The Netherlands

It been a very long time since we last pretended to travel but I think I actually planned this day two years ago. So here are some ideas for a pretend trip to the Netherlands. The issue is that it is very seasonal because I only felt we could really visit The Netherlands in tulip season! So we finally took ourselves out on this adventure staying quite close to home to honour the current Covid Rules

The Dutch Bakery

The Dutch Bakery in Southport is a brilliant find and is pretty well known locally. We were delighted to see wooden clogs in the window and the kids loved their gingerbread men. They told us that sometimes they make special Dutch bakes and so we are keeping an eye on their Facebook page.

The Windmill

For years I had known of the Windmill in Lytham St Annes – but despite growing up here, I had never been. I actually couldn’t believe how brilliant it looked when we drove around the corner. Although the museum was closed it was still a great place to visit and the kids loved racing to it round it and up it!! It is also next to the Ribble Estuary and so we had a wander to look at where the river meets the Irish Sea. I have always thought of windmills as being Dutch and I think this one would fit right in. The last time we visited here was when we stayed in a gorgeous beach hut and got fish and chips. It seems ages ago!!

Tulips

The reason I had waited for so long for this visit was that I really wanted to pretend to visit Holland during tulip season. The tulip flower is synonymous with the country and is one of my favourites. My mother had remembered a flower farm near to us and we went in the hope that we would find a field of tulips. In the event it was closed by then we found a canal just next to it which felt incredibly Dutch and reminded me of long sunny afternoons in Amsterdam many years ago with cold beers and good friends. Shame all the pubs and bars are still shut! It actually also reminded me of a our brilliant pretend visit to Belgium last year when we rode a canal boat down the same canal.

Painting like Van Gogh

I found an online colouring page of Van Gogh’s Starry Night and we all really enjoyed the simple task of colouring it in after dinner. Penny chose rainbow colours for hers and I suspect it would have been Van Gogh’s favourite!

Wearing Orange and dUtch braids!

To find out why the Dutch wear Orange it’s worth reading this. To honour this tradition we did our best to wear as much orange as we could find. I am afraid I failed rather miserably at this, but the boys did a better job: Mark even had orange pants (no photos thank goodness). To make up for it Penny and I decided to have Dutch braids as one of our ideas for a pretend visit to The Netherlands . I find them incredibly difficult – my brain naturally goes the traditional french braid way. But I persevered and was quite proud of the results (one day I’ll learn to do a straight parting too!)

Pancakes and StrOOPwafEls

There are many different recipes for Dutch Pancakes online. Some seems to be for thick crepes but I liked this recipe for Poffertjes (Dutch pancakes). I can’t attest for how authentic this recipe is, but I can attest for the fact that they were delicious and gone in seconds. We had them for our tea as we had been to the bakery for breakfast. On the recommendation of my Dutch friend we also bought some amazing stroopwafels from Tesco and had them all melty with a coffee. Yum (please note the attempt at orange on my top!). Penny had hers in ice cream and said they were ‘amazing, delicious and scrumptious’.

Miffy

I only recently found out that Miffy was Dutch! Luckily for us you can find all of the Miffy cartoon shows on YouTube. If you would prefer to read the books you can currently win one on my blog here. Miffy is super cute and I actually remember reading the books when I was a little girl at school!

So that was our day in the pretend Netherlands – and we had a wonderful time. My Dutch friend taught me some phrases and so Tot ziens from us. I hope you enjoyed the ideas for a pretend visit to The Netherlands. X