Wow, A LOT has transpired in the last 3 weeks. I will be breaking it down into a few separate blog posts to cover everything. To start off Aaron had the opportunity to join a group of 10 guys to go to Belgium for work. However, this trip was going to be for 3 weeks which is a long time to have him gone. I wanted to experience part of this amazing opportunity, too. We decided I would fly out and join him during that 3rd and final week that Aaron would be working over at the Kleine Brogel Belgian Air Force Base. We then would take an additional week to sight see. We were supposed to celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary two years ago, but that got put on hiatus due to Covid. We decided this would be our 20th wedding anniversary trip just two years late--haha. Aaron flew out on Friday, April 15th. I got to solo parent for two weeks before I got to fly out to join him. In the two weeks I was a solo parent we lived it up--not really since all the kids are still in school. It got a little more exciting as I got to count down until I got to fly out:
Noah still had a few soccer games I got to watch before I left:
Before I left there were quite a few loose ends I had to tie up. I would be gone for 17 days which is a long time. I did a big grocery run so they would have plenty of fresh food--milk, bread, fruit, etc. I then cooked a bunch of freezer meals so the kids could just come home from school and pop one in the oven to have a nice dinner. I arranged for someone to take the kids all the places they needed to be--Sarah had a few dance performances, Noah had a few soccer games, etc. I made up a chore chart, but the kids decided on who had which chores each day. I made an emergency phone number list of family and friends who were willing to help out in case of an emergency. I also made a time chart to show them the 8 hour time difference Aaron and I would be in. For example when it was 3 pm in Utah it was 11 pm in Belgium, 8 pm in Utah it was 4 am in Belgium. That way they could see what times would be good to call and most likely not wake us up. However, they always had the option of calling anytime no matter the hour in case of an emergency. Here’s all the charts in the middle of the kitchen so they could be seen:
Then the big day came for me to fly out. Luckily, I was able to get a direct flight from Salt Lake to Amsterdam. G&G T drove me to the airport and I was off. I was nervous since I hadn’t flown by myself for quite a while. I also had not flown internationally for over 20 years. I got to airport and checked in. Luckily, two other of the guys that were in the group with Aaron--their wives decided to come over to visit them as well. So I wasn’t all the way alone, but kind of since I had never met either of these ladies before. We met for the first time outside our gate in the airport.
The flight was pretty uneventful except my entertainment unit didn’t work so instead of watching anything I got to read a physical book. I am glad I actually brought one--otherwise that would have been a REALLY long flight with nothing to do. Here’s the view from my window as we were coming in to land in Amsterdam:
The group of guys were working in Belgium, but came up to Amsterdam (which was about 2 hours away) to pick us up and spend the weekend there. We would be driving back to Belgium Sunday afternoon. Anyway, the time difference is 8 hours between Utah and Netherlands. The Netherlands is 8 hours ahead of Utah time. So again we landed at midnight Utah time, but it was 8 am in Amsterdam. The best way to beat jet lag is to keep going instead of trying to sleep. So they had a big day with a lot of walking planned to keep us 3 wives from getting to sleepy. I had never been to Amsterdam before so I was excited to see the city. It was a pretty crazy place, though. There were so many bicycles that they had their own lane with crossing signals for pedestrians. The driving was pretty insane, too. Whenever you crossed a street you really had to not only look both ways for cars, but look all around for bicyclists as well. Anyway, the husbands picked us up from the airport and took us around the city. We first stopped by hotel to change and then hit the Rijksmuseum. It was a beautiful building:
They even had a massive art library as well:
One of the most famous was The Night Watch. It was a massive painting currently being restored, but still on display which was awesome:
A few others by Rembrandt:
The building itself had stained glass windows that were beautiful:
They had some delicious pastries we tried as well:
The next morning was Saturday, April 30. We went to see the Windmills at Zaanse Schans which is an open air museum with a collection of working historical windmills. It was pretty cool!
