Day 36 - Friesland

Today we were going to leave Garderen and move on to Friesland!

We spent the morning packing, and handed the keys back in for our bungalow.

We drove over to Oma and Opa’s to say our goodbyes. It was sad to have to leave, but as we were heading straight to the airport from Friesland, none of us were going to see them again!

Oma and Opa had already hung up the big family photo of all of us one the wall which was cool to see!

We had coffee and appeltaart, and then it was time to go. Titus gave Oma a big kiss goodbye.

Before we left, we stopped in at a store to buy clogs for Ali and the girls to take home with us!

One thing that we noticed and is very different to NZ, is that when you are leaving a place, they out a red line through the street sign. It is like this in the whole of the Netherlands.

We drove about an hour and then we stopped at McDonald’s for some lunch. The McDonald’s here is ridiculously fancy. The people who work here dress like flight attendants, with full her and makeup. They used proper soap in the bathroom, and they wait on the tables constantly clearing rubbish etc.

We of course got a McKroket again (have to make the most of it!) and Ali made the most of the sweet potato fries. We don’t know how they do it, but they manage to get them so crispy! We then hit the road again to drive the last half an hour to get to where we were staying.

Pake and Beppe (Auke’s other grandparents from his dad’s side) had paid for a giant home with sixteen rooms for the whole family to stay in. It was situated right on the lake. It was fully catered with unlimited drinks and snacks, and it had pool tables etc. We got there, said hello to all the family and settled in.

They had sailboats and motorboats for us to use, so Ali and a few others headed out on a motorboat to enjoy the lake while Auke went swimming with the girls, and Titus had a nap. Some others went kayaking.

The lake was huge! It looked more like a sea. As it was windy, we got absolutely soaked on the motorboat as the waves were splashing water at us! It was hilarious to watch as all the sail boats were getting blown over and people were ending up in the lake. As we were sailing, we had a bird follow us the entire time, it was really cute!

That evening, we had make your own pizza which Lana thought was great fun! Ali also made her own!

After dinner, Ali went for a walk to enjoy the sun. Friesland is absolutely beautiful! The sun shining on the lake was breathtaking!

It was fascinating that on one side of the road is farms with cows, and on the other side of the road are sailboats and people doing water sports.

There was a cute horse and foal there too!

Eventually she went home, and we stayed up chatting to family. We saw a beautiful sunset too!

Eventually we all got settled in for what was going to be a very restless night - Lana and Titus has both been sick for about a week at this stage but for some reason Lana was up all night! Also, as we were right by the lake, there were mosquitos all through our room which kept us up all night!