I'm trying to catch the line of trees along the horizon we see as we drove home from the Stigters after dinner one night. It's very flat in the Netherlands.
We heard of the town of Giethorn up north that is like a Venice - no roads, just canals and boats. While we were waiting for our boat ride, we had to have some ice-cream. It had been rainy and cold and then all of a sudden, on our P-day, the sun came out!
This is the boat that took us around the town and told us the history of the area. The town was created by a religious group that had been driven out of area after area. They were permitted to settle here and dug peat as their living.
Giethorn is a very picturesque little city, full of tiny canals, beautiful yards, and lovely houses and shops and restaurants. The canals were created when they dug peat randomly, creating ditches and ultimately small islands that the houses reside on.
We sailed out into a big lake that is very shallow. The lake was created by the peat diggers also. This gives you an idea of the size of the area peat was taken from.
You can see how shallow the lake is as this man is standing on the bottom, working on his little sail boat. The lake is about 2.5 feet deep, so it's pretty kid friendly.
Every where there's a picture. Looks like a postcard.
There was an old home that was converted to a museum. Because of the limited space and weather, half of the building was lived in by the family and the other half housed the animals. The part with the tile roof was for the family and the part with the thatched roof was for the animals.
This large boat was used to haul cattle on the canals.
We went to a museum which was a typical Dutch farmhouse in this area. This is the back of it with a little windmill pumping out the water. This was fascinating because the mechanism that lifted the water is visible. It operates on the same principle as the large windmills that were used to manage water in some of the lowland areas.
I loved this blue and white church. If you look closely, you can see the organist up by the organ pipes. She was really good. I could have stayed for a long time just listening to her.
Very quaint.
These little bridges were built to join the small islands the homes sit on. They were privately owned and some still are.
Very peaceful.
This boat is flying the Giethoorn flag. The story goes that when the settlers started digging peat, they found a huge quantity of goat's horns. So the town was named Dutch for "goat's horns". It was modified to the current Giethoorn. Goats horns are on the yellow field of the flag.
A "self portrait".
Some cool pottery outside of a pottery shop there in Giethorn. The pottery is thrown and fired in a shop behind the store.
More cool pottery inside the shop. Very creative arrangements.
We had dinner in a restaurant called Fanfare, which was the name of a Dutch movie that was filmed in Giethorn and made the town famous. We ate outside, right beside the canal and enjoyed this meal. I got two kinds of farmer's bread with these cool toppings. Loel got the traditional 3 eggs on two pieces of bread with ham and cheese.
Most of the homes have thatched roofs. Our guide explained that in the old days, a thatched roof meant you ran out of money. Today, a thatched roof means you have money - because of the high cost of fire insurance for the thatched roof.
The thatch is made from the reeds that grow at the edge of the lake. They are tightly bundled and laid on the roof.
The town now depends on tourism for income, so every house and yard is beautifully groomed.
Our Monday lunch with the Assistants anxiously waiting to eat. We had Poppy Seed Chicken salad, veggies, fresh rolls, and Rocky Road Brownies.
We went to Antwerpen for one of our last times so decided to visit Anne Marie, a wonderful convert we saw get baptized last November. She works at the beautiful train station. We took her to lunch at our favorite frites place right by the station.
We delivered 15 boxes of supplies to the Antwerpen zone - here are all the elders and sisters who helped us bring in the supplies and are helping me get them set up.
We delivered more supplies for our own zone training the next day, but this time in our own chapel in Leiden.
Loel had his second birthday in the mission field and so got sung to and complimented as they do for birthdays. So many nice things were said about him.
He got honored twice - once in Antwerpen and then the second day in Leiden. Here he is with the whole group singing the rousing Dutch birthday song, complete with lots of foot stamping and clapping.
These are all the sisters in the Den Haag and Rotterdam zones.
We drove down to Antwerpen again this week for Andy Thomas' setting apart. Here we all are with his grandparents beside him and the stake president in the back. The zone leaders and sisters were also there with us. It was a beautiful blessing and now he's a full-time missionary. It was hard to say good-bye, but it felt so good to see him as a set apart missionary. We will miss him greatly, but what a blessing he's been in our lives. We've watched him from investigator, to newly baptized member, to a new missionary. All in 16 months. He flew off to England this morning.
