Wednesday, July 22

There is a zoo in Amersfoort, about 15 minutes away from the house. Its called Dierenpark. We took Noor and her friend Carmen. We learned that Noor is 8 not 10 as I said earlier. And, her friend is 7. Duco was a bit too old for it and he said he didn't like monkeys. There were lots of monkeys.

The place is set in a forest/park and really well done: very family friendly, especially for kids from about 3 to 9.

If you don't like animals, you should stop reading now.

Linda decided to follow Noor and Carmen. Then to get down, she had to take a slide. She loved it.

There were lots of eating places around the park. What's better than a freshly made Stroopwafel?

And bears?

Beavers doing what beavers do: building dams. Interesting - beavers in Holland, building dams - get it?

Different types of birds we have never seen before, from all over the world.

A nice train ride on a very small train. Perfect for the kids, not so fine for us.

A Bengal Tiger

And really big Hippos

Feeding giraffes.

These guys looked and acted a lot like meer dogs (or is it meer cats?) in the American Southwest but they were from Africa.

Noor and Carmen got to work off some excess energy with a race.

Dino park was a big hit.

In Dino Park, swings that Linda helped Noor get on. 

The swing runs down a cable and at the end, runs up against a rubber stop that swings you back a few feet. Both girls received a brush burn on their cheeks but Linda gave both of them an instant fix with her Arinca tincture. No crying, whinning, or bruising. No proof that a mother could find that her child was hurt. Miracle stuff.

One stop was the Elephant House.

The big attraction, and newest, was what they called the "water bikes". We would call it paddle boats. While we waited in a 45 minute line, Yellow came by to greet the girls.

Carmen said his gloves were soft.

On the way out of the park, we saw these Japanese monkeys lounging around a make-believe Japanese temple. It was part of a Japanese garden with ponds full of Koi and some barracudas.

After that, there was a conventional playground and we let the girls run around there for about 15 minutes. And, then out to the car and back to the house.

Later, after we were at home and back from eating dinner, Liesbeth and the kids came over. Linda worked on Liesbeth's feet and I watched 2/3 of Frozen with the kids. We'll get back to it tomorrow.