Classy Tourists

Goedenavond all!

Monday night, 3am, found Kim wide awake and the brain gears turning pretty smooth. Result of a pretty decent idea that was given no more than a second's worth of consideration: This blog! But jetlag has been pretty much conquered, and I am happy to tell you that right now it is a reasonable hour of 8:30. and I am actually in my right mind while writing, and perhaps I do have decent ideas at 3am.

The photo above is  from today. We biked for 3 hours, what we estimated was just under 30 kms. There is a road (yes, the path pictured here is a country road used by horses, cars using both lanes, walkers and bikers!) that follows the Rotter river for miles. It winds beside pleasant country homes, cabins built on the water, sheep farms and even the highway if you are as touristy as us to go that far :) The road is a bit sketchy, but bikers get right of way (I'm really not sure why, but hey, it's a great system when you're the biker!) which is probably a very good thing for two girls who may or may not get lost EVERY SINGLE TIME!!! and occasionally may or may not confuse their lefts and rights.

Anyway, yesterday we went to Delft. The city is very old, and depicts the typical old Dutch scenes that our grandmothers talk about. Red roofed houses inches away from the edge of the road, canals wherever you look... very cozy! Plus a Subway of course-couldn't be better! We toured a couple churches from the 1400's and also went to the museum where William of Orange was murdered. It was quite interesting, and letters on the pages of history textbooks melt into solid footsteps on concrete in the very places history was made. We felt this especially when climbing the winding stone steps of an ancient church tour. At times the passage was almost as narrow as Chilliwack's caves, and small slits for arrows let in the only light. Slight indents in the steps were worn by boots hundreds of years ago... an incredible experience!

View from the church tower

 

Yesterday evening I had an 'interview' with three guys who had set up a fund for international students. It was a really great evening, and I ended up with 500 Euros. Not too bad for an evening out with even a paid desert! Well, to be honest I forgot to pay so I guess they probably (hopefully?) covered for me :)

 

And tomorrow is our first day at Erasmus. We will be getting a tour and meeting other folks in our program. Should be good!

 

Blessings to all of you, and have a wonderful weekend!

Beginnings

To make sharing info a little easier, I have decided to create a blog to follow our time in the Netherlands.

We arrived safely in the Netherlands, and were warmly greeted by some of the most hospitable people in the world, who have proved that title to be more than correct over the past several days!

The first day we climbed what is probably the only hill in Holland that also happens to be a garbage dump. From there it was possible to see only skyscrapers til the farthest horizon that stretched to the far end of Holland and beyond. The city is fringed by old style houses, narrow and three stories high for the most part. Some are grass-roofed, they all have wooden doors and brick exteriors. So beautiful!

This first week has been packed with activities. 38 kms of biking completed the third day. We saw the city this way, what a beautiful place! Sunday we visited the Laurenskerk for a concert (from the 1400s, also has a stunningly beautiful organ) and met many wonderful people. Not knowing the language that was being spoken was pretty frustrating. We now know that when the minister introduces guests (in dutch) they have to stand up. In front of the entire congregation. Upon announcing our names the congregation chuckled at the name Devries (apparently when pronounced this way it means 'little man.' Not sure what to make of it, we looked around a bit when someone poked us and motioned for us to stand up after a pause from the minister. Not understanding Dutch, we had no idea what we were doing, but anyway, it was pretty funny. Being able to sing the Genevan tunes in a different language with 500 people from a different language and culture was such an overwhelming experience. God has his loved people even half way across the globe! Of course we know this but to experience it was amazing. It reminded me of the hymn, "With voices united our praises we offer."

And today should be some admin work, another full day!

Have a wonderful day as well!