A funny story...

This is a pretty good story! We brought umbrellas with us to Europe but Brent's umbrella broke and when it started to rain in Amsterdam we ducked into a store and bought a new umbrella for him. As we stepped outside and Brent opened his umbrella, Ken and I watched and gasped in horror. Even knowing about Amsterdam's liberal sexual atmosphere, we were unprepared for this! Unfortunately Brent saw our shocked looks and he said, "What? What' s wrong?" We told him briefly what the XXX symbol stood for and then of course, he didn't want to carry it. We tried to find another store that sold umbrellas. We finally found one that had just plain black umbrellas much to our relief. I was standing in line to buy it when I noticed that XXX logo was printed on a lot of other merchandise too so I decided to take a chance and ask the cashier what it meant. She proudly replied, " It's our city's symbol and it means;

Merciful, Heroic and Determined!"

Well, the laugh was on us but we still can't think of what to do with this umbrella except use it as a white elephant gift!

In my last post, I showed pictures of a bakery that belonged to an Overgaauw ancestor. In the town of Zuidland, there was a shop where a local artisan sold her wares. She had made this plate showing my ancestor's bakery and home. When I saw it I just wanted it so bad but the store was closed. We made a special effort to go back to the store during the middle of the week but the store was still closed. I went to the bakery next door and asked the owner if she knew when the shop would open. She said, "Well, the artist comes in on different days so I don't know. But I could call her if you want." So, she calls the artist and the artist said she wasn't coming in till tomorrow and suggested I come back. I told her that we were leaving and this was my only chance to get it. So she told the bakery to just open up her store and sell it to me. The bakery owner goes to the back of the store and comes back with a key. She opens the store but can't figure out how to work the artist's cash register so she just took my euros and said, "I'll give it to her." Can you imagine that ever happening here???

Netherlands---4

ON TO AMSTERDAM

This was the strangest site; a multi-level parking structure for bikes! There are bikes everywhere in Holland and all ages ride them. It seems especially odd to see men in suits and elderly people on bikes. They ride with one hand on the handlebars and the other holding an umbrella when it rains. We visited a national park and there were racks and racks of bikes to use for free. I felt that the Dutch people are far more socially conscious of global warming and actually are doing things to help slow it. We are having lunch in a little outdoor cafe right over a canal. It was delicious food and we enjoyed hanging around till the rain stopped.

Rijksmuseum held many paintings of the Dutch masters such as my personal favorite, Vermeer.
If you ever go to Holland, make sure you ride the boats in the canals. Its not only an efficient way to visit the city but the old bridges and architecture and house boats are so quaint.

Netherlands---3

This group of pictures are from a town called Zuidland which is located in South Holland. This is where many of my father's ancestors came from. My ancestors owned a bakery there in the early 1800's. I am holding a cookie mold that was once used in the bakery. The cookie mold is now owned by a descendant, Dick Overgaauw.
The bakery building is still standing as seen here. The buildings in Holland are very old. Some of them were built in the 1600-1700's and oft times the house will have the year it was built incorporated in the masonry work on the face of the house. Today when someone buys a house, they are not permitted to make structural changes to the exterior though most people gut the interior to bring it up to date. The interior of the bakery is being worked on at this time. The house to the right is where the Luijmes family once lived.
This mill was once owned by one of my Luijmes ancestors. Across the street is a dijke. If one was to stand on the deck of this mill, you could see the ocean only a few hundred feet away!
This is Dick and Agaath Overgaauw. He researched and published a book on the Overgaauw family. I got so much genealogical information from him and believe it or not, I first met him over the internet. It was fun to meet them. They were very kind and gracious hosts and best of all, they gave us the grand tour and historical background of our family in Zuidland.
This bike shop used to be a store owned by our family. It was strange as we walked around Zuidland to see family names on store front businesses. There are still a number of descendants living in that area.

