Holland – European Tour

I’ve dreamed of going Holland since I was a little girl and I read books by Corrie ten Boom, listened to the Pineapple Series and adored God’s Smuggler. I was sucked into a world of dikes, tulips, national pride, long runs and rainy days. 
When we left Germany, we drove to the Netherlands (which I’m going to refer to as Holland) and spent several wonderful (although horribly tired) days there. There’s a guy we know who lives in Holland (Dad knew his family really well back when this guy was a kid) so we got to spend a lot of time hanging out with him and his family. Not only was it great to be around people who spoke English and the national language, it was also pretty fun because they had English accents which we all loved. 
Me in regular American English: “Um, do you mind if we repeat everything you say?” 
Girl in strong British/Dutch accent: “Not at all!”
All of us in mimicking accent: “Not at all!” 
Yep. That’s pretty much how we spent our days there, touring around, mimicking, drinking coffee with cute little stirring spoons, getting lost, staying in delightful campers… Going to second-hand stores, petting their dog (you can’t imagine how much I loved having an animal around again), playing games, talking about a wide variety of things, and reading The Hiding Place and God’s Smuggler…

We got to go to the Beje see here and here and then proceeded to drive to Amsterdam where we succeeded in getting extremely lost and separated and quite freaked out (Amsterdam isn’t the best place to get lost…). The wind was the strongest I’ve felt it in a long time and we stood outside, clutching our jackets to us for over an hour while waiting so we could tour the building where Anne Frank and seven other people hid during WW2. Touring the Anne Frank building was very sobering and made me wish everyone studied history and learned from it.

On the same day we went to the Beje and Anne Frank house, we also went and explored a windmill. It was cold, rainy and very gray that day. The first glimpse I had of a windmill actually startled me. It was big and dark and scary looking. Thankfully, it was less intimidating once we got close to it.  
I hadn’t realized that whole families used to live in windmills. A family with thirteen children lived in this particular one about a hundred years ago. I would love to have a book that takes place in a windmill some day. 

Holland was a mixture of friends, driving, grayness, reading, dreams come true, cookies, walking, rain, good food, lots of memories and late nights.

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What about you? Have you ever been to Holland? Have you ever wanted to go? 

10 thoughts on “Holland – European Tour”

  2. Funtó says:
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    What a great account of your stay! I'm glad you enjoyed it! I lived in the Netherlands for 6 months on an exchange and absolutely fell in love with it! It's a beautiful country with great people! I also loved the fact that everyone spoke english with a great accent (not the case everywhere in Europe). The Anne Frank museum was a big deal to me. Growing up, I'd read a lot of books on WWII and on Anne. I read Anne's diary way before my 8th grade english class got around to it. So the topic felt somewhat close to my heart and the tour of the Anne Frank house left me close to tears.
    Overall, the Netherlands is a wonderful place! (Sorry about the weather during your stay!).

    Tell the World

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  3. Ana @ Butterflies of the Imagination says:
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    I recently finished The Hiding Place and I absolutely loved it. Corrie ten Boom's memoir was an easy five star (or in the case of my blog, five butterfly) read. It was amazing to see how God did wonders in Corrie's and her family's life. I still can't stop thinking about that book!

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  6. Aidyl Ewoh says:
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    That's so cool that you were there for six months! The most I've ever stayed in another country is almost two months. I would be delighted if I could go somewhere for longer some time. 🙂

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  9. Carissa says:
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    How amazing to see the Anne Frank house and the Beje! I would love to do that someday as well! Travel is one of the best things money can buy. And books. 😉
    Oh, btw, I finished book 1 of the Creation Quest! 🙂 🙂 I really enjoyed it!!!! Are the others out yet? How many are there? You're a fantastic writer!

    ~Carissa~
    delightinjoy.wordpress.com

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  10. Aidyl Ewoh says:
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    Wow! Thank you so much, Carissa! I'm so glad you liked the book! 🙂 There aren't any others out yet, but hopefully I'll get around to writing the second one sometime soon. Again, thank you so much for the encouragement!

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