Today we headed for the Netherlands northern province of Friesland. Much of Friesland has been reclaimed from the North Sea, beginning with the first dikes around the year 1,000 AD. Slowly but surely the early mounds called “terpen” were no longer needed as safe havens for floods and were being abandoned and even removed. Early Friesland looked like open areas with low bush called heide or heath. At times flooded, at times dry, organic materials created peat, which was later mined for fuel. Excavated sites became shallow lakes so popular today for sailers and fishermen. Friesland is full of these lakes. Our first stop for today was Giethoorn. The band U2 had a song with reference to “street with no name”. Well, Giethoorn doesn’t even have streets in many places. Houses are built along canals and ... read more

With nothing definitively planned for today, we slept in a bit and took our time getting ready. Kasteel Maurick in Vught was our first stop today. Nestled in a beautiful wooded area only meters away from the centre of Vught, this castle played a significant role during the 80-year war with Spain when Den Bosch was under siege. Today, it is not open as a castle, but is rented out for functions and events. However, the grounds are open to the public so we wander around and took some photos before we stopped at the restaurant for, just guess, coffee and dessert. We had been told that the St. Petrus church in Vught would be worth a visit, since it’s conversion to a community centre just recently. The church had sat empty for 15 years and ... read more

Visiting family in the morning is a sure recipe for excellent coffee and rich desserts. A visit with Johan and Carlos in Den Bosch was no different. I had not seen my cousin Johan since he visited us when he was a 12-year old boy, he’s 51 now. We had seen a lot from him and Carlos in Facebook, since they are avid travelers, and it was sure nice to meet up. Marion could not get over their neighbourhood, being near a small canal that runs along people’s backyards filled with a variety of flowers, and kept spotlessly maintained of course. I had visited the Kilsdonkse Molen near Veghel in 2015 and wanted to make sure Marion got to see it. It’s the only operating wind and water mill in the Netherlands and maybe anywhere, and ... read more

The Gouda Cheese Market is only on Thursday’s. So that’s where we headed today. About a two-hour drive got us there and we met up with friend Hans again, this time joined by his daughter Sterre-Lieve as well as his son we met several days ago. I believe we may be talking them into visiting us next year. Marion and I had visited the market back in 2002 with our daughters, but we did a more thorough tour of the city today. As with many of the Dutch cities, Gouda has a lot of history that dates back hundreds of years, not sure but at least back to say 1200 or so. The Sint-Jan church dates back to the 1500’s and was built as a Catholic Church, as all of the older churches were, but was ... read more

Two of my aunts are quite elderly, one is 96 and the other 93, and no trip here would be complete without a visit to these very spry ladies. Each live independently in retirement apartments and are a wealth of information for many stories, some quite funny, others less so. What was so satisfying was to see how positive they are, and how they present themselves. I’m loving having some of the same genes! After we got back to Eindhoven we had some quick dinner and a couple of cold ones, then walked over to the Philips Stadion to watch local professional voetbal (soccer) team, always a contender in The Netherlands (22 national titles), take on Basel from Switzerland in the Championship League. According to local “experts” the soccer was not all that good, but the ... read more