Long Live the King!! HUP HOLLAND HUP!

The last Queens Day for a while, for the Netherlands now has a King! The flags are out, the sun is trying to come out and everywhere is a sea of orange. 

Spent the day at the market amongst all the orange with Arno's brother Hans and family :)

3 days until we pick up our new campervan and head off! stay tuned ...

Queens Day Market at Blerick

our new home??

around Maasbree ...

Happy 7th birthday Kai!

beschuit met hagelslag :)

Klein Switserland ...

BBQ regardless of the weather :)

with the cousins

Yvonne: Iris my cousin

20/4/13
Today my mum and dad went to look for a campervan and Kai, Fynn and I had to stay with oma and opa. We went to the park. After the park I got to go to Iris's for a play. While we were there we went for a ride to the park. We also had lunch. A 'broodje hagelslag'. This is a bread roll with chocolate sprinkles!!!!! We also had wraps for dinner which is my favourite dinner :)

Yvonne: day with 'tante Miep'

Today we went to Miep's house at 11 o'clock and we played with her grandson Gijs. The first thing we did was feed the chooks. Then I did a perfect cartwheel, I think. Then Kai and Gijs played with the cars and mini campervan. Then I went to a plant shop with Kai and opa. We bought 11 plants. When we went home I really wanted to go to the park so I asked opa if we could go and he said maybe later. So I asked him later and he said yes! So I got to go. We drove there but then it rained so we hopped back in the car and drove home after a short play. It was cold!! In the car we had a caramel lolly with chocolate inside. Opa loves his lollies :)

Yvonne: London to the Netherlands

Today we woke u at 6.00 and left at 6.30 and hopped on the train with all our luggage we had 11 bags. The first train took about 5 stops. The next train took only 1 stop i think. Then we went on the Eurostar that is a very fast train that goes underneath the water in a tunnel. It was very fun we got that train to Brussels. On that train we didn't stop at any stations. Then we went on a slow train to a place in Belgium closer to Holland and that is where opa and oma and uncle Hans picked us up. They brang us home. When we came home we had lunch. After that my cousins came over for a play. The first thing we did was we went to the park. On the way back Marlou had to go to tennis so her mum picked her up in the car and we went home for about 5 minutes to get money (euros!) for an icecream. Iris got soft ice with chocolate sauce and so did Kai and so did I. Fynn got soft ice with disco sprinkles. Then we went home. At home Kai gobbled his ice cream up but Iris ate hers very slowly because her dad said when she's finished she has to go home :(

Yvonne's day in London :)

London                     17 April  2013

Today we woke up early, and went on the  train to Regent's Park.The first thing we did there was tryed to find a playground the playground we found was getting rebuild.we kept on walking the only things we saw was grass and stautus. while we were walking we also saw the London zoo, we didn't go because we needed a whole day. But we did get to see the animals throw the fence. After that we went to Primrose hill the hill was very grassy and steep, we all ran up it exept for fynn because he is only 3 years old. At the top we pracsist to walk on our hands and pracsist to do cartwheels. My dad ran up the hill without stopping three times in a row.At the end of the day we went to see the Queen's palace.The soldiers on the horses were really cool because there hoovs were all cllapping on the ground. the horses were all walking around the huge statue.While we were there we also saw te to guards,they had to stay still for the whole day, but one of the guards had to strech his legs so he walked to the wall and back he did that for about 2mins. the guards had    black hats and black pants,if you look very closly at the hat then you might see that it looks like they can't see.

Let the fun begin!

Finally! arrived in the Netherlands with our 80+ kilos of luggage after several taxis, planes and trains and a short detour to London.

Brussels Sth train station after coming through the tunnel from England to Belgium. The Eurostar reaches speeds over 300km/hr and is 195 m deep underground at one point!

Outside Buckingham Palace on the day of Margaret Thatchers funeral

Thanks Jane & Gareth for the wonderful accommodation!

A break from packing: day trip to Watson's Bay

... a break in the weekend from the packing and chaos at home. Day trip to Watson's Bay :))

A rough idea of where we might meander : Fly to London > to Brussels and then to NL with the Eurostar. "Under water mum!!??", "yes!". Then down south to some islands Corsica (France), Sardinia (Italy) and Sicily (Italy). Then over mainland Italy to Greece to explore the Balkans : Albania, Montenegro, Serbia, Bosnia, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Czech and back through Germany to Scandanavia : Denmark, Sweden and Norway. And then hoping to catch a boat back to the Netherlands and head down to France and Spain at the end :)

The fine art of packing a whole house into one room

Boxes, boxes and more boxes. 8 more sleeps and then the fun begins :) ...

Preparing for our departure

In less than 2 weeks it is finally going to happen. On April 16 we will be flying to London to start a big adventure: The five of us - Sarah and I plus our three children Yvonne (8), Kai (6) and Fynn (3) - will be travelling through Europe for 5 months or so in a campervan.

But right now we are preparing frantically to get our house in order for the family that will live here while we are away as well as sorting out many practical things for the trip like purchasing an international driver's license and selecting campervans for sale or rent overseas that meet our requirements and so forth.

We aim to publish regular posts via this blog over the next 6 months about our experiences for those who are interested. You will hear from us!

Sarah and Arno