Then there was a demonstration of how they make the wooden shoes which was pretty cool and quick:
Then for fun Aaron and I tried some on. They weren’t too bad comfortwise:
They had a bunch of working windmills. However, to see the insides of each windmill you had to pay at each one. We only decided to see the insides of two different windmills, but it was fun to walk around the others to see the outsides.
The first windmill we went into was one that ground stuff into paint powder. We got to climb up the ladders to see the working parts.
There was a nice view from the top of the windmill, too:
Crawling back down the ladder things were a bit tight. Glad the backpack fit--haha!
You can see the big crushing wheels and the paint rocks that get crushed into paint powder:
The next windmill we went inside was the sawmill. Although it moved slowly it definitely got the work done:
Later that afternoon we did a lot more walking around of the city. We stopped by the ‘I Amsterdam’ bench:
De Krijtberg church:
They had a prayer book all in Dutch:
Royal Palace Amsterdam
The New Church Amsterdam:
The National Monument Amsterdam
Voyten Park which is a huge park inside the city. There were tulips everywhere throughout the city:
Aaron wanted to try a pickled herring so he stopped by a vendor to pick one up. I tasted about as good as it sounded. I only got through a small bite before I was done--haha!
They also had some really good fries that are double fried. They have a fry sauce, however, it is not like our fry sauce. It tastes like a sweet mayo. It took some getting used to, but really isn’t bad. You get the fries in a cone and they just put the fry sauce on top. You eat them with a toothpick type thing.
We saw the Basilica of Saint Nicholas. It was locked so we weren’t able to go inside:
The Oude Church:
We definitely got our steps in that day. 27,381 steps and 13.19 miles.
Sunday, May 1 we attended church in an Amsterdam ward. It was a very tiny ward. They must be used to having all different languages attend because there were a bunch of headsets in the back. You picked which language you needed it translated into and put it on and listened. There were missionaries that translated in real time what was being said. We happened to be there on a Fast Sunday so people were bearing testimonies. I only listened to half on the English headset then I took it off to listen to the other half in Dutch. There was even a Spanish guy that asked a Dutch member to translate his Spanish testimony into Dutch. Then the missionary translated that Dutch testimony into English. The translator joked that it was a testimony inception--haha! Anyway it was a really cool experience. You could really feel the Spirit there. On the way out of the chapel I saw this sign:
It was crazy to see a Daughters of Utah Pioneers sign in the Netherlands. Good thing for Google Translate. It translated it into English so I could read what it said:
After church we came back to the hotel to pack up and check out since we would start our drive to Belgium. On the way, though, we did stop by Keukenhof which is the famous Holland Tulip Festival.
The grounds were gorgeous! There were so many varieties, sizes and designs of tulips!
Some tulips were bigger than my hands. They even had a windmill you could climb up to get a great view.
Again the grounds were beautiful!!
After a few hours at the Tulip Festival we drove over to see the Hauge, Netherlands temple. It was pretty!
We did find a really yummy gelato place and ate some for dinner that night. YUM!!
The next morning was Monday so Aaron and the other guys had to go into work early that morning. Me and the other two wives had breakfast and then decided to see what Hasselt, Belgium had to offer. I found a really cool city graffiti walking tour. We walked around the whole city looking at different wall graffiti. It was fun to see what has been painted. Here’s some of our favorites:
While we were walking around we walked by two old churches. We went inside to see what they looked like. This one was St. Quentin Cathedral:
Then we stopped by this cathedral Sint-Rochuskerk en klooster, but it translates to Saint-Rochus Church and Monestary:
We also found this really cool old graveyard called Out Kerkhof. We walked in to check it out.
When we were walking back to the hotel Aaron texted me to let us know they were on their way back to the hotel from work. Later that evening Aaron had to do laundry at the laundry mat. Luckily, there was one really close to the hotel. Keeping the romance alive, right?! haha!
Here’s a picture of their art library:
This museum housed quite a few of Rembrandt’s paintings.
