Some Fun In Geertruidenberg, NL

Our past Sunday started out when we went to see Astrid's son Jeroen play tennis in Raamsdonkveer, 22 km south of us.

The resident heron at the canal by our parking garage paid no attention to us as we left.

But Jeroen did once we arrived.  

He's been playing tennis since age 4 and is on a club team that plays national competitions.

I love the guy and always tell him I like his form (he turns 27 in August).

Because Geertruidenberg is just around the corner from Raamsdonkveer,

we had already decided to visit it after watching Jeroen play.

Geertruidenberg is the oldest city, in what used to be Holland county, to receive city rights, in 1213.

It's not the oldest city in Holland/the Netherlands, which is sometimes confusing.

Regardless, at 802 years, that's old.

You know how much I love the architecture and doo-dads of these old city centers.

You, too, could have your photo taken in the stocks claiming 802 jaar stadsrecht.

There's usually a big church in every Dutch city center.

This one is the Oude Sint Geertruidskerk, or Gertrude's Church.

The city itself is named after Gertrude of Nivelles (top-right above)

We were only there for half an hour or so, walking around city center.

Lucky for me, I found my gable-stone treasures.

Look how old some of them are.

We even found this make-shift stone that is a combination of 5 stones.

The mother (center) and her 4 kids (corners) made this for her husband's 50th birthday.

How fun is that!

Speaking of fun, if you can't take a joke, right?!

The owner was bringing stuff back from his weekend flea market.

And I got my fix of weathervanes, coming and going!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Now, switch gears to my last post about our Open Harbor Day and the goodies we bought.

What I didn't mention was that Astrid found an antique koffie grinder at our flea market.

Neither one of us had ever told each other that we'd love to have one in our home one day.

Well, she found a beauty and completely took it apart, cleaned years of kitchen grease off its internal parts, stripped the paint and then repainted it.  I hate that I wasn't fast enough on my feet to take a photo of what it looked like before.  But at least this is during the clean-up...

...and after, now hanging on our living room wall.  We love the Delft green...and the windmill!

She even put koffie beans in it to grind up, showing its authenticity.  :)

(And did you notice the handy "tool" she used to catch the drilling powder?!)

In case you need a finale, how's this from Tuesday when we had a rare thunderstorm here.

I stood at our front door, looking across the courtyard of our senior complex at 8:45 p.m.

You have no idea how much I miss good thunderstorms (growing up in Michigan)! 

And so it is, another week in the life of a Gemini (May 21-June 21).
I'm officially in celebration mode of my soon-to-come BIG 7-0.

Our Sister City, Woudrichem, NL

While my American family and friends prepare for the big Thanksgiving feast tomorrow, and our European Christmas markets simultaneously get ready to open....

Here's what Astrid and I did last Saturday when Sinterklaas arrived in the Netherlands, letting all the Children know he'll see them on December 5!

For one thing, we needed more flour for Astrid's bread machine and cornmeal for my cornbread (from the windmill in Woudrichem).  So it was the perfect day to take the ferry across the river to see our Sister City.  We were there in August, remember?

It's only a hop, skip and a jump from our apartment to our Merwede riverfront where we catch the ferry.

 By now, most of this should look familiar to you, yes?

Because we got there in plenty of time, we had a chance to see Mr. Cormorant drying off his wings.

It made an easy photo op because he stayed out-stretched for what seemed like forever.

Once on the ferry, it was good to look back on our own city, Gorinchem, with her beautiful landmarks,

while across the river we saw our sister waving to us (middle center and bottom).

There she is, Woudrichem, as seen from the river entrance.

We've really grown to love this city.  After all, she's family!

Immediately we headed off to the windmill, for two reasons...

to get our flours and to have a nice koffie break in the bunker café below.

We were too early in August when we wanted to check it out...De Kruitkelder.

This time we intended to have lunch there but during the winter months, they only serve koffie...

and all kinds of goodies, like these Woudrichem slof rolls.

With that extra energy, we then slowly walked to a new place for lunch,

catching some of the sights along the way (this team was there before and after!).

Woudrichem is a harbor city, like Gorinchem, oozing with charm.

