Ayush in Our Own Backyard

Remember Ayush?  Ayush from India, living in Singapore, and sometimes working in Venlo, NL.  Yes.  THAT Ayush.

This past weekend we had the good fortune of showing him around our own backyard when he took the train to visit us for an overnight.  Lucky for us, our senior complex here has a guest room across the courtyard from us, so it all worked out splendidly.

Astrid and I drove to Geldermalsen to pick him up at the train station.  He could have come all the way to Gorinchem
but this gave us an extra hour by driving to another station, without him having to change trains again.

Besides, Geldermalsen was near the stork village we wanted him to see...our first stop.

Even Astrid still gets excited by storks, though having grown up with them.

I had never seen a real one till I moved here!

Then we drove along the dijk to Brakel, to catch the ferry across the Merwede river,
saving us miles and time for the rest of our day.

The first big stop across the river was the Loevestein castle from 1361.

Those who've followed me for awhile should recognize it, right?!

It's one of those child-friendly castles, catering to Kids of all ages.

Ayush was a good sport!

What's there not to love about a real castle!

For one thing, they have a way of working up your appetite.

So we drove to nearby Woudrichem for lunch at our favorite De Stroming restaurant.

Woudrichem is Gorinchem's sister city across the river from us, remember?

The Nooit Gedagt windmill there is where Astrid gets her flours for our bread machine.

It's also where you can climb to the top...which Ayush and Astrid did.

Woudrichem has a picturesque harbor, too, so it was the ideal place to end our first day.

At home that evening we watched a good movie while eating peanuts in the shell.

Ayush was in Rome and followed suit like a very good gentleman!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

The next day, Sunday, was another "see what's in our backyard" kind of day.

From our back door (top-right), we started the walk around Gorinchem's citadel.

I couldn't be prouder of where we live here in the Netherlands!

We actually wouldn't have to go anywhere ever for how beautiful our city is.

(But you didn't hear me say that, of course.)

Another windmill, De Hoop, allows climbing to the top.

For having never been inside a windmill, Ayush really lucked out...two in one weekend!

What is it about water and boats and harbors?

We ended up in city center to visit inside the protestant Grote Kerk, two blocks from our apartment.

And because the Italian ice cream shop is there on the square, we did our thing

before heading back home...before heading out again by car.

It was time to drive out into the polder to our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant.
Liddle lamzy diveys were skipping about all over the place, so we had to stop.

I especially loved watching the two who were inseparable the entire time.
It doesn't get much cuter than that.

And, yes, we each chose a different pannenkoek and shared one-third of each.

YUM YUM YUM

And then, for the grand finale, we drove to Kinderdijk, the UNESCO site of 19 windmills.

I hope you never tire of this place because this won't be the last time you'll see it from me,

God willing and the creek don't rise.

It was the Golden Hour already, time to take Ayush back to the train station.

What a great visit from such a kind, generous, considerate young man.

We'd do it again in a heartbeat, Ayush, so THANK YOU from the bottom of our hearts.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I told sister, Ruth, that this was a dry run for the two days she and hubby will be with us in July.

If it works for you, it works for us!

Mozart in Rehearsal

One thing that happens almost every Saturday morning when we're not gone for the day, is that Astrid goes out walking in the city center to see what's going on, usually around the open market.  If something catches her eye, she'll come back and tell me about it so I can see it, too.

What a woman!

So, back on Saturday, 19 September, she came across Mozart himself and his cohorts, inviting everyone to an open rehearsal at the Grote Kerk for his Requiem.

And what Astrid discovered was that anyone could join the choir or sit and listen/observe.
(Astrid's images above)

Guess what!

Ginnie had sung Mozart's Requiem back in Columbia, SC, days (1970-71),

while in the Columbia Choral Society.

So it didn't take any convincing to go check it out!

You remember the inside of our Grote Kerk, right?  

I love the openness.  The brightness.

The white against the green.

So we stayed for awhile to watch and listen.

And yes, Mozart was there, being the rascal he always is.

The gray hairs really caught my eye.  HA!

They all clearly knew what they were doing...bringing back the good ol' days for me.

