It’s amazing that we left our house at 6am and found ourselves enjoying Tropical Islands Waterpark, outside of Berlin by 10am! Transavia flies the quick one hour flight out of Rotterdam to Berlin (Schonefeld Airport). Rotterdam requires nearly no additional time so we arrived at the airport and boarded the plane shortly after we cleared security. …

A Day at Efteling with Toddlers
When H turned 4 we decided that heading to Efteling would be a fun way to celebrate his birthday. We arrived for the 10am opening and stayed till about 3pm. The Efteling is a theme park based on old fairy tales. It is the Netherlands version of Disney, but with less commercialism and more charm. …

An American Camping Birthday Party Abroad
The boys’ birthdays are both in the spring, so I decided I would just have one big party for both of them. They are both very into camping and adventure so we decided to have an American camping party. Traditional Dutch birthday parties are a bit different than what we are used to. They involve …

Day Out With Thomas in Utrecht
I’m convinced that everything The Railway Museum in Utrecht does is done well. Admission for Day Out with Thomas is included in the Museumkaart. We did have to purchase a ticket (€4) for our one-year-old who is too young to need a Museumkaart, but required admission to Day Out with Thomas. We decided to attend Day …

A Day in Malmo, Sweden
While spending our May break in Copenhagen we decided to take a Mother’s Day day trip to Malmo, Sweden. I mean, why not? We headed out over the Oresund Bridge by car. The journey over this 10 mile bridge/tunnel combo will run you ~ €50 each way. (You can also take the train, which is much …
Kasteel Hoensbroek in South Limburg
Kasteel Hoensbroek is known locally as the “the most lordly stronghold between the Rhine and Meuse.” It also has a reputation for being kid-friendly and is a part of the Museumkaart Program, so we had to go check it out. The castle sat on an important trading route near Maastricht, Aachen and Cologne existing in some form …
Zuiderpark, Den Haag
This morning we headed to Zuiderpark in Den Haag to check out International Steam Days. This model railroad showcase is something to be seen due to its amazing location in Zuiderpark. The park hosts an incredible model train club that has railroad tracks in all sizes. The largest set of tracks holds trains capable of …

A Dutch Palace: Paleis Het Loo
I’m embarrassed to say that Paleis Het Loo made it onto my radar when we visited Madurodam. I snapped a photo of the palace and gardens, in miniature, and added them to my must visit list. When the perfect spring day presented itself we enlisted some friends to join us and made the two-hour drive …
Flevoland Fun
We never miss an opportunity to tag along with Jeff on a work trip so we can see a new part of the Netherlands. Jeff was headed up to Flevoland, the area of the Netherlands created in 1986 by reclaiming land from the sea. While Jeff was in meetings we hung out in a nearby …

A Weekend in Brugge
Brugge is filled with canals, cobblestone streets and 17th century houses. If I didn’t know better I would have thought I was still in the Netherlands. Although Brugge is reachable by train, we decided to head by car and explore some of the surrounding areas as well. We stopped briefly in Bergen Op Zoom for …