Waterland in our New Ride

Three exciting things happened this past week.

On Monday, we bought a car! We had talked about how nice it would be to have a car for day trips and travel, but pushed the idea out of our heads since public transportation is so excellent and we are on a tight budget. Then I saw an advertisement from an ISA family that they were selling their 1998 Volvo station wagon as they are moving to California. It turned out that they lived across the street from us and the price was right so we bought it from them and got the keys Monday!

On Tuesday, my parents arrived for a 2 week visit. It was fun getting to pick them up on my own in our new ride! We took advantage of having the wheels and visited Waterland, an area North of Amsterdam. On our way to Edam and Volendam, our intended destinations, Jude fell asleep and I wanted to keep driving so we detoured to Marken, a quiet island in the Zuiderzee. That ended up being the highlight of the day trip. Lots of cute green houses, a pretty harbor and wooden bridges. We stopped in Edam for lunch, which was also really quaint. We missed the start of the cheese markets by a few weeks, so we'll have to go back. Our final stop was Volendam, a bigger, more touristy fishing harbor. A very successful first outing in the "auto."

Our Thursday, Pete had his last day of work for 2 months. Public service announcement: Marry a teacher. It is awesome!!

Our "new" ride! 

Outside the clog factory in Marken

Traditional green houses of Marken

Sea-centric church in Marken

Typically painted interior in Marken

Town square, Edam. 

Most adorable drawbridge (with cat) in Edam

Edam Carillon 

Our lunch spot was super scenic, canal-side, but Nana and Pops were distracted by something else super cute. 

Cool ship in Volendam

"The strip" in Volendam