Holland and the Cousins

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A 6 hour train trip took me from Germany to Holland where i have 44 cousins scattered over this tiny country.
Stayed with the eldest one in Borne for a night and the next morning we did a little bike ride around the place to see some of the sites.
Bike riding and The Dutch is like bread and cheese. They just go together and belong. All day long on paths and roads and through forests and along the laneways, there is a procession of bikes and riders. Old couples out for a picnic, young Mums with a kid in front and one behind out shopping, whole teams on racing bikes, kids out and about, massive amounts of parked bikes at train stations, biking is like breathing, part of everyday life.
Yesterday i travelled to another cousin in Vorden and today we had a stroll through Zutphen.
Zutphen is a old town, buildings exist from 1300 and once this town was part of a series linked by waterways and protected by a large moat around the perimeter of the town.
Today being Monday a lot of shops and churches and museums are closed for some of the morning or all day.
The sad part of seeing the outside of theZutphen church today was how the copper wiring and pipes has had to be replaced or had protection placed over it, to stop people from stealing it to melt it down.

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Photos

The northmill
This was built in 1347 and is still used today to process grains into oil, with Jan my eldest cousin

Twinkel Castle
Privately owned

Zutphen
This gate leads to an enclosed courtyard and garden which surround a retirement area. Set up 300 years ago for the aged who had nowhere else to go

Flowers
Admiring the flowers with Gerard one of my cousins

Courtyard views
a little piece of paradise

Church
Copper wires have to be protected from theives

Copper
Barbed wire around the copper pipes with the bottom section replaced with tin

Zutphen
Still a house built in 1300's