Sunday was a rather lazy day. In the morning both of us were doing things
on our computers and then around 2:30 we headed out to go visit our friends in
Belgium.
The 'Dakar Pre-Prologue' exhibition for the Dakar Rally was going on in nearby Valkenswaard, NL
Free and Esther have always been so nice inviting us for
dinner on each of my three trips to Holland. The first time we met them their
son Jan was around 14 days old. This time he was 5, and had a younger brother
Tehl who was 15 months.
When we first arrived around 3:30 Jan was gone with a
friend. They had gone to see Sinterklaas (Santa Clause) enter the country. In
Holland and Belgium their Santa comes from Spain on a ship. On December 6th
he visits the homes and leaves candy, maybe small gifts if the kids are good,
and coal and sticks if the kids are bad. Their Santa is accompanied by his helper
Zwarte Piet (black Pete), who helps him deliver the goods. In recent years the
American Santa has also made his way over here, bringing gifts on Christmas.
We had a nice time visiting, and dinner was good as usual.
Jan wanted me to play toys with him, which is somewhat of a challenge as he
doesn’t speak English, and my Dutch is pretty limited. We still managed to have
fun though and he wanted me to come help tuck him into bed.
Jan
Free, Tehl, Jan, and Esther
While Ester tucked Tehl into his bed, I tucked in Jan in his
room. Jan was trying to tell me something in Dutch but I couldn’t understand
him. So I told him “Sorry, Ik begrijpen niet, Ik spreek geen Nederlands.” Which
means “Sorry, Ido not understand, I do not speakDutch,”
he looked at me with a confused look and said “Nee?” I guess there is something
funny about telling him in Dutch that I don’t speak Dutch. Plus I had spoken a
few things now and then to him in Dutch. I guess I should have told him that I
speak a little Dutch and not so well, but the amount of Dutch I know is
probably better summed up as just not knowing.
We really enjoyed our time, but as 10 PM approached we
figured we should get on our way. When we got home we found that the road right
in front of our Hotel was closed. We knew there was something called “Glow”
going on, but we didn’t know what it was.
We decided to walk out in front of the Hotel to see what was
going on. From our apartment window we can see something being projected onto
the De Lage Landen building, but there were also things set in the middle of
the street. We decided to go check out the double-steeple church (St.
Cathrines) as we have seen light shows projected there before, and we ended up
walking around town to see what else there was around before getting to cold
and heading back to the apartment.
These are cutouts with animated picture projected onto them. This was in front of the Pullman Hotel.
Looking down the Stratumseind, there were tons of disco balls and strobe lights.
St. Cathrines Cathedral
This was a large 3D face on the side of the building. The faces kept changing.
Seen from our Apartment Window
And the coolest part of the light show, here is video of what was being projected onto St. Cathrine's Cathedral.
Today we are off on a new adventure as a family. Over the past couple of months I have been planning and booking everything for the next couple of weeks in Europe. We tried to sleep in a little this morning as we don't need to get to the airport until around noon, and I know sleeping on the plane will probably not happen. After arriving at the airport and dropping our bags we go up to security only to find that for some reason my TSA precheck isn't on my ticket, I must have typed the number wrong when I booked the ticket. I send the kids through with Nate while I go back down to the ticket desk to have them fix it to make sure I don't have any issues on other legs of the journey. I also don't want to dig through my bag for liquids and electronics to remove. Nate is going to be working the first week of our trip, so his company is paying for his plane ticket. He was able to upgrade to comfort plus seating with a little extra leg room, so his seat is 20 or so rows ahead o...
Once again I wake up around 5 AM, and try get back to sleep, with very little luck. Nate’s alarm goes off at 6 AM, and we get up and ready to go down to breakfast. Today both kids get a ham and cheese omelet, but they still want a small bowl of cereal and so on. Today they have pancakes available with cooked bananas as an optional topping, it reminds me of breakfast in Hawaii, and is very tasty. Nate decides to give the Vegemite another try. When we did it yesterday he just put it straight on the toast, and probably put too much. I had read you should put lots of butter, and then a slight skiff of the Vegemite . Nate and I both try it the suggested way, and it is way better, however I still prefer jam with my butter any day. Vegemite Day 2 After breakfast and getting ready with sweatshirts and hats etc. we head out to walk to the pontoon at the Cultural Center. We will be heading on a river cruise down the Brisbane River to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. It takes us around 15 mins to w...
Today we are going to have a unique experience. We are heading back to the town of my ancestors and meeting up with family that are 5th-8th cousin range. Our common ancestor goes back to the 1700s. I made contact with this relative about 8 months prior and we have been emailing back and forth ever since. I had told him we were coming to Germany and asked if he would like to meet up for lunch or something. Instead he suggested we stay in the area for a few days so he can show us around. We get up nice and early and pack our bags out to the car just before breakfast opens up. We have around a 90 minutes drive this morning to get to our Ankenbauer family's home, so we need to eat quickly and get on the road. This breakfast is not a buffet, instead they serve each table the same thing; yoghurt, orange juice, one hard-boiled egg per person, a platter of sliced meats and cheeses to share, bread bowl, and croissant bowl with butter and jam. I also buy a Schneeball from the bakery which me...
Comments
Post a Comment