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!

Brother Nelson in the Netherlands

You already know I took last week off because of Brother Nelson's visit with us for a week.  The most important thing to say from the get-go is that this is a post about NELSON and not so much about what we did or where we went.  It is NELSON I want to remember here....EVERYTHING about him that I can have and hold for the days I will not have him....

To start with, I discovered, as we talked about it, that the reason why this was like meeting him for the first time was because when he was 16 (and I was 13), he started working at the local grocery store after school.  That means he wasn't at home.  And once he graduated from high school, he was off to university, graduated, and got married.

So THAT'S why this is important to me.

To give more scale, Nelson is the oldest of us 8 kids (I'm #3 at 3.5 years his junior) and he lives in Holland, Michigan, where there is a huge Dutch community.  It was time for him to see the real Holland!

SUNDAY, 14 January:

We picked Nelson up at Amsterdam's airport on his 76th birthday!

[He came alone because his wife doesn't fly.]

From there it was fun and games in Amsterdam.

Mid-morning we had a latte macchiato break in the Rijksmusem café.

It was the closest thing to actually being IN the museum.

And then we did the touristy thing, taking a canal-boat ride around the city.

It's what you do when you have time only for the fast-track of the city.

MONDAY, 15 January:

Because Nelson had minimal sleep while flying over The Pond, we took Monday to get settled in.

He stayed in one of our community guest rooms at night and spent the days with us.

Eating.  Drinking.  Watching the news.  Talking.

We even walked to Aldi together that day.

Each day he caught up on his family and politics...at my laptop or his iPad.

That's when I really started LOOKING at him.

And started recognizing ME in him...or him in me?!

TUESDAY, 16 January:

After the day of rest, we took our long-distance drive to the Zeeland province in the west of Holland.

Our final destination was Oosterscheldekering, 117 km away.

But our first stop was the Basilica of St. Agatha and Barbara in Oudenbosch, 64 km. away.

[Did I mention that our mom's name is Barbara?]

Astrid and I had visited the basilica in 2010 and knew Nelson would love it.  He did!

We ate an uitsmijter lunch in the quaint small city of Zierikzee, 62 km. from the basilica.

Afterwards we stopped to see the Zeeland Bridge, the longest bridge in the Netherlands (top-right).

It's actually the longest bridge in Europe, spanning 5,022 meters (16,476 ft.).

It was then another 20 km. to the Oosterscheldekering storm surge barrier (bottom-center).

It's the largest of the 13 Delta Works, protecting the flooding of the Netherlands from the North Sea.

It's 9 km. long and was built after the North Sea flood of 1953 when 2100+ lives were lost.

The Dutch said..."never again!"

WEDNESDAY, 17 January:

By now, understand how fun it was for me to watch Nelson, seeing what intrigued him most.

Astrid was well prepared to stop on a dime after all my weathervanes.  HA!

That day our favorite Loevestein castle wasn't open, so we went to Doorwerth, 70 km. from home.

We wanted Nelson to see a real castle.

We got there in time to first eat lunch.

Notice how much fun we had over our meals!

I could show you more of the castle but, remember, this is more about NELSON.

And ME in relation to him, my big brother.

From the castle, across the Rhine river, we spied the Driel locks 

and decided to go see them before heading home.

These locks are normally closed but if high water is coming in from Germany,

they'll be raised to prevent flooding.

Have you noticed that the Dutch think ahead in relation to catastrophes??

The world has much to learn from this country that is 26% below sea level.

THURSDAY, 18 January:

You know what they say about the plans of mice and men!

Suddenly, out of the blue, the Netherlands issued a CODE RED wind advisory.

It was actually Code Orange when we drove along the dijk to Brakel to check out the river level.

By the afternoon, 66 semi-trucks had flipped over and all train/plane transportation was cancelled.

The Merwede river reminded Nelson of Lake Michigan during a storm.

Astrid and I had never seen it so tempestuous!

Needless to say, we went back home and decided to change the schedule up,

to walk our Gorinchem city citadel wall that afternoon instead of the next day.

It ended up being a good plan.

And that evening we walked over to our favorite Malle Molen restaurant for supper.

FRIDAY, 19 January:

Our last full day together began with Kinderdijk...the magical UNESCO village of 19 windmills.

We had some of the best light of any time Astrid and I have ever been there.

It's only 29 km from home.

The mechanical screws were working overtime, pumping out the water.

I was glad Nelson got to see them operational.

From Kinderdijk we drove to Fort Altena in Werkendam, 34 km from Kinderdijk.

Our favorite Fort Vuren was closed because of a bat population they are protecting right now.

But Nelson still got the general idea from this 19th century fort about the Dutch line of defense,

going all the way back to before WWI.

That day we had lunch at the fort (top row).

Back home we went to our 3:30 Happy Hour, here where we live, to eat advocaatjes (middle).

And then for supper we ate Dutch pancakes at our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant,

out in the polder (bottom row).

SATURDAY, 20 January:

With a tear and a smile, and breakfast under our belts, we drove to Amsterdam in time for Nelson's noon flight back to America.  

