Kingdom Jewels

Greetings from the King & Queen of Smilde

May 2003

This is just to ease the letdown of the Monday after Valentine's Day. I love the green in this one!!!

Labels: Humor, Netherlands

75% Dutch

I found the above photo of Edward on his Facebook wall walking through the town of Delft with 3 of his classmates. He's on the left of the 4 which is in the middle of the picture. Each time I look at it I think how he looks right at home there. The joke always goes, in our family, that our kids are 75% Dutch because John is all Dutch and I'm only half Dutch. Well, I do think I walked in that exact spot about 7 years ago.

Labels: Edward, Netherlands

Made It!

On the right hand side bar of this blog in the blue box, I added the link to 2 new blogs, "Semester in the Netherlands" which is a group effort of Edward's class in the Amsterdam and "Sarah's blog" which is the blog of one of his classmates I met in the airport.

I talked to Ed a few times over the weekend on Skype. I discovered I could take video snapshots of him while we talked, so that made me happy. I *heart* technology. This is one of the first times and I thought he was looking so European:

The next time, I took a series of them when he was looking even more European:

Ok, I promise I'm done now for awhile. I do need to get out more!

Labels: Edward, Netherlands

Getting Ready for 4+ Months in Europe

Happiness that the day has finally arrived

I made sure I took a few photos of Edward before he left Thursday to record the excitement of the day. The photo above was taken after his one hour morning run (he's training for a marathon) and he looks very happy/relieved/excited. I didn't take a picture of his luggage, and I'm not sure why because it was a sight to behold.

Anticipation on the way to the airport. We were at the intersection right before you go into the Gerald R. Ford International Airport waiting for a red light. I took this because I wanted to remember how he was sitting there with his backpack looking ahead.

Relief after successfully checking his luggage in at just under 50 lbs. and getting his boarding pass after we had met up with the group of about 18 students (and many of their parents) headed to Amsterdam from Calvin College.

Patience while having a last photo taken with the parents.

Contemplation, expectation, and high hopes while waiting at the security gate.

Good humor as Mom takes one last photo before getting to the gate.

Friday morning, we did talk on Skype and it was actually like he was right inside my computer. They had all only slept about an hour on the plane and I could tell he was tired, but still very excited to have arrived safely in his dorm room with all his things.

Labels: Edward, Netherlands

The Last Dutch Evening

After the Rijksmuseum, we did a little shopping and then ate supper at a cozy little place on one of the narrow streets in Amsterdam. Afterward, we enjoyed some of the sights at night. I have to add that I never enjoy being anywhere near the sad red light district. However, the lights reflected on the canals in the city were a beauty to behold:

The old historic buildings are lit up like ghosts at night.

I LOVE this picture of Mar & Paula doing Amsterdam hard core. It makes me laugh every time because I don't remember it really being like that at all.

But this is probably my favorite picture, maybe even of the whole trip. I think I had a dream like this a long time ago.

Soon, we got back on the train and headed for the hotel to rest for the big journey home. Our colorful trip was over.

So that concludes the story of our Netherlands 07 adventure. I noticed in my pictures there are still little things to tell, so I think I'll institute a new feature in the blog called "Netherlands Nuesday" which will run on Tuesdays. It was either that or "Holland Haturday".

Labels: Netherlands

Dam Square

We headed up the narrow Dam Straat toward Dam Square (That's pronounced "Dom" for the American readers) looking in some stores along the way.

Dam Square is always filled with people and pigeons and street performers, and a trolley runs right through it - it is a very exciting place to be. On one end stands the National Monument, which is in memory of those who died in WWII, and at the other end is a royal palace which you can see behind the orange street performer below.

In 2003 we stayed at the Krasnapolsky which is on the Square. This time, we ate at a restaurant next door and had a very festive time in there keeping dry and discovering what fun things we ordered.

When we left, the rain had stopped, so Paula burst into a musical on the steps of that restaurant on Dam Square.

We walked down to the Rijksmuseum after lunch which I blogged about a little before. I could have stayed there for days, but time only allowed us a couple of hours. We saw the Night Watch by Rembrandt and The Little Street, Woman Reading a Letter and The Love Letter by Vermeer. I think they said The Kitchen Maid was out on loan.

Labels: Netherlands

The Griswolds Do Amsterdam

We got up early on our last full day in the Netherlands to spend the day in Amsterdam. Though it was raining, our spirits were not dampened. Did you ever wonder how many Americans it takes to buy a Dutch train ticket?

Well, the 7 of us finally figured it out, so we were soon on our way to the big city.

Since it was raining, we decided to see the city first of all by a canal boat. You can take a canal cruise right from a place near Central Station.

You can see below, we got all gezelligheid aboard the 1-1/2 hour cruise - settling in with the waters they gave us. Our Captain & Tour Guide were both real characters.

This turned out to be a great way to see the city on a rainy day. Whenever I opened the window to take pictures though, the lady behind me reached behind her to shut my window. Oy. I didn't take as many as I wanted to, but below are a few. We saw many house boats along the canal.

And this is the part of the cruise where you supposedly can see 7 bridges - maybe on a clear day.

I didn't get many chances thus far in the week to take pictures of windmills - can you believe it? In desparation, I took this one of the biggest, and I think oldest, windmill in Amsterdam from behind the rain drop-smeared window.

The canal houses are such an interesting part of the architecture in Amsterdam. When they were built, they had to pay taxes based on how wide their houses were, so they learned to build up. To get their furniture in the house, most of the houses protrude out with a pulley at the top to pull their furniture in on a rope.

When our tour was over, we began walking the streets and Paula & Mar posed in their Bedum Boots. The picture below came out a bit blurry in the low light so I used a filter and entitled it Amsterdam on a Rainy Day.

Amsterdam on a Rainy Day, 2007

Labels: Netherlands

Getting Giddy

So, after spending 5 days in Bedum, we headed down toward Amsterdam via Germany so we could drive on the Autobahn. John got old Slingerland up to about 87 MPH and of course, the cars sailed past him in the left lane.

We made it safely back to Dutch soil and went to a sweet little restaurant next to a monastery.

We resumed the intense experience of ordering out of Dutch menus...

where you never know what you're going to end up with...

Dad, very calmly, always knew what was going on...

The signs, oh the signs, seemed to get even harder to read.

Yet, the sight of a Buckeye tree with Buckeyes on the ground gave my Buckeye travelling companions a renewed sense of vigor for the journey home.

After arriving at our hotel near Amsterdam, John & I went on to the city to scope out the trail for the day ahead. Stay tuned for our last exciting adventure which will take a few days to blog about...

Labels: Netherlands

Tip Toe-ing Through the Hortensia

We were obviously not in The Nether-world in May this time to see the tulips, but I was very excited to see that Hydrangeas were prolific throughout this country during this time of year. It reminded me of the East coast. In The Netherlands, they mostly call them Hortensia.