Churches of the Netherlands

The churches in the Netherlands and in France as well, are nothing short of architectural art. Absolutely amazing! Many of these churches were originally built in the 1400-1500 time frame as Catholic churches but later they became Dutch Reformed churches. Supposedly one of the reformations was less ornate churches but wow....hard to see that!
Prominent and/or famous people were buried beneath the stone floor of these churches. Johannes Vermeer's, a famous Dutch artist, headstone is shown below. Subconsciously, somehow it seemed somehow disrespectful to walk across these memorials, take pictures and purchase souvenirs in these places of worship but that is how these congregations maintain and restore their churches.

If you were prominent (and rich) enough, you got a monument in the church and an above ground coffin!
The stained glass was fabulous in every church but this one was exceptional.

Netherlands---2

We walked over a dike which you must understand is like a 15 foot high mound of dirt and..hellooooo.....there is the North Sea!!! I really wonder how these people sleep during any kind of a storm!
Locks like these are everywhere in Holland as are the dikes. We were asked a couple of times why our country doesn't just put in dikes and locks etc. in New Orleans. They don't understand how controversial that is here. For them, it is a necessary and "sunk (like that play on words?) cost."
Delft was a beautiful and quaint town. The canals were so pretty and we saw many wild swans. Notice in the picture below how close the water is to the back doors of these homes and businesses.
We loved this shot of the old and the new windmills. The old ones are so pretty but really only seen out in the country anymore.

Netherlands 2007

The sign says "Welcome to the Netherlands!" This was truly a dream come true for me. I have always wanted to visit the land of my forefathers. Let me tell you a little about our trip there.

One of the first things we saw was this windmill. Since the windmill was actually working we just had to pull off the highway to see it. It was a working mill and the owners ground and sold their own flour as well as give tours of the windmill. We climbed up to the top of the interior and watched as the old wood gears turned the paddles of the windmill. We tasted their homemade bread and bought some flour. There was a fair-like celebration in this little town that day and since every town seems to be built around a church (see background) everyone gathers there by the church and has fun together.

The Netherlands is very green and of course, very flat, with some of it lying below sea level. The country was especially beautiful and though we weren't there during tulip time we saw homes in the country with large fields of other flowers like this one.
Because Holland is so close to the North Sea, it is a common sight to see harbors, locks, dykes and canals throughout the country.

A Quieter Week

It was a quiet week and it was nice for a change of pace. Brent was asked to be the drum major for the school band. That requires lessons to teach him how to hold and spin a baton. Though it looks easy enough, its actually a bit brutal on the body and he has a few good bruises and a cut on his hand to prove it! But he is getting better at it and we saw a lot of improvement this week. He is real excited about it and so are we! We'll post some pictures of him when he starts in the Fall.
Another fun activity was going with Evaly, Carter and Kylie to the library where Brent is volunteering this summer. They had a petting zoo there last week and it was a most unusual one. The animals were in costumes...yes, that's right, costumes. You know, a dress on a goat, a hat on a sheep, backpacks, vests, etc. And all these animals were exceptionally relaxed in a setting of 30 or so pre-schoolers running around,petting them and brushing their fur. They had a hen that just sat there and let the kids pet her. Rabbits that had soft Chinchilla-like fur,that were sprawled out on the grass and not disturbed at all by loud and quick-moving children. They even had a very large turtle who allowed the kids to touch his head. He never did duck into his shell. It was really amazing to see how gentle and unafraid these animals were. I talked to the propietor and she said it was because "they were working." She claimed that when they had their costumes on, they somehow know how to behave but as soon as the costumes come off, they know they are going home and they line up to get on the truck and don't want to be petted anymore. Weird, huh?It was the best petting zoo I've ever been too.
On Saturday, Brent, Evaly and I went school shopping. Brent found some "cool" clothes so that's done! (I love shopping for boys...one hour, all done!) Then we took care of McKell and Carter so Mommy and Daddy and Kylie could go out and celebrate Nathan's birthday. It was fun and they are such cute kids! We love being close to our grandkids!

Those computer savy kids....

Well, my daughter, Evaly, has the most darling blog ever! (Of course, its exceptionally cute because she has adorable children to post on hers!) But she's persuaded me that its a great way to keep in touch with friends and family and since I am not a very good letter writer I've decided to give it a try. I love having computer savy kids. They sometimes have to drag me into "21st century technology" and deal with some reluctance and fear on my part, but, I usually like it a lot once I've learned it.