30 May-3 June 2011

One day this week we walked from the office to the centrum in Leiden and sat outside and ate pannekoeken (Dutch pancakes). It was a beautiful, sunny day with lots of boats out on the canals.

We decided to do a picture journey of the drive to the office each day from our apartment in Rijnsburg. We start here, at the Grote Kerk (Great Church), right across the street from our apartment - this is the big old church that has carillon bells that play songs like "The Hills Are Alive," and "Joy to the World."

This is a typical Dutch house - maybe a little well manicured yard in the front, with big windows, and always flowers in the windows. They're always very neat and tidy.

There are a lot of different churches in our little village - this is another one along the way to the office.

We go through several big roundabouts on our way - this one has a unique sculpture in the middle of it. There are a lot of unique, unusual and sometimes strange sculptures in the Netherlands.

We always pass this statue - not sure who it is.

We're now in the town of Oegstgeest, which is where the Office Elders live. This is a big church on our drive that I have always loved.

This little restaurant always has this big cow out in front. Cows are a big deal in the Netherlands.

A pretty, wooded area that we drive through.

This is the second windmill we pass as we drive.

I call these "The Star War Buildings," as they look really modernistic and space age. This building is still under construction and will add a lot of traffic to our neighborhood when it's complete. Our office is just next to them in downtown Leiden.

And we made it! Here I am in front of our office.

This is our favorite Greek restaurant within walking distance from the office. We took the office elders to lunch one day this week.

All the senior couples came together for a meeting and a pot luck lunch to the office. Afterwards we went to the American Pilgrim Museum together here in Leiden. The pilgrims lived in Leiden for 11 years before they sailed off on the Mayflower to America.

These are some Catholic religious icons that were found in this house from the time period of when the pilgrims lived here. They were found in the sewer, under the house, as they had been thrown in the toilet, because the Pilgrims were Protestant. the Senior Couples went as a group to the Pilgrim museum. Unfortunately the camera battery died and this was one of two pictures we took. The museum is in a house similar to what the Pilgrims would live in and is furnished with items from the 1500's and 1600's. This particular house belonged to a Catholic Priest, and was taken over when the Catholic Church lost favor in the Netherlands.
The ties between Dutch and American history are fascinating. For example, when the Dutch declared independence from Spain, they became the United States (seven provinces) of Holland. The naming of the United States of America was a political statement referencing the 13 colonies as the United States of America.

This has been a fairly quiet week - President and Sister Brubaker finally have moved to their new home in the Netherlands. They live about 20 minutes from us and from the office. They have a nice new home in a new neighborhood - their backyard is right on a canal - it's very much a traditional Dutch house.