Bruges

To finish Stephen's visit off in style, Adam took a day's leave and we headed to Bruges for a short holiday. It's a lovely place, full of chocolate shops, beer shops and shops that sell lace. The canals are very peaceful and curve around the city.

Edward developed a bit of an upset tummy and barely ate anything for 24 hours. So much for my fattening him up regime.

Bruges

The Laren Duckpond

Today is Sunday. Having saved various bits of stale bread (and some decaying spinach), we took Edward to feed the ducks at the Laren Duckpond.

The Laren ducks love us!

We were greeted with vigorous quacking as soon as we got out of the car. The ducks were so excited that about 20 of them climbed out of the pond and milled around our feet, while the other 30 or so swam towards us, with great expectations.

I discovered the ducks really don't like spinach. They will eat it if there is nothing else on offer. On the other hand, ducks love to eat stale bread.

Dear Edward is very brave. He didn't really appreciate being put to stand on the ground among 20 hungry, quacking ducks. To his credit he didn't cry (or indeed move). Rather, he stood rooted to the spot in front of Daddy's legs, shaking with fear.

We now realise that hungry ducks are a bit scary for a 16 month old. Don't worry, we rescued him straight away.

A Nice Quiet Week

Today is Friday and the end of a nice quiet week. We were all absolutely exhausted by the end of last weekend and it took until Wednesday to get back to 'normal', whatever normal is for us.
Yesterday my expat friend Copper and her lovely baby Maddox came over for a play. Poor Edward woke from his nap to find visitors in the house. He spent half an hour first hiding behind my legs, clinging to me for dear life, and then quietly hiding behind the large lego box, looking at his feet. Then he recovered and had a very nice play. By the end of their visit he was bringing Maddox toys to look at and thoughtfully putting them in front of M's hands (M is quite young and is just beginning to roll over).

I think the Dutch summer is over as we are having weather slightly like a Canberra Autumn - crisp nights. During the day it is overcast and sometimes rainy. Difficult to dry the washing.
This weekend we plan to relax and do nothing, which will be wonderful.

Hamburg - Miniature Wonderland

Adam's father (aka Grandpop) is a model train enthusiast and for the last few months has been planning to show Edward a very large model train exhibition called Miniature Wonderland, in Hamburg. Last weekend we drove to Hamburg and achieved this dream.

We also had great fun exploring the city centre, which had live music, beer & lots of sausages for Adam and GP, and a great many excellent shops. I enjoyed exploring a city that I know quite well, but had not visited since 1999.

On the way back Adam enjoyed some fun, fun, fun on the autobahn. Edward found the long drive very difficult, especially on the way home.

Hamburg

I don't have anything exciting to write, but thought it would be good to do the first blog entry for August.

So what's been happening over here?
Well, yesterday morning we drove Stephen to Amsterdam Central station and put him on the train to Paris. He was extremely excited (well, who wouldn't be?) and it did look lovely, travelling first class. We had to park the car in the most smelly car-park that I have ever been in so far. It was very close to the station but honestly smelt like a urinal.

Then we drove back to Eemnes had a quiet rest-of-Sunday as it was very hot (30 degrees) and sunny. Highlights were me washing the sheets, all of us falling asleep in the afternoon and Edward having an enormous 2 and a half hour nap.

I managed to rectify a small knitting disaster, which was good because I was becoming quite cross with it.

Oh! I do have something interesting to write. I have a pet. Late Saturday night (or maybe early Sunday morning) Adam discovered that we have a hedgehog living in our garden. Now I have my very own Dutch Pet. I haven't met it yet, but I am happy to say that it does eat sliced steak. We are having some sort of turkish casserole, which has some beef in it tonight, so I will see if hedgehog likes turkish beef as much as it does organic steak. We also have some extremely cute field mice in the garden. Adam is feeding them muesli.

Edward is enjoying running around the back garden. I make sure that he doesn't go out there until the sun is quite low. One thing about this climate is that it produces a very nice and soft lawn. Perfect for a little boy to run around on.