Explored something new

Today we woke up to our own tune. No rooster to interrupt us bright and early.  It was sooooooo quiet!  
Our car in front of our luxurious hotel.  (cousins are the best!)
Today was time to explore a part of the Netherlands we've never been to before.  We headed to Friesland for the day with our trusty tour guides my cousins to lead us through the day!  (Should've tipped them a little better).
The first village we walked around is known as the smallest city in the world. Started up in the 13th century with the sea all around. Today it's still small but there is land all around. 

(I'll have to insert the name of this town after as I didn't write it down.)  The windmill in the smallest city














Toured the next town of Ijlst. Here we explored a sawmill windmill. No restricted areas for exploration!!! (As the guy said this probably would never be  allowed in North America)
 So we were warned be careful!  Self guided tour but the man running the mill answered a lot of our questions. Well mostly Marcel as he is also interested in cutting live wood. The smell of the wood and the sound of the saws was a unique experience. Our school teacher cousins have never seen an original wood cutting windmill so that was cool!  See something new for them to explore that day too!
 

Also we saw them move the sails of the windmill as the saws weren't moving too fast....
The outside view of the mill.  
We stopped in Ijlst for lunch. Doing the Dutch thing of eating your bread with a knife and fork!!
The town was established 1462 so the one stone was stamped.  The building we had our lunch in was built in the 1800's. It had not been changed since 1868 the town. 


Moved to the town of Franeker
Franeker. We visited the Planetarium from Elise Eisanga built started in 1774 (7 years) to explain that the world wasn't going to end.
If you're ever in this area this was really fascinating.  Highly recommend the English tour guides as apparently its even more informative than the Dutch version 







After having to lure D away from the museum we met in a Echte Bakker with our pastoral cousin, his wife and their 3 adorable children.  We ate a traditional Friessen dessert with almond and anise. Orange cake.



Lekker!!


All good days must come to an end.  These hungry explorers finished off the day with our first traditional Dutch pancakes.  I chose the child's size Bacon and apple and pineapple! Yeah those who chose the adult version.....1/4 of them finished :)  Haha

 Ok so I have a note of a Cow playing piano.....relying on my other trusty travel mates to remind me what that note was for???  Otherwise its a very random note.  

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