New Photos

We are still without internet but hopefully it will be installed this week which we are all looking forward to. We are having to bootleg intermittent access from the wi-fi cafe next door and the neighbors upstairs. The only way we get access is to hang the wireless connector out the window and prop the window open with a wooden spoon. Yeah, I think you all need to see the lengths I'm going through to get this important information out to you! Next upload, I promise. Anyway, I put some new pictures out for you to see (taken with our new camera). More news soon!

Churchyard

Moved 080410/sa

Off line due to move. Should be back online by April 21st. Check back then.

Keukenhof: The most beautiful spring garden in the world 080328/sa

It is said that nowhere else in the world are the flowers and colors of spring as glorious as at Keukenhof, and after visiting there this weekend, I don’t doubt it.

Keukenhof is a historic park covering almost 80 acres, full of tulips, hyacinths, daffodils and other spring bulbs. The flowers in the park are a glorious visual feast with exquisite works of art peppered throughout. Keukenhof is an unforgettable experience. The park is peaceful and serene and it has been one of the most popular destinations in the Netherlands for almost 60 years and is famous worldwide. With more than 42 million visitors in the last 58 years, it is also said that Keukenhof is the most photographed place and event in the world annually and I have no doubt that it is. We had a field day with our cameras. Check out our Keukenhof photo album. I’ve never been so into flowers before and feel pretty sure I can say the same for Rick, yet again, we came home with almost five hundred pictures.

Keukenhof park is only opened for a brief period each year (March 20 - May 18)–less than two months. The rest of the time is devoted to maintenance and special events. It purports to have over 4.5 million tulips in 100 varieties and 7 million flower bulbs are planted by hand each year! There are almost ten miles of footpaths and more than 2,500 trees in 87 varieties.

Though Keukenhof is a park put together by man, as I walked the trails, I couldn’t help my thoughts being drawn back to the original garden–Eden–and once again, saw God. He is so creative--He must design flowers in His spare time! I think the Garden of Eden must have been much like Keukenhof–and like my future heavenly garden will be–that makes me excited!

Besides posting all these pictures for friends and family to see, I’ve been trying to decide what I can do with all the beautiful pictures–seems such a waste just to sit here. I’m thinking of incorporating a greeting card company–send your ditties and I’ll personalize a card for you!

Note to Vicki: I think we should save our money and come over to Keukenhof in a couple of years and shoot photos from dawn til dusk for two or three days. Playing with the lights and shadows was a blast, but I needed a couple of days. Some pictures would have been so cool with the sun on the opposite side. This is a photographer’s paradise–and to think I thought they were only flowers!

Jan & Vicki: I think you're the only ones reading this blog so you better comment occasionally so I know you're there!

Eating Experiences 080328/sa

Eating out is an adventures–always–in fact, its becoming one of my favorite forms of entertainment. We’ve finally picked up enough Dutch to know the basics:

rundvlees = beef
kip = chicken
vis = fish
varkensvlees = porkchop


This gets us by most of the time...at least we usually have an idea of what we are about to get...I emphasize usually as we almost always get some sort of surprise.

Okay, armed with these basics, on a rare occasion, we actually can tell exactly what will be served with our meat. These are pretty cool, because, we recognize these:

paprika = paprika
broccoli = broccoli
sparerib = sparerib


Then, there are those items that a little common sense and creative thinking will get you a little closer:

uien = onion
boter = butter
melk = milk
spinazie = spinach
brood = bread
tomaten = tomato
frites = fries


Finally, there are those things that you just have to memorize. Fortunately, since I do most of the shopping and cooking, I’m picking up on the nuances such as:

champignons = mushrooms
aardbei = strawberry
bieslook = chives
knoflook = garlic
kaas = cheese
graan = corn
kaneel = cinnamon
rijst = rice
slagroom = whipped cream


I still get a little confused because so many of the Dutch names for fruits/vegtables contain “appel” in the name...but, no matter what we get, its pretty safe:

appel = apple
sinaasappel = orange
aardappel = potatoe


We still are a little uncertain about the wienerschnitzel. It basically means “chicken fried,” but the meat inside almost always seems to be a surprise. Rick and Hank are lapping it up on a regular basis, but its still very reminiscent of bologna or Spam to me!

