A Perfect Day, filled with Perfect Eats

Last Friday we had a very busy day, well, I did at the very least. It was probably the only summer day we are going to have this year in Amsterdam so I made sure to enjoy it, too bad the kids had to be in school!

I somewhat kid...it was 33C out, now we are back in the 50s and climbing into the 60s..we are supposed to have one more day this week where it reaches the 30s but it is supposed to thunderstorm all day. I love living here but the weather is really hard to deal with, but everywhere has a down side, right?! So, I will just go on and tell y'all about the most awesomest summer day ever!

Today I'm linking up with Jenn over at Peas and Crayons for What I Ate Wednesday.

Our day started with a lovely sunrise bike ride and picnic...

If you are curious, in the Netherlands to achieve this perfect sunrise...you must be awake at 4:45 to pack your picnic and be out the door by 5:05 to cycle to where you want to watch the sunrise at 5:20..on this day, now it is almost rising at 5:15.

Was so worth the early wake up to have some early morning eats with this girl in the calm morning light.

Our spread...Pofferjtes (I warmed them and put them in foil to keep them warm), banana, peanut butter, whipped cream, nutella, and strawberries.

It was delicious and such a tasty treat!

A view from behind the dune area.

After getting everyone off to work and school I said screw the nap and decided it was a great idea to bike 16km one way with my good friend and her 2 year old to a medieval castle that was built in the 1200's...Muiderslot. 

You can tell I am tired.

Along this route there were free roaming sheep! They belonged to farm as they were tagged, but they just grazed along the bike path and down near the water. It was so amazing. The path is only open from March to October.

We arrived at the castle and it was a gorgeous day to let my friends son run around.

I drank this awesome Lemonade from there tavern...

With the lemonade in the pink cup I also had a bottle of water and a boterham sandwich...which you would think has ham...no matter how many times I see this here I don't think it will ever sink in that "boterham" is just the tradition Dutch sandwich: butter (yes, like real butter), cheese, and this one also had lettuce and honey mustard. They are very good, don't knock 'em 'til ya try 'em!

This is a shot I think of the Ijslameer on our ride home, we rode over a giant huge bridge. Was so fun!

After that I raced home to pack our beach bag and meet the teenager. On my bike ride to her school I snacked on a nectarine. It was so delicious!

We were trying to smile through the heafty clouds we saw rolling in when we pulled in to the Haarlem train station which is two stops from the beach. The doors opened and it was very chilly.

...because it had started raining when we stepped off the train it wasn't easy to find a place that had seating...but we found a quiet place with a nice menu about a half mile from the train station, thank goodness it was only drizzling.

After this photo it started pouring and was lightening! ha!

This was after the heavens opened and the storm started to move away. The chairs are facing away from the water as they were trying to clean up and bring everything in. Here you can rent beach chairs by the hour or day.

The kiddo and I both decided on fish and chips because of the cooler, rainy weather. It was amazing.

This was our excited, yup we deserve some appletaart!

Mmmm...appeltaart and slagroom!

After dinner we went for a walk on the beach. We were doing our best to not be incredibly sad we didn't get to surf.

The sunset made it worth going out there even though we didn't get to play in the water...

...but we did...we weren't leaving without putting our feet in the North Sea. It was chilly, but actually warmer than the air outside! ha!

By the time all was said and done I'd drank a total of 5 of these bottles and could have gone for more! This bottle is one of my top travel essentials and I never go anywhere without it since it is self filtering.

I hope you enjoyed my eats with a little recap of our one summer day. To learn more about going to the beach in the Netherlands check out these posts: A day at the beach part 1, part 2, part 3.

Has summer arrived where you live? How do you remember to stay hydrated?

A day at Muiderslot Castle

A few weeks back during the kiddo's fall holiday we decided to check out Muiderslot Castle, located in Muiden, Netherlands.

This castle was built around 1285 and has been preserved quite nicely. This is the first castle we've seen since coming to Europe since we haven't been to Germany yet, and we were quite impressed. I loved they still had the loo rooms so you could see the conditions in which they used to use the restrooms. Let me tell you, you needed to be a small individual and I hope if you were pregnant they brought you a chamber pot! We are small people and could hardly fit through!

Anyway, enough about that, on to the castle!

To get there we took the bus line that runs outside our house to Amstelstation and from there popped on bus 322 out to Muiden. From there it was a very fast 15 minute walk, everything is very well marked.

Once we arrived we showed our Museumkaart and went right in.

We spent a little time walking around the outside of the grounds:

Boats in the Harbour

In the Gardens

The Castle from the Gardens; this picture was actually better than I thought with the flags.

The moat is awesome.

They were actually doing some restoration work while we were there.

The entrance.

More looking out where the harbour runs into the sea.

As you walk in, the well is the first thing you see. It is all boarded up though, just ornamentation. Just beyond this you can see chairs, there is a little cafe. Decent food, wine, hot chocomel.

This is a shot of the courtyard from above.

The inner workings of one of the turrets.

Seriously, the bathroom...how would one even fit in there?! Not to mention, it goes straight into the moat! Guess there was no jumping off the ol' castle walls back in the day.

Murder Hole. The teenager was quite fascinated by the idea of dropping boiling hot oil through it on attacking soldiers.

A view of the flags and the gardens, I should note that is actually still a working garden.

The fireplace. I can just imagine the castle guard lighting his fire to stay warm as he walks the wall in the evening.

Once we were finished at the castle we decided to check out the village of Muiden as we didn't know if we'd ever go back there here are a few shots:

Shackled up to do her time for being sassy.

Boats were coming through..check out this video

I found it fascinating that these boats were just big enough to fit through.

A little pond we passed...I loved all the fall colours.

So, there you have it, our time in Muiden at Muiderslot Castle. If you have an extended period of time in Amsterdam I highly recommend this day trip. It is cheap and very entertaining for the kids as they are free to roam a medieval castle! You don't get that opportunity often!