This post has been a long time coming, since Saturday, March 22, when we drove to nearby Giessenburg to visit friends, Natasha, and her mother Margreeth.
And, because we went to see their very unique museum in town, I'm making two posts of this afternoon visit, this first one being of everything but the museum. The museum post will come right after this one, same day.
So, Giessenburg! It's only 6 km west of us here in Gorinchem and with only 5K inhabitants. It's delightful...one of those best-kept secrets just waiting to be visited! We went for high tea, but started out first with a walk to see the town.
The river Giessen runs right through the town, with the Reformed Church a landmark.
It was such a gorgeous, sunny day, so I was snapping right and left.
These fields were visible from right off the main road.
No shortage of spring pomp and circumstance everywhere we looked!
And so many weathervanes in the space of just a few minutes' walk!
I was in heaven.
Margreeth and Natasha wanted us to see De Graanbuurt indoor village of shops.
Part of the fun is that their son/brother helped build it!
See the stairs to the 2nd-floor green shop?
That's where we had latte macchiatos in their sweet little café.
Have you ever seen a bathroon sink like this???
Talk about a photo op! The ladies knew we'd love it.
Over the nearby canal, both coming and going, we passed something new for me.
It's a duck nesting basket. I had to go to Giessenburg to see my first one?!
Back at their home, after the trip into town and a visit to the museum (following this post),
we experienced my first high tea here in Dutchland at someone's home.
Yup, exactly what you see, with all kinds of goodies. I'm such a sucker for scones!
And that's Natasha's ear, with 14 earrings. Her other ear has 15. :)
It was a fabulous afternoon and such a pleasant surprise, not only because of delightful Giessenburg,
but because I felt like we made two new friends. Natasha is Astrid's co-worker,
and now we're getting to know her mother, a bit younger than both of us. HA!
And because of them, we're going to buy the one-year museum card to start visiting real museums.
More on that at another time but it'll give us free entrance to many museums all over Dutchland.
♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥
As a parting shot, here's a collage of the tulips here at the senior complex where we live.
Flower beds of pansies outside and inside the courtyard house these beauties.
This IS Holland, after all...and they're all blooming now!
Being invited for an High Tea sounds great and I will tell a secret, it was great. The whole afternoon was a delight, first the treat to go to the Graanbuurt and afterwords all the goodies and treats.
ReplyDeleteThank you Margreeth and Natasha for this all and thank you Ginnie for making all these impressions into another valuable memory to keep.
This Saturday we will buy the Museum Year-card and start enjoying the Museums in towns we will visit.
I'm so glad we have this ability to journal about our memories in this way. (And now that I know how to spell Natasha's name, I will correct it in my text. HA!) I am so glad we found out about the museum card. It is clearly a good deal and will be used often in this next fiscal year. YAY!
DeleteI'm crossing my fingers that the museums will let you take a few photos…. how exciting and you will enjoy those tickets! The duck basket is charming and the "hight tea" is just fun to say! Tulips - love them.
ReplyDeleteWe are actually excited about our museum card, Margaret, which we have now used once, at our nearby open-air museum. Even the Rijksmuseum, which we plan to see in a couple weeks, allows photography, so I'm hopeful we'll have much success in that department everywhere! Now churches will not be our only museums. HA!
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