I really do mean with a tear and a smile.  I know that this is probably the only time, first and last, that I will ever have like this with Nelson, the Elder of our Hart tribe.  I have a catch in my throat as I say it.  Trust me when I say I will have and hold it for the rest of my life.

THANK YOU, Nelson.  THANK YOU for choosing us.

We'll never forget it.

For Chad and Norma: The Dutch Experience

So, while I try to finish processing the last of my Malta pics, I have two quickie posts this week to keep myself current on Life as we know it in our neck of the woods.  After all, Life does go on, doesn't it!

It so happens that we had dear visitors from England last week, stopping by on their long camper-van trip from England, by ferry across the Little Pond, and then into Germany.  Lucky for us, we got to be with them Monday evening and all day Tuesday.

First, a reminder that we have several English friends due to our Shutterchance photoblog, of which I've been a member for 10 years and Astrid for 9 (that's where Astrid and I met, remember!).  Over the years we have made many trips there to visit real people, making virtual reality...well, a reality.

Chad and his buddy, Chris, visited us in September of 2013, 3 years ago.  But this was the first time Chad's wife Norma was here.  We had spent time with them in their own cottage back in June of 2014...so this was a bit of a payback.

On both Facebook and Shutterchance I posted this snapshot collage of their short visit.

But I want to put a bit more flesh on the skeleton, to do it justice!

We have a camper parking lot nearby on the Merwede river, where they docked for two nights.

Since they arrived at 6:30 p.m. in Gorinchem, we wasted no time to greet them 

and spend a couple hours "partying" with them (as Norma said).

In the top-right image you can see their view back to where we live near the Big Church.

The next day was full but leisurely.

First we did our citadel walk, to get the lay of our land.

We even looked back at their camper across our outer harbor from the citadel (bottom-right).

Then we drove out into the polder to eat pannenkoeken at our favorite restaurant...

WHICH WASN'T OPEN FOR LUNCH THAT DAY!

So we punted and found one near Kinderdijk, which is where we wanted to end up that afternoon.

By now you should know this place inside and out.

We can't help it.  We want to take everyone there!

Yup.  Kinderdijk and her 19 windmills.

At 30 km. away, it's a no-brainer for us.

Back home, we had some munchies and more great conversation before bidding our friends adieu.

It was a short and sweet visit...but so much better than nothing.

So, this is for you, Chad and Norma.

THANK YOU for dropping by on your way to Germany!

For Don and Ruth: The Netherlands in July

Now that they arrive home today, back in the U.S. of A., here's a celebration of the fact they really were here where we live, here in the Netherlands.  Sister, Ruth, and her hubby Don, really did come and visit us.  It's a big deal because after 6+ years, this is a FIRST for any of my 6 remaining sibs.

So, Don and Ruth, this is for you, to show you really were here with us:

Friday, 22 July:

We picked you up at Amsterdam's Schiphol airport after your all-nighter flight,

and did the obligatory photo-op at IAMSTERDAM.

From the airport, we parked at the AJAX soccer arena and took the Metro into the city center,

where we then went straight to the Rijksmuseum area.

We were all hungry by then and walked straight to the nearby Wagamama, 

our favorite Japanese ramen bar.

It was also a good plaza for picking up your Amsterdam/Dutch souvenirs.

And because this was Don's first visit to Amsterdam,

we chose the fastest way to see the city with a 75-minute canal cruise.

And then went home!  It was a full day.

Saturday, 23 July:

After a hearty breakfast in our apartment, we drove on the dijk to nearby Fort Vuren.

We knew Don in particular would eat it up.  Which he did.

We stopped at the Herwijnen stork village and found a few storks still breeding.

And then took the ferry across the Merwede river to the Loevestein Castle
(now with leaves on the trees).

That's where we spent most of our time that day, inside and out.

It's known for all its interactive fun...for kids of all ages.

As I recall, Don hit all 3 of his marks.

We have grown to love this castle because of all it's different floor levels,

plus nooks and crannies.

Don, of course, was intrigued by all the wood!

Next door to Loevestein is the delightful city of Woudrichem,

where you climbed up the windmill, while I stayed below with the "brethren." 

Once home that evening, we walked to our favorite Greek restaurant on our main canal,

sitting at our favorite table in the corner of the bay window.

Sunday, 24 July:

After a typical Dutch breakfast of uitsmijters (thanks to Astrid),

we took our Gorinchem citadel walk.

I always think of you when I see the huge sycamores and chestnut trees.

I think we all love how things work...like the sluices/locks everywhere in the Netherlands.

And where the walls can go up in case of high water...also intriguing,

as well as the new guardian deities from South Korea, gifted to the city.

I think Don had a South Korean student this past school year?

Nothing wrong with a good photo op, of course.

Then we went to our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant out in the polder...

before ending our day at Kinderdijk, one of our favorite places on earth.

Okay, so maybe these were OUR favorite places, but we wanted you to see them.

ALL of them.  And here's proof that you did.

THANK YOU for coming to see where we live.  Now you know why I'm in heaven here.