May Day Cycle Ride...

While Jimmy had May 1 off of work, the girls had to go to school. So the two of us had a free day and we decided to use it cycling to the bulb fields. We stopped in Warmond for lunch thinking that we could find a café along the water. No luck with that, but we had a nice lunch with some delicious homemade peppermint. Once we got out to the fields, we came across some workers cutting the flowers.

The fields were weeks behind due to the cold winter with the hyacinths still in bloom and just a sprinkling of tulips.

In Noordwijkerhout we came across this sign made out of flowers to thank Queen Beatrix for her years of service (1980 – 2013). Directly across the street, a fellow was kind enough to place a ladder in front of his house with a sign that people were welcome to climb up to get a better shot.

Stepping Stones...

Ashlynn has been working with Kati on how to hop across the stepping stones in the pond near our house. She’s also teaching Kati to climb through a tunnel in the park. Perhaps one day she’ll try taking Kati to an official agility course.

Windmill Photos in Leiden...

We couldn’t resist taking some family photos in front of the De Valk Windmill in Leiden as we were on our way back to the train station to catch the bus home. We were all impressed with how well Kati survived her first big day in the city.

Leiden on Queen’s Day...

Unlike Voorschoten, which was shutting down the flea market when we left, Leiden was still in full swing. The market was still going strong along the main canal and Breestraat.

Kati was well behaved when we had lunch at a new organic café, and also when we snuck up to the top floor of the department store to check out the view.

The main canal was full of boats on one side of the bridge. On the other side, a  kayak basketball game being played.

Kati met a beautiful husky pup, which is the kind of puppy I had as a teenager.

Kati’s First Bus Ride...

After we walked around Voorschoten, we decided to head to Leiden. Kati was surprisingly calm on her first bus ride.

Queen’s Day in Voorschoten...

We considered going to Amsterdam to experience all the excitement of the abdication by Queen Beatrix and inauguration of King Willem-Alexander (the first King in the Netherlands in 123 years), but decided to watch it on TV in the morning instead. Then we got decked out in orange for our walk into the village.

We paid € 0.10 for Kati to pose for a photo with this big dog; unfortunately Kati wasn’t too thrilled with the idea.

Veronica hung off a church fence to capture the perfect shot.

While we perused the variety of junk that folks were selling, Kati quickly learned that there was a lot of food scraps on the ground. She was one happy dog!

Celebrating the Final Queen’s Night...

Kati was patient during her
transformation to a Dutch lion

April 30th is a national holiday in the Netherlands to celebrate the Queen’s birthday. There is always a big party the evening before in the center of The Hague with live bands and a carnival. This year was extra special since the Queen would be abdicating on the 30th in order for her son to become King.

Veronica was excited to be going into town with Fiona to meet up with a bunch of their friends to go to the carnival. I was on the same train to meet up with Jimmy. While I didn’t particularly enjoy the previous Queen’s Nights that we’d been to, I was willing to give it another try.

We had a fun night, which included dinner at a small café, listening to some music, chatting with some friends we ran into and wading through the huge crowds to visit the fun house. 

The country typically turns orange for Queen’s Day and this year was no exception.