Finally, that brings us to the worsts (sausage). Rookworst is the traditional Dutch sausage and the guys love it and I have to admit, it does smell good, but I’m not ready to go there yet.

This brings us back to some of our more memorable dinners. The first meal we had out (at least Hank had) was at KFC. He got a chicken sandwich and as he said, it was the size of a golf ball–that together with a small fry and small coke cost us almost 12€.

Our first “real” meal we took at a little pub in the square after church one Sunday. There Rick had steak, Hank had ribs, and I had the mixed grill which included chicken, porkchop, steak and spareribs. Needless to say, I had a doggie bag, which they do understand over here. (Everyone has a dog or cat.) It was at this meal that I was introduced to a traditional Dutch dish called “witlof” or “witloof.” It is a vegetable related to the endive (still don’t know what that is), and was discovered quite by chance in the mid 1800's in Belgium. The story goes: the head of the Botanical Gardens in Brussels happened to store some chicory roots in a dark cellar and then sometime later discovered that they had produced fragrant white leaves. It is boiled whole until soft (kinda like cabbage) then put in a baking dish, topped with ham slices and cheese and baked. It tastes somewhat like cabbage and artichoke. I think dad would like this as on the couple of occasions I’ve talked him into eating artichoke he said that it tasted okay, but was too much work. I want to try making witlof with garlic, lemon and butter sauce.

Hank’s really not one to experiment much...it seems that every time we go out to eat he orders the spareribs.

Our next adventure was on the way home from the Doornenburg castle. We were all starving and so I asked Tom to help us find some place to eat. We were pretty close to Appledorn, and Tom suggested a place called the Ribhouse Texas in Voorst. Now, by this time we’d been here almost a month and a little “Texas” (home) was sounding pretty good to all of us. We got there a little before 5:00 p.m. and upon arriving found the parking lot to be relatively empty. Inside, only a couple of tables were taken, but when we asked to be seated the hostess in broken English told us that it would be 7:00 p.m. before we could eat. We opted to get something before one of us passed out. While Rick and Hank were taking pictures up front, I went back to ask if she could direct us somewhere that we might could eat quicker and discovered that we’d misunderstood... she said we had to be finished by 7:00 p.m. It wasn’t long before we knew why. Evidently, Texas is pretty cool around here and soon the parking lot was full and so were all the tables.

We’ve got some pictures of the restaurant...yes, I try to always remember to take my camera to record these momentous events...like I said they are always entertaining.

Now, apparently, the Dutch equate “Texas” with “Mexican” because the waitresses were all attired in traditional Mexican garb and the decor was most definitely Mexican...like we see at Rancho Grande or something similar. The menu was what you would find on that of any typical American steakhouse with the exception that they served nacho cheese flavored Doritos and this sweet tasting salsa.

Our next venture eating out was at a bistro in Drenthe. It was awesome and I wish I’d taken my camera...it was almost too pretty to eat. This is where Rick had his initial wienerschnitzel. I had traditional Dutch tomato soup which is wonderful and a salad. I love the salads! No iceburg lettuce here...they put an assortment of greens which mostly look like weeds. I’m trying to find a picture of some of them to post here for you to see. If I don’t find one soon I’ll be forced to buy some and photograph them for you. They are all shapes and colors and each has a distinct flavor which makes the whole experience awesome. Some taste similar to a romaine-type lettuce and others have a stronger taste like fresh sage or something–and NO ranch dressing! (Since I promised Rick I wouldn’t buy any more food just to photograph, I may need some support from you guys on my proposed photo assignment here!)

What I’d have given for a camera on our next outing! This was a hoot. Hank opted for his usual spareribs and Rick was having difficulty deciding or deciphering or a combination of the two. Everything was in Dutch and we were doing our usual picking through trying to find things we recognized when we abut the same time we spotted “hamburger.” Now this sounded like a quick fix to our problem...and speed seemed prudent considering the fact that we were sitting outdoors in a off/on misting 40° rain. So Rick got the burger...which was served open-faced (like most Dutch sandwiches) and topped with a fried egg. Okay, so we missed something in the translation. I’m so lucky to have a guy that will eat almost anything that is put before him!!!

Other than the fact that we got kicked out of two restaurants while in Belgium (we still don’t know why), most of our recent weekend adventures were pretty tame...but still exciting...and fortunately, I did have the camera for this one!

