January 5, 2010 - Our spare day.....hanging in Amsterdam

So, I woke up from my drug induced coma to find no one in the room.  It’s kind of weird to wake up like that in another country!  I am still feeling pretty crappy and almost hacked up the other lung.  Ed came back from the airport and had scoped out where we needed to go as well as a place to buy an extra bag if we needed it.  I really hope we don’t!

We got ready and walked to a tram station and took the tram into Amsterdam to do some last minute shopping.  It was nice out…..either I was totally numb to the cold by now or I had adapted as I really wanted to take my jacket off.  I had put my gloves away at this point.  Weird.

We stopped to eat at McDonald’s.  Why, you ask?  Well, they had a McKroket which is basically what we had eaten at 1am on Christmas Eve but it was on a bun.  It was also fast and there were open seats, so we sat down and had our lunch.  It was quite yummy!

We walked around and did a little shopping and then headed back to the tram because it was getting dark, which meant that walking on the icy streets would be a little bit more difficult.  We waiting for awhile and then caught the tram back to the stop near our hotel. 

We ate dinner at the restaurant in our hotel.  The menu was really small and there wasn’t much to choose from.  I saw a hamburger on there and thought that would be safe.  It was the weirdest hamburger I had seen ever.  It ate some, mostly because I needed to take more drugs.  I am really starting to sound like a total addict here.  I am sure there is a meeting somewhere for NyQuil abusers like me. 

We headed back to the room to organize our luggage and get to bed since we had to be up pretty early.  We got most everything packed and then I was out like a light!

January 4, 2010 - Our last day in Elburg.....Off to Amsterdam

Today is our last day in Elburg before heading to the hotel by the airport in Amsterdam.  I am sad but I am also missing my doggie and am really not feeling well, so I miss my own bed.  By this time, I also have a hacking cough, which will be loads of fun on a 10 hour plane ride.  Thank you Wal-Mart for my bag of 100 cough drops.  It will come in handy!

I got up super late because of the drugs I took the night before.  Wendy and Erik had to work and the girls had school, so we were the only one’s home.  Ed was already downstairs on his laptop and Marsha and Bill were on their way over to do laundry.  The only thing I wanted to do today was to walk up to the market and get a flavor of tea that I had recently tried and really liked.  Ed is afraid that we don’t have enough cheese, so he wanted to buy more.  Marsha and Bill took the car into old Elburg to do some shopping while we walked up to the market.  We did our shopping and headed back to start our packing process.  I hate this part of the trip.  We have way more crap then we came with and not only because of things we bought but because of all the cheese and coffee that some of the relatives are sending back to family in Mesa.  Since we live in Chandler, it appears that we were designated to take all the stuff back to them. 

Packing was a pain because I can’t breathe very well right now and after a few minutes, I end up needing to take a break because I am tired.  This cold I have contracted sucks.  Anyhoo, we ended up needing to take the suitcase that Marsha was going to get rid of because of a broken zipper and messed up handle and using it to transport some of the food in.  We may even need to buy another bag in addition to that tomorrow in Amsterdam.  Since we are here an extra day, we are headed back into Amsterdam to pick up a few souvenirs.  Carrie informed us of where to shop in the Red Light District as they have the better souvenirs.  No, not those kinds of souvenirs’!!  Sickos! 

We finished packing and headed back to Theresa’s for dinner.  We visited a bit and Marsha and Bill finished their packing.  We waited for Shirley to arrive as we needed a second car to help with luggage.  There was no way we were fitting all of our luggage AND Bill and Marsha’s luggage in our little car.  We had to wait until the evening as everyone had to go back to work.  Erik and Shirley were driving with us into the city with half of our luggage.  We said our goodbyes (which takes about half an hour) and headed to Tante Olly’s to say goodbye to her as well.  We also gassed up and then headed towards Amsterdam.  It was pretty foggy and ended up raining part of the drive.  It took about an hour and a half to get to our hotel.  We unloaded all our crap and went up to check out our room at the Tulip Inn.  Holy crap!  This room is crazy!  It’s huge, which is good because we have a lot of luggage and crap between the four of us.

We made tea and had stroopwaffles in our room while we settled in:

I have taken my NyQuil and will not be joining Ed when he takes Marsha and Bill to the airport.  I am trying to get as much sleep as possible in order to try and knock out this cold.  I really don’t want to travel on the plane for 10 hours straight and not be able to breathe.  At one point this evening, I hacked up a lung and immediately worried that we didn’t have enough room in the luggage to transport it home.  Here’s to not keeping three other people up in our room with my coughing!!

Only one more day in Holland……I can’t believe our trip is almost over!  It went by way too fast!  Good night!

January 3, 2010 - Rotterdam is a no-go...Utrecht, here we come!

