First House Guests

  This week we welcomed our first house guests, Sam and Charlotte Brandauer (who we know from Gettysburg but who were coming from Copenhagen). But, unfortunately thanks to some airline difficulties, it was for a lot less time than we were hoping for.
  On Monday morning the kids reluctantly let me clean the house. I told them that as a reward they would get to play with Charlotte when she arrived that afternoon. Sam estimated that they would make it to Leiden around 1:30. At noon I noticed that there was a voice message on my phone. It was from Sam from earlier that morning. Due to some technical difficulties with the plane the flight had been cancelled and they would not be able to get another flight until the next morning. We were disappointed to say the least; I've been enjoying it here but I was excited to see a familiar face and I think Leif was as well (to Klaus not many faces are familiar yet). Plus all my cleaning would but undone by then. Leif pouted for a bit but he is a surprising optimist sometimes; all afternoon he would say things like "Tomorrow we will show this to Charlotte" or "Tomorrow we will play this with Charlotte."
     Tuesday morning, again with my Leif-Klaus shadow, I cleaned the house (admittedly not as thoroughly as I had done the day before). At around 9:30 my phone rang- it was Sam again. Their plane was not cancelled this time but it was going to be delayed. Apparently the captain's seat broke (it was at this point that I went back to the flight itinerary that Sam had forwarded to me and made a mental note not to ever fly on Scandinavian Airlines). Eventually the plane did take off and Sam and Charlotte arrived at our house around noon, almost 24 hours after they originally planned to.

   

After a brief nap-time (only Klaus and Sam actually napped) we headed out on a little tour of Leiden. First to Haarlemerstraat, a pedestrian only street lined with mostly clothing and cell phone shops. We exchanged some klompen slippers that we had gotten for Charlotte for a larger size and then continued on to the Burcht, the old city citadel. Leif and Charlotte enjoyed running around the old structure and Sam got a little view of the city. After that we had planned to meet Kurt at the indoor beach (see my last post) but it was closed. Instead we seated ourselves at an outdoor cafe and had a few drinks and appetizers. If we were true Europeans this probably would have lasted for hours but since we are not and since we had young children with us (two of which needed a nap) we stayed for about 40 minutes.    

 

On Wednesday we took Sam and Charlotte to the Naturalis. There seemed to be some sort of septic issue happening and the whole museum had a bit of a poop smell (yes I have two young children and I use the word 'poop' frequently) but none-the-less the kids had a good time feeding the animatronic animals, exploring the sensory room, and looking at the fossils and preserved animals. After lunch we wrestled the kids down for their naps and then spent a quiet evening at home.
  On Thursday we sadly said good-bye to Charlotte and Sam. Ironically it was the 4th of July but none of us seemed to remember even though we are all Americans. So needless to say we did nothing to celebrate the 4th of July on the actual 4th of July. Feeling as though we let our homeland down we decided to celebrate the 4th this weekend. We don't have any American friends here but we know a Belgian and an Italian who have lived in the U.S. so we invited them over for some American style burgers and fries. They brought Amstel Light (the Bud Light of Holland) and apple pie (with a lemon chiffon top layer but close enough). Oh America. I try to hide it but I do miss you.