Holland's Even More Liberal Than We Expected...

Yes, it's true. Not only are gay marriages legal in Holland, but apparently underaged incestuous marriages are also ok. If we'd only known, we'd have had the girls dress up.

During Open Monument Weekend (government and private historic buildings around the country are open to the public) we were wandering through the Leiden Market. In front of City Hall, a woman offered the girls balloons, then asked us to follow her into the building. Without any explanation, she brought us upstairs and into the main hall where a real Justice of the Peace was waiting for the girls with veils, flowers and rings. A small crowd gathered as they walked down the aisle. It was very funny and quite sweet. They are now committed to take care of each other for life. We'll let you know when their gift registry's set up, but in the meantime don't forget to hit that comment button to send your best wishes.

Punting on the Cam...

We finished up our holiday by exploring some of the cities near the base. In Peterborough, we enjoyed the history museum, but were disappointed in the railway museum. We found Cambridge quite charming and loved the Fitzwilliam Museum, the oldest public museum in England. This photo shows us settling into a punt before drifting down the River Cam while hearing about the history of Cambridge University. We spent our final evening in Harwich so we could be near the ferry terminal. There wasn't much there, but we found a great restaurant to have a final celebration before returning to reality the next day.

Valuable Lessons Learned in England while Staying at a US Air Force Base...

* When ordering a British beer, you'll notice that it's been imported from England through South Carolina. This might be normal for most US Air Force Bases around the world, but when you're actually in England it seems pretty wasteful.

* After spending time in London, one of the most expensive cities in the world, you'll be thankful for staying somewhere that accepts good old greenbacks. It was a strange place to see the new $10 bill for the 1st time.

* It's possible to do laundry while on vacation without complaining when you have access to full-size US washer/dryers for the first time in almost a year.

* Bowling starts looking really good when there's a lack of nearby entertainment. It's amazing how much your score can improve when you finally give in and start banking your ball off the alley bumpers set up for the kiddies.

A Bird's Eye View of London...

When we were in London in December 1999, we visited a month too early to go on the London Eye, which you may recall was built for the Millennium Celebration. We were excited about having the chance to go on it this visit and thoroughly enjoyed the ride. I've included this photo from the top so you can see how great the view was. On the right you can see Parliament and Big Ben and on the left you can see an approaching storm, which luckily didn't last long. The flight lasts about 30 minutes and is incredibly smooth. Unlike a traditional ferris wheel, it can hold 800 people at a time but only needs to stop to help the disabled on/off. It's definitely a technological marvel and an interesting addition to the London skyline.

More London Sightseeing...

No visit to London is complete without a visit to the London Eye, as seen here from one of several pedestrian bridges over the Thames. We also managed to visit the National Gallery (which was wonderful and had a great audio tour for the kids) and the Tate Gallery (too modern for our tastes). To make the most of the dry weather, we had several picnics from Marks & Spencer (it's amazing how finally having an assortment of wraps and salads available could make us all so happy). We also swung through the infamous Harrod's, which has just begun offering $7,000 weddings for dogs complete with a horse-drawn carriage for the bride's arrival proving that some people just have too much money.

Although I had previously said I was finished with big city holidays, we had so much fun over the weekend in London that the girls and I trained back in twice from Huntingdon while Jimmy worked during the week. We really enjoyed touring Buckingham Palace (the Queen was conveniently in Scotland while 1000's of tourists tromped through her home) and exploring the British Museum.

Mudrucking in the Thames...

After we finished at the Globe Theatre, Jimmy noticed that there was a group down on the beach along the Thames River. Being a curious guy, he wandered down there to see what was happening. Turns out it was low tide and this group was "mudrucking" (looking for treasures along the river's edge). We couldn't resist joining in and soon had a collection of Tudor and Victorian pottery chards. Luckily Jimmy noticed that the tide was coming back in and we made it back up the stairs before the entire beach was back underwater as shown here. We had so much fun, that we went back the next day; it's often these unexpected activities that are our fondest vacation memories. Be sure to check out our collection when you visit.

Fun in London...

We had a great weekend in London. Our hotel was near an outdoor organic market, which was perfect for lunch and had the best chocolate brownies we've ever had. We splurged and took the girls to see the play "Mary Poppins," which we all loved. Veronica will be studying Tudor times this term in school, so she was excited about touring the Globe Theatre (although, Shakespeare had been dead 380 years when this one was rebuilt). Our timing was perfect because we got to see a dress rehearsal of a play in modern English.

It's a Success!

Hadn't planned on doing another entry about the bottles (or posting a photo of my bum--by the way, we're learning lots of new words from our British friends, but more on that later) but got our 2nd response last night from another Dutch couple summering at the beach a little more than an hour north of where we live. Looks like Jimmy did a good job sealing this bottle because they had to break it to get the message out. Of course, Jimmy's already plotting to try this again on a longer ferry ride perhaps to Scotland or Denmark. Bummer, I'll have to drink more champagne.

It Worked!

