Early Adventures: Special visitor

Try as he might, my accident-prone father actually managed to make it to Amsterdam after several delays and with one less toe. Given the nautical influence in Amsterdam, we both felt that Dad would really enjoy it here. He arrived a few days before Halloween with treats from America!

Tide to go pens, Dunkin Donuts Pumpkin Spice and Mocha Mint coffee, Pumpkin Spice yankee candles, Extra polar ice gum, and peeps!

Thanks to a chatty Dutch lady on the plane, Dad arrived with quite a bit of jet lag. However, we still forced him to push on, and we lead him on a death march through the city. Part way through the day, we decided we should find a place to travel, so we came home after dinner and booked train tickets and last minute hotel rooms in Brussels!

Although he had been to Brussels, we thoroughly enjoyed the city, and saw many things that we had not experienced during our first trip. Plus, we were with Dad, so it was even more entertaining.

Grand Place

Manneken Pis in costume.

Parc de Bruxelles

Belgian beer!

Day 2 in Brussels.

Park where we had our favorite European picnic of bread and cheese.

Beautiful blue sky!

Palace of Justice

The rest of the week was really nice. I worked from home so I could hang out with Dad and help with decisions on places to go and things to see. We had lots of nice food and an all around good time together.

We also were very fortunate to get some nice weather, and we embarked on an (overly?) ambitious bike trip North of town through the small but picturesque Durgerdam, the fishing-turned-tourist villages of Marken and Volendam and the cheese town of Edam, Overall we rode about 35 kilometers, picking up a train back to town rather than a 70 mile round trip. Given that it is a bit lower season for tourists, we had nearly the whole place to ourselves, and got lots of flavor for the Dutch countryside.