Journey to Holland

And Time just keeps moving along!

On Friday (July 1) afternoon I was upstairs doing some sewing when I heard the doorbell ring and soon Laura called me downstairs.
I was greeted by a friend I'd only met by facebook! She came over from Germany a couple hours away to spend the afternoon and also had supper with us! It was so fun to get to meet Rika in person! We also walked to the garden, I love seeing how things change within just a couple of days. New flowers blooming & the gardens are so lush & growing well!

Walking to the gardens-- Laura's squash are doing good!

Look at the beautiful big cabbage! Wish I could grow them like this!

Wow, just look at all those raspberries! I want to grow those too!

Laura's garden is small compared to alot of these, but it's doing so good--and look at those squash blooms too!

It sure was a nice surprise, and lovely to meet you finally Rika! Glad you came to spend the day with us!

On Saturday we headed off to find the Market! This was just a short way out of where they live, and reminded me very much of the "Swap meet" that we used to go to in AZ when I visited my sisters there long ago! It was both inside and out, and venders of every sort imaginable. Both new and old things, clothes, tools, household, electronics, junk, antiques and hand crafted items....you name it it was there. Except for a chalk board that we were looking for! There has been none of those anywhere that we can find!

This was the big inside building. All around the top level were antiques and I took this looking down on part of the lower level.

It was pretty interesting, and really did bring back memories of AZ with my sisters! We had actually (and a good thing) went to the outside venders first before we went to the large inside building. A HUGE rainstorm hit while we were inside, and the outside venders scrambled to cover & move things. I guess they are prepared for things like that, but it sure didn't look like much fun to have to scramble for cover!

Not a whole lot of adventures for these days, it's been very rainy & cloudy and Sunday we enjoyed a quiet day with a lovely long nap! Sunday night we had a bible study here, and a visitor so it was fun to get acquainted with another person here.

I'll be back to start a new week soon! Hopefully we'll have new baby news for this next week!!

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!)