The last day of June!

And it's my birthday today.  I feel like it was kind of stretched out over 3 days, as I got so many e-mail and facebook messages starting on Wednesday evening and going on thru early Friday morning here, as it was still Thursday in the states!
It certainly was a change from my "normal".  I realized that for the last 6 years I've had grandkids at our house during my birthday, so yes, this was one thing I missed this year!  Plenty of other things to make up the difference, just a different fun :)

I have to say again I really do love technology even tho it drives me crazy sometimes.  The ability to make phone calls using the internet is amazing.  The ability for video calls, wow! It puts being in another country on a whole different level.  What used to be a rare and very expensive phone call can now be done for free.  It was also wonderful to talk to a friend from Germany, an easy fete being in the same time zone and using the internet.  To be able to send and receive messages via FB is wonderful! A conversation at the click of the phone-or computer.  Anyway, it really was incredibly wonderful to hear from so many!

When I went downstairs I was greeted by a Happy Birthday banner that Laura & Frederik had hung the night before--

Some mail!  Wow!

 

Laura went to the back yard and picked a bouquet of flowers for me, and made me breakfast!

Our day promises to be rainy (again & still!)  But that didn't keep us from enjoying it!

 The GPS working properly this time we took off to find a 2nd hand store and a fabric store in a nearby town,  Both stores were delightful and I found some fun things.  I really am going to need the extra luggage space going home!

 There are no sacks used at the majority of the stores, most you need to bring your own bag, however a few of them wrap the purchases in paper, and this fabric store was one of them.  It sure gives a different feel to shopping! (and a charming one)

 A house along the street that caught my eye.  I love all the stained glass I see here on the houses!

Now what do you think of these bright colored buildings!  They sure stand out!


We went back to Borne and found a place to have lunch at.  Afterwards we figured this day was a perfect excuse to have an ice cream cone!

Frederik and Laura took me out for a birthday supper at this place that we saw last week.  They had never been here either.  Other than McDonalds (of course!) I really haven't seen any "American" looking eating places.  An amusing thought to me was that in the states we have a restaurant for so many different cuisines.  I wonder if other countries have the same percentage of "American" eating places, as we do "foreign" eating places.  I kind of doubt it from my experiences, but I could be wrong.

 Here's the Hitching spot......

Some things looked quite familiar (bread & peanuts!)

Others not so much!  Bottled water (small glass bottles)

 Our menu--and yes English and Dutch menus.  I did notice the Dutch one was more extensive as far as description.

 A bit hard to see in here, as it was pretty dark, and neither did I want to point my camera at other people's tables!

Anyway, it was a very good meal, quite a fun experience for my birthday!  Thank you Laura & Frederik!

 The advertisement on wheels.....








Since we were in a different town we got our touring in on the way home again!

 Here's a different style windmill than I've seen before.  This one is quite an old one too.

We managed to get to see both sides of this one!

 More Canal scenes

This bridge was quite interesting looking. Although as I've mentioned these "country roads" are quite narrow to our standards, this bridge really was one lane! I guess you just look carefully when you start across it & wait on someone coming from the other way. 


We were quite excited when we came to cross this canal bridge and found that there was a ship sitting in the lock waiting to go thru! We parked & jumped out to watch.  Great timing as it was also starting to rain a bit (again!)

Here's looking down on the lock from above, just as it was beginning to rise up to let the ship thru

 (We are standing right on the side of the road bridge)

 The Pidgons evidently get free rides up & down  ;)

 Here she comes!

 And I ran to the other side of the bridge to watch her come thru

 Picking up speed now that she's thru!

 And she's nearly around the bend.  So interesting for me to watch this!

It's been a great day, Thanks again for all of you that helped to make it special in many ways!

To Market to Market to buy a......

Car load of Groceries! Not my favorite thing to do at home, but just like "other" shopping, it's rather intriguing here because of the differences! There are grocery stores and small markets all over.  I'm not sure how you decide which ones to go to, but one thing I have discovered, none of them are like ours at home! I find the grocery stores very UN-organized for the most part here.  Some more than others. Then there's the thing of having to go to at least 3 different stores to find all the things that you need. This doesn't fit very well in my thought of  "can we please just go to one store & buy it all"  (Now here I don't particularly mind, as it's only temporary for me, I don't have to deal with it all the time!)

Speaking of Shopping, Laura and I went shopping on Monday also. (do you detect a pattern here? haha!) Well, shopping = walking.  That's good for both of us, right?   We went to Ikea and Prenatal.  No baby for us at either store tho....haha!  Most all of us are familiar with Ikea, but Prenatal was one of those store signs that amused me.  It's a baby store--everything from clothes to furniture.

Now back to Tuesday.  In my life, I prefer to do one or two big shopping trips a month & stock up on everything I commonly use.  It is a bit more difficult to do that when you live in a little house with a small kitchen, few cupboards, small fridge, & tiny freezer.  However thinking of (hopefully soon) days ahead, we really did want to stock up on some things.  I am familiar enough with the grocery up the road, could walk there & find the basics, but It's nice to have your meal stuff already handy!

This store has a bakery in it, and I thought it was interesting how you removed what you wanted.  If you see those long handled scoops, they are in each unit.  You scoop the amount of rolls/bread you want thru the side into open trays along the right, pick them up and put them in a sack. It's impossible for anyone to touch any of the others.

