All good things come to an end

All good things eventually have to come to an end. In this case, it's the weather. We were fortunate to have two beautiful spring days with sunshine and warm temps. Today (and every day from here on) we get to experience traditional Dutch weather. Cold, rainy and grey. Yuck! It is rather depressing. I don't know how this culture maintains sanity.
I managed to do the worst packing ever! Coming from 90 degree June weather in Savannah to 60 degrees and rainy here. What did I pack? Flip flops, tshirts, a few shorts and even a swim suit! (I actually saw a group of kids swimming yesterday at the beach! What?!?!) this is definitely NOT beach weather. I had to buy two jackets for the boys yesterday and I may need to pick up some rain boots and rain coats in the next day or so. Even the cute new raincoat I bought is not sufficient. Too thin and not warm at all! No wonder everyone here heads south to Spain and Portugal every summer.
In addition to the crappy weather and jet lag, we are trying to get used to their sunrise and sunset schedule. It stays light out until 11:30pm each day and the sunrises around 4:30am! Last night I was smart enough to draw the black out curtains so I could get the most sleep possible. We woke up at 6:45am but the boys woke up at 11:30!!!!!!! But trying to ignore the church bells (every hour) and the chirping birds makes it hard to adjust.

Enough about the weather!

Yesterday we visited the Maasvlakte again. Each year we head over to see the progression of the most massive land project. The Dutch are expanding the ports at Rotterdam and at the end of the project (2020) it will make them the largest container port in Europe. Back in November 2010 we visited and again in 2009. In a nutshell, they are sucking sand off the bottom of the ocean and dumping it here to create more land. In a year and a half it was absolutely unbelievable how much the landscape had changed. It is a similar dredging project as the one in Dubai. It will created thousands of jobs and will be considered on of the Wonders of the World once complete.
For more information on this unbelievable project visit Maasvlakte 2.

Here are a few pics from our day:



The main Maasvlakte building


Gerrit striking a pose




Thijsie striking a pose


The boys playing on a massive scoop



This is one huge drill bit!


Climbing on the dredging pipes


Look what we found on the side of the road!


Gerrit was determined to get his hair out of his eyes.


Sitting, waiting, wishing


The stairway to the beach over the dyke.

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