Second to Last

This may be my last entry. I know I have slacked off in the last week or so, and I'm sorry, but all of a sudden I was way too relaxed to much else but read, sleep and eat. Perfect vacation activities.
Our week in Munster was pretty fantastic. We went to Koln and saw the gigantic Gothic cathedral
http://pictures.wcunningham.com/germany2004files/DSC_4368s.jpg
Here's a picture for anyone who hasn't heard of it (I hadn't) and needs to be awed. I took a few pictures, but it was a smoggy cloudy day in Koln, and most of the photos I took aren't really impressive. It is hard to describe how enormous that building is, and how impressive and just a little bit scary it looks from across the city.
The day in Koln was a short one, we had some lunch and saw the cathedral, then jumped back on the train to make it home in time to watch the soccer game. I've never been much into watching sports, but soccer (foot ball) in Europe is an entirely different thing. Everyone gets into it... REALLY into it. There were flags everywhere, on cars, hanging out of windows, painted on people's faces. It was quite a European experience to watch a soccer game in a tiny little pub, full to capacity with screaming fans. Well, no one screamed the whole time, only when Germany scored a goal. Just an interesting bit of trivia: Poland has not scored a goal on Germany since 1980. So, and fun as it was to watch the two teams play, the out come was kind of predetermined.
We had a great relaxing dinner at Viviane's parent's place, where we played with their dog Sydney and longed on the deck sipping wine and eating chocolate. It was a perfect evening.
For the most part the trip to Munster included a whole lot of reading (Viviane and I) and backgammon (Ben and Adrian). I think that the guys played at least 40 games in the week that we were there. I read 2.5 books, which I haven't done since I lived at home in the Valley.
Ben filled our stomachs when we were done relaxing our minds. He and Viviane had just been in Thailand for 2 months, and Ben took some cooking classes there. It was great!
One last exciting thing about Munster: while we were there we had a wicked thunder and lightening storm, with hail the size of peas. It was pretty impressive, and unexpected. The day was hot and sunny, then all of a sudden it was hailing and POURING rain. The street flooded and the fire department was kept pretty busy pumping basements. It was really amazing though. The sky was phenomenal, with lightening shooting across it as thunder echoed off the buildings and filled the city with sound.
Global warming doing its thing.
Yesterday, after a fond farewell to Ben and Viviane and Munster, we got on the RIGHT train and came back to Amsterdam. We're staying with Alex, Laura and their 2 rats in a university dorm. It's cozy :)
The rats are a new addition to the family, we went and got them today actually. Alex, Laura and I carried the two rats and all their toys, shavings, cage etc etc home from the pet store this afternoon. They aren't allowed to have pets in the dorms, so we crept in Indian Jones style to avoid any RAs.
The rats names are Sniffy the Virtual Rat and Prof. Ratamus Rattington. I am proud to say that Ratamus was my suggestion :) Sniffy was the name of the rat program that Alex used in his Behavioral class at UBC. I don't think that Sniffy will ever actually get called by her full name though.
Tonight we all went out for dinner with Judith at the Indonesian place we have become addicted to. It was hard to say good bye to her. I hope that we see each other again. I am awful at saying goodbye to people, especially when we have spent so much time together, like Judith and I did. It was a really nice evening, which we wrapped up by watching the 2 rats play fight and swing on their little trapeze (not an actual trapeze... more like a nest on strings).
Perfect.
I am not sure if I will blog tomorrow, we have to be up at 4 am so that we can get Adrian to to train on time. This has been a wonderful trip, and thanks so much for reading along with us.
we will see you all soon
Much Love
Emma and Adrian

