Daughter Amy in the Netherlands, 2024

 

You may recall that daughter Amy has visited us in the Netherlands twice now (in 2019 and in 2022), both times in conjunction with business trips to the Mercedes-Benz worldwide headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.  Lucky for her, it was mostly a trip on her company's dime!

THIS time, however, she came totally on her own...and just for her/because of us!  And guess what:  It was a week's visit, from Monday to Monday (March 25-April 1), ending with the Easter weekend.

Tuesday, March 26, her first full day after arrival from Atlanta, was our fullest, longest day out, mainly because it was the only day when rain wasn't predicted.  It was the day we drove to the North Sea, which Amy hadn't yet "experienced."  It's only 81 km from Gorinchem, where we live, to The Hague/Scheveningen, our goal for the day. 

But we decided to stop first in Gouda, halfway, for a koffie break

and a chance to show Amy a famous Dutch city, known for its cheese and city hall.

I was caught off-guard by the memorial to Alexei Navalny in this remote place,

but thankful for such a worldwide event having an impact here, nearby.

It was also a chance for Amy to observe a "more Dutch you cannot get" moment,

when the 2 gentlemen at a nearby table shared bitterballen with their beer.

Amy treated us to a delightful lunch in the world-renown 1818 Kurhaus Hotel on the beach,

over-looking the Scheveningen Pier, near The Hague.  And, yes, the North Sea!

The next day, Wednesday, March 27, was the perfect day for Astrid and me to babysit both Hailey and Sem, who are always out of school Wednesday afternoon.  We spent the time at son Jeroen's house and neighborhood to give the kids plenty of time to be with Amy again, and vice versa....

[collage credit:  Astrid]

first picking Hailey up from school,

[collage credit:  Astrid]

and then watching the kids play at the playground across the street after lunch.

[collage credit:  Astrid]

From there we took a wee walk through the neighborhood, giving us all a nice workout.

As you can see by our coats, it was still quite cold on March 27.

[collage credit:  Astrid]

Once back home, Jeroen joined us to start preparing supper.

(Remember that Jeroen (age 35) and Amy (age 51) are half-siblings!)

[collage credit:  Astrid]

That's when Marissa (Jeroen's wife) and Jaap (Astrid's ex) joined us for Jeroen's poke bowl.

[collage credit:  Astrid]

And guess what pjs the kids wore for bed:  the ones Amy had bought for them at Christmas,

which were colored by the kids and Astrid and me.  They may even fit another year!?!

Thursday, March 28, was lunch on De Stroming barge in Woudrichem, across the Merwede river from us:

Lucky for us, there was a window of about 2 sunny hours afterwards for a nice walk there.

Friday, March 29, was a stay-at-home day for our community's Easter lunch, for which both Astrid and I helped to prepare:

Even Amy helped out with setting the tables, and, once again, like last year,

Astrid prepared the soft-boiled eggs and I knit the mutsjes (little hats) to cover them.

I was so glad Amy could experience a communal event like this with us.

Saturday, March 30, was another stay-at-home day except for a surprise late-afternoon outing we made for Amy at a place we knew she'd love:

La Caponniere is a wee café in a war bunker just a wee walk from our apartment.

We hadn't been there for years, since changing management, but wanted to try it again.

We were not disappointed.  In fact, Amy said it was one of her favorite memories of this trip.

Definitely something to make a tradition out of!

Easter Sunday, March 31, was a true stay-at-home day, when we relaxed and just went with the flow, before Amy's departure home from Amsterdam early the next morning.

Astrid makes this white-asparagus meal for me every Easter,

which I was glad to share with Amy!

Most of the fill-in-the-blanks throughout the week were playing our favorite Five Crowns card game (thanks to Lis from England who got us hooked a few years back).  Lots of talking in between, of course, and just BEING together.

Thank you, Amy, for making it happen.

Let's keep doing it as often as we can!