Okay, we’re walking down the street in Valkenburg after touring the castle looking for something to eat. Hank spotted something called the Plaza and thought it sounded good so we headed that direction; however, a sign saying Texas BBQ caught my eye and the guys jumped at the chance for real Texas BBQ. We’ve come to finally figure out that Texas and BBQ here actually means “grilled.”

We enter the restaurant and are already committed when I notice the grills on each table. Now I pretty quickly figure out this isn’t the Benihana Japanese teriyaki-style grill. This is a backyard or patio kinda grill thing going on–in other words, we were going to cook our own food! My daddy also taught me that if you were going to pay for the meal at a restaurant, it should be cooked and served to you! And besides that, I’d already told Rick I was on vacation and wasn’t cooking for three days! So, you guessed it, the guys cooked. Hank really enjoyed it and I’ll have to admit, it was fun! The chips and dip pictured are Doritos and bbq sauce! The guys both liked it...and now I have a substitute when we run out of salsa at home. We also had what the proprietor called goulash which was more like a thick barbeque beef soup and a variety of vegetable salads like coleslaw, potato salad, cabbage something-or-other, etc. We all had spareribs.

The Dutch are real bread eaters and have a variety of flavored butters. The one we had here was flavored with cumen and chili powder. It was good...I need to make a mental note of this one.

I’m also posting in this photo album a couple of other pictures of meals we’ve had that were relatively non-eventful...just pretty plates. My favorite “pretty plates” are the desserts that we walk across the street to have on occasion. I keep forgetting to take the camera, but will eventually remember to get a couple of pictures of them for you to see.

Jimmy, I want to be in charge of desserts for the next missions banquet! I can make them too pretty to eat!

Eating Out 080328/sa

Volkenburg Kasteel & Velvet Cave 080328/sa

Valkenburg Castle

In the city of Valkenburg you can find the remains of Valkenburg Castle. The first fortifications at this site were probably built around 1115. As with most European castles, over the centuries, this castle has been destroyed by enemy sieges and rebuilt numerous times. After repeated sieges and takeovers, in 1465, 1568 and 1632, an almost total destruction followed in 1672 by the troops of King-Stadtholder Willem III, when they blew up the castle to prevent it to fall in the hands of the French troops. The castle fell into decay and was never rebuild again.

From then on the castle ruin was used as a quarry by the local people. In 1795, the ruin was confiscated by the French troops of Napoleon and a couple of years later was sold to Maximilian, Count of Hoen of Neufchateau, Lord of Schaloen. Until 1919, the Lords of Schaloen kept the castle ruin in their possession. In 1924, the castle became the property of the Valkenburg Castle Foundation.

I don't know what it is about castles, but its almost impossible to take a bad picture at one!

Velvet Cave

In 1937, during restorations of the castle ruin, workers discovered secret underground passages hewn into the rock beneath the castle. The medieval knights used these passages as escape routes and for breakouts during sieges. The rock consists of marlstone which was used to build houses, churches, castles and other buildings in this part of the country. These passages gave access to the Velvet Cave. This cave originated due to marlwinning inside the rock. As a result of ages of marlwinning there is a labyrinth of over three miles of passages inside the rock.

Most of the carvings you will see in our pictures are 100-150 years old. They stay in tack due to the high concentration of moisture in the cave. Another result of the moisture, in combination with the light, is the forming of algae in the cave and like Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico, it comes with its share of bats. The cave has five exits, three of which exit into the woods. It is difficult to imagine that most of these carvings were done in only the dim light of a candle, torch or little oil lamp.

We took a tour of the cave which was in Dutch so most of the detail of the carvings we missed; however, there was one story that our guide kindly shared with his "American friends."

During WWII the cave served as a shelter for Jewish and local people, hiding from the German soldiers. In September 1944, American soldiers transformed Valkenburg into a front town in order to attack the Germans (I think its only about 50 miles to the German border). By way of the passages in the cave, the American scouts were piloted to the castle ruins, from where they spotted the position of the German troops on the other side of the river Geul. After attack by the Americans, the German troops effectively were defeated and dislodged. During those liberation days, 400 local people took shelter in the Velvet Cave for a period of six days and nights. After the liberation of Valkenburg, the American liberators also visited the remaining parts of the cave’s passages. Throughout the cave, the name of these soldiers remain engraved in the walls.

