Our Trip to Holland

Last weekend we took another long USO bus trip...this time to The Netherlands!  We left in the middle of the night and arrived in Holland the next morning.  Our first stop was a cheese farm.  We had a big buffet breakfast...with BACON, so T was happy!  Then we got to see how they make cheese, and wooden shoes!  We did some shopping in the gift shop afterwards, and R got a small wheel of gouda.  He is so excited to try it...but waiting until after final weigh-in of our Lose To Win competition to break it open! : )

NICE!!

I think I gained 5 pounds just standing in this room!  A thought it was stinky!  It smelled delicious to me!

They even had R's size!!!

BIG shoes!!

Little R thought it made a great boat!

After the cheese farm, we hopped back on the bus for another hour's drive to Keukenhof Gardens to see the tulips.  The landscape of Holland is quite different than Germany!

LOTS of fields with these canals running through them.  And lots of SHEEP!

The first of many windmills that we saw on the trip.

I guess the traffic on the way to the Gardens should have been an indicator of how crowded it would be, but we were totally shocked when we got there and saw all the buses and all the people!!  The gardens are absolutely beautiful!!  It's amazing!!  But after trying to fight the crowds for a couple of hours (and someone walking up to R and unzipping the backpack while it was ON HIS BACK), we decided to grab some lunch and then escape to a nearby town.  We spent the rest of the afternoon (and a significant amount of money) shopping in the cute little town, watching some of the flower parade as it came through the town, and then having dinner at a highly recommended little restaurant for dinner.  Then we headed back to the bus for the VERY long ride back home!  We arrived back to Stuttgart at 5:00 the next morning!!!

This was my view as we tried to make our way through the crowds!  Having a very tall hubby does come in handy sometimes!!  We kept starting out together, but people would push and shove their way in between us.

Fountain at the entrance to the gardens...can you see all the people???

Pretty flowers....

Pretty girls with pretty flowers!

Beautiful!!

Little R had a waffle for lunch...that's healthy, right?



The pond was pretty, with ducks and swans.

It was amazing how everything was so perfectly laid out....and not a weed in sight!

More of the crowd as we were trying to leave the gardens...it was crazy!

It was cold and rainy most of the day, but the sun tried to peek out for a little while.  Still very cold though.  I am ready for pics where were aren't in winter coats or jackets!! : )

The Flower Parade...all the floats were decorated with ALL flowers...they were amazing, too!

The restaurant where we ate dinner.  The name means "the neighbor" we were told.  It came highly recommended, but it wasn't necessarily a family style restaurant.  A ate a peanut butter sandwich from the backpack! : )

This was our least favorite trip so far.  The gardens were beautiful, but it was so crowded that you couldn't even enjoy them!  We have decided that we would like to go back, but at a much less busy time, and on our own...not on a tour.  By the time we got out of the gardens, I was fussing at people (out loud...and I just don't do that) and R was about to have a full-on anxiety attack, so none of us were having much fun.  I definitely think this trip will need a "do-over"!!

No more travelling for a while for the Willises!  We will be staying close to home for a while, as we are all pretty much "travel weary".  We are going to enjoy the spring here in our area, and try to get some herbs and flowers growing in our own garden!