Holland with Pamela

August 3, 2018: We arrived in Wassenaar on Tuesday around 5pm. Pamela and her family live in a beautiful house in a suburb of the Hague. The kids played in the yard and we caught up. We had a fantastic dinner outside once Ate got home from work. One Wednesday the touring began. We all got onto bikes and biked into the Hague. Our first stop was "Madurodam", an attraction park that has the majority of Holland's main buildings in miniature. It is actually a war memorial opened by the parents of Dutch WWII hero, George Maduro. The kids had a ball checking everything out. Then we biked into the center of the Hague and Pamela introduced us to poffertjes and pannenkoeken (dutch mini pancakes and crepes). Delish lunch!! The kids watched the guy make the mini pancakes and they tasted sooo good!

We biked into Ate's office to pick him up from work so he could bike home with us. The square outside his office had recently had a sand sculpting contest and we got to see the work. Thursday we biked about 25 minutes out to the beach. It was a beautiful ride through the dunes. The beach had lots of naked people and the kids could not get over it. It was a strange thing to witness. We biked home after a few hours at the beach and then we went for a boat ride in the canals.

Ate has a small boat and took everyone for a ride in the canals around Leiden, which is the university town in the next town over. We rode around, the kids jumped off and swam in the canals, and we picked up pizzas to eat in the boat. It was a really beautiful way to see the town and we were so lucky to have that opportunity.

Friday Pamela and her family left for their beach vacation. We are staying here until our flight on Tuesday morning. We hung out with them in the morning and then just had a quiet day at home. We felt extremely grateful for good, old friends and the chance to have a local's perspective on things around Holland for a few days.