Anneke's Travels: July 2023

Monday, July 24, 2023

July 15: Moving from Amersfoort to Amsterdam

On Wednesday night, we said goodbye to my Uncle Bob and Aunt Jeanne because the next day they were leaving early for a trip to Italy. We were in their house on our own for a few days, but they have new guests coming to stay in their house on Sunday, so we had to move to our next desitnation: Hannah and Naomi's house in Amsterdam!

We are dog sitting for Uncle Bob and Aunt Jeanne's dog, Jack. He is a very cute puppy and very persistant about his walks. He is very slow on walks because he stops to pee every 10 seconds. So, on the move to Amsterdam, we put him into a duffle bag with his head sticking out so that we could get to the train station more quickly. In the train station, we let Jack out of the duffel bag and let him stretch his legs and I was holding his leash so that he wouldn't get loose or go onto the train tracks.

It was a hot day so Jack was panting a lot. His breath STINKS.

When we were on the train, we thought that we had arrived at Amsterdam Centraal, but we were one stop early and then we had to catch another train because we were at the wrong station. Also, my dad took my bike helmet off of my bag in the train and I didn't know that he did that. So after we got off the train in the wrong station, I realized that I didn't have my helmet so I had to run back onto the train and get my helmet and get off the train again before it left for the next station! So if I had got stuck on, it would have actually been fine because I would have been at the right station, Amsterdam Centraal, waiting for mom and dad and Hendrik and Jack.

When we FINALLY got to Amsterdam Centraal, we decided to take a tram, which is a train that is on the road, instead of walking the whole 20 minutes with our suitcases and Jack. We still had to walk about 7 minutes from the stop to their house, but that's not as bad as having to walk 20 minutes to get there.

I am sleeping in Hannah's room. The bed is actually quite comfortable! After we unpacked all of our things, Mom and I went on a walk to the grocery store just down the road from Hannah and Naomi's school. We collected our of our groceries and when we were checking out, it started POURING rain. We waited for a couple of minutes and when it slowed down we started walking home. We got home and were a bit wet, but we didn't crush the eggs that were at the bottom of the backpack!

After dinner, we biked over to the Amsterdam Zoo, which is called Arits, to meet my cousin Stephen, who is Hannah and Naomi's uncle! He snuck us in so that we didn't have to pay, because he works as a volunteer at the planetarium. We spent an hour exploring the zoo until it was time for Stephen's presentation in the planetarium. The presentation was almost all in Dutch, but some of it was in English and some of the Dutch we could understand, like "melk weg" is the Milky Way. I thought it was super cool because there was a huge screen that was on the whole dome. There were so many planets and galexies and it made me a little dizzy sometimes!

After the presentation, then we went to an Irish Pub so that my dad, mom, and cousin Stephen got some drinks and Hendrik and I got - can you guess? A Fanta! This time it came with a glass of ice and a slice of Lemon for if we wanted to pour our Fanta into a cup instead of drinking it out of the bottle. Fancy! I like drinking it out of the bottle, though, because it's satisfying taking a swig of Fanta from the bottle.

We stayed out sooooo late. We got home at 11:30pm and I didn't fall asleep until about midnight. It was a goooooood day.

This is me in my dad's sweater because I forgot to bring mine.😊

Almost there!

At a cross walk before we go under a bridge

First family photo in Amsterdam!

My beer! Just kidding! It's my mom's.

Cousin Stephen and Dad and my broder. (That's the Dutch way of saying brother.)

The view from the pub.

And this is Jack!

July 12 & 14: Visiting Amsterdam and Meeting Cousins!

On Wednesday (a week and a half ago...I'm so behind already!!), my Aunt Jeanne and Uncle Bob took Hendrik and me to Amsterdam to meet some of our cousins. There are two of them: the younger girl is Naomi and she is 7 years old. The older girl's name is Hannah, and she is 9 years old. Her birthday is a year and a day after mine!

We went to their school to pick them up with Uncle Bob and it was a Soup Lunch day for all of the students and anyone who wanted the soup because it was the last week of school. We got to stay for the soup, and I got the soup from one of their apartment neighbours! It was super tasty.

After school pickup, we went to a park that they showed us. It is a biiig park and it has two zip-lines that you can sit on and go across. It's sooo fun!

