Wandering Browns

After spending most of our time sightseeing in other cities, I finally decided to venture out and explore the town we were staying in- Schiedam. Schiedam is another old city that is now a suburb of Rotterdam. It is riddled with canals and was spared in WWII, so many historic structures are intact. Our first adventure, though, was to a park close to our hotel. I hate to admit that it took us several weeks to make it there, but those first few weeks were so cold that we did not want to be outside for too long! Pirate boat! This park was awesome! It had biking and walking paths coursing through it, lakes and canals, and the play structures were imaginative and engaging for all ages. Landon's favorite thing in the whole park were the sand diggers. Unfortunately, he could not operate the digger independently so that was fun for mommy to help him dig dirt for most of our time at the park.  Daffodil median McDonald's in Vlaardingen Other awesome parts of Schieda...

When I think of Holland, I think of tulips and windmills. We are waiting until this weekend to see the tulips, but last weekend on Austin's day off we saw the windmills. Kinderdijk showcases the complete history of water management in one location. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is a must-see attraction if traveling through the Netherlands. Lanterns in the window at the visitor's center Mom and Landon looking at a tiny windmill in the visitor's center Our journey started at the visitor's center, where we waited for a few minutes to see a movie that talked about the history of Kinderdijk, and how the water management system works. The visitor's center was a refurbished pumping station that used steam to pump the water to higher ground. I always thought that the wind mills were used mostly for grinding grain, but these mills were attached to a water wheel and used to drain water out of the boggy ground and up to higher ground. Then the water was ...