At the halfway point of our journey, we went to the back of the ship with the bottles to toss them into the North Sea. I was paranoid someone would stop us and ask what the hell we were doing, but no one even noticed us. It was quite windy so it was a challenge to launch them so they didn't just fall directly into the wake of the ship. We were thrilled when we'd catch sight of them bobbing along. Jimmy figured if we got 2 responses out of 11, he'd consider the experiment a complete success. Looks like we're already half way there since he received the 1st response just a few days after we returned. He got an e-mail from a retired fellow in Northern Holland that was walking along the beach with his wife and found one of our bottles. This confirmed that the bottles would be travelling north. Veronica's hoping Santa finds one.

Start Looking for Those Messages in a Bottle...

While the family might look like they're up to no good in this photo, they're actually getting ready to launch a science experiment. As soon as Jimmy realized that someday we might take a ferry to England, we started saving champagne bottles (as you can guess, I didn't complain about my participation in this part of the project). Once we booked our tickets, he and the girls started getting serious about how best to do this. They ended up with 11 bottles each containing a letter of introduction with Jimmy's permanent e-mail address, a map showing the approx drop point per his GPS, a Dutch stamp, a Dutch coin and a rock from North Carolina. The tops have a cork, epoxy, wire and aluminum foil in an attempt to keep them watertight for years to come.

Another Unexpected Trip...

One of the great joys we had this summer was getting to tag along on last minute business trips with Jimmy. Just before school started we got to spend 10 days in England. It still feels strange to live where we can actually choose which method of transportation to take there. After much searching of airfares, we decided to go on a ferry instead. Of course, we didn't go on the ferry shown, which was in dry dock in Sweden, but it's owned by the same company. On the way over, we took the fast catamaran, which took 3.5 hours; it holds 1,500 people, but luckily was not that crowded. It was replaced on our return sail with a 6-hour slow boat, which holds 900 people and has 600 staterooms for its overnight journeys. Luckily, there was a movie and magic show to keep the girls happily entertained. Overall, it was a great way to travel, but a bit complicated to get to from London; next time we'd probably sail over and fly back.

Valuable Lessons Learned in England...

* Do not break your husband's digital camera the night before leaving for vacation.

* Just because folks speak English doesn't mean you'll understand them. Ironically, since it had been 10 months since I'd been in an English-speaking country, it took me about 3 days to get used to the fact that people would actually understand me. However, when we ran into a hasher on a train, his accent was so thick that we only understood about half of what he said.

* Do not attempt to travel by train to/from London over the weekend, since that's a great time to do work on the tracks. After spending time on the British trains, we have a whole new appreciation of the efficiency of the Dutch trains.

* Do not bring your family toiletry kit on a business trip unless you're prepared to break the news to your wife that you've had to dump most of her toiletries because you've forgotten that you have them in your carry-on baggage when boarding a flight in England.

Another Birthday Celebration...

While overall my birthday wasn't as hip as Veronica's since we spent the evening at a kiddie movie, we still managed to do some cool things in the afternoon. Lucky for me, it's an official work holiday for Jimmy, so we had lots of time to goof around in Den Haag. We especially enjoyed the Wonder Rooms in the basement of the city art museum with hands-on activities in small rooms featuring music, architecture, furniture, fashion and undergarments, as you can see.

The Latest Environmental News from Holland...

Silly me, I thought Greenpeace, whose worldwide headquarters is in Amsterdam, specialized in stopping the clubbing of defenseless seal pups and harpooning of whales. Apparently, they also are concerned with the environmental- friendliness of adult toys (sorry - didn't think it would be appropriate to include a photo). Research center TNO, which I was misled to believe specialized in defense research, examined 8 such toys for Greenpeace. It found 7 of the products contained very high concentrations of Phthalates, plasticisers which allegedly pose a risk to human health and the environment (for all you scientists, click here for the actual report). Apparently, 18% of the Dutch own adult toys and they purchase products worth $275 million annually. Greenpeace has assured these consumers that alternative materials are available so their favorite toys shouldn't disappear off the shelves. Click here to read more.

This Monkey Loved the Monkey Park...

What a great day we had with the Juge family at Apenheul, a monkey park in Apeldoorn. This park is unique because 4 of the environments allow the monkeys to roam free. While we always loved seeing the lemurs at the Duke Primate Center in Durham, it was so awesome to see them leaping around here in a giant open area. Ashlynn was worried that the gorillas might try to claim her as one of their long lost children, but they were in traditional enclosures and couldn't reach her.

Up Close with Monkeys...

Was shocked how close we could get to the Morrocan Macaques at Apenheul. Didn't need a telephoto lense since I was only about 10 feet away. They were the largest monkeys allowed to roam freely. The tiny spider monkeys were a blast to watch as over 100 of them played all around us. They moved so quickly that I had a tough time getting a good pic of them.

On-Line Dating for Dutch Orangutans...

Apenheul, the Dutch monkey park we visited, plans to set up a webcam to help its orangutans find potential mates in Indonesia. Sadly, 30 new apes are brought in daily into the Borneo rescue center because of habitat encroachment. Due to a lack of space, the apes are kept in small cages and have forgotten how to entertain themselves. The hope is that the traumatized Borneo apes will learn again how to play and will start to interact with the Dutch apes and perhaps even fall in love. Do you suppose the project will be considered a success if the apes start having cyber sex?