The Dutch Adventure Begins

I am currently writing to you from the laptop in our rental in the Netherlands.  The laptop has the same keyboard as in the US, and I am having a little trouble typing. ;)

We left at about 9 this morning to drive to Naarden, the Netherlands.  We made a few stops along the way, the first being a city called Nijmegen.  We walked around and took lots of pictures.  As far as I could see so far, buildings were made up of adorable old buildings, ugly middle-old buildings, and interesting-looking new buildings.  The shopping street, however, still had old buildings and an old church.

We continued on and drove about an hour to another city, where we went to an open-air museum about the Netherlands in the past.  This was definitely the highlight of the day.  It was like a mini old-fashioned Dutch town!  There was an old-fashioned trolley, lots of real old houses that were transported to the museum, adorable wind mills, and a lot of hands-on things like a farm just for kids, where we could get water from a pump, carry it, wash a cloth or something, and use a hand-cranked machine to push the water out.  We could also get right up close to look at how the mills work as well as other things.  It was SO.  COOL.  Unfortunately, I don't think I brought a camera cable to upload pictures, and I wouldn't want to upload pictures onto this computer anyway.

The Dutch language is like a combination of English and German.  Luckily, those are the two languages we speak, so we could figure out most of the signs.  However, understanding people talking is a lot harder.  While at the open-air museum, I got yelled at by some guy.  I don't know why or what he said... ;)

When we arrived in Naarden, we had about half an hour to walk around the town before we were supposed to meet up with the owner of our rental.  Look up Naarden on Google Maps: it's so cool!  It's an old fortress surrounded by water.  All the buildings are historical and full of personality, with cobblestone streets, an old church, and flower baskets hanging from the lamp posts.  Erin and I found a cool playground, and we also went shopping for dinner, and then we met up with the owner of the house we would be renting for the next five days.  He was really nice and hospitable.  He offered me his thirteen-year-old daughter's laptop, which I am now writing on.  As nice as the apartment is, there are a few problems: the stairs are incredibly steep.  Old buildings are just like that.  Also, it's kind of weird living in someone else's house.  The kids are currently on vacation in the US.  Unlike a vacation rental home, it's actually someone's home.  I find it somewhat weird to live in a house where someone else's pictures are on the wall and where I'm sleeping in the bed of a girl I don't know.  However, the house is nice and the town is adorable.

I believe that tomorrow we're going to Amsterdam, so I hope to let you know how it was! :)

German word of the day: die Niederlände.  Pronounced dee NEE-dare-len-duh.  It means "the Netherlands."

The Sunflower Project: Obviously I can't access my sunflowers right now, so... ;)