Eliot started back at his former preschool today at the Boulder Waldorf Kindergarten. It was nice to be able to walk to school again. And it felt normal too, not driving, just like in Holland. I still am not used to driving so much - it's just necessary here! I can definitely ride my bike lots of places, which is great. But this past week, we had more snow and you can't ride in the snow and slush.
Eliot was a bit apprehensive when I left but he immediately found friends Abby and Frances and jumped right into the sand box to play. It's nice to have some continuity of teacher, friends, and the rhythms of the week. Mondays are still painting days, which was always his favorite day! When Miles and I picked him up at 12:30, he had a great first day back. Thank goodness for an easy transition.
Jim's off to Australia and then New Zealand for 2 full weeks with his new job. A pretty nice place to travel for work!
Haircuts
Aunt Julie and I took the boys to get much needed haircuts at a new kids salon in Longmont. Eliot chose blue gel for his hairdo. Miles predictably chose yellow and napped all the way home. The kids love Aunt Julie to take them for their haircuts.
Initial Observations
Some of the things I noticed that first week back that struck me as odd or different: sugar, toilets, and space.
The sugar is so fine here. In Holland, even the baking sugar was pretty coarse and moist (given the humidity). I kept thinking that I was missing something and putting in such a small amount of the traditional white sugar. And it flowed rather than clumped.
The toilets seem so full of water. When I looked into the bowl, I thought it was overflowing. Nope that's just how full US toilets are. It was nice not having "the shelf" !
The biggest thing I noticed the amount of space - between houses, on the road, and the size of the roads and sidewalks. The density here is so low compared to Delft and Randstad generally. Everything is so much more spread out, less compact.
The All American Dinner
Our family had planned a dinner for our arrival on V-day, but given our late arrival and our sickness, the festivities had to be postponed a few days. I basically did not move off the couch and bed for 2 days. It was great that both sets of grandparents were in town to help out. Mary put me on antibiotics, since I was still having chills as of yesterday.
Friday night, Julie came to play after work, and we had a big family dinner.
The boys had a great time as always.
Miles gives a run around the family room. We had a nice
all-American meal of hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, and the fixings.
Miles grabs my arm to fall asleep at his highchair.
Valentine's Day - the next day
Jim had 3 Valentine's Day gifts waiting for me when I got home: a new vacuum (any girl's dream), a bright pink phone with flowers, and best of all, a town commuter bike. The bike is perfect for me to pull the boys in a trailer. It's got fenders, a bike rack (to remind me of Holland), and 24 gears for the hills. Sweet!
Travel Day - Amsterdam
My terrible day began as soon as I went to sleep. I spent the whole night with chills, aches, pain, fever, and the sweats. I was wheezey and at one point couldn't catch my breathe. That's a great way to begin a 18-hour travel day, huh? I finally got up and put on socks to try to fight off the chills and took my advil.
My alarm went off at 4:45 am (not that I was asleep). I called Mary as soon as I got up to see if I could take an inhaler puff to help my wheeziness. She said I could take 2 Aleve every 8 hours (prescription strength). Mary also advised me that if my lips turned blue, I should call the flight attendant because they have oxygen on the plane, if I get short of breath. I sweat that if we were not moving across the Atlantic today, I would not have been near an airplane.
I cleaned the shower and got our snacks together for the plane. I was miserable and had no energy and felt nauseous, so mom carried our 8 bags down to the lobby starting at 6 am. The boys got dressed and we took the rest of our things down. The driver was right on time and we were heading out of Delft by 6:45. We said good-bye to our apartment, Westvest, the new church tower, and the old church. Wow - we were leaving.
We arrived before the United desk crew was even working. The taxi driver helped us in with our bags. We made it! Yes, all the luggage you see is ours:
3 carts worth plus a stroller.
The boys played with their cars while we checked in our bags. We headed into the terminal, and mom and the boys ate breakfast. Our plane was going to be 30 minutes late, so we had plenty of time.
We boarded about 11 am. The boys fell asleep as soon as we buckled them into their carseats. We had 2 rows of 3-seaters, so we had an extra seat for me and mom. After taxiing out to the runway, they discovered a problem with a light in the pressurization system. They tried to fix it at the runway, but after an hour we returned to the gate. 1.5 hours later they finally agreed that the light was not a problem and we were cleared for take-off. They did decide to start the movies while we were waiting. Then we had to wait 30 more minutes for air traffic control in Chicago to clear our flight plan. Eliot woke up right before we headed back to the runway and asked "why have we not pushed back?" I told him we had once already! Once we were airborne, we finally got served lunch (3 pm). The flight was pretty uneventful, with the exception of my fever and chills even with 4 blankets on! I just took my Aleve every 8 hours on the dot to survive.
