Exploring with the Expats

The first morning of my vacation started with a text from Delta: your flight has been cancelled. After an exhausting week at work, I was honestly too tired to process the text...but then it hit me! I woke up David with the news and he did what he always does - he fixed it. We were put on a whole new flight itinerary that landed us in Amsterdam rather than Brussels. Getting out of DC was  a real feat - from the Uber driver who preferred to ride in circles into road blocks to the connecting flight which was delayed many hours- we cancelled our plans for Brussels and made plans for our first stop to be Wassenaar, and then we finally made it a day and a half later!

My brothers family moved to Wassenaar a few years ago and fell in love with the quaint Dutch suburban lifestyle. We lugged our suitcases up the narrow spiral staircases in their home and then ventured out to explore the neighborhood. It was an unseasonably warm day there - and we took full advantage of that wandering outside, admiring the flowers and windmills, taking a small hike to find the hobbit house, and tasting some nice rose wine. We ended the night at their favorite ice cream spot, Luciano's. 

The next day some of us visited the beach while others (the alliance) went to spin class. We then headed to Delft before taking off for our next destination: Bruges, Belgium. In Delft we ate a fantastic lunch, climbed all the way to the top of the old church (349 steps in a narrow staircase to the top!), tried some really good cheeses, then hit the road to Bruges. 

At Bruges we stayed at the Dukes hotel - a beautiful spot nestled right in the heart of the city. There we met our cousins, Dave, Ali, Tess and Mitch... also expats, now living in Germany. When they arrived we dined at a Bruges favorite, the Ribs 'n Beer restaurant. It was actually really good, and we definitely recommend it! We were sure to try the fries, waffles, beer, and of course, the chocolate.

We ventured back to Wassenaar en route to Amsterdam with a pit stop in Keukenhof along the way. Keukenhof is the famous garden to see the tulips and other blossoms in bloom this time of year. We hit it at a pretty ideal time. Most flowers were blooming, but It's hard to capture the beauty of that place in just a few photos. An added perk to this leg of the trip was a visit from cousin Emma, who was able to catch a train down from her new home in northern Netherlands to hang with us for a quick visit before heading to Poland. 

While in Amsterdam, we visited the Anne Frank house, the Van Gogh museum, the Rijks museum and even managed to see a Banksy and Dali exhibit at the Moco museum. At the end of the day we returned to our hotel, Hotel de l'europe, which had a display of live baby chicks in the lobby for Easter - for the kids, this was probably the highlight of the trip.

Finally we made our way back to the states, already planning our return...