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Breda is in southern Holland, close to the Belgian border, a great location to make a quick run for Belgian chocolate! While we were there, we had to taste Belgium’s dark beer. Believe it or not, it was served with lemon syrup! Not sure we’d want to try this at home, but it wasn’t as bad as it sounds.
Dottie was in heaven when she saw this courtyard in Breda. This was once a convent but is now being used as an apartment building. It's also the home of the Begijnhof Museum.
Every window seemed to hold a flower box, and the colors of the flowers seemed so much more vibrant than they are at home.
We had some terrific home-made meals at Stanley and Corrie’s. Meals were leisurely, with lots of food, wine and conversation. We felt so fortunate to be able to spend time at home with a typical Dutch family.
We just loved walking around in my cousins’ neighborhood. People walked leisurely or rode their bikes, and flowers were blooming everywhere. I fell in love with this old farmhouse (above) which dates back to the 1400's! And it was in Breda that we saw our first European castle (right).
I wanted to see see this tiny chapel built in the early 1500’s. It is the very chapel where my cousins had come to light candles to protect their “Florida cousins” from the hurricanes of 2003 and 2004.
Before the tour begins: Breda
We loved our hotel, Het Scheepshuys,
which means The Ship House.
Blog entry June 30:
We had a great time shopping and sightseeing in Breda and eating Dutch goodies (especially the chocolate!) in the open air market but stayed away from those “coffee shops” everyone warned us about. All in all we managed to stay out of trouble today except for my blowing a fuse at the hotel with the hair dryer (forgot to use the converter!) and Dottie using the men’s room in the restaurant, much to the amusement of young Carine and Marieke. (Although we’ve learned to say a few words in Dutch, we haven’t quite learned to read it yet!)
My young Dutch cousin, Carine, was anxious to sample the first herring of the season at the market.
| A NOTE ABOUT OUR WEBSITE: There are a few ways you can enjoy our website. We have loads of nice photos to look at, most of which have captions, to give you a good overview of the highlights of our trip. We’ve also included some excerpts from our blog which will give you an idea of what the trip was like“in real time” for us as well as some interesting facts we picked up along the way. We’ve italicized these entries so that you can skip them if you wish. Those that aren’t italicized, we think you’ll want to read for sure. We’ve begun our journey with our visit to Breda in Holland before the tour. If you’d rather, you can skip this and go to the next page where the tour begins in Amsterdam. We’ve also included links to our slideshows set to music to get you in the mood for YOUR trip to Europe! On the left sidebar, you’ll see buttons for each country we’ve visited. Once you’re in the country of your choice, you’ll find buttons on the top bar for each city we visited there (if we visited more than one city). Enjoy! |
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We were lucky enough to see not one, but two, working windmills and actually got to climb to the top of one of them!
I was excited to see a pair of real wooden shoes inside.
That’s Kristin on the left, her mom Dottie, my daughter Robin, and me on the right. I’m Barbara, the DB (designated blogger) on the trip. The four of us Florida girls had planned this trip for six months and couldn’t have been more excited to get going. One of the best things we did before the tour was set up a blog. It was how we brought our friends and family along on our trip. We were able to find Internet access at least every other day, and everyone got to hear about our trip “in real time” as well as share their thoughts and ask questions along the way.
Wisely, we planned a few extra days with my cousins in Holland before the tour began to get us over the jet lag and to see a bit more of this beautiful country.
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| Austria |
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Last Chapter |
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| Slideshows |
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| Favorite Scenes |
Can you believe mayonnaise on French fries? We were totally surprised to find that it was good! (Dutch mayonnaise does have a different flavor than ours). The Dutch also like to put peanut sauce on their fries.
I had been writing and e-mailing my cousins for several years, but we had never met them before. They made all of us feel at home instantly and were so good to us. It was so hard to say good-bye to Stanley, Corrie, Carine and Marieke, but it was time to begin our tour. Off we went to Haarlem! |
