To close out the month of March, we ventured north, northwest for a three-day whirlwind trip to the Netherlands; and the drive was a long one.  Passing through the Ardennes was interesting and we passed numerous locations made famous during the German counter-offensive in December 1944. We didn't stay in Amsterdam proper, but rather the Courtyard by Marriott out near the international airport. The Courtyard was in a great location, a mere 15 minutes from our primary destination for this trip: the world-renown Keukenhof Gardens.

When many people think of the Netherlands, three things typically come to mind:  Wooden shoes, windmills and tulips.  We came for the Tulips and saw the windmills as a bonus.  The challenge with the tulips is that due to the popularity of the Keukenhof, you need to book your trip many weeks/months in advance, not knowing whether or not the weather is going to cooperate to allow the tulips to be in full bloom. We chose the opening weekend, but were thwarted by weeks of colder weather preceding our visit. Nevertheless, we saw tulips, and it was enough to whet our appetite that we're already planning our return visit for April 2019. The overall theme of the pavilions was "Love" and the arrangements were amazing. Here is a small sampling of our 

 


 

 






 

Following our nearly six hours in the Keukenhof, we realized that we were very close to the beach and the North Sea. Two beaches and close to an hour of driving later (due to not having Euro on-hand), we finally arrived in seaside town of Zandvoort. Even though it was still cooler, we enjoyed being close to the ocean again--not to mention the largest beach either of us had ever seen; it had to be close to, or exceeding 600 feet wide from boardwalk to the water at low tide. The boys had a blast running around in the sand, and we all felt the water (which was bitterly ice cold)!  We enjoyed a delicious Italian meal at the Beachclub Far Out. This restaurant was like all the other places we had visited in the Netherlands thus far, everyone spoke perfect English and had no qualms about conversing with us in our native language.

Sunday was Palm Sunday and Janet found an English speaking church in Amsterdam.  We made the 30 minute drive into the city from our hotel, lost our bearings on a narrow street and not nearly sufficient signage, but eventually got to the English Reformed Church Amsterdam. ERCA is tucked away in the southwest portion of the city and was founded in 1607 and the building is fully owned by the congregation since that year. We were appreciative of the availability of a children's church which Will was eager to take part in, as well as the warm welcome that we received via our attendance that morning.




Following church, we began our five hour drive home with a diversion to Utrecht and the Miffy Museum. Miffy is a beloved rabbit and the museum dedicated to him, inspired by the books by Dick Bruna, is perfect for kids five and under.



Seeing that is was past lunch time, we walked across the street for a quick meal at the Utrecht City Museum Cafe.  We highly recommend the cafe, the food was organic and amazingly prepared--it was easily some of the best food we've had yet in Europe and the boys enjoyed their Miffy pancakes.


Immediately adjacent to the museum and the cafe, was the Nicolas Church one of the many protestant churches in the Netherlands.  We enjoyed a brief tour of the church with our English-speaking guides and learned about the church's reformation history. Finally, we loaded up into our car and made the uneventful drive back to Germany.  The most lively moment of our drive occurred after crossing the border into Germany where we encountered a police checkpoint... which shouldn't have been there.  We were quickly recognized to be Americans, confirmed that we were destined back to Ramstein and were allowed to proceed on our way.  Later that evening, news broke that the Catalonia leader, Carles Puigdemont, was arrested when he crossed the German-Danish border.