Say Cheese!

Day trip to historic Alkmaar today!  The town is 40 minutes outside Amsterdam and has been important trade market since the Middle Ages.

Every Friday, the men of the "cheese carrier's guild" demonstrate how the cheese was inspected and weighed at market during the Golden Age.  Quite a spectacle!

And lovin' the fact that this day trip afforded us the opportunity to wish a good friend a happy 40th. :-)

Beach Bountiful

Posting more photos of our darling of a trip to Zeeland.

Couldn't help myself.  

Love these beach babes. 

This is the only place in Europe where large ships can sail this close to shore.  Not sure if this is a good thing or a bad thing, but it was startling and stunning to see.

Decisions, Decisions

Almost three months later, she finally decided what to get with her birthday money.

The backdrop for her first ride was downright medieval, and we managed to cram one more thing into the Mini for our week-long road trip through the south of Holland.

The buildings of medieval Zierikzee somehow survived the bombings of WWII and the storm and floods of 1953, and so you're left with the eighth most historic town in The Netherlands.  Not such a glorious claim to fame, but the town is typically Dutch quaint and has stunning architecture.

Yep, of course we climbed to the top of the 12th century (12th century!) so-called "fat tower."

Nationaal Voetbalmuseum

Oh, the luck. A little birdie tipped us off to this gem, located just a short drive away from our beach cabin. The perfect answer to a rainy beach day and the perfect add to our Holland summer road trip: Nationaal Voetbalmuseum.

The memorabilia and stat corner were a little lost on the younger crowd, but they loved the skills zone and pretending to be a sports announcer.