We take Sarah to a musical...in Holland

One of Jenna's best friends since elementary school has an older brother, Chad Hilligus, who is a professional singer/performer. He's done quite a bit of work as an opera singer, but earlier in 2009 he got the part of Tony (the lead male) in the European tour of West Side Story. This is a huge accomplishment for Chad, and since he was going to be travelling throughout the continent while we were here, we really wanted to see him. He started touring in the summer, but where he was never seemed to match up to our travel schedule.

He was supposed to be done in December, but luckily his tour got extended. The extension added a major run just outside of The Hague in the Netherlands, and we knew we had go. We were able to find cheap flights and a super cheap airport hotel, so we basically drug Sarah along with us, and decided to make a weekend of it.

Saturday, January 9th

We woke up pretty early and headed off for the airport. We had foolishly gone to dinner with Eric and Anne the night before, and although we had a really fun time with them, we didn't get home to start packing until close to 11:00, which put us to bed just a few hours before our 4:00 train to Gatwick. Needless to say we were pretty tired when we got on the plane. Luckily, we got a chance to nap...

We boarded the plane right on time, but due to some faulty equipment at the airport, they weren't able to push the plane out from the gate (apparently planes can't go in reverse). Anyway, we ended up sitting on the plane for 3 hours before we actually took off. This might have been a problem if we hadn't all three been completely knocked out for the first 2 1/2 hours of that!!

We arrived in Amsterdam pretty late, and ended up having to store our luggage at the airport and head straight for The Hague to catch our matinee performance. The show was incredible - Chad got us great seats in the 3rd row, and we felt pretty special having our free VIP seats right up front! It was all in English, and in fact a majority of the cast are Americans. It was funny, though, because they projected subtitles in Dutch above the stage for all those who didn't speak English. The whole cast did a great job, but of course Chad was by far the best of all of them. He is seriously amazing, and I hope that you'll one day know him as a household name (as much as any stage actor becomes a household name). I seriously suggest checking out http://www.chadhilligus.com/ to see/hear him.

We met up with Chad backstage after the show to meet a few other cast members and watch him fight off the crowd of fans (two teenage Dutch girls) before heading off to dinner. We went to a nearby pancake restaurant (Holland is famous for dinner pancakes) and had a great time catching up with Chad, who we haven't seen since college. It was fun to compare travel stories, as we've been to some of the same places. It was also really interesting to hear him talk about his experience as the star of West Side Story. He is apparently a HUGE celebrity in Japan.

We parted ways after dinner and headed back to the hotel. Jenna and I were a little star-struck with our old friend, Jenna even got his autograph, and wish him all the best as the West Side Story tour is now over and he's looking for the next big thing.

Sunday, January 10th

Since we had come over, we figured we shouldn't waste the trip and decided to spend the day in Amsterdam. First, though, we got to have breakfast with our friends Kirk and Reid Willingham. He works for Ernst & Young in Atlanta and came over to Brussels on the same program. They happened to be making a trip up to the Netherlands for the weekend, so we decided to get together.

We met the Willingham's briefly at our orientation in New York before we moved here, but we've really gotten to know each other through our blogs. Reid writes a great blog that covers all of their travels as well as nice tidbits about their experiences in Europe. They have a two year old daughter, and she still finds time to post entries almost daily. They also are superstars in their commitment to travel. We thought we travelled a lot until we started reading about everywhere that they go. In fact, we have planned more than one of our trips based on the trips that they have taken! Jenna also looks on them as role models for travelling with a child. She's always thought that "life" stops after children, but the Willingham's and a few others that we've seen around Europe have given her some hope.

Since they have a car, they came to our hotel for breakfast, and since the hotel wanted €20 each for their buffet, they were nice enough to deliver McDonalds as well. We had a good time hanging out in the hotel lobby for breakfast and catching up on all of our favorite travel experiences.

After breakfast they headed off to The Hague and we went into Amsterdam. Jenna and I had seen most of the main sites of Amsterdam back in May, so we told Sarah from the beginning that what we did was 100% up to her. Unfortunately for her, she was completely worn out from being drug across 5 countries in 2 continents, and didn't have the energy to research what to do. This was fortunate for us because we didn't have to revisit any sites, but we did feel bad that Sarah missed things like the Anne Frank House and Van Gogh Museum. We also felt bad that she ended up having to just do whatever we wanted.

We started this chilly day with an overview boat tour that took us through the canals and talked about the history of the city and pointed out some of the main sites. It was a little scary, because some of the canals were partially frozen and we could hear the ice crunching underneath as we went through. We were definitely crossing our fingers that we wouldn't have to end up swimming through the icy waters if the boat sank.

After the boat tour we went back to one of the most memorable spots from our May trip - Indonesian lunch. Just like last time - delicious! They bring out about 15 different small dishes and sides and everybody shares, and it is really good.

Our next and final stop was the Dutch Resistance Museum. It was devoted to the history of the Dutch during WWII - everything leading up to the war, their attempts to stay neutral, the eventual invasion by the Nazis, and the the light resistance that they offered, such as hiding Jews like Anne Frank. It was interesting and did show a different side of the war. The Dutch army had caved after just a few days fighting, and from then on they could really only work behind the scenes doing things like making fake passports and harboring fugitives. At one point Jenna leaned over and said, "I think I can sum up this museum by saying the Dutch were passive aggressive", which I think was spot on.

After leaving the museum we wandered through the center of town a little bit before heading back to the train station and off to the airport. We arrived with plenty of time, which turned into WAY too much time, as we were delayed, once again, by three hours. Apparently the plane flew from Germany to London to Amsterdam, and had been delayed quite a bit due to weather problems in Germany. Of course, when we checked the schedule before leaving for the airport it said it was on time, which was obviously false. You'd think they could have said from the beginning that it would be really late, so we could have seen more of the city, but I guess that is what you get with a budget airline. It turned out fine, as we were able to relax a little in the airport before heading back home.