[Addendum: this was a post meant for a week ago to be more current with the event, but didn't happen because of an unexpected world-wide unavailability to Blogspot for a week.]

Son Mark in the Netherlands, 2018

He came, he saw, he conquered.  HA!

Actually, it all came and went too quickly, because we really did so much, when we look back on it.  See for yourself:

Day 1:  Sunday, September 30:  AMSTERDAM

We picked Mark up at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport bright and early...

and in plenty of time for me to snap 8 of the 34 Elephants on parade there till 12 October.

Because seeing Amsterdam is a must, we spent the day sightseeing.

Taking a canal cruise is one of the easiest ways to see the city, if you're stuck for time.

But we also walked to the Rijksmuseum area, because it's a favorite spot.

Eating at Wagamama is also a must for Astrid and me.

I don't think he was disappointed.

Day 2:  Monday, October 1:  KINDERDIJK

It was an on-again, off-again rainy day but we made the most of it at Kinderdijk,

followed by eating pannenkoeken out in the polder.

(It was our first time to see the new war memorial near Kinderdijk.)

Day 3:  Tuesday, October 2:  LOCKS and AIRBORNE MUSEUM

Mark has an avid interest in WWII movies, like "A Bridge too Far," which we watched together.

It was then perfect to see up-close-and-personal the Airborne Museum and cemetery in Oosterbeek,

as well as to cross the "bridge too far" in nearby Arnhem.

Along the way we showed him what big Dutch locks look like in Tiel and Driel.

Day 4:  Wednesday, October 3:  BRUGES, Belgium

Lucky for our visitors, we're close enough to other countries to make a day trip!

Mark's first choice was to see Bruges, about 2 hours away.

It just happens to be one of Europe's favorite destinations for tourists.

Of course, we "made" him eat a Belgian waffle.

Day 5:  Thursday, October 4:  GORINCHEM

This is where we live, as you know, so a walk around our citadel was imperative.

We are always so proud to show family and friends where we live!

That evening we took Mark to meet Jeroen and Eva...and 3-week-old Hailey.

(We were also getting instructions for our first babysitting stint tomorrow evening!)

Day 6:  Friday, October 5:  WIJK bij DUURSTEDE and FRIENDS

Astrid drove along the Diefdijk, part of the Dutch Waterline, to see the war bunkers,

on our way to Wijk bij Duurstede.

We love the only drive-through windmill in the world...and the nearby castle.

We got back home in time for our community's Happy Hour,

with advocaatjes and frikandel speciaal.

Mark did tell us he wanted to have DUTCH food, so we took him seriously!

That evening we were guests at Femke's and Jeannette's for Italian.

They sure know how to do it up big!  Mark was more than impressed.
(And yes, we celebrated Hailey's birth with beschuit met muisjes.)

Day 7:  Saturday, October 6:  DEN HAAG and SCHEVENINGEN BEACH

To get to the Scheveningen beach, you first drive through Den Haag/The Hague.

So we first stopped at the Peace Palace, housing the Int'l Court of Justice (top-left),

and then the Kurhaus Hotel (bottom-right) before hitting the pier.

Talk about a perfect day for the beach at the North Sea, Holland's most famous seaside resort)!

Day 8:  Sunday, October 7:  LOEVESTEIN CASTLE

By now you know that the Loevestein Castle across the Merwede river from us is our favorite castle.

It was built in 1361 and caters to everything medieval, especially for kids' birthday parties.

It's hard NOT to love such a fun, interactive place, let alone feel the history.

Afterwards, on our way home, we stopped in next-door Woudrichem...

...Gorinchem's sister city across the river.  It was important for us that Mark see it.

We want all our visitors to see what makes US tick here where we live.

You've seen some of these food images in the above collages,

but here I've collected the 10 more-Dutch-you-cannot-get foods Mark ate while here.

He had specifically said before he came that he wanted to eat Dutch food, and he did!

