Monday mindfulness – Summer holidays {Week 4}

Happy Monday everyone. Hope you had a great weekend and are enjoying the school summer holidays. Each week I start off by writing my Monday mindfulness – 5 happy things blog post. It’s a great chance to reflect on the things that made me happy in the previous week, as well as to record some of our family adventures – it’s a post I always enjoy writing.

Monday mindfulness – Summer holidays edition

We had the most amazing week with Eurocamp at Duinrell, Wassenaar in the Netherlands. It’s been 15 years since we visited Amsterdam, and 2 years since we went to Utrecht so I was really looking forward to our week away. The weather was brilliant and we loved our stay at Duinrell. As well as our holiday park we were next to an amusement park with splash park. The children were in heaven.

We enjoyed trips to Amsterdam, Leiden, The Hague, Delft, Schiedam as well as Wassenaar and the beaches at Wassenaar and Scheveningen.  I think Leiden was my favourite city, it had beautiful canals and buildings, and we found a cafe which had swings inside! My least favourite was The Hague which was surprisingly modern and ugly, although the artisan frites we found were amazing.

We enjoyed a lot of Dutch cuisine whilst we were away. From amazing pancakes in Amsterdam and Duinrell, to artisan chips in The Hague, apple pie in Delft to loaded ice cream at Duinrell, to potato on a stick in Delft to frites with mayonnaise, we tried to introduce the children to everything we could think of! My 8 year old just loved stroopwaffels and we all enjoyed trying the different varieties of ice cream you can’t get at home. We made sure to stock up and bring all our favourite treats back home with us!

Whilst we were staying at Duinrell we hired buggies and go karts. Despite driving from London to Wassenaar we hadn’t though to bring bikes or scooters for the children to use. Luckily our home for the week was within easy walking distance of both the Plaza and the park but everybody seemed to be hiring bikes, buggies or go karts to get around. First we hired a 4 seater buggy and on our final day we got the children their own go kart each. We had so much fun getting around the park and the kids just loved having some independence to go around on their own. The site felt really safe and secure and with limited cars it was a great place for them to explore.

We don’t often travel far from home so driving from London to the Netherlands felt like we pushed the kids to the limit. We went via the Eurotunnel (which was very slow) and although we played lots of games and they had things to keep them busy they did get a little bored. Thankfully we had a quiet day at home today recovering. They’ve been playing with their toys and relaxing at home which has been lovely.

Have a great week!