Volkenkunde, Nordwijk, bouncy castles, oh my!

Hello everyone! Sorry yes I know- There was no blog post last week from your favorite ex-pat family. I apologize. I was excitedly busy planning our mid-October trip to England (yay for totally off-season non tropical vacations!) and decided to comb the web for great deals on B&Bs rather than report to you on a relatively quiet week.
 You didn't miss much. Kurt worked and the kids and I followed our typical regimen of morning outting followed by lunch, nap, afternoon park time, dinner, and bed. On Satuday we went to the market on the markt and on Sunday we took advantage of the city of Leiden's generosity toward its children- a totally free bouncy castle fun park. It was all part of the week of back-to-school prep that happens here just as in the US (even though their summer break is considerably shorter). Several of the inflatable contraptions had a water element and despite the low 70s temps a lot of kids were jumping in but not my little Norsemen. They were content to bounce in the comfort of dry pants.
 On Sunday night we briefly visited the ZomerJam festival that was set up in the park across the canal from our apartment. There was a graffiti art contest, basketball, skateboarding, and breakdancing competititions. Leif especially enjoyed the breakdancing and he and Kurt have been studying you-tube videos and testing out some moves ever since. The festival was supposed to end at 11 p.m. but I was pretty skeptical that this would happen given the number of water bongs I saw and the Grolsch truck parked in the middle. But to my surprise the bells tolled 11 and the music shut off. Done and done.

This past weekend we were in the mood to do something touristy so we visited the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, the ethnology museum here in Leiden. We didn't get the stay very long (naptime was looming) but we quickly perused their collection of Native American, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese collections of artifacts and artwork. They also have collections from Oceania, Africa and Asia which we plan to go back and see later. It is a quiet museum with soft music, low light and a generally calming atmosphere. I would like to spend more time there especially as it made me realize how inadequate my knowledge of non-western art is. I couldn't really explain much to Leif and consequently he was probably even more disinterested than he would be normally.

On Sunday we realized that it was September already and that we had never made it to the other nearby beach town of Nordwijk. As we pedaled the 40 minutes to get there we were hoping against hope that it would feel warm and summery there. Our hope was derailed utterly by a cold grey windy beach. But the kids, as kids do, tried to make the best of it. Leif and Klaus still dug in the sand, ran away from the waves, and picked up seashells. Leif had a particularly liked chasing the sea foam blobs when the wind caught them. We marveled at all of the kitesurfers skittering around the waves and wondered if their wetsuits could really keep out the chill.
  After about an hour of having our ears battered by the cold north sea wind we walked around Nordwijk a bit. It is much the same as Katwijk; a little built up but still quiet and not overly commercial. We found the main drag- a pedestrian only street with all the same stores that seem to be in every Dutch town (Hema, Zeeman, etc). It all felt very familiar and it dawned on me that this coming Saturday will mark the halfway point of our time here. It now gets dark at around 8:30-a stark contrast from the 10:30 sunset a few months ago. There is a chill in the air and fall is creeping in. I am sad and relieved at the same time.