Today was nice because we got up late because there we had no concrete plans.  The thing that sucked is that I was not feeling well at all at this point.  My sore throat was worse and I was congested.  At this point, I was ticked off because I had done everything to try and prevent this…including a flu shot that left my arm beat up.  Luckily, I had packed every over the counter drug known to mankind, so I was set!

This is our only completely free day…..the original plan was to go to Rotterdam but because of the weather, we scrapped that idea.  We were supposed to meet Justin, our cousin, in Rotterdam and he was going to give us a tour.  I had messaged him last night to tell him that we didn’t think traveling into Rotterdam was a safe idea anymore.  Marsha talked to him today and he gave another option of taking the train into Utrecht where there was shopping and sightseeing as well.  We decided to do this so that we could hang out with Justin a bit more and then see something different.  Since we had problems in the past with using our Visa debit card, Ed looked online to see how to use it at the train station so that we wouldn’t get stuck.  Well, we went to the train station in t’Harde and it didn’t take our card or paper money or coins.  So, we just drove to Utrecht and met Justin there.  It turns out that he wasn’t feeling well either and ended up taking us to see where our other cousin, Reza worked and then leaving to go home.  We walked around Utrecht and saw a really awesome church and went in a few stores.  We ate at café inside a department store and walked around more and took pictures.  Here are some pictures of Utrecht:

What would a day be without some sort of food.  This is the best kind:

The stores close at 5pm, so we headed back to the parking garage.  This was equivalent to a shopping mall and we had to pay for parking.  We really missed our free parking at home at this point.

We ran into Reza on the way out and said goodbye to him and then headed back to Elburg.

We met up with the rest of the family at a Mongolian BBQ restaurant in t’Harde and had dinner as a big group one last time.  The food was interesting…..I decided to have some kip (chicken) because it is easily recognizable and I know that word in Dutch. 

We headed home and did the usual:  checked in on the internet.  We added some laundry into the mix and then headed to bed.  I was in a cold drug induced state by this point.  I am hoping I fight this off because traveling with this crap will not be fun.

January 2, 2010 - Next stop - the Geeraths/Gaeraths' Reunion in Diemen!

Of course, our day starts as any other day of this trip….get up, breakfast, get ready, then off to the next stop.  I was a little irritated that I woke up with a sore throat today.  I was hoping that it was only because I was wearing my retainers** and the window was cracked open a little. 

**Side Note:  Yes, I still wear my retainers.  I paid way too much money and turned 30 with braces to not follow directions (2004 - 2006).  So, I wear them every night.  For three years, I have been faithful….except after my half marathon, when I passed out before even brushing my teeth.  Thanks Dr. Nathan T. Davis for my smile.  Never say I don’t refer professionals after a good experience. 

I digress.

Today marks the third reunion of our trip.  This one consists of anyone who has the last name of Gaeraths/Geeraths and was held in Diemen, Netherlands.  It was supposed to take place in October but due to lack of response as well as finding out we were going to be in the neighborhood over the holidays, they moved it to today.  We are kinda a big deal……

We saw some family we knew and met some that we didn’t.  They provided us with a family tree to that went back about 9 generations.  So, if you knew the name of the stranger at the next table, you could pretty much figure out how you are related.  It was pretty neat!

At some point, Tante Olly pulled out some old pictures from her purse and we started looking at them.  It was pretty fun to see pictures of everyone as kids.

At first, we were worried that there wasn’t going to be any food because we really didn’t see anything but snacks on the table.  We should have known better.  They just didn’t set it all out at once.  It kept coming out of a little room tray by tray.  I swear, there were elves back there.

 

Here is another attempt at a family photo.  I think we had too many people to fit but here is a glimpse:

After our visiting went past the time that they had rented the facility, it was time to go home.  No one had noticed that it had started to snow……little did we know what we were in for.  It seemed to just start coming down harder as we drove.  Ed compared it to the blizzard we experienced the first trip we took to North Dakota when he met my Grandpa when I was still in college.  It was crazy!  Ed did a good job, although, I know he got nervous at times.  I am sure driving a stick shift in the snow was a real treat he doesn’t wish to experience in the near future.

It took us 2 hours to get home on a drive that should have taken a little over an hour in normal weather.  Thanks to Ed and Garmina (our Garmin GPS who is female and tells us where to go), we got home in one piece.

At this point, we just hung out for a bit and then headed home.  Once again, another tiring day of visiting people and being the main attraction…those Crazy Americans!

January 1, 2010 - Happy New Year....bring on the reunions! First stop - The Stook Family

Happy New Year from Holland!

After getting up, eating, and getting ready, we headed to Zoetermeer where we were meeting up with the Stook Family for New Years.  This is Ed’s Mom’s side of the family and there are people that they haven’t seen in many years, if at all.  So, this was an exciting day for both us and the rest of the family.  I like to say that Ed has a glimpse into how I felt when I met his family for the first time.  You don’t know which cousins go with which aunts/uncles and which kids go with which cousins.  It’s fun to memorize all of this.  Bill and I always say we need to have name tags with pictures on them!

