Naarden

The next and last stop on our Dutch vacation was Naarden, where Calin grew up, and where his parents live still. On the way, he made sure to drive us by some of the flower fields, for which the Netherlands is so famous. (Remember, this was the week before Easter, so bulbs were coming up all over.)
The smell of the hyacinths was really incredible!
An unending blur of daffodils...
Well, you get the idea.
Naarden is quite a unique city, as the old city core is walled, with an elaborate moat-like system built around it for defensive reasons. Here's an aerial view (not taken by us!), to give you some idea.Pretty neat, eh? On one beautifully warm day while we were there, Calin's mom (seen here at far right) walked us through the town, and along some of the fortifications. Here we're on one of the recreation paths that goes along the surrounding waters.
And here we're passing through one of the gates to the city, through the fortified wall.
The view from the other side...
The city centre was really well preserved, and pretty posh to boot! Here's one of the ornate old buildings:
With a closeup of the fancy brick work, and the crazy faces decorating the facade:
And of course there were tulips, but that goes without saying, right?
All in all, a very charming city.
Another highlight of our stay in Naarden was the bike trip we took through the surrounding area. There are bike trails everywhere, of course, and Calin planned a nice route for us. We were able to borrow bikes from his family, but this proved to be a bit complicated in my case. The plan was for me to take his aunt's bike, as she's the shortest person nearby, but it was still way too high for me. They lowered the seat as much as they could, but it was still really dangerous, and my feet could barely touch the pedals at the bottom part of the stroke. After assessing my height, his aunt figured that my problem was that I didn't know how to ride a bike. This wasn't going well. Eventually we were able to remove a part around the seat shaft and get it down to a height that I could work with. I'm also not used to the super-upright style of bike, and am used to being able to stay in the saddle when stopped at a light, as the distance to one side or the other isn't so much that I feel like I'm falling. What can I say, I ride a mountain bike to work.

In the end it worked out okay, though I was questioning whether this was really something I should be doing while pregnant. (Not cycling in general, but riding a bike that made me nervous every time I had to stop or start.) While we were moving I was in heaven - it was so flat! And not even windy! Here we are while taking a break on a sort of observation platform on top of a little hill that I think was man-made. Other highlights of the tour included ice cream and lambs. I didn't want the ride to end!
While we didn't get any pictures of this, we also spent a lot of time eating while we were there! Every afternoon there was a spread of cheese, pâté, meats, and breads that we ate too much of in the back garden, and the suppers were no less indulgent. Easter dinner was raclette, which means something a bit different here than I'm used to in Canada. Rather than involving melting cheese, it's all about cooking various types of meat on the hot surface on top. Jeremi was in heaven, but I still wasn't 100% back to being able to eat meat. I greatly enjoyed the Greek salad that Susanne insisted should go with the meal. We also got to try a variety of deep-fried Dutch specialties while playing Trivial Pursuit (in Dutch) late into the evening. They even let Jeremi and I read some questions!