travelogue: holland, part 4 / 4 den bosch

we arrived in den bosch, just in time for my in-laws 54th wedding anniversary and to celebrate we had a really nice dinner at d'n boerderij where good food (the mussels!), conversation, and shenanigans took place.

  

hanging out in my in-laws garden is inevitable. they are sun worshippers and as long as the sun is shining they are in the garden. and what a lovely garden too.

once melanie and company arrived, we moved into the air b&b farm house we rented, near my in-laws. it's really cute and housed nine of us just perfectly. the owner was friendly, she even brought us fresh laid eggs a few times during the week. we cooked most dinners here because it was just too pleasant to leave (and cheaper with all the teens in the house!). there was space for all of us to spread out and read and relax with plenty of room outside too. it was a place i'd come back to again.

and, we couldn't get enought of her dogs, especially her soccer loving dog! he and kai spent quite some time together. when kai tired out, the dog would roll the ball over to one of us, to let us know he wasn't finished playing. it was pretty adorable. 

one morning, sitting in the kitchen, drinking tea and chatting with melanie, cows appeared walking through the garden, it was quite the sight! 

the area was perfect for a run too, which i managed a few times during the week.

we went into town a few times... many boutiques and cafes. of note are hello den bosch, yaya concept store, social label lab and snellestraat is a cute street with many more shops. 

cheese was bought at the market, according to stefan, the best place to purchase cheese. 

jan de groot, a bakery by the train station, known for its bossche bollen, made stefan and melanie very happy; they indulged in all their favourite childhood treats. 

and finally, drab coffee bar is the place for a perfect cup and their amersterdam blend black tea is a favourite of mine. and a word about the dutch bread... pillow-y and delicious making the date and goat cheese sandwich i had at drab coffee bar perfection.

on the touristy front, we went on a canal tour and it was worthwhile to hear the historical stories about this protected waterway, the binnendieze river, which flows in and underneath the city. the waterway was used for transportation and as waste channel in the middle ages! the preservation of the entire canal is impressive.

the tour is dutch only so the skipper's stories about the restored walls, underpasses and arches was translated by stefan and melanie. 

the tour also took us outside the fortified wall onto the river dommel.

 

holland was crazy hot so we spent a lazy afternoon with the kiddos by lake ijzeren man. they had fun with the paddle boat we rented for them and the bulging trampoline. many fries were consumed :)

the lake is named iron man, after the machine that dug its 52 hectares hole. it naturally filled with water (due to floods in the area) and was left to nature. after awhile, the lake became part of the forest and people began visiting it for a swim, around 1924. 

 

one day, we split up. the girls went with melanie and craig to amsterdam for a day of shopping while the boys, stefan and i rented bikes and rode around the drunense duinen national park area. 

for fun, stefan and i rode a tandem bike. it took some getting used to since being in the back meant not being in control! 

we rode past small villages, sheep and cows. and even came across some sand dunes by the cafe we stopped at for lunch. stefan was very happy with his very dutch meal... kroketten and pillow-y soft brown bread.

the infrastructure of biking lanes is phenomenal, whether in the city, countryside or nature reserves. but even with a map our biking adventures in holland always end up with us on a road we never intended to be on, making our ride so much longer. i guess that's part of the fun! 

 

we met up with our friends anouk and paul; they were sweet enough to drive an hour to see us in den bosch for an afternoon. anouk and i just picked up where we left off a year ago, when they moved to hong kong. i miss this wonderful friend and didn't want to let her go when our afternoon came to an end. 

we visited empelse dijk a couple of times, once to run along the dyke and then returned to bike with harm and marion and the kiddos. i love how flat holland is, making running and biking alot more pleasurable.

it was a perfectly laid back vacation with family. miss you already melanie, craig, rueben, maya and india!