Long weekend to see the Bullifent family in England

We drove to northern France for a 2 hour ferry trip to Dover, UK.

We left home 3 AM, and sailed at 8 AM. The weather was nice, like the rest of the weekend. We have been extremely lucky, everywhere in Europe it was miserable, but we were partly sunny all the time, almost no rain.

Jessica and Saskia in the playground.

And our 4 kids in Sheffield city center.

British!

Playing in the city fountains here.

And a hike over the moors.

The pictures below were taken in and around Leighton Buzzard. I remember all these places from my own childhood, and now Dide and Ties are opening the locks like we did before.

Old memories .........

When you zoom in you can actually see the Plantations between the trees (at least at our computer using the high resolution pictures).

We also visited Cambridge, just a few hours, enough to get an impression.

And on the way back. What is Ties thinking about?

White cliffs of Dover.

Now all vacations are really over. The kids have only a few days left before going to school again. Radboud is back at work and Saskia will start her new job soon. Oh, and we have a home reconstruction coming up.

Summer vacation 2011

Today we got back from our summer vacation of 2011. A bunch of pictures to give some impressions.

We started in Disney Land, close to Paris. This was to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Saskia's parents.
Big fun, Dide and Ties loved it.

And after all that commercial entertainment we went on camping. Our first night stop, we lost the soccer ball and needed to get it back. It had already floated away all across the river.

And on our second campsite in the French Pyrenees, we were spoiled with some great food prepared by our hosts and Ties was challenged for playing a game of "petanque", the most French game on earth. I am not sure if Ties has won, but he was doing great.

And as we learned last month, Dide and Ties like exploring tree tops.

Obviously, some walking and climbing has to be done in this part of the world. Beautiful world.

And this was our campsite. Small place with farm animals.

One of our day trips, playing in and with water is always great.

And so is ice cream.

But then it is time to walk again. It was not too hot, but still it makes you tired.

On our way to Spain we only hit 2 trafiic jams (2 hours and 3 hours, unfortunately)

We visited the Dali museum north of Barcelona.

And stayed in Barcelona for a couple of days. Dide is enjoying paella on the picture below.

And one of the parks full with Gaudi sculptures.

A view from our hotel room viewing the Ramblas, which is the Magnificent Mile of Barcelona.

Fountain shows on music when the evening falls.

And the family at a metro stop, we used it a lot to see as much from the city as possible.

One of those things was the zoo (we like them and often visit zoos abroad).

And finally, we went another 500 miles to the south of Spain where we had a very relaxing week in an apartment near the see. Here it is alway nice weather. We were told that this has been the wettest July month ever in The Netherlands and we missed it. How great is that?

Dide and Ties are still with their grandparents in Spain, we drove back in 2 days and have just arrived. Crazy traffice, but we got home just a day before the real madness begins, black Friday is a day we did not want to be out there on the roads. Time to sleep now. Speak to you all soon!

And another "summer" month

So far, June has not been nice weather wise. We have had some good moments and some poor days as well. So different than spring! But we are still having fun and tons of activities during the week and especially in the weekends.

Dide had a school sports day a few weeks ago. Lots of fun.

Than we went to see Radboud's brother and family in a weekend. It was Sunday, but Monday was a public holiday. We made it very, very late. Too late, but next day was quite and Dide and Ties could catch up with sleeping in. They stayed readily awake until 11:30 PM! Incredible. The day was full of activities, playing with their little niece (Lieve) and visiting the goat farm in the Amsterdamse bos (recreation area).

Here is Saskia with Mats, approximately 3 months old

Last weekend, the creche were Dide and Ties went to as babies and toddlers celebrated it's 10th birthday. Dide was one of the first children to go there, so one of the older kids at the party. It was nice to see the old teachers and they had organized a really nice party.

We had some heavy rain storms, but most of the time it was dry, and not cold. Lots of food and great entertainment. They booked a guy with a guitar, Dirk Scheele, who is playing children's songs. Dide and Ties know a few of his CDs and we have actually listened to some of his music on our road trips through the states. The music is actually quite similar to Ralph's World (and one song seems to be borrowed from him).

We could sleep over at the house of friends in Groningen, we know them since 15 years or so and it is always great to see them. Good place to stay! Great Sunday morning breakfast.

And Ties now wants to learn how to play chess. Any experts out there?

On Sunday we visited the graphics museum, it was all about the different printing techniques, lots of very old and very impressive book presses. Dide and Ties actually made a piece of art using ink, all in the style of Werkman, a Dutch artist from the 1930's-40's.

And it rained all day .............

Saskia stayed in Groningen for another night, another appointment with the dentist. Yes, it is still the same tooth that gave problems in Deerfield, but this is supposed to have been the last repair. It must be over by now. Radboud took the road crossing a giant dam (or dike, if you like) called the "afsluitdijk". This 20 mile long road was build about 80 years ago and closed off a see, which now is a sweet-water lake. An impressive piece of engineering and Dide and Ties wanted to see it now they are learning about it in school. It was a bit windy!

That is it for now. School vacation starts in 2 weeks. Further updates to follow.