I'm trying to catch the line of trees along the horizon we see as we drove home from the Stigters after dinner one night. It's very flat in the Netherlands.
We heard of the town of Giethorn up north that is like a Venice - no roads, just canals and boats. While we were waiting for our boat ride, we had to have some ice-cream. It had been rainy and cold and then all of a sudden, on our P-day, the sun came out!
This is the boat that took us around the town and told us the history of the area. The town was created by a religious group that had been driven out of area after area. They were permitted to settle here and dug peat as their living.
Giethorn is a very picturesque little city, full of tiny canals, beautiful yards, and lovely houses and shops and restaurants. The canals were created when they dug peat randomly, creating ditches and ultimately small islands that the houses reside on.
We sailed out into a big lake that is very shallow. The lake was created by the peat diggers also. This gives you an idea of the size of the area peat was taken from.
You can see how shallow the lake is as this man is standing on the bottom, working on his little sail boat. The lake is about 2.5 feet deep, so it's pretty kid friendly.
Every where there's a picture. Looks like a postcard.
There was an old home that was converted to a museum. Because of the limited space and weather, half of the building was lived in by the family and the other half housed the animals. The part with the tile roof was for the family and the part with the thatched roof was for the animals.
This large boat was used to haul cattle on the canals.
We went to a museum which was a typical Dutch farmhouse in this area. This is the back of it with a little windmill pumping out the water. This was fascinating because the mechanism that lifted the water is visible. It operates on the same principle as the large windmills that were used to manage water in some of the lowland areas.
I loved this blue and white church. If you look closely, you can see the organist up by the organ pipes. She was really good. I could have stayed for a long time just listening to her.
Very quaint.
These little bridges were built to join the small islands the homes sit on. They were privately owned and some still are.
Very peaceful.
This boat is flying the Giethoorn flag. The story goes that when the settlers started digging peat, they found a huge quantity of goat's horns. So the town was named Dutch for "goat's horns". It was modified to the current Giethoorn. Goats horns are on the yellow field of the flag.
A "self portrait".
Some cool pottery outside of a pottery shop there in Giethorn. The pottery is thrown and fired in a shop behind the store.
More cool pottery inside the shop. Very creative arrangements.
We had dinner in a restaurant called Fanfare, which was the name of a Dutch movie that was filmed in Giethorn and made the town famous. We ate outside, right beside the canal and enjoyed this meal. I got two kinds of farmer's bread with these cool toppings. Loel got the traditional 3 eggs on two pieces of bread with ham and cheese.
Most of the homes have thatched roofs. Our guide explained that in the old days, a thatched roof meant you ran out of money. Today, a thatched roof means you have money - because of the high cost of fire insurance for the thatched roof.
The thatch is made from the reeds that grow at the edge of the lake. They are tightly bundled and laid on the roof.
The town now depends on tourism for income, so every house and yard is beautifully groomed.
Our Monday lunch with the Assistants anxiously waiting to eat. We had Poppy Seed Chicken salad, veggies, fresh rolls, and Rocky Road Brownies.
We went to Antwerpen for one of our last times so decided to visit Anne Marie, a wonderful convert we saw get baptized last November. She works at the beautiful train station. We took her to lunch at our favorite frites place right by the station.
We delivered 15 boxes of supplies to the Antwerpen zone - here are all the elders and sisters who helped us bring in the supplies and are helping me get them set up.
We delivered more supplies for our own zone training the next day, but this time in our own chapel in Leiden.
Loel had his second birthday in the mission field and so got sung to and complimented as they do for birthdays. So many nice things were said about him.
He got honored twice - once in Antwerpen and then the second day in Leiden. Here he is with the whole group singing the rousing Dutch birthday song, complete with lots of foot stamping and clapping.
These are all the sisters in the Den Haag and Rotterdam zones.
We drove down to Antwerpen again this week for Andy Thomas' setting apart. Here we all are with his grandparents beside him and the stake president in the back. The zone leaders and sisters were also there with us. It was a beautiful blessing and now he's a full-time missionary. It was hard to say good-bye, but it felt so good to see him as a set apart missionary. We will miss him greatly, but what a blessing he's been in our lives. We've watched him from investigator, to newly baptized member, to a new missionary. All in 16 months. He flew off to England this morning.
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