The British are Coming

HA!  And just like that...they came, they saw, and they conquered a smattering of what it is to be Dutch!

Chad (l) and Chris (r) are longtime Shutterchance friends we see every year in England.

Surely you remember Chris from our times on the farm.

They arrived at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport late Tuesday afternoon last week,

after which we headed straight for our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant out in the polder.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

After breakfast the next morning, Wednesday, we took a walk around our citadel city-center.

Chad's wife's name is Norma, so how serendipitous to see a barge with her name in our city!

We even had a nice rain during our two-hour walk.  Refreshing.

We love our city!

After an erwtensoep lunch, we did a long drive along the dijk on our side of the Merwede river,

before crossing the Zaltbommel bridge and stopping at the Loevestein castle across the river from us.

Who can say NO to a good, strong castle, almost in our backyard!  Moat included.

What's fun about it is that's it's very interactive.  Can you tell?

Kids of all ages love to play around there.

On our way home from the castle, we stopped in Woudrichem, the city next door.

We see her church across the river from us...our sister city, and nicely quaint.

That evening we had Astrid's spinach AND apple taarts for supper.  Lucky us!

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 First thing on Thursday morning we headed off along another dijk to this WWII Bunker 599 from 1940.

It's been split in half so you can see inside it.  Most educational for us all.

Then we stopped at Werk aan het Spoel, a stop on the Waterlinie for the water taxis.

It and the bunker were both firsts for Astrid and me.

Then we were on our way to Wijk bij Duurstede, one of our standbys for visitors.

But we first stopped in Culemborg to see their ornate city hall (bottom-center),

and after Wijk bij Duurstede to see Buren.  They'll all in the same vicinity!

It's the drive-through windmill and the Duurstede castle that we keep going back to.

We love that place.  

We ate breakfast at home each day (top image), of course,

but that night we went out on the town where we live in Gorinchem and had a blast.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The next day, Friday, we had till late afternoon before getting the gents back to the airport.

So we headed north of the airport to another favorite city, Hoorn, where we ate lunch and walked around.

And then one last stop before the airport...at the Schermer windmill museum "below sea level."

It was the first time inside a Dutch windmill for the guys, to see how it works

and how people can actually live in one.

In fact, it was the best thing to save till last because the one thing they said most surprised them

was to see how much of the Netherlands really IS below sea level.  While driving on the dijks you can actually see it...with water high on one side of the dijk and dry land way below it on the other side.

Yes, Folks.  This is the Netherlands.

God created the world but the Dutch created Holland.

And once you realize Schiphol airport used to be land under water, you finally get it!

For Bill and Ange

On my Shutterchance photoblog (where Astrid and I met virtually back in 2007, remember?) will be the following collage tomorrow, in honor of Bill and Ange's 4-day visit with us from England this past weekend:

It's a nice little overview of what we did/saw.  All thumbs up!
[click any collage to enlarge]

Bill is one of The Three Stooges on Shutterchance, along with Chris and Chad (who come to visit in September, sans wives).  Chris is the one with whom we've stayed the last 2 years in Bath, England.  As you see, our little blogging community has reaped many wonderful benefits.

So, on Friday morning Astrid and I drove to Schiphol airport in Amsterdam to pick up our guests.  And because seeing Amsterdam was on their list of wishes, we decided to "do" it that day.

Even the airport is a photo op, you know!

We were especially happy that I AMSTERDAM was waiting for us as we departed the terminal.

From the airport we drove to the AJAX soccer arena to park

and then headed to city center via the Metro...first to eat lunch before, anything else,

at De Drie Graefjes (The Three Counts) near the Dam and the Royal Palace.

We all had uitsmijters...to start off some Dutch "introductions."

Then we took a one-hour boat tour around city center to get an overview.

Just what the doctor ordered...before continuing on foot.

There's so much to see in Amsterdam!  How do you pick-n-choose when you have only a couple hours?

We chose to zig-zag our way to see the Rijksmueum, as well as the Van Gogh and Concert Hall nearby...

before ending up at the one Wagamama I know like the back of my hand...

and then headed back to the arena to get the car and drive home to Gorinchem.

