The Smoly Adventures

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. 

March was a fairly busy month of travel and exploring. After having been waylaid by the flu and other bouts of illness, we were finally able to break away and get out to a number of places we've been wanting to get to.

After months of trying to make it happen, we finally made the short one hour journey North to Trier, Germany. Trier is one of the oldest cities in Germany and was founded during the reign of Caesar Augustus. Three centuries later, it would temporarily serve as the Imperial residence and court of Constantine the Great, prior to being relocated east to Byzantium (later Constantinople, and now Istanbul). Today, Trier is home to some of the best preserved Roman ruins outside of Italy. Our visit was primarily to check out the Easter Market, but were also able to see a few of the Roman sites.  The  Basilica is a protestant church that was originally designed to serve as Constantine's throne room and audience chamber. As you can imagine, the building was cavernous, and surprisingly experienced relatively little damage since its completion in the 4th Century.


My personal favorite was the Porta Nigra, the massive gate complex on the northern side of the old city. Massive doesn't properly convey the enormity of the gate; The second photo of Will (who's maybe 40" tall) looking up at the gate puts the Porta Nigra's size in context. We didn't pay for entry into the gate during this particular trip, but it along with the Imperial Baths warrant the expenditure on a later date.


Rounding out our walking tour was the High Cathedral of Saint Peter, an expansive complex that was originally commissioned by Constantine the Great. The complex has been destroyed, rebuilt and restored no less than three times between 329 and 1041 A.D. The final exterior touches were finally completed in 1196.





The following weekend, we opted to stay closer to home and explored the St. Wendel Easter Market. St. Wendel is known primarily for their impressive Christmas market each December, but their Easter Market was equally a draw. Arranged in their downtown area, there were easily over a hundred booths, vendors and static displays of bunnies engaged in all sorts of activities. The only downside to our visit was the arctic front that had descended on Central Europe along with a very strong northern wind. There's not much more to say other than it was incredibly cold.