Oudewater and Munster

Well, we wrapped up our stay with my Dutch relatives on Wed morning. I guess I haven't told you about the rest of that visit. On the night of the second day (after the visit to the farms and the windmills) we went out to a fantastic dinner on the banks of the Rhine, where we watched the boats go by. Gert and Trees' son Ed came to dinner as well as to the windmills with us. He helped translate, and made communication generally easier on everyone. We really appreciated it. Actually, the whole family was very helpful with translating. Everyday one of the two brothers (Ed and Rene) were around to help us out. They were great tour guides and also great fun.
The day after the sight seeing tour and the dinner on the river Adrian and I went for a 50 km bike ride with Rene and his wife Irma. We went to Gouda and saw all kinds of cheese :) actually, no joke, the main street of Gouda is lined with cheese. There are hundreds of yellow cheese wheels hanging from lines over the shoppers wandering along below. Besides cheese Gouda has a very beautiful and famous town hall, with a clock that puts on a little show of dancing wooden people every hour. We also went to a beautiful church, with the biggest and most ornate stained glass windows I have ever seen. There were about 50 windows, all with names describing the bible scene they depicted. There was even a small window with Dutch family crests on it. I found the Van Rooyen crest, and took a forbidden photo of it.
From Gouda we kept on the Schroonhoven, the silver city. This is the only place in Holland where people can learn to be silver smiths... and also the most affordable place to buy beautiful silver jewelery. We wandered around admiring the beautiful sculptures, scissors, baby toys, antique rings and Rolex watches (made of gold, with diamonds around the face, yours for only 27,000 euros).
The bike ride to these towns was the best part of the trip (although the destinations were great too). We saw all kinds of animals and fantastically beautiful country side. We saw a few groups of baby swans, hares, all shapes and sizes of cows, sheep, horses and goats and more birds then I can count.
It was tiring, but wonderful.
When we got home dinner was waiting for us (at rene's house), and we ate with the family. It was a great day.
Yesterday we left Oudewater around 2:30, after going to the rope museum (the main industry in Oudewater for many years... and actually a really interesting museum) and going to the weigh house where supposed witches were weighed to see if they were guilty of practicing the dark arts. People blamed everything on witch craft. If it hailed, or a cow died, or a child got sick, it was blamed on witch craft. Around 50,000 people (men, women and children) were killed during the witch hunts. Oudewater was considered an honest town, so they were given the right to award certificates of "normal weight" to those accused of witch craft. Witches were supposed to be very light, because heavy people would break the broom stick.
Adrian, Rene and I all got weighted on the giant scales, and were given our certificates. It was really fun, the woman who runs the museum would cross examine us as we were being weighed, and ask us if we like walking in the woods, or ever use herbs in our cooking. Fun way to spend the morning.
Gert and Trees drove us back to Amsterdam (so generous!) where we got the train to Musnter... we thought. First we got there and were told our train had been bumped up, and would now leave in 5 min. So we ran to the platform... and it didn't come. An announcement was made in Dutch, and everyone else on our platform moved off. We followed, and asked a man if he was taking our train. He said yes, so on we got, none the wiser. It WAS the right train, for about 3 stops. Then were were supposed to get off and transfer, but no one had ever told us that. So, we went 1/2 hour in the wrong direction, and ended up missing our connection to Rhine, and then to Munster. We finally did make it, 3 hours late. We got going just fine, once we figured out our route, but then our train to Munster was canceled, because some students here were protesting Nuclear Waste, which I guess the trains transport. They had tied themselves to the tracks, so everything going in that direction was diverted.
So, we are here. Ben had a wonderful dinner and wine ready for us when we finally got in, it was exactly what we needed.
Today we went on a little walking tour of Munster with Ben and Vivian. We saw some beautiful cathedrals, and saw the city. Adrian found another dream guitar, so we will see how that pans out.
Munster is about the size of Halifax. It's a university town, so there are tonnes of students, thus, lots of protests. We saw one today, about tuition. The students were pissed that tuition is 500 euro/semester. I have no sympathy.
Right now Adrian and Ben are playing backgammon, and I'm about to go take a nap.
Love to All
Emma

