Once upon a time there was a girl who had a dream of not just taking her kids to see the world, but also to EXPERIENCE the world. She wanted them to read books, then visit the places in the books. She wanted them to see a glimpse of history and culture that they could never fully appreciate without being there in person.
The only problem with this grand plan is that traveling can be expensive. And even homeschooled kids have plenty of commitments that keep them tied to a schedule.
This past year we had some shake-ups though.
1. We moved closer to NYC, which is THE place to find cheap international tickets
2. We subscribed to
Scott's Cheap Flights, which clued us into incredible flight deals as they popped up.
3. We ended up with more flexible classes and schedules this year than in past years.
4. We moved into corporate housing, which means for 1 year, we have no housing costs.
This combination proved to be a happy confluence of changes that means that WORLD GEOGRAPHY 101 is officially added to our homeschool docket for the year!
In late September we took our first World Geography trip, which included visiting the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Sweden. This post will just be about The Netherlands.
Sadly, Glen was too busy at work to be able to come with us, so it was just the three of us on this adventure.
We arrived in the morning after flying all night, so we just dropped our stuff off at the hotel and went straight to Haarlem to get exploring. Haarlem is pretty much the cutest, most picturesque little town ever.
And it happened to be right where Elder Zimmerman from our old ward was serving, so we met him with some goodies from home.
Then we treated him and his companion (who happened to be friends with my cousin's kid) to some Dutch ice cream! Ice cream is a family tradition of ours whenever we travel!
After hanging out with Elder Z for a while, we went off to another part of Haarlem to visit "The Hiding Place." We'd read the book together and were so inspired being able to see it in person.
It was humbling to see what a tiny space the Jews were hidden in for days after the Ten Booms had been arrested.
The whole visit was a fulfillment of a dream of mine. I love Corrie Ten Boom's message of forgiveness, love, and gratitude and was truly inspired being there and seeing where it all happened. I think it's something my kids and I will never, ever forget.
After The Hiding Place, we ran off to see the
Inntel Hotel in Zaandam. We had no reason to visit there, other than we'd seen pictures of it and really wanted to see it in person.
Later that night we headed into the city of Amsterdam and went to the Anne Frank House. We had reserved the tickets weeks in advance, but were only able to get tickets at 8:30PM, which pretty much meant we were exhausted!
We had also read "The Diary of Anne Frank" together before our trip, so, even with our fatigue, this was another meaningful visit for us. We weren't allowed to take pictures in most of the museum, so this is all we have from that night.
The next day we woke up slowly and drove to Kinderdijk. Kinderdijk is a UNESCO World Heritage Site famous for its series of working windmills that keep the water out of the area, despite the fact that it's below sea level.
Here's a little snippet from their website: "You won’t find a windmill complex like Kinderdijk anywhere else in the
world. The ingenious system of windmills and pumping stations has been
keeping the soil dry here for centuries now, in a constant struggle
between human brains and the power of the water.Visitors come from all
across the world to experience this unique piece of history for
themselves. Since Kinderdijk is a monument to the history of humankind,
we were officially included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997.
Now, we stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the most famous and most
amazing places on earth. The story of Kinderdijk is now a genuine part
of world history, kept safe for future generations to visit and
experience.."
We enjoyed walking around in the lovely surroundings, exploring the visitors' centre, and eating some lunch.
Next we drove to The Hague and got checked into our hotel there. We found the temple....
Then we drove to explore the lovely city of Delft! It seriously looks like it could have been a postcard.
We took a canal tour, toured the Old Church, and Ellie had fun showing off her flexibility amongst the picturesque surroundings.
The next day we went to church in the Wassenaar Ward....
which happily for us, was English speaking...
although we may have been a bit jet-lagged still. We did enjoy being a part of the Youth Broadcast which was being broadcast all over the world that day. It was a cool thing to be a part of across the world from our home.
Later that day we headed to Madurodam! Madurodam is a place I remember from visiting as a child. I have pictures of me from there when I was about 3 years old and we visited again when I was 14.
What is Madurodam, you ask? Good question! It's a Miniature Park, where they have many of the top buildings and sites from around The Netherlands in detailed miniature. It was built by a wealthy family in the 1950's as a monument to their son, George Maduro, who had died in WWII as a Dutch resistor to the Nazis.
I remember the picture of me there as a young child always fascinating me. And it was completely charming to me as a young teen and no less so as an adult!
I really enjoyed seeing a glimpse of so many places we'd been in the last few days, but also seeing what a teeny tiny portion of The Netherlands we were actually seeing!
And since I knew we'd likely never see most of those places in person, it was a cool experience to see them in miniature at least.
After exploring, we got some lunch in the restaurant there.
Then spent the rest of the day walking around The Hague...
The next day we headed to Kamp Vught, which is also known as Herzogenbusch Concentration Camp. Because we'd spent so much time studying WWII before this trip, I felt very strongly that we needed to visit a concentration camp while there if possible. There weren't a ton of concentration camps in this part of Europe, but this one happened to be right on the way from The Hague to Belgium, so we decided that was the place to visit. It was a transport camp, which meant that prisoners didn't stay there long, but there were still plenty of horrors that happened there.
This Jewish Children's Memorial was particularly poignant to me and it was absolutely heartbreaking to see how many children were murdered here.
It was absolutely a humbling experience that we will never forget.
Stay tuned for future WORLD GEOGRAPHY installments, including the rest of this trip!
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