The silhouettes of the American soldiers were portraited with oil lamp and charcoal by one of the former guides in the Velvet Cave after liberation. The portraits were made in honor and memory of the brave soldiers. In 1994, on the fiftieth anniversary of the liberation of Valkenburg, the "Old Hickories" (American liberating soldiers) revisited the cave. It was a very emotional day.

Also inside the rock a chapel is hewn, which was used during the French occupation period. In 1794, the area was overtaken by the French under Napoleon. The French occupiers exiled the pope and forced all Roman Catholic priests to take the oath of faith to the French constitution. Those who refused were exiled to the Isle of Rhe and left to die. In 1796, the French plundered and closed all churches in this area which led to the establishment of refuge chapels in the area where priests secretly read mass for the local people. The chapel is equipped with an alter, a pulpit, a confessional and a baptismal.

Don't forget to check out the pictures by clicking on the links above.

Hank 080326/sk

This weekend we went exploring. Check out these pictures of Hank. He had fun climbing and basically being a boy--100%! Hank

Hunebedden, Dolman, Megaliths

Everyone has heard of Stonehenge in England, but who knows of even older and more numerous Holland megalithes. A megalith is a large stone (from the ancient Greek megas meaning great, and lithos meaning stone). These structures were constructed as monuments or aboveground burial chambers, of large stones and covered with earth or other, smaller stones without the use of mortar or cement.

Even most of the Dutch themselves are unaware of the richness of the prehistoric monuments in their own country. But they exist and are said to have been there for over 5000 years–even older than the Egyptian pyramids! Built of huge granite stones, some of them weighing over twenty tons, dragged to the spot and piled up to form a rectangular stonegrave..

There are still 54 of them. Fifty-two in the province of Drenthe which is just north of Hengelo a little over an hour away. "Hunebedden" as they are called here, were not built by Hunen (giants) nor are they beds, but graves..

In Drenthe there are no mountains or rocks, but the hunebedden are made of huge stones which were "imported" from Scandinavia. About 200,000 years ago if you believe the secular theory of things, during an ice-period, Holland and most of northern Europe was covered by a thick layer of ice. The big boulders of which the hunebedden are made of were transported to Holland by slow moving ice-glaciers..

About 4000 BC (let’s see, that would have been about the time of the flood), hunters that visited Drenthe learned to grow wheat, to domesticate cattle, and to build farmhouses. They settled here as the first farmers in the region. Archaeologists call this period the Neolithics or New Stone Age. These farmers cut the woods with stone axes and cultivated the arable land. About 3450 BC they started building huge stonegraves using the big boulders that were scattered all over the place. They also made all sorts of earthenware, many of them in the form of a funnel. Because of that archaeologists say this people belong to The Funnel Beaker Culture.

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One might ask, why these simple farmers made such a tremendous effort to drag those heavy boulders to a construction site and pile them up to making a huge stonegrave and how on earth did they do this?.

Dolmen, like those we saw, are the most common type of megalithic construction in Europe. They are a chamber consisting of upright stones (orthostats) with one or more large flat capstones forming a roof. Many of these, though by no means all, contain human remains, but it has been debated as to whether or not use as burial sites was their primary function–again, different schools of thought..

These megalithic structures also known as dolmen are a type of single-chamber burial tomb, usually consisting of three or more upright stones (megaliths) supporting a large flat horizontal capstone (table). It is assumed that most dolmens were originally covered by earth or smaller stones to form a barrow, though today in many cases that covering has weathered away, leaving only the stone "skeleton" of the burial mound intact..

Now that you know what you’re looking at, take a look at the hunebedden Rick and I visited. These rocks are huge and you can’t imagine how they could be moved without modern machinery...of course, I guess this was practice for the pyramids.

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Most of the hunebedden are scattered throughout this rural district. There is one place (at the largest one) where there are lots of tourist and its impossible to get a decent picture; however, we enjoyed the chance to get out and explore some of the more remote spots..

It was a good day to explore the local sights and countryside. Hope you enjoy our pictures!.

Hunebedden

As we were preparing to head home, we tried to stop at Robinhood’s Inn for lunch, but it was closed. We found a quaint little bistro somewhere...would love to remember where it was! Lunch was great!