But, can you match the images with the 10 foods he ate ??  Try it (in alphabetical order):

advocaatje

beschuit met muisjes

boerenkool stampot

erwtensoep

frikandel speciaal

nasi met saté (Dutch Indonesian)

ontbijtkoek

pannenkoek

saucijzenbroodje

uitsmijter

Day 9:  Monday, October 8:  SCHIPHOL AIRPORT (for his early departure back to Atlanta)

THANK YOU, Mark, for the time and expense it took you to come visit us.

We'll never forget it.  Make sure you come back again one day!

Grandson Nicholas in the Netherlands: Week Two

As I write this, Nicholas has been gone less than 24 hours.  How is that possible?  Tears in my eyes this time but with so many happy memories from the second week of his 2-week visit to see G'ma here in the Netherlands.

Day 8, Friday, 24 July:  War Bunker and the Lindeborg Happy Hour

It so happens that every Friday afternoon I play Rummikub in our senior-center's recreation hall.  We all decided that I'd still do it this particular Friday so that Nicholas could experience our Happy Hour afterwards.

So, while I played Rummikub, Astrid took Nicholas to this WWII Bunker 599 from 1940.

We had seen it before in September 2013 when Chris and Chad were visiting from England.

It's been split in half so you can see what it was like inside.

When they came back, it was time to join me for our Borreltje (Happy Hour) after Rummikub.

Nicholas had the chance to sample the hapjes...bite-sized, deep-fried goodies.

The lady at bottom-left just turned 100, so the photo-op was a must.

100, 70, 15:  That's about the size of it.

Day 9, Saturday, 25 July:  Rotterdam

Unbenownst to us at the time, this day ended up having the most severe storm weather in Dutch recorded history for July since 1901. 

So guess what we did?!  

We took the Waterbus from Papendrecht to Rotterdam on the Nieuwe Maas river, a 45 min. ride.

Besides visiting the Maritime Museum, we walked around the area to see the crazy architecture.

Nicholas and I giggled all day because it was so blustery.

Day 10, Sunday, 26 July:  Scheveningen Pier and Den Haag

Grabbing good weather, we drove to the North Sea after all that stormy craziness,

to walk the Scheveningen Pier and beach.

Look what Astrid found.  A wee little star fish (zee ster).

And yes, that's Nicholas' voice saying "they regenerate."

Just as we left the beach, it started to rain,
but we still drove to the Peace Palace in nearby Den Haag (The Hague).
We told Nicholas that if Hitler were still alive when the United Nations was founded in 1946,
he would have been one of the war criminals tried here.

Day 11, Monday, 27 July:  All Day at HOME

About this time into the second week, we all started needing HOME time and made the decision to do nothing.   In fact, about every other day Nicholas was able to sleep in till noon, which gave us all some "me" time.

Astrid decided to make her home-made macaroni specialty for Nicholas for supper.

Yum Yum Yum Yum.  I think he had 3 helpings?!

During the afternoon he finished his 1,000 dot-to-dot drawing of Amsterdam.

In fact, we both did since I had made a copy for him from the Cityscapes book I had just purchased.

(Thank you, Anne, for the great idea!)

Amsterdam was the first of 20 cities in the book, which made a good souvenir from our trip on Day 6.

Day 12, Tuesday, 28 July:  Brussels, Belgium

Okay, so this isn't the Netherlands, but because we can drive to Belgium within 30 minutes and to Brussels within 1.5 hours (80 miles), it made sense to make an extra-special trip to Brussels, the seat of the European Union, just to say we did it...and to give Nicholas another country-notch in his belt.

 We first drove to Mini-Europe on the north side of the city where we parked for the day.

On-n-off rain did not hamper us at all.

We told Nicholas he saw all of Europe in 1.5 hours.  HA!

From that point we all got Metro day passes and took the train to the European Parliament.

I told Nicholas this was like going to the Capitol in Washington, D.C., where he visited with G'pa Bill.

It was Astrid's and my first time to see it, too, so a real sight for sore eyes.

