First of all, when we babysit granddaughter Hailey, who is now 6 years old, it's usually on a Wednesday afternoon (a Dutch universal school break till age 12) when we take her to our Knitting Club and Astrid works on a crafty project with her. The ladies absolutely love her...and she them. They've all become g'mas to her.
This time (this past Wednesday), however, was a Teachers Day, giving the students the entire day off, and because Papa wasn't able to be home with her, we got to have her the full day for our first time ever.
And to make sure we took care of her energy factor (!), we made sure to take her outside for a Gorinchem citadel walk before lunch that morning. We assumed we would NOT do the entire 3-mile walk, not because we/she couldn't do it but because we'd be stopping all along the way at every whip-stitch. And we were right!
We had a blast:
Most of you already know that we start the walk just a few feet from our back door.
In fact, that's one of our city's parking garages across the street from us.
We always start with the war bunkers (from even Napoleonic times).
And as we guessed, Hailey had to climb up and down them all!
That little girl has no fear whatsoever. A total dare-devil.
But, as Astrid says, she has learned to be cautious, calculating everything she can or can't do.
Hailey always knows a good photo-op when she sees one.
After the first bunkers is one of my favorite parts of the walk, under the humongous sycamore trees.
And yes, eagle-eye Hailey noticed the birdhouses on her own!
After the sycamores, we cross the street to a next set of bunkers by the outer harbor.
See the little, round brass medallion on the bricks? That's a citadel marker for Gorinchem.
At this point, we're at the second cannon of our walk, atop a bunker
and pointing out to the Merwede river not far away.
See what I mean about our little dare-devil!
This is Gorinchem's outer harbor, beyond which is the Merwede river...
to which we're walking, but wait...another cannon!
Can you see it in red, dead center? Squint!
Our third and last cannon of the walk...in sight of the Merwede river!
Way out beyond the harbor (if you squint again) is one of the barges on the Merwede,
traveling either to Germany (left) or Rotterdam (right).
Since Astrid and Hailey were ahead of me, Astrid said "Let's wait here for Oma Ginnie."
To which Hailey said, "That's a good idea because I have tired legs."
Off we went again, of course, when Astrid noticed Hailey's snotty nose.
Each time Hailey blew, Astrid said, nog een keer (= again), to which Hailey counted with her fingers.
Don't you just love it!
As though anyone needed to be told, yes, here's another photo/foto-op,
this time of the Toll House from 1598.
It was exactly there that Hailey spontaneously said we needed to make a selfie.
As you'd guess, this girl lives and breathes photos being taken all the time, her entire life!
On that note, it was time to head home, halfway around the citadel.
But not before Oma Astrid treated us all to ice cream at the water port on the Merwede river!
Time now to head home past the inner harbor...
through town...
with a final "last-hurrah" of selfies.
Home to eat lunch and then Knitting Club. HA!
Are we tired yet or what!
So, yes, it was only half the citadel, but as ex-Bill often said,
"Half a loaf is better than no vacation at all."
[Photo credit: While most of these photos are from me, many are also from Astrid, all from our iPhone 15 Pro Max cameras.]
