We love Holland.

Yep, we do. We just came home from our sweet family vacation in our neighbourcountry, and again, it was beautiful.
We met friendly people, ate delicious food, listened to the funny, strangely familiar language, enjoyed the beautiful landscape and breathed fresh air. Mehmet now officially wants to move there - well, who knows, maybe one day, he will :)

The picture above was taken at a racing track which was close to our little cottage, an extra bonus for my kids. There´s so much we did - far to much to fit into ine blogpost without boring you all away.
So I´ll try to concentrate on my favourites:

 Freezing at the sea.

 And swimming in the sea. 

The Tropenmuseum in Amsterdam, with shadow dolls (something we´ll make at home, for sure), and...

...truckart, which I´ve always been a fan of, and...

...a buddhistic altar, very nice since I spend the last weeks reading a book by Isabell Allende to my girls, whose story takes place among buddhistic monchs at the Himalaya. So it really fit.

Then, slightly more dutch...

 ...cycling through Amsterdam, the city of bikers, hence, perfect for us. 

Finding actual yarnbombing!

Ronja, winning all the prices at the campsite´s kid´s bingo. (Mehmet cheated and had to leave the stage. With some Haribo, though)

and Ronja being the queen of goats on the little farm we visited on the last day. 

Rainy days spent painting fish...

like this...

...and cozy afternoons in the cottage.

Renting a family bike, riding over what the dutchmen call "drempels".

Strolling through Amsterdam´s pretty narrow streets, together with my daughters, until our feet hurt.

Furthermore, without pictures, I loved:
- Cooking Indonesian food and telling my daughters about colonialism.
- Running at night, in the rain, at the beach, being almost faster than my husband, and watching the sand blow, in the dark, that was beautiful beyond words.
- Random dutch people, on the playground or in the tram, who show us their country and give us the best tips on where and how to have a good time, all amazingly fluid in german.
- My favourite toystore in Amsterdam. And having enough money to raid it.
- Hitting aliens in the little casino, together with my family.
- That weird nightclub I went to with Tim. 
- The fireside. Sitting by it, writing, reading, singing.
- Candy tasting like marihuana.
- Rainbow colored marzipan.
- And: Music like this on the radio in the car, when the clouds tear open and the sun shines over the sea:

So yes... we love Holland.