Peapod on Purpose

Arriving in The Netherlands after a month in Vietnam was a breath of fresh air. Literally. Going from heavy, humid, city life to springtime in the forest was a beautiful respite from noise and sweat and smog. After four days of travel, we landed at the airport near Amsterdam and took the bus straight to the campground where we would spend the next week. 

We settled into our cabin and set out in search of groceries. Our adventure started with the most beautiful walk through the forest, and ended at a spectacular grocery store named Albert Heijn. After a month of navigating our way through Vietnamese grocery shopping, this western grocery store was like a feast after a famine. OK, yes I’m being dramatic, but we were excited to be there.  

And the first thing we added to the cart? Lunch meat. All of the lunch meat. Turkey, ham, prosciutto, salami, roast beef. This might be one of the things I missed most while traveling in Asia, it’s just not something you can easily find. And if you can, the quality is poor, it’s highly processed and priced exorbitantly. But in The Netherlands, they understand. The grocery stores were full of high quality, minimally processed, organic products that made my heart sing. OK, enough about lunch meat.

We’d planned our time in The Netherlands to meet up with friends, who found the most delightful place to stay. It was only 9 km outside of Amsterdam by bike path, and an easy bus ride. They would be arriving a couple of days after us, so we planned to take it slow and recover from our around-the-world travel journey. We woke up on Sunday, Mother’s Day, and made our way (by foot) to church. I don’t remember much of the sermon, but I did take away one very important thing…the Dutch are tall. We were about halfway back in the packed school gymnasium and I had absolutely no hope of seeing the lyrics on the screen. 

After church, we walked the hour back to the campground, and rented bikes to travel around the forest for the day. There’s very little chance I will be able to describe this experience in a way that does it justice, but I will try my very best. Amsterdamse Bos is a man made forest that’s around 4 miles square, filled with lakes, meadows, streams and cross-crossed by paths for bikes and walking. It was created almost one hundred years ago, so it’s fully grown and overflowing with botanical wonders and wildlife. 

We didn’t know exactly what to expect when we hopped on our bikes but were excited to be back on wheels after many months. The paths were wide and paved, with separate, well-marked paths for walkers and horses. The trees are dense, and you have no idea that there’s a city just across the street. Within minutes of starting our ride we had to stop and observe a marsh with several grey heron and white storks. 

Not long after we resumed our ride, we came across a delightful goat farm with hundreds of goats, but almost no foul smell. Maybe it was just my allergies, but I wasn’t complaining. As we walked up to the pen, a mother gave birth, surrounded and supported by the other goat mamas. No joke. We watched with rapt attention as she immediately set to cleaning the newborn (yuck) and the kid tried over and over to stand but was repeatedly knocked down in the mothers’ relentless pursuit. Cleanliness is next to Godliness, after all. At least according to John Wesley. Finally the youngling got to its feet and took its first step, amid oohs and aahs from the crowd. 

You might be imagining crowded pens of goats fenced off from the public, but no. There were multiple children’s playgrounds where baby goats ran free. Multiple large pens of grown goats that you could enter at your leisure. And, lots and lots of goods for sale made from the milk produced at the farm. While the pistachio ice cream was a little too goat-y for me, the other Pinaults gave it positive reviews all around. 

We finally tore ourselves away to continue our ride through the dappled paths, only stopping every few minutes to photograph a field of wildflowers or a beautiful bridge. Shortly after, we encountered a giant children’s splash pool on the edge of a natural lake, and fields full of families with brightly colored picnic blankets and children running free. We made our way through the area without crashing our bikes into anyone…a huge success. 

The next discovery of the day was a regatta, which held us in rapt attention. We read the young reader’s edition of The Boys in the Boat with our book club not too long ago, and now fashion ourselves to be experts in the sport. If I didn’t hate insects so much (worst wild & free homeschool mom ever) we probably could have sat on the banks of the canal and watched the crews race all day. 

We left the rowers behind and set off in search of something sweet. We arrived at our destination – Boerderij Meerzicht – to discover not only fresh dutch pancakes but also live deer and a playground. This day had a new surprise around each corner. After we navigated the rather overwhelming line and menu, JP and I sat in the shade and shared an apple pie pancake while the kids ran wild. The playgrounds in Amsterdam really were spectacular, with just the right amount of risk to keep the kids busy. 

Our final stop of the day was to be at an Italian restaurant for dinner on the patio, but the jet leg combined with a long day in the sun sent things on a turn for the worse. Two of the kids were feeling too unwell to eat (a trip to the doctor the next day confirmed a bacterial throat infection), one of the kids was feeling over their siblings, and the other diners weren’t all that thrilled to be sharing their mother’s day meal with a group of loud Americans. We grabbed our food to go, tied it to the back of a bike, and rode the last few kilometers home to turn in early. 

After another day resting at the campground and a quick doctor’s visit, it was finally time for our friends to arrive. The reunion was so sweet. The kids ran into each other’s arms and proceeded to run wild through the campground, returning under duress and covered in dirt and bug bites when called for dinner. 