Here's a listen and a look at the entire scene that day.
Heavenly!  And right at our doorstep!
[Addendum:  a day after uploading this video, I got a message from Vimeo saying
they had added it to their Classical Music channel (one of 286 videos).  WOW!]

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

You can imagine the complete shock of our lives, after all that inspiration, when we went afterwards to our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant out in the polder.  Astrid was the one who first noticed the counter....

The owner's wife, who we saw and chatted with every time we were there,

had died during heart bypass surgery the night before.

She was only 73.  And Nicholas had met her in July.

The strange thing is that we don't even know her name.

But we know her son, Marco, who is a photographer and one of their cooks.

You could safely say we're still reeling from the fragility of life felt that day.

But as we all know, life goes on.

Other than the stork losing its head (???), Mother Nature was humming.

The cows in the polder seemed extra friendly that day.

Or maybe our hearts were more tender than usual and they sensed it?

Even the weathervanes that day seemed to hold extra significance,

like the old-timey wood planer (bottom-left) that carpenter-preacher Dad often used.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I don't normally post on a Tuesday but there's a reason:

bright and early tomorrow we leave for our Amsterdam flight to Atlanta

on our annual get-away to see my kids and friends.

Don't know if I'll post here again before we return on the 28th,

but I'll definitely be on Facebook.

Ta-da for now....

DORDRECHT, NL: Open Monument Day 2015

In case you happen to remember, every year there is a weekend in September that is Open Monument Day, when over 4,000 "monuments" nationwide, not normally open to the public, are available to visit for free.

We already know where we're going next year (ha!) but this year, we decided to go to nearby Dordrecht, since King Alexander and Queen Maxima had chosen it for their King's Day visit in April.  It's only 25 km from where we live here in Gorinchem...and, yes, we have been there before, in 2010, for Dordt in Stoom.

It used to be that Open Monument Day was only on Saturday, but starting last year, it's now also on Sunday...the day we chose to go to Dordrecht.

First of all, Dordrecht is a harbor city that is an island, bordered by 4 rivers,

and is the oldest of the North and South Holland provinces, granted city rights in 1220.

Pay attention to that Grote Kerk = Big/Great Church.  (Wiki image)

Did you pay attention to the Grote Kerk in the aerial view?

We parked on the other side of a canal from it...but did not visit it that day,

having already seen it previously.

Notice the absence of a spire...because they ran out of funds in the day!

The main portal into the city from the Oude Maas river is near the Grote Kerk.

From there, as you'd guess, there are canals everywhere throughout the city.

We actually were on a mission that day, to see two of the "monuments" that caught our eye in our research but ended up catching 4 altogether:

1:  The Augustijnenkerk (The Augustine Church)

This was one of the unexpected  "accidents" of the day.

It used to be an Augustinian monastery from 1293, becoming a reformed church in 1572.

I fell in love with the bluish-green and red colors against the white walls and pillars.

2:  Atelier Gerhard Lentink

You could safely say this was our biggest "accident" of the day, 

the workshop of this wood sculptor in what used to be a Catholic boy's school from 1906.

I think our jaws were on the floor the entire time we were there.

These wood sculptures are beyond incredible.

Gerhard Lentink himself was present.

I bowed my "namaste" to him with tears in my eyes.

If you want to see more, check out this video that Astrid found.

3:  De Luthiers

Astrid really wanted to see this house of violin and guitar builders.

It was where the King and Queen had a violin made for one of their daughters.

Talk about a photo op.  Totally worth the stop.

4:  Rutte and Son Distillery

Believe it or not, this was our main mission of the day.

Friends of ours told us that Rutte & Zn had achieved an incredible honor worldwide:

two of their gins, a vodka and a jenever were voted the best in the USA.

 While Astrid and I aren't connoisseurs of such liquors, we wanted to take the tour.

There's always so much to see!

And, yes, we also got to taste, just to say we did it!

It was a fun way to end the day.

Of course, we were short of eyes in between our "monuments."

After all these years, Dutch architecture still amazes me.

As do the gable stones!

I never tire of them.

Or of the weathervanes.

You could say that "things" impress me, everywhere I look.

It's as it should be...because I love where I live!


As we returned to our car, this said it all!

And since I put it out there, we plan to visit the war prison in Breda next year, closed since 2014.

God willing and the creek don't rise, of course....