Letters Home- The Netherlands

     My doll, Little Elecktra, is continuing her travel adventures and is now in Europe. She is currently staying with Anne Veeneman van der Weel. All of the photos in this post are by Anne. 

     Hi Mom!

          So I don't want to make you jealous... but I am in Europe! Though really, are you jealous (yes Little Elecktra, I am extremely jealous). I arrived several days ago and spent some time settling in. Anne has been an excellent hostess and so has Eline. Here we are out celebrating King's Day. Since you likely don't know I will tell you that King's Day is celebrated on April 27th and marks the date of the birth of King Willem-Alexander. The Netherlands are a constitutional monarchy (I know you learned at least a bit about those in school. Both when you were in school forever ago and as a para). Fun fact, since I know you like those, King's Day was Queen's day up until 2013 when Queen Beatrix abdicated. Queen's Day was celebrated on April 30th. Don't you love learning cool new things!

     I got to meet some of Eline's horses. This is not Kevin. His name is actually Cowboy Joe. He's a sweet horse. 

     This handsome guy is Makrand. I am helping Anne work on a project for him, but I will tell you about that in another letter. 

      It's only polite to help out with chores when you are visiting, you taught me that, and cleaning stalls is sort of fun. It's one of those chores where you can clearly see (and smell) the difference when you do a good job. 

     On a normal year Eline and I would have headed out to the King's day festivities which would have been flea markets, festivals, Crowds of people wearing orange (Willem-Alexander is of the House of Orange apparently, more cool facts!) and so much fun! This of course is not a normal year so Eline and I went for a ride, of course choosing orange saddle pads. 

     It has been an amazing visit so far and there is so much more I want to share. But for now I am going to go do more things and I will write more soon!

Love,

     Little Elecktra