The Adventures of "Flat Clara"!

There is a children's book called Flat Stanley. In the story Stanley is a boy who was flattened when a bulletin board falls on him. He then goes on many adventures as "Flat Stanley".  Our niece Clara sent us a hand made drawing of her flat self....so that she could come to visit!  Here is the story, along with pictures that we sent back for Clara to share with her class:

The Travels of Flat Clara 

Hello my name is Flat Clara, I was sent to visit my Uncle Andy and Aunt Stephanie who live in Holland, in the country of the Netherlands.   This is a small country is in North-West Europe and borders on the North Sea.  You can look and see it on the map.  The people who live there are called the Dutch.

The name “Netherlands” means low lands in the language the people speak there.  They call it that because much of the country is below sea level.   To keep the ocean from flooding the land, the people built big walls of stone and earth, called dikes, to keep the water out.  They used the windmills to pump out the water and keep the land dry.

My Uncle and Aunt live in town called Haarlem, near the capital City of  Amsterdam.  Haarlem is a very old City, people have been living in this area for over 1000 years.  It is famous for growing beautiful flowers, call Tulips.  On the day I arrived the people in Haarlem were having a flower festival to celebrate the blooming of all the tulips.  Uncle Andy and Aunt Stephanie took me to see the flowers in the City.

Here I am next to one of the parade floats, all made of flowers, just like in the Rose Parade.

Here I am in the town square next to more floats. The building in the background is the City Hall.. it was build over 500 years ago, and was originally a castle.. can you see see the old castle walls? 

Next we went shopping for a pair of wooden shoes the Dutch like to wear.   These look too big ... 

But these fit just right....

Then we went to a cheese shop to where they had lots of yummy cheese.... can you find me in the picture...? 

 I like this one the best!

Next, we went to a 600 year old church called Saint Bavo’s, named after the Saint who protected the City of Haarlem from invaders from other lands.  Can you see the bells in the tower, they play music on the hour. 

Here is another picture of the church..

Then we got a snack, special waffle cookies call stroopwafels... they are a favorite in Holland and very delicious...

Then a walk along the river Spaarne, can you see the big church in the background? 

The fishermen use this river to go out to the North Sea.

One more float of a cow all made of flowers... isn’t he funny? 

Then along the canal to Uncle Andy’s and Aunt Stephanie’s for lunch... 

I hope you enjoyed my pictures of Haarlem and can go and visit the Netherlands someday.. But watch out for leaking dikes....!!!

Bye for Now...

Hermitage Museum, Eye Film Institute and a visit to Zandvoort

Yesterday, we had plans to go to the Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam with our friends Hetty and Michiel.

We met them at the Haarlem Train Station at 10:00 a.m. Andrew and I traveled by bus while they rode their bicycles to the station. Hetty had bought our tickets to Amsterdam Centraal for us, so we were set to go when we arrived!

Walking in.....

The Hermitage is a beautiful old building which was once a home for women Alzheimer's patients

 View from inside:

Looks like we arrived just before the crowds!

On display inside works from Vincent van Gogh and Peter the Great. I didn't take any pictures of the van Gogh collection, but I did take a couple from the Peter the Great. I hadn't realized pictures were not allowed, so they aren't many!

 Peter the Great's riding outfit:

After visiting the Hermitage Museum did a little walking around,

 bought some chocolates....

 then found a nice little "very Dutch" place for lunch!

Hetty and Michiel know a lot about Amsterdam....we went through a nice outdoor market on our way to the Eye Film Museum :

To get to the Eye Film Institute we had to take a ferry...which was free! It runs every few minutes from behind Amsterdam Centraal:

 The Eye Film Museum from across the Amstel River:

 The Eye Film Museum:

The EYE is more a temple of cinema, than a museum or cinémathèque. There is a lot to see and to do: permanent exhibit in the basement and art installations are fun, selection of movies is great, while the museum’s restaurant on the waterfront is an ideal place to rest after a busy and tiring day in the Old Amsterdam center.
The EYE is probably one of the best film museums in the world, but while the other are located far across the oceans, if you visit Amsterdam or live in the city, this one is a must to see.

 The view from the offices:

 We sat outside in the sunshine and had a bierje!

On our way back to the Amsterdam we had a beautiful view of the Eye once again

 the back of Centraal Station:

 a bicycle parking lot:

 We did some more walking around Amsterdam in some beautiful neighborhoods:

 and more bicycles behind Centraal Station:

What a great day we had with our wonderful friends!

___________________________________________________

This morning we looked at the weather and decided to take advantage of a relatively warm dry day and go to the beach in Zandvoort. We decided to bring Sammy with us......as it is the last day till after October that you can have dogs on the beach there.

Soooooo, we took the bus....yessss with Sammy......to the Haarlem train station. We had to buy a special ticket for Sammy for €3.50!

checking out the schedule...

then going up to wait for our train:

 Getting on the train:

 The weather report said partly cloudy....it was very cloudy and windy, but relatively warm compared to how it's been here. It felt nice to be on the beach!  We found that it smells much different than the California beaches. The air doesn't smell as salty and you don't see kelp on the beaches, so you don't get that smell.

We walked along the beach...

 Sammy had a great time running with his new friends!

We stopped at our favorite restaurant: Le Haven (#9) for a beer and some bitterballen!

while Sammy chewed his bone next to us!

We got a bit of sunshine today......it was nice spending the day outside in the "warm" weather!