Germany trip wrap up

Ok, let's finish this off.  

It's Sunday and time to make our way back to the ferry in Rotterdam.  Check out was at 10 and the ferry was at 7 pm so we had a little time to fill with a visit to somewhere in Germany, Belgium or the Netherlands.  We kicked around a few ideas before realizing that the Kroller-Muller Museum outside of Otterlo in the Netherlands was mostly on the way.  Bikes in the park, sculpture in the garden and works inside - perfect.  We had visited last summer, but this is the sort of place worth a second or, in Andrea and my case, a fifth visit.

One could guess that the second (and I am not really exaggerating) we crossed the border into the Netherlands that it would start raining.  Sprinkles at first, but before long it was pouring.  Part of the allure of Kroller-Muller is the free bikes one can ride around the national park, and the rain was putting a damper on the plan.  Usually one would ditch the car at the entrance to the park, but we carried on to the museum where we (and many other groups of people) ditched all hope of an outdoor picnic and ate in the car.  It was raining so hard that there were rivers in the parking lot and folks were abandoning bikes next to their cars (not putting them back in their proper places in the bike lot), getting in, and driving away.  

A break in the rain allowed us to get within 100 meters of the museum before it started to rain again.  Another break while we were inside allowed us a good amount of time to walk around the sculpture garden.  There were some old favorites and some new pieces on display as well.  It's just a wonderful place.

The break in the weather looked like it was going to hold so we went back to the bikes, picked some out and were off.  The girls loved the opportunity to ride on the paths and to race around.  Andrea and I did, too.

After the ride we looked inside the museum.  Of note was a ceiling commissioned for the Royal Hall of Belgium or whatever that was made from hundreds of thousands (millions?) of insect wing casings all in green and blue.   Crazy stuff.

With the bikes and the museum behind us, it was back on the road to the ferry.  The return trip by boat was pretty standard.  Some rocking.  Food from our plastic bag.  Lots of rice cakes and chick pea curry.

Back on the island, we dropped Andrea off in Leeds so she could take the train to London and catch a flight to DC where she was attending a funding meeting.  

Although there were some initial complaints about the next step in our day, we (I) decided to go for a walk at a National Trust site on our way home - Hardcastle Crags.  This was a really nice walk along a small stream with many places Rose and Xyla could cross the water on large stones placed for this purpose.  There was an old mill along the walk and we stopped here to explore.  The nearby town of Hebden Bridge was a good place for lunch and seemed to have an alt vibe to it.  

We arrived home in the early afternoon.  We all relaxed, had dinner and then went to bed.