De Efteling

I've seen commercials all year for De Efteling, a popular amusement park in the Netherlands. I didn't think much of going, because the ads were annoying and I didn't know where it was, anyway.

Turns out, it's very close to Tilburg. And though it closes after the summer, it re-opens right around this time for a few weeks -- De Winter Efteling. Ruud suggested going. So we did.



Fun day. Cold. Fake snow on the trees. A skating rink. (Ruud refused to skate.) Free ear muffs with purchase of soup. The bigger roller coasters weren't running -- apparently it's too dangerous to do so in cold weather -- but there were a couple of little ones and other nice things. We got on the first roller coaster just as it started raining, so it turned out to be a water ride. Ruud was not enthused.



The highlight was a 3D movie (did you know they still do those? I didn't) by the World Wildlife Fund or Federation or whatever the "F" stands for. The monkeys kept batting oranges at our faces until I couldn't handle it. I reminded myself not to flinch and laughed at the guy sitting in front of me who did.