The Netherlands

We woke up to our first Dutch breakfast. It consisted of coffee, oj, milk, hard boiled eggs, three different breads, cheese, cold cuts, jam, butter, nutella, and sprinkles for our toast. It was really good. We went to Amsterdam and parked the car. We walked through a beautiful flower market and lots of little shops. There were tons of bicycles. The number of bicycles in The Netherlands matches the population so there are literally, bikes everywhere. There were even parking meters for bicycle spots. We had several interesting things to eat. We tried a Dutch apple tart which has a ton of apples piled on a cracker like crust, an cone of what looked like ice-cream but actually tasted like very cold whipped cream or cool whip, and an amazing Dutch pancake. The pancake was similar to a crepe in texture, but was thicker. We had it with sugar and lemon. Amsterdam was similar to Venice in that it is a city of canals, but it has more streets for cars and is more organized. On our way back to the car we walked past Anne Frank’s house. We didn’t go in, but it was interesting to see it.


That afternoon we drove father in The Netherlands, but not quite to the German border. We stopped at a pension. It was absolutely darling. It looked a lot like the houses my sister rents out. We asked them to recommend a restaurant but the owner’s favorite place to eat had burned down a couple days ago. We ended up going into town and looking for a place. It was super crowded with people in orange watching the football game on a big TV in the square. It was really interesting to see. They were definitely spirited. We ate at a little restaurant that was super good. I had a Thai salad, a Thai dish, and a really super good desert with waffles and ice-cream. Mom and dad had meat with sauces, french-fries, spicy potatoes, “American appetizer”, and a sample tray of desserts.

Yesterday we arrived came to Germany. We stopped in a little town called Remagen to see the remains of an old bridge that had been conquered by the Americans in WWII and eventually blown up. It was significant because there weren’t a whole lot of bridges crossing the Rhine. We arrived at the base in Wiesbaden which is not far outside of Frankfort. We shared a pasta dinner and fruit. We spent yesterday evening packing up and getting ready to leave.

Today we are going to go to a market and explore Wiesbaden. See everyone soon.

Sarah