I usually don’t post much about places where we stay, as most of the time they are simple apartments or houses we find online for an affordable price. This time around, I had a hard time finding something decent for a good price. Since we have a large family and a limited travel budget, I have to be very thorough in my accommodation search…and it was taking me longer than usual to find a suitable place in Holland.
Finally, I stumbled upon Mariahoeve Cottages, which actually is a working farm with three cottages available for rent through out the year. We got the last house available for the dates we needed—Zommerhaus, or summer house. Our little place was just perfect for our family!
It had a living room downstairs with everything we need and a view on the canal.
Kitchen was definitely a very interesting place, with its rustic old fireplace and low ceiling.
The stairs leading upstairs were C-R-A-Z-Y! Our kids loved them, but they would be way to steep for anyone with little kids.
And upstairs, there was enough room on the large landing (sort of) for three single beds.
And then a good size bedroom was were we slept.
This is the outside of our cottage with this very funny looking tree in front of it. These trees were all over the country! I guess, people plant them right in front of the windows to create a natural curtain for privacy. I am sure they look beautiful with leaves.
The house also faced this beautiful river/canal/lake body of water. Its name is Wijde Aa that flowed into Braassemeer. We were allowed to use the rowboat, so Robert made a good use of it taking the kids out to the lake.
Well that is not it! The most exciting part was in the middle of the farmyard! The owners had a whole bunch of four-wheelers, tricycle, wagons, whatever, for kids to play with, plus that cool trampoline and a slide.
And the farm had very happy cows! Eating grass and munching their dessert. They had fields and fields of grass all around the farm, lots of tractors and lots of other animals.
Mark went exploring (and found these goats). He, apparently, was also just jumping on the trampoline when the old farmer (dad of the owner of the cottages) invited him to go feed baby calves from a huge “baby” milk bottle! I wasn’t even there, but Mark said he loved it!
We do wish we had more time to just hang out at the farm. The owners actually offer kids’ tour of the farm to see how everything works, but we were too busy exploring other parts of Holland.
I am so glad I found this place—it was fun and relaxing and just typical of how Dutch farmers live. The place was so peaceful and natural. It was great for kids to see how hard farmers work!
Well, that was a nice sidetracked post. Now we are back to Day 2 of our Dutch trip.
Lyana.
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