Can you tell which boat was my favorite?  HA!

You almost forget you're going for lunch when you walk in such places.

Guess where we ate lunch?  Who knew it was a restaurant!

After all these times of seeing this place near the salmon boats, we finally got to go there.

It's the De Stroming restaurant, sitting on two boats in the harbor.

OMG.  Talk about charm!

It's our new best place to take all our guests, whenever they come.  Seriously.

They even have Woudrichem's own beer, Woerkumer, an abbey beer made in Belgium for them.

It was getting late when we headed back to the ferry for our trip home.

This time, waiting on this side of the river, Mr. Heron entertained us.

How can he scrunch his long neck in like that?

And OH, don't forget Sinterklaas.  He had arrived in Gorinchem at 10 a.m.

and was getting ready to arrive in Woudrichem at 5 p.m.

In fact we passed him on the ferry.  See him?

And just like that, we caught the Golden Hour while on the ferry home.

(Astrid took the pic of the cannon!)

I guess you know I'm going to say it...but I feel like my whole life is the Golden Hour,

even if it does mean I miss being with my family over the Thanksgiving weekend!

On Friday we're off to Belgium for a long weekend, to see the Christmas markets in Ostend and Bruges.

But first, Happy Thanksgiving to you who celebrate it.

May your Horn of Plenty be full!

The Open-Air Museum in Arnhem, NL

After 4+ years here in Dutchland, I found out there is an annual Museum Card that gets you into almost all Dutch museums for free, at the cost of only €55/card.  Astrid and I found this out from our friends in Giessenburg.  It's good for an entire year from when you buy it!

I guess you could say it was a no-brainer for us, after all our disclaimers about NOT liking museums but visiting churches instead.  Bottom line:  we didn't like the price we had to pay to get into the museums. But now that we have a year to see as many as possible on our €55, watch out.  Here we come.

We started with one of the best possible ones:  the Openluchtmuseum (Open-Air Museum) in Arnhem.  Fasten your seatbelts!

 Like all good open-air museums, there were lots of "period" reenactments.

But you know me.  It was the architecture that grabbed me.

And the windmills, of course...all 5 of them.

It was hard to miss the wooden shoes everywhere we went.

 And while walking from one place to the next, friendly faces greeted us.

Or not.  I think there was a pecking order.

Remember the elusive, rascally heron we're always trying to capture?

This one was so still while fishing 6 feet away from us, I was sure it was a taxidermist's joke.

It must be tame from so many tourists day in and out.  It hardly feels fair to show him!

It was a gorgeous spring day that April 11th.  What can I say!

Sometimes it helps to know from where you've come, right?  And from how far.

I could live like that, couldn't you?

How 'bout a nice cup of koffie or tea!

And for those of you so interested, you'd fit right in.

Men and women alike, of course.  No stereotyping here.

The Dutch are big on boat-building and fishing, as you'd assume.

And don't forget the cheese!

Their train/tram system is to die for.

(America could learn a thing or two from the Dutch in this regard!)

I guess shipping/transport is as old as the hills in all countries?

But not drawbridges, which still fascinate me to no end.

Astrid grew up with them her entire life and says she's STILL fascinated by them.

How fun that they even have a functional little typical, old-fashioned town with green houses/stores.

This color of green paint is very Dutch!

In fact, that's where we had our koffie break, at a little café.

While sitting there, we watching all the kids having fun with the old-timey toys.  

It didn't take much to convince Astrid that she, too, is a little kid at heart.
Have you ever ridden a penny-farthing?  Neither have I.

Shortly after we got to the Reformed Church, both of my batteries were dead.
(I'm still figuring out how long they last and when to re-charge them.)
In other words, we saw more, some of which Astrid captured, but you get the picture.

As I always say, impressions, impressions, impressions.
We walked for 5 hours and dropped.  Next time we'll try taking the free tram ride!

I'll drink to that (their own home-brewed beer)!

Do I need to say we HIGHLY RECOMMEND this museum, if you're ever in the area.
And it's only 50 miles from where we live in Gorinchem.
We might just have to go back while we still have our museum cards!