The boys don’t have much school during the month of May, so we took a short holiday to Domburg, a village further south along the Dutch coast in the watery province of Zeeland.   First we took the train to Middelburg.   The whole town was decorated with bright pink flags and balloons and people were pouring in by train and by bicycle for the second etape of the Giro d’Italia bike race.  There was even a mural made out of uncooked pasta!

Noodle Mural

We thought it was great fun until we discovered that all the buses going in the direction of our hotel were stopped until 8pm.  Daddy made friends with the woman at the bike rental shop, who called her nephew, who took us to Domburg in his car.   We got there 10 minutes after the bicyclists passed through and early enough for a walk on the beach after dinner.

The Beach at Domburg

We stayed at the Pancake House and Hotel in Domburg.  The Dutch – and the boys – love pancakes.

It warmed up all the way to 50 F (not considering the windchill) so we went to the beach with our Dutch friends.  Roos is in the boys’ class at school and lives right around the corner.  She has a three year old sister named Fleur.  It was too cold to go in the water any further than an inch or two to get some water in our buckets, but that didn’t stop us from having a great time.  When we needed to warm up we had some freshly fried fish called Kibbelingen   (Mommy ‘went native’ and had a raw herring sandwich with Roos’s mom).

At the Beach with Roos

Tulips at Keukenhof

You can’t be in the Netherlands and spring and not go to the world famous Keukenhof Gardens. So we took the rare sunny day and went to see the flowers. The tulips weren’t blooming outside yet, but there were some gorgeous ones in a big greenhouse. And the hyacinths, fritalaria and other bulbs were blooming.

Tulips Boys

There’s lots to do there besides see the flowers. There are some fun play structures and lots of water. There’s a path of stepping stones like lily pads across a lake, which was a lot of fun until a swan bit Henry! He wasn’t expecting that.

A Water LadderIt was a beautiful day.Bloemenball Kabouters

Bunny Buckets

Good news – the Easter Bunny knows we’re in the Netherlands.  He must know that we live near the beach too, because we got buckets and shovels instead of baskets.  Oh, and chocolate chickens and bunnies and marzipan eggs and sugar chickens and cars and knights.

We had a four day weekend for Easter, so on Monday we went to the beach to test out the shovels.  They work well.

Beach on Tweede Paasdag

William's Favorite Egg

Of course, we decorated Easter eggs.  In fact, it was so much fun that Mommy rode her bike over to get us more eggs so we could keep decorating.

Our neighborhood, Belgisch Park, had an Easter party on Saturday.  The downpour put an end to the bouncy  house and the brass band, but the boys did get to make bunny masks.

Bunnies and Eggs

William and his Crane Painting

Henry Ready for the Party

The schools have a tradition of “Easter Breakfast” here, so the boys put on their party clothes on Thursday and went to school.

It turned out to be such a feast that William said he couldn’t eat any more.  Of course, he’d already had 5 bread and nutella sandwiches, chocolate milk, a hard boiled egg, apple tart and another cake.   Not to mention the french toast he had at home.

The Easter Bunny made an appearance at the breakfast and then all the kids had an egg hunt.  William found three little bags with chocolate eggs in them.  Some of the kids didn’t find any, but it didn’t matter because everyone went home with one bag.

Easter Breakfast

The Bunny and Henry