Dutch- Om Twee!!! English-Round Two!!!!!

Well, here we are!!! The three of us, together again, in Holland. Olivia and I arrived one day before Matt. After a crazy ordeal at MSP airport (including a search of our plane by the Bloomington K9 unit and a three hour delay!!!) we made our way to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam. We stayed at a nearby hotel, at which Olivia had an elevator experience that has left her terrified of European hotels! The 2am fire alarm at a Euro Disney hotel this spring is partly to blame for her fear...... thats a whole other trip! She and I made our way by bus and train into the city for dinner, pasta of course, and back to the hotel for much needed sleep. The following morning we were up and out to Schiphol, where we met Matt and his colleague, Ad, for the train ride to Eindhoven. It was fun to run into our neighbor, Jose, at the grocery store that same day, made it feel a bit like home.

We have been here two weeks and Olivia has managed to have two play dates and spend one full fun day at her school. She also managed a fairly significant wipe out on her bike. After which we parked our bikes and I carried her home, luckily it wasn't far! Since she's nearly as big as me!!! Her knee took the brunt of the fall and it was enough that Matt and I debated whether or not to take her in for stitches, we didn't and it seems to be healing okay.... but, man she was hurtin'!

We had a drink with neighbors Hettie,Peter, Frank, Jose, Len and Andre (who is the owner of the house we are renting) one night after we arrived. It was good to see them all again, fun for Olivia to see their chocolate lab puppy, Senna!!! Peter will be 50 next week and there will be a party, we will celebrate with them.

Yesterday we went to an old dutch town called Zanse Schanse. There are nine working windmills, typical 1700's dutch homes and shops all set on the canals. It was pretty nice but, Matt and I both agreed that it was not as cool as we thought it would be. It was more "tourist trap" like than we expected. Also, it was kind of right in the middle of a fairly modern industrial area. We are not, however, sorry that we went. It's fun just to explore a bit.

Today Olivia and i are deciding what we will do with the rest of our week. First of all, we need to get a birthday package in the mail for Tony, he'll be 19 on the 10th!!! WOW! Matt leaves for Italy tomorrow thru Friday. We were going to go along, but we have Liza and Peters birthday party this weekend. There will be another opportunity for us to go in a few weeks. Liv and I might got to the Delta region of Holland, near the sea. We could leave in the morning and be there in a couple of hours.... maybe Wednesday.

Signing off for now, this was a pretty big post considering it's the first one since October!!! More soon!