Amsterdam - Finale

Our next day in Amsterdam we spent the morning checking out the local street market. We got to do a mini cheese tasting, bought some Dutch cheese and walked around some other areas of the city we hadn't seen yet.

We revisited the playground the kids had enjoyed previously. Carlton and I tried to help even out the weight on the seesaw!

The kids picked their favorite things to do around the playground. Gavin enjoyed climbing to the top of the climber and Avery loved the tricycle on the path.

Then we stopped for a snack at a restaurant that was built to be a carousel but never actually opened for the purpose. The carousel remains inside though. The kids enjoyed some poffertjes and the decorations. 

Then we meandered a bit and checked out more buildings.

In our wandering, we came across a small park that had statues of iguanas all over!

From here we moved to a hotel at the airport. We were staying at a hotel that was about a 45 minute drive from the airport and since we had a morning flight, we didn't want to be rushed trying to wake kids up, finish packing and getting to the airport. So we found a hotel that was connected to the airport by a pedestrian bridge! It was perfect! Only a ten minute walk from the hotel to the airport. We took a walk there the night before our flight to see how long it would take but also to get our bearings. Good thing we did because it took us awhile to figure out where we had to go for our flight!

Pictures of our new hotel room and this last pic on the right is part of the decoration at the restaurant in the hotel. They are molds for chocolate making.

Now just a few pictures of the airport. We got there early because we were warned security would be horrible but it ended up being pretty quick!

The giant tulips and big pottery pieces were part of a restaurant in the airport. The pottery pieces were booths. Then we also saw this cool clock at the airport. Carlton took a short video so you can see. Basically it's a video of a guy who is erasing the minute hand every minute and redrawing it to show the new time! Very cute...the kids loved it!

And of course we had to get a couple pictures on the plane.  9.5 hours and no one slept the entire time!! Gavin was too excited about being able to play video games and Avery enjoyed watching all the different shows available. Here's Avery modeling the sleep mask she received in her travel kit from the airline.

We arrived back to our airport with no problems and then found the battery in our car was dead! Luckily we keep a battery jumper in the car. Also our windshield had cracked while we were gone. Other than that, no major catastrophes! We ended up being awake for 21 hours straight (the kids took a 20 minute nap on the ride home from the airport). Luckily we all recovered from our jetlag fairly quickly and Gavin was back on his normal schedule in time to go back to school!

It was a wonderful trip and a great experience for our first overseas trip as a family of four! We are looking forward to our next international destination!! Any suggestions?

Amsterdam - Muiderslot Castle

With only two days left in Amsterdam and nothing planned, we decided to travel outside the city via Uber to visit the Muiderslot Castle. We debated how to get there because public transportation was much cheaper but it was going to require a mix of buses and trains with a 1.5 hour travel time. Uber ride was about 35 minutes and much less of a hassle with two young kids! The ride there was a bit scary, our driver was very aggressive in traffic and my seatbelt was broken. Needless to say I was pushing down on my imaginary brake pedal the whole trip there! But we made it in one piece and got to explore!

This location has had a castle on it since 1285. The various buildings have been destroyed and rebuilt many times but now it is one of the oldest and best preserved castles in The Netherlands. It has been a National Museum since 1878.

This is the dungeon/torture chamber where confessions were forced from all brought in for a crime.

This is Count Floris who built a castle here in 1285. He was smart with his location because it was right at the border of Holland and Utrecht and also where two rivers met, so all passing through had to pay a toll. He is popular with the common people (farmers) in the area because he offers them protection in his castle when enemies are near.

Unfortunately the nobles in the area were not fond of his views of helping the common folk. They had him murdered in 1296 and the castle was destroyed. The next castle wasn't built until 1370.

The armory was the next section. Hard to see but Carlton is holding Avery up behind this suit of armor on the right.

This is one of five privies located in the castle. All empty into the moat which I'm sure smelled lovely! Apparently privacy was not a thing, anyone wanting to be alone was suspicious, so people just did their business with the door open so they could continue to be part of the conversation.

One of the living areas with a bed and dining table. Along with the crib right next to the bed.

This is a separate room meant for entertaining guests.

This large fireplace is decorated with Delft blue tiles.

This is a giant fireplace meant for people to sit in front of to keep warm. The bench pictured above has a back that can rotate so you can sit with your feet to the fire or rotate it so your back is to the fire.

This was considered the kitchen area and this fireplace was meant for cooking. The panoramic below shows the whole room. On the left you see a small alcove with a hook and pulley, it was used to bring up meats from below.

The picture above shows a tulip vase filled with tulips!

The picture on the right shows another bed, similar in size to the other bed in the castle. I had Gavin stand next to it for size comparison. Apparently people used to sleep sitting up in bed which is why the bed is not very long. They though if they laid down, spirits could enter their bodies.

The picture above is a panorama showing the inner courtyard of the castle. 

Our next part of the tour took us to the towers. From here we could view the slots for archers.

The picture above is a playground they are in the midst of building. On the right you see Carlton and the kids crossing a bridge to get to another tower.

This is a view of the garden area across the moat from the castle. It was initially started by P.C. Hooft who came to the castle in 1609 to write. He was an author of poems, books, letters and plays. He was also the administrator, dike warden and judge for the area while he lived at Muiderslot. He was there until his death in 1647.

This picture is showing the opening that looks straight down on the drawbridge. It was used to help defend the castle if any enemies got this far.

Then we moved outside to the garden and surrounding areas.

It was still a bit early in the season for much to be growing in the garden. I am sure it is very lush in Summer! They grow herbs and also vegetables in this garden area.

Here Gavin is showing a small map of the castle and grounds. On the right is a dam separating two bodies of water near the castle.

Above is the castle in the background and another small building in the foreground that had more information about the waterways and how they changed over the years.

The town right next to the castle had a playground, so we spent some time there for the kids to get more energy out.

Just a quick video showing the interesting seesaw at the playground.

We had lunch in a nearby restaurant and then took some pics outside while waiting for another Uber driver to pick us up. This one was MUCH better!!

We had the driver drop us off in Dam Square so we could walk around the area more.

This is the Royal Palace on the right.

Of course we had to go back to the Lego store. Carlton and Gavin decided to make their own minifigures and I found out that this store is only one of eleven in the world that has that ability. So all four of us made our own minifigures as a souvenir from our trip! Here is a video of Gavin watching the special printer print out the minifigures.

And here are the final results!

Gavin chose to make a female minifig and I had to remove her hair so you could see his drawing. The front of her shirt is a bike Gavin drew and the back is supposed to be a baby that he drew.

This pic of Avery's figure shows the special box that each of these came in once they were completed.

Avery chose a trophy as her accessory and the royal orange for the front of her shirt. The back she wanted a rainbow and her name.

Carlton went eclectic with his figure - he picked the royal orange for his shirt, a chef's hat and a bunny as his accessory. The back is a bicycle and "Daddy".

For mine, I picked a camera as my accessory and a Delft Blue design for the front of my shirt. The back of my shirt has two rainbow hearts and "Mommy".

One more post left!! Stay tuned!