When Cousins Come To Europe

 

We were so excited that we had a few days off for a holiday the same week that Leni and her kids (well most of her kids...two of them had other engagements) had time off to see us. It was the perfect weekend between weddings and after sports seasons. So they decided to come! 

Getting to Europe was a bit of a tense experience. At one point three of them were going to make it, then all of them, then back to two, and finally all of them. We were so happy they all did make it! They had to get emergency passports and fly on different routes, but they all showed up! 

Prior to them arriving I sent them three different itineraries for a trip to Europe. They ranged from an easy, explore around Frankfurt to an aggressive see-as-much-as-we-can-in-one-weekend. They chose the aggressive version. 

They landed in Frankfurt. We collected them as all their flights arrived. Then we went to our house for food (Lady Hiva was obsessed with them eating. She kept making MORE and MORE food! HAHA) and showers. The younger kids were SO excited to see each other and spent the time running around the back garden playing games. 

We then piled in and drove to Amsterdam. The 4.5 hour drive gave them all a chance to catch up on their jet-lag sleep. We arrived just before sunset and spent several hours just exploring the streets. We have all of our favorite spots in Amsterdam and kept everyone walking to see them. 

The two boys started to ask me about Anne Frank as soon as they landed. They kept talking about her until we saw her house. 

A large part of our tourism for the weekend was trying all the food favorites at every stop. Amsterdam was full of pancakes, stroopwafels, profertjes, fries, and LOTS of Nutella! 

We had so much fun. We ate good food and laughed so hard. We may or may not have been nearly run over by bikes when we were in the bike lane. HAHAHA. It was a great experience.