Here are some pictures of the kids:

Random pictures of the family visiting:

Of course, my day would not be complete unless I had a picture of the ridiculous amounts of food that we consumed.  The special thing about today is that we got to have Indo food similar to what Ed’s parents used to make.  It was yummy but I think we were sad for a minute too because it’s never going to be the same as Mom G. used to make. 

These are a few of Ed’s aunts.  It was amazing how much they looked like his mom.  On one hand, it was so nice to meet family that I had never met but I know that seeing these aunts that looked so much like Mom G. was hard for Ed and his siblings. 

Of course, a day would not be complete if more food wasn’t brought out of nowhere.  More food…dessert like items:

We visited more and then it was time to leave.  We made our attempt at a group picture.  Let me remind you that this is not everyone.  There are Stook family members in Australia as well as people who weren’t able to attend and who were taking the picture.  We are contemplating a trip to Australia……right after I obtain Valium or some sort of tranquilizer for that flight.

After the normal half hour long goodbyes, we headed home.  What a great day to catch up with family as well as meet people we had not met before!  We caught up with family where we were staying and then headed to bed.  It had been a long day and we were wiped!  We needed our rest for the next reunion we had tomorrow!

December 31, 2009 - New Years Eve

We got up late and did the usual morning activities of eating and visiting.  We got ready to hit the little market that is within walking distance from Wendy and Erik’s house to get our goodies to take home.  I wanted to get some tea and cookies to share at work and Ed wanted to get more cheese than our share from the wheel that we went in on with Andy and Marsha.  We ended up with more than we could carry back so Ed and Bill walked back and got the car to put our goodies in.

While we were shopping, we saw a car that is smaller than a Smart Car (if that is possible!).  It was called a Micro Car and it was pretty cool:

We walked around the shops and then headed back to the house. 

We visited, ate a snack, and checked email while waiting to head over to Theresa’s for dinner.
 

Around 5:30pm or so, we walked over to Theresa’s house to eat and hang out until closer to midnight.  This picture is just funny to me…..Ed looks like a cross between the Unabomber and a gang member with a case of Heineken walking in the streets:

We visited and played with the kids while the food was prepared.  Once again, Bill is the most popular American!

Of course, there was food all over the place.  Here is a glimpse:

Of course, blowing up things is something that has to be done on New Year’s Eve.  Christian was coming in and out of the house and looked like he was in the midst of making trouble.

The young folks headed outside with a big milk jug looking can, a basketball, water, a homemade torch, and some oil and proceeded to make noise with it.  We finally went outside to see what they were up to.  It was pretty cool but probably scared some of the neighbors.  I didn’t grab the camera for this outing….I just wanted to make sure I was warm.  So, no pics here….I will have to steal some from one of the youngsters who might have snapped a few.

In the mean time, some had trouble staying awake until the new year hit.....people of all ages were falling asleep!

Around 11:30pm, we headed back to Wendy and Erik’s because there were younger people living on that street than where Theresa lives.  They would be setting off fireworks as well, so the plan was to go over there to set off ours as well.  We counted down to midnight and then wished everyone a Happy New Year (three kisses, just like saying hello and goodbye).  We went outside and set off mass amounts of fireworks.  Here is a glimpse into some of what was set off:

It was crazy to see this taking place in a neighborhood.  Ed and I are used to setting off our own fireworks because, for the past two years, we have spent the Fourth of July in Ferndale, WA with my family, where fireworks are legal for the weekend.  This was insane!  Here are some pictures of our light show as well as some video.  

Don't even think that the food was left behind.  It was walked down the street along with the rest of us.  After about half an hour of fireworks, we went back inside and ate more, if that was possible.  We also talked about how much we eat, which was pretty funny.

I also found a new drink that was quite tasty!  Apparently, Bacardi Breezer is a drink that the 14 and 15 year olds drink in the clubs…..pretty much equivalent to Zimas for us.  My cousin, Christian was making fun of me because I liked it.  He also made me a drink with some orange juice and some other kind of alcohol that I have never heard of.  It was quite tasty. 

After an hour or so, we were all fading pretty fast, so some headed back over to Theresa’s and we headed upstairs to go to bed.  After surfing the web a bit, we were getting ready to go to sleep when the power went out.  Apparently, it was the whole neighborhood.  I guess that’s what happens when you set off fireworks in a residential area.  It was off for a few hours and then came back on, so we were told. 

I would have to say that this was the best New Years we have ever celebrated.  They sure know how to party it up in Elburg!  Happy New Year!  Bring on 2010….it has to be better than 2008 and 2009!!