SeCOnD sToP....AmsTErDaM!

The strike was over and we were up early dragging our luggage to the train station. Our high speed train left London at 6:50am and arrived in Amsterdam by 2:15pm with one stop in Berlin. The high speed trains are nice, the only issue that we had (because we didn't know before hand), there is NO luggage check....you are responsible to drag every piece of luggage on and off the train and if you stop to switch trains (which we did) it was off and on again. Our bags were quite heavy to begin with but after shopping for souvenirs our bags were un manageable. Thank goodness we ran into a few helping people that saw us struggling. We did have a system but when you're rushing from train to train with those bags....the system kinda goes out the window. FINALLY making it to Amsterdam we got right to our place, (which had the steepest, most steps in a 3 story town home we've ever seen) put our stuff down and headed out, being sure not to waste the afternoon. We hit up the Heineken factory and enjoyed a few free beers and a tour. It was actually pretty fun in there so we actually went twice haha, but another day :) we went to grab a bite and caught a ride on some bikes. That night we ventured through the red light district. I had a vision in my head what it would be like but thought there's no way it can be all that, well, it was really everything i'd imagined. I'm pretty sure I walked around with my jaw on the ground dragging in complete shock and maybe laughing a few times because I just couldn't believe this was actually happening and we were actually walking around in this place "window shopping" (but not purchasing lol), it was crazy! The next day we headed back to the train (with our luggage, still haven't learned) and headed out to Rotterdam where our long lost, we'll call her Aunt Irma, would pick us up. Before we got there she'd asked us our shoe size...Laura and I had bets on what our surprise was, ice skating or bowling haha....we were wrong, we were going to the city of Gouda (pronounced How-da) to an actual working cheese farm. This may sound a little different to do on a trip to Europe but it was probably one of our most favorite things we did. We had a personal tour of the whole factory and ALLLLLL the many many cheese they had just made as well as very aged cheeses. We taste tested and bought cheese to bring home and were also given cheese as a gift for visiting. It was so amazing and the cheese was the best i've ever had. We went for lunch with Irma in the town center of Gouda and walked around visiting a few other cheese related places adding more to our growing selection. That night we got to meet Klaus and Irma's kids Floor and Daan, had a dutch dinner and a dutch dessert. 

(Long story short, I met Irma online after researching my ridiculously long last name. I emailed her, said who I was and got an email back! We chatted and it ended up her husband Klaus was coming to Florida for work so we arranged for him to come by the house and meet us! He was so nice and it was amazing to me we had family we'd never met and here he was! We kept in touch though email so when Laura and I were planning our trip we had to let Irma and Klaus know.)

We stayed with them for a few days and Irma was our personal tour guide to the city and our family history and traditions of our dutch side. As Oma has recommended, we went to Madurodam (the minature city). Oma brought my father there when he was little so we thought it would be great to see and send her photos of it. We also got VERY lucky as there was a de Clercq Zubli family reunion happening the weekend we were there!! I've never seen so many of "us" in one place and had no idea there were that many either!! It was a great feeling meeting all these family members we never new existed. We spent the afternoon with them and after the reunion we went with our Great Uncle Tom to his and his wife's place to see old family photos and see a lot of our history. Maddie (Tom's wife) has done extensive research into the de Clercq Zubli's and had folders and cases and boxes of stuff all organized perfectly. We had such a great afternoon and it was extremely hard leaving knowing I probably wouldn't be back for a long long time. The next day Laura and I took a morning train to visit Amsterdam again, just for the day. We rented bikes and rode everywhere just like the locals do and we recommend everyone rent bikes if you ever go to Amsterdam, it was a fantastic way to see the city. We went to find where our Oma and Opa used to live, as well as our father when he was little. As far as we knew the building still stood and it was in biking distance. We had a picture and an address to go by and found it a lot easier than we thought we would. We took a picture on the same steps as our dad his brother and 2 cousins back in 1958, pretty surreal (picture below). It was such a great day and all this history about our family was so special to us. For our last night, Klaus and his family took us to an authentic indonesian restaurant and if you know us we are also indonesian so continuing with the family stuff was really cool, especially because we've never eaten indonesian before (go figure). Holland was the hardest place to leave. We had so much fun with our family and getting to know them and learning everything about our family history and are so thankful for the place to sleep and everything they did for us. Irma made sure our trip was one we would remember and want to come back and she did good, we will never forget and we already want to go back :) Next and last stop is Paris!