We just cam back from our fall break where we spent the week in Amsterdam, Netherlands and Bruges, Belgium. We had an amazing time and felt a nice change of pace from the busy school year so far.
We started the trip in Amsterdam where Justin and the girls ran races in the Amsterdam Marathon. The girls entered the 700m kids' runs while Justin completed his 71st marathon! Taelyn was very excited for her run and really focused on how to race well. She wanted to pace herself instead of sprint from the start, and she learned that she can pass a lot of people at the end of the race this way. Kaelia has always been nervous about races but wanted to try the run here to just see if she could have fun, and that is exactly what she did. She didn't care about competing but just wanted to enjoy herself, and this was actually the first race that she did not walk in the middle. Both girls were also excited that they got to finish their runs in the Amsterdam Olympic Stadium. When their races were done, the three of us found Justin out on the course and cheered. It was a beautiful day, and all three racers were happy and healthy!
The next morning, we decided to leave Amsterdam while there was still a lot of people there for the marathon, and we headed to Bruges, a medieval city in Belgium, for a few days. We went to several museums including: a beer museum with a special tour for kids, the Choco-Story chocolate museum, and a medieval torture museum. We also rented bikes one morning and rode over to the next town for a snack. We had such a nice ride on a bike path surrounded by trees, farmland, animals and colorful, fallen leaves. It was also the first time that all four of us have been on a bike ride together -Kaelia on a tandem bike with Justin because the 5 mile trip was a bit long for her to do on her
own. For the rest of the time in Bruges, we went to a lot of great restaurant and pubs, enjoyed delicious Belgian beer and hot chocolate, and ate lots of great food, including Belgian waffles!
After a few days, we traveled back to Amsterdam where we spent the rest of the week seeing the major sites. We took
a lovely canal tour, took a tour at the Heineken brewery, visited the Van Gogh museum, and went to the Anne Frank house. The Anne Frank house was especially memorable and a good way for the girls to learn more about the Holocaust.
When we were not touring around in Amsterdam, we spent lots of time at Vondelpark for runs and for the girls to play on the Willy trees and various playgrounds. We also, of course, enjoyed the food. We especially liked the stroopwafels (thin, crispy waffle sandwiches with caramelized syrup in the middle) and poffertjes (small pancakes with a doughy center, sprinkled with powdered sugar and butter).
Overall, it was a wonderful vacation with beautiful fall weather. We managed to escape the rain until the very last day of the trip, so that was a great time to head home.