Then it was back on the train to the Grand Place in city center.

Mussels in Brussels was a must for Astrid and Nicholas,

followed by a real Belgian waffle and hand-picked chocolates by Nicholas.

BTW, at the start of the day Nicholas wondered if anyone would recognize his shirt's logo.
I told him that I bet at least one person would!  And indeed, one guy said "GO DUCKS."
Nicholas wants to go to Oregon once he graduates from high school!

Day 13, Wednesday, 29 July:  All Day at HOME (again)

It was laundry day and Nicholas got to sleep in again.

This is how we do it...in our main living area where some clothes hang to dry,

and the rest goes to the community commercial-sized dryer.

See Nicholas' bed for the 2 weeks?  Yup.  The couch.

And once he was up, he had the entire afternoon to "game" on his laptop.

Day 14, Thursday 30 July:  Zuiderzee Museum in Enkhuizen

Our last full day together was perfect weather-wise, NE of Amsterdam.

I don't think we could have had a better last day together!

There was enough interactive Dutch experience to last a lifetime.

And because Nicholas bought a family plaque with his "Grannan" name there (now on order,

 see the handshake?), he said it was a "clutch gift" right at the end of his trip.

We'll take it to him when we visit Atlanta in October.

Day 15, Friday, 31 July:  Back to Schiphol Airport for the Trip Home

The last meal we had before taking Nicholas back to the Amsterdam airport was erwtensoep,

which reminded me to show the Dutch food experiences he had while here.

As I said on Facebook, he tried everything Dutch we offered him:

 uitsmijter (fried eggs on cheese, ham and toast), erwtensoep (split pea soup), hapjes (bite-sized goodies), appeltaart (Astrid's specialty), patat friet (fried potatoes in a cone), pannenkoeken (pancakes), zoethout (licorice root), beenham (hot baked ham) sandwich, gerookte haring (smoked herring), suikerbrood (sugar bread from Friesland)...
and many ijsjes (ice creams). 

He was such a good sport!

 After lunch, as we left for the airport, I already had a sob in my throat.

In fact, as I've written this post today, the sob has returned.

The only good news about that is it'll be 2.5 fast months before we'll see him again,

on our annual trip to Atlanta.

I guess the other good news is that we fell in love with him all over again.

Though it's always good to get back to "normalcy," we both miss him like the dickens.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, G'ma.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Nicholas.

Now it's time to make the photo book...full of second blessings as we review them.

A Series of Very Fortunate Events!

Our Rijswijk-Den Haag-Scheveningen Day

Make up any reason whatsoever for a photo hunt and we'll be there! Make it as important as picking up my new residence permit, this time for 5 years, and Astrid will even take off a day from work to make a celebration of it.

And that's exactly what we did a week ago Friday when we drove first to Rijswijk (past Delft) and then through Den Haag to the Scheveningen beach, where we spent the rest of our day (click on map to enlarge).

When I made the same trip to Rijswijk a year ago, to pick up my one-year permit, I took the train because we didn't yet have our car, Granny Towanda. You might remember that Delft was only 4 minutes away by train, so I made my own celebration by visiting that famous city, writing about it on my Vision & Verb post. When they give you a lemon, make lemonade!

This time, having Granny Towanda and Astrid with me made all the difference in the world.

First of all, we're having so much fun with the TomTom, our Christmas present to each other. How did we ever live without it! You wouldn't believe how much less stress there is in the car now. HA! Seriously, it has revolutionized the way we travel. It's so detailed it tells us what lane to be in and what the speed limit is, how fast we're driving, how many minutes it'll take us in the present driving conditions, etc., etc. Of course YOU already knew all about this. But did you know the TomTom was invented in 1991 by two Dutch guys named Peter? Seriously.

If you look at the map above, you can see that Rijswijk is a suburb to the east of Den Haag. So after our 30-min. stop to park the car, go get my new reseidence permit, take a potty break, and get back into the car again, we were on our way into the center of Den Haag (cityscape above).

