The longest weekend of the year

What a wonderful place we live... can you believe that the sun didn't set this weekend until after 10pm! Not that I have the energy to be out doing things at 10pm, but it's nice to know that I have the option.
So to celebrate, we went hiking at Dreilanderpunkt. What is a Dreilanderpunkt you may ask? It is where Germany, Netherlands and Belgium all meet. It is the highest point in Holland, and a place that is crossed with a few hiking trails. It makes us feel like we're in the wilderness, even though we're surrounded by millions of people. And it smells good up there. There are so many trees and plans and bugs, if you didn't know better, you'd think that you were home in the Pacific NW again....
W. had a great time. I didn't know that slugs could be 'pretty', but to the eyes of a two year old, anything is possible. We have been having afternoon rain showers, and there were puddles a plenty. These too made W.'s day- what child in their right mind doesn’t love to walk through these... much to the chagrin of the next person who was obligated to carry her. She has a hiking backpack too... it's just not something that she like to use. We like to bring it with us in hopes that she'll use it, but mostly we carry the girl on our fronts, and the empty shell of a seat on our backs.

Sunday we took a tour of a local castle. About 35 minutes from our house is Hoensbroek castle. http://www.castles.nl/hoen/hoen.html This fall there is to be a military ball there, and we wanted to check it out before we were obligated to go there. W. had the best time climbing the twisty uneven stairs that led up into the keep, then down into the dungeon. Her only worries were for the spiders, and if they were coming with us or not.
The castle is beautiful- it is not original however, but beautiful none the less. We spent a good part of the morning there, and had lunch at a near by cafe located on the grounds. The food wasn't great, but the scenery was awesome, and we were able to watch ducks and play out of doors while we waited for our food. This castle is definitely a great place to take visitors....