{ kinderdijk & madurodam }

what a gorgeous and peaceful place kinderdijk was! 19 windmills have been preserved there since 1740 pumping out water that is below sea level. a quarter of the netherlands is actually below sea level and the country always seems to be battling with the sea to keep their land. thank goodness for windmills because that land is worth fighting for- so pretty!

after our afternoon in gouda, ricky wanted to visit where he first saw windmills on his mission. if you ever got a christmas card from him with a windmill in the back-this was the place!

beautiful

gorgeous weather! it was so bright!

you could take the ferry, walk or bike- it was so big!

hayden loved the windmills. they spin really fast! 

bye-bye windmills!

{madurodam}

netherlands only theme park

thumbs up!

the legend of the boy who stuck his thumb in the dijk to save holland

everything here is a "mini-holland." 

the miniature cities offer the highlights of the netherlands on a scale 1:25. 

 

watch out! kiddo on the loose!

he loved jumping into the models that had cars. i think that was amsterdam?

the famous flower fields

a reason to come back one day. the fields are only open in the spring.

the airplanes moved around and that truck brought luggage to the plane

does this look familiar?

the park's version of kinderdijk

they had everything from rotterdam to amsterdam with canals, boats, you name it! it was really cute and actually pretty big!

dutch translation to english

this was actually pretty cool. if you put 1 euro into a slot, these wooden shoes would be brought out onto a mini truck that drove the shoes around the building and right to you to pick up. hayden loved his mini wooden shoes!

they had a "sesame street" kids place. their big bird is blue but elmo was normal.

we were glad we came here. many people recommended it to us so we thought we'd check it out later in the day since they had a laser night show in the evening. 

(it doesn't get dark here until 11:00 p.m.)

if you're wondering how we did den haag to madurodam in 1 day- that is how!

what a fun way to spend our last day in the netherlands!