10 Days

My mother & step-father visited us from The States for 10 days, they called last night at 3AM to let us know they had made it back home safe & sound.  Once a year we get a week or so together, sometimes we go there, sometimes they come here.  One downside of living far away from your family is the lack of physical time together, but the upside is they get to visit places they never would have seen otherwise.  My mom & step-dad have visited us many times since we moved to The Netherlands, I think this was visit # 5.  Each visit is different, the first few were packed full of tourist stops, like Amsterdam & Brussels.  But by now they have seen the big sights, plus adding a kid to the equation changes things.  Their visit a couple years ago was to meet our newborn, there wasn't any sight-seeing going on then.  This visit I managed to come up with places that pleased everyone, not costly and appealed to the interest of the entire group.  In otherwords, a little bit of history located in nature near a playground! 

My husband unfortunately couldn't take much time off work, but the day he had off we all (inc. the dog) hopped in the car and headed to the sea.  My parents live in Florida, so the sea is much different than the gulf.  Noordwijk held up its end of the deal... rain, wind, cold, and a lot of beautiful wipping waves.  A couple of days I borrowed the car while my husband worked and took them places like the World War II Liberation Museum in Son and the castle & gardens in Geldrop. 

On days we didn't have the car we walked, there is plenty to see in Eindhoven as well, like old cemeteries and endless green parks.  And during one of the schools days my mom & step-dad even ventured to Nuenen on the bus and toured the towns monuments.  Besides seeing the sights they were also able to see my toddlers activities first hand, and enjoy 3 days of birthday celebrations.  We dined out when we could, but they also enjoyed home cook meals thanks to a few years experience on my part!  And of course the bakery, I think my step-dad popped in there most mornings. 

Overall it was a great visit, and we were all sad to part, but thanks to the endless photos we all took (and exchanged) we can remember the trip for years.