Netherlands Trip, April 9th to 17th, 2005

Maureen, myself, her daughter Nikki's boyfriend Justin, Wayne and Becky went to the Netherlands (Holland) to visit Nikki and my son Joe, his wife Jen and my grandson Bastian.

We flew into Amsterdam and then took a train to Leiden, Netherlands.  Nikki is going to school there at Webster University in Leiden.  She knew who was coming except for her boyfriend Justin.  So when we got to her dorm room early in the morning she was surprised!

Nikki gave us a great tour of Leiden and The Haag from Sunday thru Wednesday and then on Thursday we hired a van to take us to Amsterdam.  We toured Amsterdam, including the infamous "Red Light District" (where you can't take pictures because of all the prostitutes in the windows) on Thursday.

Friday, Joe, Jen and Bastian met us in Amsterdam.  They drove up from Cologne, Germany where they live, in less than 3 hours thanks to the BMW and the Autobahn.

Nikki's roommate, Julie, her dad Doug and her boyfriend Brandon toured with us off and on in Leiden, The Haag and Amsterdam so at times we had a pretty good sized group.

Everyone had a great time as we all pretty much just wandered about and stopped wherever we found anything interesting.  Weather was rainy, cold and damp all but one day in Leiden but that didn't stop us from having a good time.  Check out the pictures at:

Leiden pictures:  LeidenNetherlands2005

The Haag pictures:  TheHaag2005

Amsterdam pictures: AmsterdamNetherlands2005

Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in Amsterdam:  MadameTussaudsWaxMuseum

Bastian in Amsterdam, 8 months old: BastianinAmsterdam2005