I like playing with both of the girls. Hannah skipped her football (soccer) practice to play with me. 😄 Most of the time, we played hide and seek and they have a big house with a secret passage from Hannah's room to the guest room! It was super fun.

After that, we walked to the library. It's a HUGE library, it has, like, 7 floors! There's a whole downstairs part filled with children's books. A lot of the books are Dutch, but there is a section of English books for Hendrik and I. We get to use Hannah and Naomi's library cards so that we can take books out while we are in Amsterdam. I'm excited to go back to the library again because I saw some good books that I want to take out. Uncle Bob says that it is the biggest library in the Netherlands!

There are also so many museums nearby their house in walking or biking distance. I am excited to visit them all!

We took the train to go back to Amersfoort and then we met my mom and dad at a restaurant for dinner. I got a Salami pizza that I've never gotten before. I thought it was kind of weird having a salami pizza instead of pepperoni, but it was still super tasty. I think I like it better than pepperoni. It took sooooooooo long for the food to arrive, though, so maybe anything would have been good after that wait. I also got a Fanta to drink and they come in glass bottles that look like beer bottles. They're cool! I have never seen Fanta in bottles before, only in pop cans and drink fountain machines at fast food restaurants.

On Friday, we went back to Amsterdam, this time with mom and dad. We got there around 11 and went back to Hannah and Naomi's house to drop off some of our luggage. I led my family the whole way from the train station to their house because I already memorized the route!

The girls were still in school because they get dismissed at 3pm, so we explored a lot of Amsterdam with mom and dad and I got to have ANOTHER Fanta. That was my 3rd Fanta this week! (The first time, I got one for free in downtown Amersfoort, the second time at the restaurant, and the third time at a beer/drink place - mom and dad got beers, and Hendrik and I each got a Fanta). In Canada, we would say "FANtah", but in the Netherlands, they say "FAWNtah". It's weird that it is pronounced different.

After exploring, we went back to the girls' house and we met Naomi outside of the building waiting to be let in after school. She had already gotten home, but she forgot her backpack at school so she had to go back and get it and come back home again. They live in an apartment sort of building but they own their house in it. It has two floors even though it's kind of an apartment, which normally only have one floor.

I played with Naomi, mostly, because Hannah had to run to soccer practice. After mom and dad finished the tour of their house and got some keys, we went back to Amersfoort on the train so that Naomi and Hannah and their dad, Davey, could keep packing for their trip to Canada the next day.

I am glad that I will get to see them again in Ontario when we get home in August. They will be staying at Lakewood with my Aunt Corrie and we'll get to swim in the pool!

This is me and my salami pizza!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Naomi and me on the see-saw

On our way to the Netherlands biggest library! 😊

Hannah and me on some sort of structure.

All of us, including: Hannah, Naomi, Hendrik and me!

Another one of me and Naomi

Sunday, July 16, 2023

July 11: A trip to Amersfoort Zoo: De Dieren Park

On Tuesday I went to the Amersfoort zoo! It was super fun!

In Dutch, it's called the Dieren Park. Dieren means "Animal".

My Aunt Jeanne took us to the zoo, but she doesn't have a car so we had to bike about 30 minutes to get there! It was not super fun because the bike I was using was too small for me.

At the zoo, my favourite animal was the Red Panda.

My least favourite animal was the Rhino because we could hardly see it so it was pretty boring.

This zoo has secret passages through and around the animal enclosures, just for kids! It was super fun.

It was a really hot and humid day. They had some cooling off mist stations, but it was so hot out that the water evaporated before it could even cool us off!

Mom said that that we could buy a slushee to split, but when I went to the stand, they had already closed. Boo!

Something weird about here is that water from bathroom taps are drinkable, when most of the time at home in Ontario, there are signs saying "Don't Drink!" It is good that the water from the bathrooms here is safe to drink because when you go to a restaurant, you have to pay for any water that you order! Water is as expensive as pop!

On the way home from the zoo, we were going to go out for Pannekoeken (aka Dutch Crepes). We went to the restaurant and then we realized that they were closed, so we biked back home and Aunt Jeanne made dinner for us. It was pretty tasty, too, but pannekoeken would have been more exciting.

Here are some photos.