We had a quick lunch and then did a river cruise on a small boat. They took us around the area telling us about some of the history. It was pretty interesting.
I didn’t get too sleepy until that evening around 8:30 pm which was pretty good considering I had been awake for 30+ hours with no sleep. I wasn’t able to sleep on the plane--my seat mate was really nice, but was not great about staying out of my personal bubble, but what can you do?!
After entering there was a small building that showed the history of Dutch wooden shoes. It was interesting to see all the different types and styles:
Next they had a big area that talked all about cheese. They showed us how they made the cheese and then let us try all different types. The most interesting one was a coconut cheese. It was gross, but still interesting. We loved the Pesto flavor. They also had blueberry, lavender, goat cheese, garlic cheese, etc.
We had to stop at the wooden shoe photo op:
Our hotel always had fresh tulips every day which were pretty:
Anne Frank House:
We also stopped by Central Station since this would be where we would be coming back to at the end of our trip to catch a train out to the airport.
That Saturday Matthew had his first Track and Field Special Olympics meet. His staff knew we were out of town so they did send us some pictures. Matthew did great and loved competing. He got two silver medals--one in the mile race and one in the 4x100.
Here’s the church sign outside the building:
We finally crossed over from Netherlands into Belgium. Then we got into Hasselt, Belgium later that evening. Wahoo crossing into Belgium:
Hasselt, Belgium is the small town that Aaron and some of the other guys had stayed at while they were working at the Belgian Air Force Base. The town Hasselt was a great small town that was very walkable. Anyway, we did have to do a quick stop at the grocery store before it closed. It was only a five minute walk from the hotel. It was a small town and EVERYTHING closed by 6 pm. Anyway, the grocery store, Del Haize, had a shopping cart, but you had to pay money to use it. Instead of paying for the shopping cart we just used this little basket with wheels which was free. However, you couldn’t roll it past the checkout stand or else it set off a horrible alarm. Aaron found that out the hard way--haha! They don’t do plastic bags there so we had to get to reusable grocery bags as well to walk with them back to the hotel.
Weird potato chip flavors like New York Cheeseburger--haha:
G&G T had the kids over for Sunday dinner. I was glad they shared pictures of their dinner with the kids. Matthew just watched our sacrament meeting at their house off our Youtube link we sent them. He doesn’t do well without adult supervision so until we get back into town he needed to watch church instead of attending in person.
Glad the kids were able to eat some good food and visit every Sunday.
However, while we were away things were NOT going smoothly. Matthew’s special cell phone had died. His poor house manager had to try and deal with it. It had to be shipped back to the manufacturer since it was malfunctioning which would take a bit. Matthew was not happy, but what can you do?! I felt bad for him since he really enjoys talking to us and G&G T. We worked out that he would email us if he wanted to ’talk’ instead since that was the only option open to him at the time.
Then Daniel went to work Monday evening. When we went to get in to his car to come home it wouldn’t start. DOH!! He had to call G&G T. They were worried they might have to tow it home. Luckily, Grandpa T and Daniel worked together and were able to fix it outside in the Little Caesar’s parking lot. It was just a broken battery cable holder so it just needed to be replaced. I am glad it wasn’t something bigger!
Then, bad things seem to come in threes, Sophie got really sick. G&G T had to take her in to the vet Monday morning. She had a super infected burst anal gland. My poor puppy! Sophie had to have surgery to get it fixed Monday afternoon. Then she had to wear the cone of shame--the poor dog!! Poor G&G T having to take care of these issues, too! I felt so bad! I tried to plan for everything before I left, but some things you just can’t plan for. I was glad they were there to help!!
Poor Sophie didn’t feel very good all weekend and then felt even worse right after surgery. Luckily, she started feeling better the next day. She is on antibiotics and pain pills for the next two weeks:
We did get a chance to talk with Josh on Monday afternoon. Trying to coordinate the time difference was a bit challenging, but we did get to talk which was great.
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