We spent the next morning together, before setting off on our separate ways for a few hours. The Pinaults were off to check out a bucket list experience: Corrie Ten Boom’s family home in Haarlem. The Hiding Place is one of the most impactful books I’ve read, and Big Pea feels the same about the Young Reader’s Edition. During World War II, Corrie and her family risked their lives to help Jews and underground workers escape from the Nazis. They were betrayed, arrested, and sent to Nazi concentration camps, where Corrie was the sole survivor from her family. The Ten Boom family was a living example of faith in action, who made countless sacrifices to follow God’s will, and the story of their lives took place in the home that’s still standing today. Our small guided tour was led by a woman who’s passionate about sharing the gospel through their family’s story, and it was a special experience for all of us.

Also on our to-do list for our time in The Netherlands was the Anne Frank house, which we visited the very next day with our friends. It was a moving experience to walk through the hidden door into the rooms where Anne and her family spent two years in hiding during WWII. The children’s audioguide (which I listened to with the kids) was narrated by an actress playing the part of Anne; hearing the words from her diary as we toured the house brought an additional level of meaning to the story. It was a somber afternoon of reflection, thankfully bookended by plenty of playground time. 

Our final adventure in the country was to a “tourist village” called Zaanse Schans. I’ve realized during our travels through Europe that tourist villages aren’t as bad as they sound. At first I wasn’t interested in the idea of traveling to a place full of tourists, and wanted to spend more time experiencing real life. The thing is, the version of “real life” I found myself wanting to experience, was like in the 16th century. So, while tourist villages might be a sanitized and commercialized version of “authentic” life during a time period, it’s a chance to see many different pieces of history at one place. 

Zaanse Schans turned out to be quite lovely, with beautiful windmills perched along dikes topped with winding pathways. We encountered an excellent cheese shop with unlimited sampling opportunities, a sawdust-filled clog making demonstration and a variety of wildlife. 

The next morning, our crew headed to the station to make the journey to Belgium. We only lost one child along the way, and she was recovered before she even realized she’d taken the wrong turn. Arriving in the city of Brussels wasn’t love at first sight; it felt like a place where we needed to hang on extra tightly to our kids and our handbags. We’d been warned away from Brussels by some Belgians we met in the desert of Jordan, and we quickly realized why. 

We arrived at our AirBnb in a precious neighborhood in a small rural village (with zero amenities), to realize that we were staying in a family’s home and not a professional vacation rental. A family’s home that was filled with their belongings. Clothes in the closets, food in the fridge, compost in the bin. One of the bedrooms, obviously belonging to a teenager, hadn’t been cleaned in ages (possibly years) and smelled like there was something dead hiding under the bed. While we’ve stayed in some tight, uncomfortable spaces over the last year, this felt a little too uncomfortable. 

We quickly jumped online to see if there was someplace we could move to for the next week, but were reminded why we’d chosen this place: it was half the price of anything else. So, we put the compost outside, sent the kids to jump on the trampoline, closed the teenage bedroom door, and decided to make the best of it. I was immediately cheered when I set out for a walk around town and everyone greeted me with kindness and enthusiasm. It turned out there were plenty of walking trails in the neighborhood, and the kitchen was well equipped with everything we could need, including our first immersion blender in ten months. 

Our first adventure in Belgium was to be a day trip to Bruges, and the town was absolutely delightful. It reminded us of a small village in France we’d visited during the Christmas season (Colmar) with well-preserved old houses, cobbled streets and canals. Everything you want Belgium to be. We saw nesting swans and gorgeous architecture as we wandered the ancient city, and we came across a local dance festival at a park that provided very unique entertainment for everyone. 

The next morning we set off for church, with plans to grill together and make use of our large back yard in the evening. We had a very merry time, in spite of the charred chicken thighs and the children who were disappointed over being sorted into the wrong Hogwarts house. 

On our final morning together, we set off on a self-guided chocolate tour of the city. Armed with a list of the best local chocolatiers,we met in the town square and handed each kid a 10 euro bill to try a chocolate in each of the six shops we planned to visit. We entered the first, and the French speaking cashier quickly squashed our dreams of a little independence. It was absolutely not possible to weigh and purchase individual pieces of chocolate, so we quickly pivoted to a new plan. The new plan looked a lot more like “buy all the best-looking pieces of chocolate in the shop.” It was a roaring success. 

We had a great time seeing the city with a little bite of chocolate around each corner, and came to understand why Belgium is known for waffles, fries and chocolate: you can’t walk more than 25 meters without coming across a shop selling one or the other. Then came the moment we had to say “goodbye for now” to our Aussie friends, with tears and sadness all around. Having both just spent the year traveling the world, who knew when we’d be able to see each other again?! (Spoiler alert: it was sooner than we expected!)

We spent our final days in Brussels working at home, playing outside and wandering the city, with the only experience of note being a fantastic dinner of moules frites. While we loved Belgium, we’d definitely skip Brussels and stay in the countryside or a different city next time around.