That was Friday, the warmest and sunniest day of the year to date!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

On Saturday, after breakfast, we had another agenda but not nearly as taxing as Amsterdam.  Good!

Our first stop was the Wijnhandel van Ouwerkerk wine shop in nearby Arkel.

It, too, is a photo op and one all photographer visitors will have to see when they come.

(We took Robin when she was with us last October, remember?)

From there we drove to Buren, less than 20 miles away, with ties to Dutch royalty.

The Prins van Oranje windmill, from 1716, was open to visitors so Bill got to see the inner workings.

(Ange is afraid of heights...just like Peggy when she and Bob visited us 2 years ago!)

Our main destination of the day was Wijk bij Duurstede to see the castle and drive-thru windmill.

By now some of you old-timers here will probably recognize these places!

We ate lunch at De Engel, our favorite café there, which never disappoints.

First the windmill, lunch at the café, the castle...and then home via the back roads.

That evening for supper Astrid made her famous spinach and apple tarts.  LUCKY US!

Afterwards we watched "Casablanca" on the couch...my first time from beginning to end!

It happens to be one of Bill's favorite movies and we had just bought it for €1 at our Open Harbor Day!

Another wonderful, sunny, full day.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Sunday was our last full day together, so we decided to stay relatively close to home, driving along our side of the Merwede river before crossing over to see the castle and sister city we can see from our citadel wall.

On the way we stopped by the stork village to see the "spring love."

Bill and Ange said later it was probably the highlight of the trip for them.

Have you ever seen storks?  They're a protected species in the Netherlands!

(I threw in the old Fiat and 3-wheeled motorcycle for fun.)

The Loevestein Castle is a medieval castle from 1357.

We can actually see it from across the river when we take walks here at home!  Seriously.

It was a good place to eat a light lunch of asparagus soup.

Just what the doctor ordered.

Then we explored...and had fun.  It's an interactive castle!

And as you see, it was another sunny day...but cooler than the first 2 days.  Perfect.

Then we drove to Woudrichem, Gorinchem's sister city across the river, and 2 miles from the castle.

One thing Bill mentioned over and over again:  water is everywhere!  It's so true.  

No matter where you go in the Netherlands, there will definitely be water nearby!
Water and dikes.

By that point we were ready to go back home to rest an hour before supper 

at our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant out in the polder.

We ordered 4 different pannenkoeken:

shoarma with pineapple and cheese

chicken ragout with curry

farmer's tomato, ham, onion, pepper, and cheese

goat's cheese, honey, bacon and grapes

We each ate a quarter and passed the plates for the next quarter.

OMG.

That evening we ate the last of Astrid's apple tart and watched "The Adjustment Bureau."

Another full day!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

On Monday morning, we stayed at home and took a walk around our citadel city where we live, here in Gorinchem.  

Last but not least...we wanted to show off where we live.

We LOVE our city.  We LOVE where we live.

And we're thankful whenever we have the time (vacation days for Astrid!) to entertain visitors.

We ate erwtensoep (pea soup) with roggerbrood (rye bread) and brie for lunch, 

before leaving for the airport.

We were so determined to give them a real taste of Dutch life.

And we did!  What a great visit! Thank you, Bill and Ange.

All thumbs up!

For Bob and Peggy

In my last post I mentioned we had just had our first overnight guests ever to our apartment here in Gorinchem, Netherlands. For 5 days and 4 nights, we had the pleasure of their company!

Peggy goes back to my assisted-living days, when she was our Executive Director. Lucky for me, and I might add with some surprise, after we both retired we kept in touch, meeting for lunch once a month. Somewhere in there, she, who had been widowed, married Bob, who had been single for years after his divorce, with two grown children. I had the good fortune of attending their wedding 7 years ago and ever since, it's been a delightful acquaintance. Peggy often was my confidant when I needed a listening ear and both have been there for Astrid and me from the get-go, supporting us and waving us on to victory, sometimes before anyone else was able.

