Gorinchem's Citadel Walk with Hailey

 

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.

Right then, at the beginning of our walk, was the first of 3 cannons.

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.]

Kinderdijk's Illumination Week 2024

 

The Lighting Week of Kinderdijk's 19 windmills (a UNESCO World Heritage site) is a small window, which this year was September 2-7, Monday-Saturday, during a rainy period.  It was our first ever experience (a gift from dear friends Femke and Jeannette for Astrid's 70th birthday and cat-sitting) and ended up being that Friday the 6th, after all the previous days were too unpredictable.

As it was, we still got some rain at the beginning of our 2-hour motor-boat tour, but NOTHING RAINED ON OUR PARADE!

Just SEE and BELIEVE!

Femke and Jeannette picked us up at 6:45 p.m. for our drive to Alblasserdam (26 km from home) to pick up the boat rental at their favorite restaurant there.  By 7:15 we were in the boat and our way for a magical experience.

As you can tell by the beginning photos, it was on-again off-again rain

(from Astrid's side with her iPhone 15 Pro Max camera)...

and also from my side with my iPhone 15 Pro Max camera.

Femke was our happy and most capable captain!

Femke and Jeannette had ordered duck rolls and sushi for the occasion,

which was a great way to start the tour...first with the duck rolls.

(Thanks to Astrid for these shots.)

There are 2 bridges on this 2-hour tour along the canal, with windmills on both sides.

This is the first bridge near the restaurant, while it was still light but overcast.

In past years it was sunny and nearing sunset at this time of the day,

but WE got the moody skies, which Astrid and I loved and even preferred.

Once crossing under the first bridge, and looking back, of course, we looked ahead to this one:

And that's where we docked.

Astrid was Femke's willing co-captain, of course,

and, as you see, this is when it started getting dark...

And when we ate the sushi Femke and Jeannette ordered for the occasion!

We had already eaten the duck rolls at the beginning, remember?!

While sitting there, we watched other boats coming to join us at the end of the line,

getting darker and darker by the minute.  Then we left and looked back.

It was a lazy hour cruising back to the restaurant.

THIS is what we had come to see.

And this, as we returned to Alblasserdam...

followed by the first bridge of the tour, now full of spectators.

It was 9:30 p.m. when we ended where we started, back at the restaurant.

What an experience!  What a celebration!  

What a memory at one of our favorite places on earth!

THANK YOU, Femke and Jeannette.  We'll never forget it!

A Mini-Break in Spa, Belgium

 

And a mini-post (ha!) to remember it by, for the record!

It was a Monday to Friday mini-vacation, August 26-30, that was a total of 615 km/382 mi. roundtrip.  The direct back-n-forth actual mileage was 450 km/278 mi., which means the sight-seeing mileage was 165 km/103 mi.  Just perfect for that amount of time.  And, yes, we keep details like that.  LOL.

Before we got to Spa, Astrid found 3 (count them!) BELGIAN windmills for us to see, just because she knows I have a thing for windmills everywhere we can find them.

Windmill #1:  the Sevens post corn mill in Overpelt, Belgium, built in 1745/1853:

Windmill #2:  the Lisle tower corn mill in Sint-Huibrechts-Lille, Belgium, built in 1820/1908: 

Windmill #3:  Lemmens tower corn mill, in Kinrooi, Belgium, built in 1856:

This was my favorite.

After the windmills, we even visited the Church of Our Lady in Sint-Truiden:

And even though I DID take pics of other ususal suspects inside the church (pulpit, organ, nave, etc.), these ornamental, carved faces (23 of them) at the tops or nooks or corners of pillars everywhere totally grabbed my attention:

Do they have a name?  I have no clue.

After that, we headed to Spa, our home base, where we stayed at the Van de Valk hotel in the middle of the city for 4 nights.  Situated in a valley in the Ardennes mountains, it is a tourist attraction known for its mineral springs and production of Spa mineral water since 1583, exported worldwide.  I first learned about the water here in the Netherlands where its bottled water is known as Spa rood (red cap = sparkling water) and Spa blau (blue cap = still water).

But here's the fun part:  after a competition in 1923, Spa's logo has been the leap-frogging Pierrot...  

...who greets you as you enter the city!

So, the main memory of Spa for both Astrid and me will always be the city walk we took to find the 11 Pierrots around the city in honor of his 100-year anniversary last year:

(In the middle row above it's the same Pierrot, to show also the side view.)

This one's my favorite...

with Astrid giving it scale.

That was Monday!

On Tuesday we drove to nearby Liège (Luik in Dutch), 102 km/63 roundtrip, mainly to see its famous staircase called Montagne de Bueren: 

Because it has 374 steps, there was no way we planned to climb up or even down it.

But we did want to see it both ways, so we started at the top and got this view of the city.

"Thank you for visiting without screaming."  :)

And then later, when we were down in the city, we looked back up.

"Thank you for your quiet visit."

The staircase is named after Vincent de Bueren, who defended Liège against an attack by the Duke of Burgundy,

Charles the Bold in the 15th century.  It was built in 1881 to honour the 600 soldiers who died in battle.  (Wiki)

The other thing we made sure we saw was the early 12th century baptismal font inside the Collegiate Church of St. Bartholomew which had been spared from the French Revolutionary Army and is now considered one of the Seven Wonders of Belgium. 

As a baptismal font, all the scenes depict baptisms.

On Wednesday morning we walked the Spa route to find all the Pierrots (described above) and then drove to nearby Coo (47 km/29 mi. roundtrip) to see the waterfalls that Astrid had seen with her parents when she was 12.  

The waterfalls is 15 meters high and was created in the 18th century

by cutting off a meander from the river Amblève.

The is the river side of the falls...

and looking out from the bridge to the area beyond.

Totally worth seeing a piece of Astrid's Memory Lane!

On Thursday, our last full day, we drove to Dinant (174 km/108 mi. roundtrip) which also is a piece of history from when Astrid was 12.  

On our way, we stopped at a specialty food store with a wine cellar, where I got these pics.

You know me!

We then spent the rest of the day in Dinant, on the Meuse/Maas river.

The Collegiate Church of Our Lady from the 13th century is it's main landmark...

but so are it's colored houses alone the bank of the Meuse/Maas river.

In fact, somewhere under those black umbrellas we ate lunch.

As you see, yes, we took the cable car to get the overview from the Citadel of Dinant.

During our 5-day, 4-night stay, we enjoyed the kind of food we love, with an incredible breakfast every morning at the Van der Valk.  

What can I say except that "we should do this more often," like daughter Amy often said when little.

Sometimes the mini-breaks like this are as good if not better than the big breaks.

As we get older, we pay attention to this.