Last Sunday we had a van Krieken Family day in the Dutch Open Air Museum in Arnhem. A fabulous place and a nice day (despite the significant rain threats) as the whole family would actually be there! The 5 kids of Opa & Oma with their partners plus the 9 cousins with their partners where possible and with 4 of their kids. Still not really adjusted to the Dutch timezone it meant an early start for us. Leaving the kind of house behind for the day we would see again on the Museum. I should have taken picture of our front door for one of the games!
After an eventful train trip, picking up more family members along the way, we made it to the museum just as the floodgates opened. Fortunately we started with Coffee, Apple Pie & a drop (licorice) exchange.
After a very wet initial stroll around the place we did a fabulous family quiz over Lunch to dry out. Turns out none of Opa & Oma's kids had a favorite food prior to being grown ups, that others know better how many kilometers you cycled during cycling holidays then yourself and that it is important to distinguish between Saucijze & Ragout broodjes. Oh, yes, and Neeltje needs some help with the concept of rounding up -;)
After that the weather got a lot better and we could get on with our afternoon activity. A do-quiz-treasure hunt in 3 teams. With traditional Dutch kids games as one of the assignments.
And team pictures with people in traditional dress another.
As well as traditional Dutch songs about windmills sung near a windmill of the team's choice.
One of the assignments was to take pictures of people practicing traditional trades. Plenty of people working the museum are employed to do such. But the blue team had one of their own. Between his mommy's milk maid blood and his Texan roots Rick knew without anyone showing him t all - exactly how to milk this cow. Rick really may be a rancher!
Kaat fitted in perfectly at the Museum as well - just her name should be enough. But she walked around doing her very Dutch name justice on modern day clogs with a no nonsense attitude, very busy getting things done (what exactly,...not s sure)
Kaat also proved to be a modern Dutch girl, particularly respecting the graffiti art in the mock up Jordaanse Steeg (Amsterdam alley).
Our Nephew Auke also looked at home in the place. Equally serious but very happy! He appeared even dressed in appropriate red, white & blue for the occasion.
We suspect that if rancher Rick invests wisely in some decent John Deere kit, nephew Auke would be happy to come and help out on his ranch.
Now the rain had stopped Rick started to pick up on the numerous water features of the museum:
Not soon after that things went downhill for us and got infinitely better for Rick - big puddles!
After mud bath # 1 and dry shorts Rick got to ride on the little self service ferry meaning he got wet again (and happier).
Then Rick decided to do pirouettes with his eyes closed on the square with the most puddles. Landing in no time, bud first, in the puddle just out of sight on the picture.
By the time we had ran out of trousers for Rick had not yet run out of steam on his attempts to get wet. And his enthusiasm was contagious for Auke at least so the boys tried to climb over the little fence to get down into a little stream.
Opa Kees got into some trouble of his own being chased by 100+ year old ladies who we think wanted to dance with him.
We wrapped up our time in the Museum with a group picture. Despite all our efforts we still managed to miss 2 off the picture, my youngest cousin Anne & her partner. Apart from me and Jasper it is pretty obvious who the 'van Krieken's' are - you should count 5 Seniors + 8 Cousins (Anne being no 9)
Eelco and Martijn could not snap out of the game and continued on with traditional Dutchs kids games such as 'Jan Huijgen in de Ton'.
"En de ton die viel in duigen!"
After a nice meal at a chinese restaurant (also a very Dutch Family day thing to do) with disturbingly enough a water feature (pond) in the middle of our dining room, which Rick managed to avoid but Kaat filled with all sorts of trophies, it was really time to head home. We had lost part of our train-date-team but finished the day in reverse order from how it started, all on the bus and then on the train loosing more people at every train station we passed.
By sheer coincidence Rick picked the seat in the bus which was marked for boys ("like Ricky") with sticks ("like Ricky") as he pointed out to us.
At the end of the day we all where pretty tired but very happy from the fun Dutch day.
Am still awaiting some more fun pictures of particularly my own team (green) and the red team so may post some more pictures later / separately of a successful day.