So it's appropriate they were our first guests! This post is for them.

Our apartment is a one-bedroom apartment with no sofabed, so it's lucky for us that our complex here has 2 guest bedrooms available directly across our courtyard.

Every day we could watch them come-n-go...
(click any image/collage to enlarge)

...for breakfast, first, and then for whatever else was on the agenda after power naps!

That Wednesday when we picked them up at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport (first collage above), we scheduled nothing but a walk around half of our citadel to give them the lay of our land.

I've already taken you on this walk, remember?


See how we celebrated afterwards?! Italian ijs.

That was Wednesday. After a good night's sleep and a good breakfast, we spent Thursday in nearby Culemborg, Wijk bij Duurstede, and Buren, all cities we've visited and wanted them to see.

In Culemborg we wanted them to see the gate and city hall as you can see here from 2010.
As it was, we spent more time at the gate and only peeked at the city hall (seen through the gate in the bottom left-hand corner above).


The biggest thrill for me, however, was seeing this De Hoop windmill from 1854 being painted outside the city gate. It was a first for me.

Then we continued on to Wijk bij Duurstede, our main destination of the day. We just had to show them the world's only drive-through windmill, which we saw in April of 2010.

Yup, Bob and Peggy are in our car (Granny Towanda). They drove through!


Then, on to the Duurstede castle a short walk away...


...where a wedding was actually taking place!
We had read that this castle was often used for weddings, so we were delighted to see it.
(BTW, if an image is Astrid's, I'm adding an 'A' to identify it in my collages now.)

We decided to make one more city stop on our way home and made it Buren from our time there in March of 2010. Some places nearby really impressed us that much, to show them off.

But the surprise of the day was when we walked to De Prins van Oranje windmill....


...and found it was open for us to tour, on a Thursday!
Talk about a gift for Bob who loves to see how things work! It closed right after we left.
(I won't mention that Peggy is afraid of heights and didn't walk up to the top with us.)

We had had a long day....

...but still stopped at our Gorinchem second-hand store before supper that evening.
We are often surprised by little goodies that are vintage and Dutch!

That was Thursday. On Friday, we had a 2 p.m. tour scheduled at the nearby Trappist brewery, but first Astrid headed us to a new city for me, Heusden:


To be honest, it's like a sweet little tourist town! And it's a citadel city, like Gorinchem.


Full of gevelstenen, too! I was in heaven.


But it was the harbor and the windmills to die for.
First, the Nr. 1 windmill from 1971....


...and Nr. II behind it, from 1973. What creative names, right?!

All that before our brewery tour at the Abdij Koningshoeven near Tilburg! Remember when we were there this past February? This time we took the tour because Bob just happens to be a beer connoiseur and even makes his own beer!

Before the tour started, Bob and Peggy sampled the beer.


Then the tour...only 6 of us plus the guide, speaking English...


...followed by another beer that came with the package! No, we're not drunk yet.


And then another beer with our meal. Still not drunk!


Maybe it was the monks sitting outside. Maybe it's just good beer!

You'll be glad to hear that we basically did nothing on Saturday instead of what we had originally planned. We took it easy and finished the remainder of the citadel walk we had already started on Wednesday.

Enough photo-ops to last a lifetime.
And this time Bob treated us to a refreshing drink on our market square,
not far from the ice-cream cones we had had on Wednesday. Full circle.


Astrid propped up her camera and did the timer thing. I love it!


That evening we celebrated our "last supper" at our favorite pannenkoeken place.

And then on Sunday we drove them back to Amsterdam for their Viking River Cruise to Basel, which they just finished yesterday before flying back to Atlanta:

They said their time with us was a good appetizer. It was Peggy's first time in Europe.
And guess what WE now want to do, as soon as we are able! HA!
That Viking boat really looked nice. Only 200 passengers.

Talk about a great visit, chock-full of the things we love best! Thank you, Bob and Peggy, for coming. We still can't believe the time came and went so fast. Here's till the next time!

And to our next visitors. Who will it be?