windmills at Kinderdijk.  Stay tuned. 

Bikes and Van Gogh

I've determined that the weather forecasts aren't just wrong in America!  Today was a 70% chance of rain in Nijmegen.  We woke up and the sun was shining away!  We took advantage of this and I found a place on the internet that looked worthy of a day trip - The Hoge Veluwe National Park is only about a 1/2 hr away from our apartment and several travel blogs had it listed as a "must do."  http://www.hogeveluwe.nl/en/14   The plus was that Kayla has been asking to go biking and this park has almost 2,000 free bikes sitting by their entrances and throughout the park.   We arrived about 12 pm and immediately hopped on some bikes.  Kayla rode on her own kid sized bike and Bill and I took turns with Roman in the child seat behind us.  He liked going with Daddy much more than Mommy.  Being the biker, Daddy goes much quicker than Momma does.  The park was full of marshlands, forests, sand dunes, and lakes scattered with lily pads.  We  opted to ride along a 10 K loop (there are bike paths all over this huge park) and eventually came to Kroller-Muller Museum.   The Kroller-Muller Museum is an art museum that houses paintings from some of the greatest painters ever - including Van Gogh and Picasso.  There was also a massive garden containing quite a few sculptures.  Kayla was in her glory at another art museum.  I think it's safe to assume that we'll be going to the Philly Art Museum in the near future when we return home to PA.  Here's a few pictures from our great day outdoors! 

 

Pit stop by the lake 

 

A view of the trail from our picnic location...yup, that is sand!

 

Kayla and Van Gogh getting reacquainted 

 

Biking along the beautiful trails

 

Milestones and oppressive heat

We have a swimmer!!!  This afternoon Roman took his first strokes unassisted!!!  We are so proud of him.  He was working very hard earlier this summer trying to learn now to swim like his big sister.  I guess I'll be renewing my community center membership come September so we can keep up the progress.

Today was the hottest day since we arrived in Nijmegen - 95 degrees.  Living on the fourth floor and having no air...it was a little brutal in here today.  We opted to beat the heat by going to Golfbad, the local indoor pool in Oss that we visited on our first week here.  Tonight, the pool was less crowded and wild than it was when we went in June.  Much more manageable and my sanity stayed in tact!   The kids had a great time going down the slides and playing in the waves.  Hopefully they sleep well tonight.