A Giessen River Boat Ride

Do you ever feel that sometimes you have way too much fun?!  HA!

Well, this is one of those times, almost 3 weeks ago, when Astrid and I joined our friends, Margreeth (mother) and Natascha (daughter), for a Saturday's boat ride on our nearby Giessen river, just 7.5 km from home.

It so happens that Margreeth's brother, who lives in Giessenburg, owns an electric-motor boat.

Out of the goodness and generosity of his heart, along with his wife, we had access to it for the day. 

(Notice that I have a photo of them and their house...but not the boat!)

Here's the collage I put up on Facebook of Natascha's iPhone images.

(Did I mention it was a hot day and I had to keep myself covered from the blistering sun?)

Think about 4.5 hours of lazily cruising the Giessen river...the operative word being lazily.

Just ogling the real estate along the way was worth the trip.

Location.  Location.  Location.  (right?)

We watched mamas and papas along the way feeding their babies. 

It was educational.

(Have you ever seen a great crested grebe that wasn't soaked to the skin?)

Speaking of eating, we did our own thing right there on the boat.

A picnic on a boat!

Everything else was frosting on the cake.

What you see is what you get when you are lazily passing by.

We especially enjoyed seeing the Ons Museum from the river, which we had visited in 2014.

But to be honest, it was the cows who made my day, there at the water's edge.

By now, back away from the water, our earth is parched for lack of rain and the heat.

The cows teach us about how to deal with this extreme weather, right?

And then it was the windmill at the far end before we turned back.

It's the Oudendijkse Molen from 1683.

What is it about windmills!

I put this collage on Facebook today and someone said Astrid looked like a little girl!

I think all 4 of us (each with our turn at the helm) were little girls that day.

I even got my "fix" of weathervanes, all from the boat.
(Most of these I've shown before.)

Let's just say we had the Life of Riley that day...

thanks to the generosity of dear friends.

The Museum in Giessenburg, NL

Two posts in one day, one right after the other, seemed to make sense this time around so as to keep two things separate...and yet somehow connected.

We were in nearby Giessenburg in March to have high tea with Margreeth and Natasha.  That was my first post here.  During the afternoon, we walked into town and, among other things, visited the museum, down the street from De Graanbuurt.  It deserved it's own post, I decided.

First of all, it's huge and a bit of a...well...an intriguing look of the former old grain mill.

It belongs to the extended Boer family, some of whom live there and keep the place running.

It's a privately-run museum with all the contents on display collected by the family over 50+ years!

They call it Ons Museum:  Our Museum.
And yes, that's Gorinchem's Grote Kerk 6 km away, captured from the top floor!

I don't know where or how to begin.  HELP!

No sooner do you call for Help and the 80-year-young matriarch, Mrs. Boer Sr., appears.

She can tell you anything and everything you'd ever want to know.

Like, for instance, how these phonographs work!

How about vintage toys?  To your heart's delight!

Did I mention that we first climbed to the top floor of the building from the outside staircase 

because that's where the museum is.  So after we finished sailed through the museum part, 

we turned a corner and  found a set of steps to start our trip downstairs.

Don't ask; don't tell.

Enough doors to sink a ship...and yours to buy, if you brought your right measurements.

Do you like junk?  Someone's trash, your treasure?

It was hard to know where the museum left off and the "for sale" started.  HA!

See what I mean?

To tell you the truth, I had no clue what was museum and what was store at that point.

I do know that some of this was for sale, as we got closer to the ground entrance.

Welcome to Ons Museum...Our Museum.

I 'spect it's one of Giessenburg's best-kept secrets because I hadn't heard of it in my 4+ years here,

and it's only 6 km from home.

Guess where we'll now take all our photographer friends when they visit!  HA!

A Saturday in Giessenburg, NL

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!