After spending the morning in Hoorn, we drove to our next adventure: The Open Air Museum or the Openluchtmuseum. We had no idea what to expect from the name of the museum and were delighted to spend a few hours discovering this celebration of the history of everyday life in the Netherlands.

Taking the boat out to the museum, we travelled back in time, back to the early days of village life in Holland.

The magic of the Open Air Museum is it allows you to wander into a recreated past. Whole historic buildings have been relocated here, allowing you to steop into the actual homes that villagers, fisherman and merchants lived in.

To further the experience, you also encounter villagers going about their daily life activities, from laundry to gardening to smoking fish.

And, of course, the land tells the tale.  The word “idyllic” came to mind again and again as we experienced the natural beauty of Holland.

And the picture wouldn’t be complete without a windmill! Here my father-in-law Chris helps these youngsters spin a water device. After helping one young girl, the next wanted his help too!

It’s become a bit of a joke that no matter where I travel in the world, I am drawn to the animals and birds. I’m going to take pictures of ducks just like the ones we have at home and I’m going to be delighted to have an opportunity to pet friendly farm animals, no matter where we are.

And no matter where we go, half the fun is going to be capturing the moment in pictures.

This was my first full day of wearing my new teal adventure boots and I have to say that they were just perfect, so comfortable I didn’t think about them at all, except to take a picture!

And that’s a very good thing because I wouldn’t have wanted to miss out on one moment of beauty at the Open Air Museum in Holland. Plus, our adventure didn’t stop there!

We also stopped by the reconstruction of the famous Dutch East India Company (VOC) ship, The Batavia. As we arrived, I couldn’t help but notice that amazing sculpture on the right.

Wow! And the distractions continued because no matter how beautiful and historically significant the big Batavia was I couldn’t help but notice…

Bunnies! It turns out there was a whole warren in the shipyards. And it wouldn’t be the last time that we would stumble across rabbits on this trip! I have a feeling they had a message to deliver.

We finished off our day of adventure by travelling to the beautiful beach of Scheveningen. The breeze was strong, the air was fresh and the sunset was spectacular. We walked all the way out to the end of that pier and watched the sun dip into the sea.

All that was left was to enjoy a generous and delicious fish dish and a beer at the popular Simonis by the beach. Closing the place was the perfect end to a great day of adventure in Holland.