We made a pit stop in the Netherlands on our way back to the United States to pick up our niece Vivian. She is spending her school break with us in North Carolina.
We had a marathon 24-hour trip from Siwa to the Netherlands. It started with a 9-hour drive from Siwa to Cairo. We spent eight hours in the Cairo airport. A 3-hour flight to Bucharest that left Cairo at 3:30 am. An hour layover in Romania and another 3-hour flight to the Netherlands. Lucas and Henry are troopers and did great on the trip. We won’t count the 1-hour train ride to Rotterdam, where our niece lives.
We stayed with Vivian and Suzan (my brother Sam’s ex-wife). Even though we were exhausted upon arrival, we had things to do. Vivian had a school presentation. We also went and hung out while she had hip-hop dance class.
Henry wanted to take a tour of the famous cube houses in Rotterdam. He says he wants to live in one someday. The culinary highlight for me in Rotterdam was eating poffertjes. They are delicious, pancake-like morsels with powdered sugar on top.
One infuriating thing we discovered is that many restaurants will not give tap water. One restaurant said they only serve tap water if you take medication. They sell bottles of water for $7-9 dollars a bottle. It is highway robbery. I think it is a conspiracy with the soda and alcohol industries.
We took a water taxi to visit Suzan’s brother. We got some animal time and we got to shoot a bottle rocket powered by a compressor.
We also took a trip to Keukenhof Garden to see the tulips. Michael and I have been to Holland several times over the years, and this is one activity we never did.
Lucas, Henry, and I read The Diary of a Young Girl while in Bulgaria, and they wanted to see the Ann Frank House in Amsterdam. Tickets sell out in advance. I accidentally booked our tickets for the wrong day, but they let us take the tour anyway. We will go back to the Netherlands again and hopefully stay longer.
