A lekker few days

Good morning! I hope you all are well, and enjoying Spring weather!
The past week has been pretty full here in the Netherlands. Val's aunt and uncle in Lekkerkerk invited us over, so we stayed the night at their place. With them we visited Madurodam (Holland's main landmarks in miniature), as well as Noah's ark in life size. It was a really gezellig two days! Anyway, here's some pics of the past week.

Evening bike ride with a university friend

Holland has some of the most beautiful sunsets I have ever seen. They are quite similar to prarie sunsets.

We climbed the 'ski hill' (it takes five minutes to climb, thus the quotation marks...) and found a family trying to make a wish balloon fly. It didn't work so well, but the picture turned out pretty well!

Heinekin sold in the grocery aisles, gotta love this place!

Devries shoemaker in Lekkerkerk! I think this was my Great-Opa's trade as well (Also a Devries).

Noah's ark in life size at Dordrecht

Inside the ark they had it set up as Noah may have had it set up. This included a water wheel which could saw wood, and all the animal booths. This giraffe didn't quite fit in his stall so his head had to go through the roof. It would have been a pretty long 380 days for him I think!

Tante Tineke :) She is so enthusiastic about life, and a lot of fun to spend our day with.

Exploring Dordrecht

 

This is the church of Dordrecht at the end of the street, where the Canons of Dort were written. The next few pictures show a bit more of the church.

 

A cute pee-break :)

 

An extremely magnificent work of art. I think the builder's had a real sense of who God is.

We finished the day with a giant cheese/bacon/onion/mushroom pancake! It was hard to roll ourselves off the benches after this, it was sooo filling!

Madurodam (from Tante Tineke's camera, these next few pictures are a bit out of order: )

We got a kick out of the beds and needed a picture, good tourists as we are! The top half can be raised by pushing a button... luxury!

Noah's ark

Yesterday we played a football (soccer) match. Later we went to a friend's house and made a nice Canadian dinner! A bunch spilled on the burner and a lot landed on the floor (bacteria is good for the immune system, right Mom? ;)  Man, it was good to be in a kitchen again! It turned into some sort of cream of potato soup with meatballs, and together with wine made a delicious 10 pm dinner. We chatted for a few hours and then cleaned up at 12 am. It was just like Smithers again, doing the weeks dishes and cooking for poor bachelors (who always keep their houses impressively clean, except for the dishes)! Which also resulted in having to bike home 40 minutes away at 12:30 am... All in all, a really nice evening! Seeing scenery and buildings is really great, but getting to know the culture by making friends (especially if it involves soccer!) is my favorite part of travelling.

 

And early next week we head off to Prague for a week, and then to a camping trip with some kids from the church. It should be a busy week and a half!

Til then,

Kim