Beating the crowds to the beach!

School is in session until July 7th here(they do have a two week break in May) and so on the first day that it got above 70 we hit the beach. We have heard that the roads through Den Haag to the sea get near impassable after next week. Shades of 23 North and the Garden State Parkway I imagine! Jerry had a morning meeting and then we all went to Scheveningen. This beach area has restaurnats and a pier and is broken up into three areas, Surfing, regular and nude! When taking a walk along the shore, we knew when to turn around when we saw a 60 year old man strutting his stuff as he came out of the water! Dogs are also allowed to run freely around the beach(and shit, of course,wherever they please, this is The Netherlands after all!) and Charlotte enjoyed that. A black lab pup followed Danny into the water and was jumping waves with him. The dunes behind the beach have bunkers visible in them, remenants of the WWII battles. There was a prison in Scheveningen that Corrie and her sister Betsie were held in after their arrests(see post on The Hiding Place) and lots of history remains. Also lots of great waves! Hooray for Summer!

Charlotte and Danny built a neat castle and Molly helped decorate

Molly shows off her new swimsuit

Charlotte strikes a pose!

Me and my kids!

Danny photographed this barnacle encrusted shell, the things peeping out are the live barnacles critters!

All the shells we collected!

seagull eye view of the castle

A Rainy day in London Town Thursday 6/21

Jerry was picked up by a car service and went off to be a business man. I contemplated driving out to Hampton Court Palace, but the weather was very drizzly. I know Danny would have loved the maze anyway, but me? not so much! We walked back to Kensington Palace and visited the Victoria and Albert exhibit on the second flottr of the palace. These two Royals were genuinely in love and had 9 healthy children together. They played duets on the piano and wrote each other love notes. It was really neat to see them, Their nursery had toys from the day for the kids to try out, and the red salon had the jackets her advisors had on when she went in to meet with them, a shy 18 year old girl who had never had her own room, who was now the Queen of England! Can you imagine?! She is actually still the longest ruling monarch, Queen Elizabeth is set to pass her in the record books in about 4 months. Albert built an Italian style garden for her which we also toured thorough. It was recently restored by The Tiffany Foundation(as in Tiffany Jewlery stores) and was quite lovely in spite of the rain. Danny enjoyed taking nature photos during our walk. After leaving the palace we went to the Princess Diana Memorial Playground, a gem tucked off to the side of the gardens. Danny enjoyed getting hi boy on, climbing and skipping around the whole place. Charlotte liked posing in front of the private back gate that the royals who live at Kensington use, and we know who that is...Princess Kate!!We strolled around the neighborhood, visited a gorgeous old church with a really old graveyard in front of it and popped into a couple of shops. I saw one called TK Maxx and thought...can it be? Yes! It was discount! And we scored a cool olympic tshirt for our olympian Molly. We met Jer back at the hotel at 2:30 and headed out of London towards the Chunnel. It is a long, rainy slog, but again, with our girls it is much easier for them to be sitting in the car relaxing than trying to pile on/off trains,planes and boats. We cruised up to English border control, got through, then drive 200 yards to French border control, get through and we are off. Uneventful rainy ride through France and Belgium and on into the Netherlands where of course, it's raining! We are happy to arrive back at Gaaghof 16 at 10pm safe and sound. This London trip was perfect! We all had a great time :)

our cool hotel room

bunks, a double and a single, perfect!

our hotel, I recommend it

my fantasy British Cottage, right in Kensington Garden

Victoria's Garden

a job for Charlotte?!

The weather gave us a private visit to the palace

The Red Salon

A painting of Victoria and her advisors

and here we are!

The dress Victoria wore the morning she became Queen

Victoria as a baby

Queen Victoria and some of her children, I love this painting, one of the original working mothers I'd say!

Molly liked the photos of the Queen

Danny happily hitting the playground

Peter Pan,s Pirate Ship

Danny heading up to the crows nest

Ahoy, Matey!

The teepees are cool!

Saint Mary of the Abbot

the interior had memorials all around, on the walls and the floor

the graveyard in front

the private gate, leading to Kate's house(we didn't see her)

Charlotte starts Friday morning with a mocha in her souvenir cup! It doesn't get much better than this!

The Tower of London! Wed. June 20

We indulged in the full English again this morning(see yesterdays post if this sounds like something wild or risque to you!)We then walked about 5 miles through the city to our destination, The Tower of London. We loved strolling down the shopping streets and on the Strand along the Thames. We saw all kinds of cool boats,houses,people, stores and dogs, something for everyone! We were happy to arrive though!
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames. It was founded towards the end of 1066 as part of the Norman Conquest of England. The White Tower, which gives the entire castle its name, was built by William the Conqueror in 1078. The castle was used as a prison since at least 1100. It was a grand palace early in its history, it served as a royal residence. The Tower is a complex of many buildings set within two concentric rings of defensive walls and a moat.The Tower of London has played a prominent role in English history. It was besieged several times and controlling it has been important to controlling the country. The Tower has served variously as an armoury, a treasury, a menagerie, the home of the Royal Mint, a public records office, and the home of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. We had a tour with a Beefeater, who was hilarious as he imparted a brief but comprehensive history of the place. We learned that the beefeaters are retired Army men/ladies who have served at least 25 years and achieved a rank of Sargent Major. They actually live on site, and when the tourist leave at 5pm, they have a regular small community, with a doctor,a pub, and cute houses where they all live with their wives and kids. We were able to walk right in to the Crown Jewels area, which, judging by the Disney World style fence line set up outside, was unusual. The jewels were stunning, and we saw the very crown the Queen had on for her jubilee the other day. Other highlights included the ghost stories I had downloaded on the ipad and read to the kids as we entered Salt Tower, White Tower, etc. There was a troupe of drama students doing a wild funny play about the French Revolution of the main square, and costumed actors who pulled us all in to a dramatization of Rathbone's Rebellion of the 1600's.

We spent our day at this great spot, watching Danny scamper all over the towers and ramparts and hoping Molly wouldn't fall down the steep and tiny steps(she didn't!) We then walked out and across the Tower Bridge and saw the Olympic Rings, hung high above ready for the games to begin next month! I wish we could stay! It is hard to believe that we were in Greece this time last year, getting ready for Molly to make her Olympic Dreams come true! Wow! We wimped out and took the tube back to Paddington and the kids enjoyed a pizza dinner at Zizinia, a kind of "Hungry Howies goes to Europe type place!"

The Olympic Mascot!

coolest Taxi ever!

had to stop in the Disney store....

strolling down Oxford Street

Parliment Buildings

We finally reached the Thames

Charlotte spotted the Queen and her family from across the river!

two choppers zooming towards the London Eye

Taking a well deserved snack break, Danny spotted this camel park bench and grabbed a seat

The white building with the thatch roof is Shakespeare's Globe theatre

Tower Bridge

Tower of London

Our Beefeater

The white tower has all the weapons-the guys loved it

Royal Raven

Molly and Charlotte had a great time being in the play

this actress is wearing a plague mask

cage in the area where the menagerie used to be kept

example of the stairs...!

Tower Bridge

outside of the castle wall, the green used to be the moat

family picture( umm, excuse me Sir, would you mind....)

London 2012!