One day we will photo-hunt Den Haag/The Hague but, that day, there was a planned demonstration with thousands of students protesting new college tuition hikes, so we said "No, thank you" and continued on to the coast, the playground of their rich and famous. What an irony.

That coast or beach is in Scheveningen where the Kurhaus Hotel is...part of Den Haag's playground. We hardly blink our eyes anymore when we "come as we are" into such places. What are they going to say: "We don't like your money!" Besides, it so happens we were the only ones there for our koffie en appletaart met slagroom, just before the lunch hour. By the way, I STILL think of this as eating dessert first, but for Astrid it is still only something lekkers (delicious) for koffie break. Besides, once a week will never kill us.


After our koffie break (priorities), we did a a quick run-through of the main restaurant of the Kurhaus Hotel, oohing and aahing. I'm guessing many rich-and-famous, heads of state, and dignitaries have eaten in that place. And no wonder....


...because following a nice meal, what to do but mosey on outside to the beachfront and look back on that architectural beauty....


...followed by a nice walk on the Scheveningen Pier nearby. Talk about a photo op!


As above, so below. Take your pick...two worlds apart. Most of the pier shops were closed because of so few tourists out-n-about. But we're not big shoppers, so no matter for us.
We just did our camera thing and were in heaven.


From the pier, looking south along the beach, we saw the Hoek van Holland (Hook of Holland) 18 km away (top photo above)...the waterway that takes you to Rotterdam, Europe's largest port. The dark line in the foreground is the rock jetty of the harbor into Scheveningen, which was our goal for that early afternoon, eating up the calories of our koffie met appeltaart.


More than anything else, Astrid wanted to walk the beach. We both got what she wished for!

When we happened upon the sandy floral bouquet (above), Astrid said it was probably from a funeral at sea...as in the scattering of someone's ashes, like her father's. It was a tender moment.




And then, just before reaching the harbor entrance, we looked back and caught the sky doing a number on the pier. Did I mention this is one of the things I love about the Netherlands: its skies!


At that same moment, the same skies were doing a number also on the lighthouse there at the harbor. I had captured it just minutes before (bottom left image above) when things were 'normal.' This is one of the reasons why I never worry if the sun isn't shining when we photo-hunt.
Why would you ever need sun with skies like that!


Several steps, shells, and photos later, about 40-minutes' worth, we finally arrived at the harbor entrance. Lucky for us, a Dutch Kustwacht (coastguard boat) was just entering as we arrived
(bottom right-hand image above...click to enlarge).


I'm such a glutton for these harbors, even if they're for fishing vessels instead of for recreation boats.
I'll take whatever I can get.


There at the harbor, by the way, stand these two monuments.
The one on the left is Lady Scheveningen, the patroness of the fisher-women, mourning for those who never returned from sea. The statue was created by artist Gerard Bakker in 1982.

The other monument a stone's throw away, with the pier in the background, commemorates God saving the Netherlands on 24 August 1865. But I can't for the life of me find what that's about. If you can, please let me know! It caught our eye because Astrid's birthday is 24 August!
[Addendum: check Dutchbaby's comment below for the answer!]


By then it was time to walk all the way back to where we had started at the Kurhaus Hotel, but not before Astrid celebrated the day by serving up a multi-fish lunch at a harbor café. See the white truck above? It sits at the long warehouse dock just meters away from the beach and harbor, loading or unloading the gazillion fish captured every day. And yes, haring is a specialty of this country...one for which I've not yet acquired a taste.
Maybe one day.

One last little tidbit: if you could say the word SCHEVENINGEN with a believable Dutch accent during The War, you would have been saved from getting killed. That first syllable is the killer: sch is pronounced like the sch sound in Schiphol Airport (in Amsterdam). The closest approximation in English would be SKAYveningen or SKIphol. Just add a bit of gutturalness to it and you've got it down pat...sure to live another day.

Another day and another photo hunt!