Oudewater

SO much to tell you about!
We arrived in Oudewater at Gert and Trees' house on June 1, after madly packing and cleaning up our room at Berite's. We bought Bertie a nice plant friend as a thank you for all that she had done for us, but really thank you is never enough, especially after a whole month of kindness.
When we arrived in Oudewater the whole family was waiting at the house for us (aunts, uncles, grandchildren, cousins, brothers and sisters etc.) It was a little over whelming when we realized that they had all come specifically to meet us! (they said that family doesn't come from Canada every day, so they had to have a big to do). The whole family is very friendly and warm, and most of them speak english, so the first night was fine on the language front. We had a tasty BBQ, took a quick boat ride with Sebastien (one of the grand kids) and then went for a tour around the town of Oudewater with Ed (one of Gert and Trees' sons) and his wife (who I am sorry to say, has aname that I cannot even begin to think about spelling). She is an art teacher, and Ed is an engineer. They showed us the town centre, and the memorials from WWII. There were memorials for people as young as 14 years old, civillians who has died during the German occupation. One of the men on the list died on May 5, which is Liberation Day in Holland, the end of the war. The story goes that he had been listening to the radio, and heard that the peace treaty had been signed, and ran out into the street to celebrate, where he was shot by a German soldier who had not yet heard that the war had ended. Very sad story, it must have been terrible for his family.
Gert and Trees are the couple who we are staying with. They are both in their 70's (although you wouldn't know it, they are so full of energy and spunk). Gert, whos Mother was my Grandfather's cousin, does not speak english, but he is so excited to share stories with me that he makes himself understood through gestures and the occaional word in English or French (He and his wife have a house in France, so they have picked up some of the language on their vacations). For the past two days they have treated us like royalty, they took us to Kinderdijk to see the windmills (I think there are about 18-20) where we got to go inside a mill and see how it works, and where the family that ran it would have lived and slept. The Dijk (dike) is lined with mills, and looks just like every postcard of Holland I have ever seen, but still it is extremely impressive to see in person. A lot of the mills are privately owned, and we even saw one family bringing home their groceries, while the tourists on the path tried to stare in their windows. It was surreal. Yesterday we also met one of Gert's cousins, Hank Van Rooijen (that's how it's spelled here, by the way) and saw his farm, and met his cows. He is a Van Rooyen through anf through. HE has redish hair, and the SAME skin as my Dad, with all the freckles. He was very kind, and showed us around under the roof of his house, because Adrian was courious about the thatching (which is made from reeds that grow along the edges of the canals). Hank did not speak english either, and so through a lot of gesturing and smiling, we made ourselves understood. Actually, I was quite impressed that we were able to spend a whole day with 2 people who speak MINIMAL english, and make ourselves understood. Adrian is very good at the actual learning of languages, he catches on to what the signs say, and he can usually figure out the ingrdients on food packages, but I am very good at imterpreting people's intentions, and their mood. So between the two of us, we're getting along quite well.
Yesterday we also went to the Van Rooijen family farm, where my grandfather was born. I was a little dissapointed tha tthe only original building was the front wall of the old summer house. I guess that there was a fire in 1939, when all of the barns and the house burned to the ground. Adrian and I took photos of the remining wall, and got a shovelfull of dirt for mum and dad's garden, and talked with the current owner. He is the grandson of the man who bought the farm from my great grandfather in 1925, and he lives there with his family, and his mother who lived on the farm for most of her life. It was really amazing to see the same trees and walk on the same ground that my grandfather did more than 100 years ago (he was born in 1906). The sense of history that we felt was really touching, and enhanced by the video of my Grampa that Gert showed me this morning. It was made in 1987, one year after I was born, during the family reunion on the Van Rooyen family farm in Ontario. It was amazing to see Grampa laughing with his brothers... they all looked so similar. I know what my dad will look like when he's 80. :)
Every one here is so interested in my story, and our reason for being here. They think that Adrian and I are quite brave for coming to a town full of strangers in a place on the other side of the world. It makes me feel quite heroic really. Gert has the same family tree book that we have at home, except in Dutch, he was very happy to know that a version of it exists in english.
I realize that this is getting quite long... and I haven't even gotten to describe Oudewater yet. It is the most beautiful town! Small, but not too small, and full of history.
We are having such a wonderful time here, but I don't want to over load you. We will write again either tomorrow morning, or when we get to Munster tomorrow. There is all of today to tell you about!
But we need sleep (we bike 50 km today)
with love
Emma and Adrian