In this particular store we were in they have these large baskets with wheels that you can either pull, push, or carry (by another set of handles that fold on the side.
 I really would have liked to take more pictures in the store, but I already feel rather conspicuous taking pictures all over!
Since I can't read labels, I have to go by the pictures on the items, Some items I simply haven't found at all.  And, being a bit ingredient conscious I find it frustrating not to know what is in something.  Sometimes some words on the label are English familiar, but when it comes to  things like meat, oh my.  It's baffling to figure out. Boneless skinless chicken breasts  and ground beef are easy.  8 different packages of bacon looking meat not so much

There is outdoor Market on Wednesday mornings, and the other weeks we've been downtown on Wednesday we were doing something else or too late to really look around.  Today we walked all around it.

 Fruits & Vegetables

 Socks, stockings, anyone?

 Sometimes I wonder how many times I appear in someone else's tourist photos!  :D

 Flowers!

 And cheese!  Remember I told you about the cheese in an earlier post?!

 Clothing-

More flowers!

Breads

Trailers, with Fish & other hot foods for sale


Here was my market picks of the day.  Strawberries that  both smelled and tasted totally delectable
Pink Lady apples--one of my top apple picks.  I was delighted to find them here!

And fresh raspberries.  Big, plump and absolutely the best!

 
 Yummmm!!  Like really really good!  :)

Then came the fun of carrying all our stuff inside & finding a place to put it!

Till next time---

And we're on to week #4

Monday June27

We're about a week past Laura's "by the calendar" due date now.  The good thing about that?  Well, you know it's any day! (or maybe we should be broad and say any week!) haha!
As has been said, no one is pregnant forever, so it just takes patience!

A friend of Laura and Frederik's just had their baby, and so on Monday evening (27th) we went over to a nearby town to pay a visit.

 We had no problem telling which house was theirs!  A common Dutch tradition, the neighbors decorating the outside of your home for the occasion--baby, graduation, birthdays!

 Baby is about 2 weeks old now, and just darling.  She just snoozed away while they visited and we had these.
 New Baby Sprinkles!
Apparently, in Holland, when you have a baby, you're meant to go round giving these sprinkle things on toast (beschuit met muisjes) to family, friends and colleagues.  Pink for girls and blue for boys.  They're a nice, sweet aniseed flavour, very tasty.   (Copied from Google!)

Anyway, Honestly I can't say that I was terribly impressed with them, but it was fun to partake in a Dutch tradition!

Baby Charlize has some beautiful strawberry blond hair, and even opened her eyes to check out who was holding her.  Maybe these two little girls will be good friends some day.

 

On the way home after our visit we did some touring again and managed to find a beautiful sunset!  I was quite happy!   

 Just a countryside scene--and this corn may be knee high by the fourth of July--maybe.

 

 

 What? It's a storks nest!!  Quick, jump out and take a picture! The operative word was quick, due to being on the highway and thus the blurry picture.  But, I was excited to actually see one.  Again a first for me.  I think this may have been an alpaca in the field there--it was a little to distant for me to tell for sure--and like I said I was in a hurry!

 From the villages to the cities, there's always old tall steeples.  They are so intriguing and beautiful!

 This is the most water I've seen up close yet.  This area was beautiful, and the time of day was perfect!

Putting the Sun to bed-   :)

What a beautiful way to end our day!

Highlights of Holland

Not my pictures here, but some highlights of Holland on this website & great pictures.  Check it out on this website!

http://www.holland.com/global/tourism/interests/traditional/eleven-cities-tour-2.htm

Delft blue--so pretty, but go for the real thing, not imitations made in other countries!

 Tulips! I would love to see them, but I am here at the wrong time of the year.  Maybe another trip!

 In the area I'm in we don't see a whole lot of these--or water, as we are a bit in-land here, but the few we do see are fascinating, and sure take us back to an earlier time in history!  I'll probably get to see more before I return to USA!

 Canals- I'm looking forward to seeing more of these too!  So different than land locked Nebraska prairie!

 I didn't realize the cheese production here! Hundreds of millions of tons of it!!  The markets are stacked with it.  More kinds than I ever even knew existed!

 Rembrandt anyone? Art museums are not high on my list of interests, but obviously they are for some, there sure is alot of museums!

This says it best--" People from all over the world still think that the Dutch wear clogs or wooden shoes every day. If you’re one of those people, we’re sorry to disappoint you. Contrary to popular belief, most Dutch people don’t wear clogs anymore. The only group of people that still wear them are rural workers."
They are still fascinating, and it was so interesting to go to the museum featuring how they are made.

I love seeing all the bicycling here!

10 reasons to explore Holland by bicycle

1. Holland boasts 30,000 km worth of bicycle networks (junction network, LF routes)
2. Road signs have been perfected so it is virtually impossible for a cyclist to get lost
3. There are over 32,000 kilometres of safe cycle paths, mostly separated from motorised traffic
4. The Dutch are used to cyclists and pay attention to them in traffic
5. Holland is a flat country, so even untrained cyclists will find it easy to travel the routes
6. Holland has a mild climate so it is rarely too hot or too cold to ride a bicycle
7. You will see the most beautiful spots that are otherwise hidden; the junction network takes you to roads and paths inaccessible to motorised vehicles
8. Cycling is a green means of transport so you’ll contribute to a sustainable society
9. Holland is in the top 5 countries in the world for road safety
10. It is good for your health!

In short, the bicycle is the perfect means of transport if you want to see Holland at its best. If you don’t own a bicycle or cannot take one with you, you can rent bicycles pretty much everywhere.
Again, here's the website for more!
http://www.holland.com/global/tourism/interests/traditional/eleven-cities-tour-2.htm