Chicago
We arrived in Chicago 12+ hours after boarding the plane at Schiphol. We were on the same flight number to Denver but had to go through the hoops to get back to the domestic flight terminal. We had missed our flight to Denver because of the delays, but that was a secondary concern to getting through the immigration and customs maze. I waited for our stroller until almost everyone was off the plane and until the flight attendant told me that gate-checked strollers would be in the baggage claim area after immigration.
Basically, we had to walk that whole way to get to our stroller, which is how we managed to carry everything and the two boys up to this point. We had 2 huge carseats, 2 roller bags, a backpack, 2 kid backpacks, another canvas bag, my bag/purse and 2 little boys who had already been traveling for 17 hours. This is definitely the time that mom wondered what she was thinking when she volunteered to help us move back. I wanted to die or at the very least just sit down in the hallway and stop for good in Chicago's international terminal. There was no way to carry either boy (the Ergo was in our luggage), so they had to walk. It was not pretty at all.
After walking nearly 0.25 miles, a nice gentleman came up and took our two carseats. After a bit of walking and listening to Miles say "carry me, momma" for the fiftieth time, his wife gave me her roller bags and she carried Miles. Going down our second set of escalators we came to airline cart. By this time we had probably walked 1/2 mile. The man and his wife helped us onto the cart and the driver took us the next 1/2 mile to the immigration lines. The driver told us to wait a minute in the cart, so we did. He came out of customs wheeling 2 luggage carts for us to put our carryons and carseats onto, plus there was a seat for the boys. Oh my gosh - he saved our lives. I have no idea how we would have even made it through the immigration line dragging our things. I really was ready to call Jim and tell him to drive to Chicago to pick us up (only 1000+ miles from Denver). I wanted to go no further for a long time.
Past immigration, we picked up our luggage and a purser to help wheel our 3 carts of stuff through customs and into the rebooking line. The United area was chaos, as there was no definitive line and lots of people had missed their flight. This was the eve of the Valentine's Day storm out east. After 1 hour in the rebooking line, we were checked through to Denver. Luckily, our agent was nice and checked our carseats as baggage. I don't think we would have made it if they hadn't.
The only food we had was the lunch 12 hours earlier, and a light snack right before landing. We were all starving - well I still wasn't feeling up to eating. Now, we had the long haul to the domestic terminals: up and down elevators, to the train, up and down more escalators, through security (the TSA is totally rude), and down to our terminal. I grabbed a bagel for the boys for dinner and we arrived at our gate as the plane was boarding. Though it was supposed to be full, the flight was pretty empty because of the weather out east. The boys fell asleep as soon as they ate their bagels and cream cheese. Welcome to America, boys.
Finally, Home
We arrived in Denver at 9:45 pm, 5 hours after our original flight was to have landed. Julie met us at the gate. I have never been so happy to see someone to help carry our stuff. I could barely move. I just wanted to be home. Mom was quite happy to see Julie too.
We met Jim at the gate, picked up our luggage with a pursers help, and loaded up Julie and Jim's car with our things. We arrived home in Boulder at 11:45 pm, which was nearly 8 am Holland time. We had been traveling for 25 hours. I'm going to bed - after I take my Aleve. Oh yeah - Happy Valentine's Day.
Our Last Day in Holland
Eliot's last day of school. I biked him to school this morning and captured a few pictures of
his classmates though we weren't able to corral them into one picture.
Amit and Jason are hanging with Eliot while he opens his going-away card from Jason. Jason and his family also gave us gifts (one for each of us) that we opened later. The were cute knuffels (stuffed toys). That was really nice!
While Eliot was at school, mom cleaned some in the apartment and took care of Miles. After taking my advil - I was really feeling bad - I ran errands. First, I had to mail back our resident cards to the immigration lawyer via registered mail. I dropped off the glass bottles for the bottle refund and recycled batteries at the grocery store. Then I stopped by the luggage store to buy another duffel bag. We needed another suitcase for all of our things; I sure hope it's enough. I had to pay 54 Euro (70 dollars) for a duffel made in the US - bummer!
Then I headed to the
cheese store one last time. We got about 4-5 pounds of that wonderful boerenkaas - mostly belegen and some oude and jong belegen to bring home. The store clerks vacuumed packed the cheese, while I was at the bank getting some cash. Finally, I stopped by the doctor's office to fill Miles' presciption for inhaled steroids so I wouldn't run out during our travels and jetlag period.
I got home and worked on packing the carryons before I had to book off to pick up Eliot from his last day of school. Miles wanted to join me too!
Miles and I picked up Eliot on our last bike ride. Eliot and Miles were happy to
sit on the stairs leading up to the gym for a picture.
Jason, Eliot and Miles smile for one last photo. Jason was very sad to see Eliot go.
After the dust settled for lunchtime pickups, we gave Lucien and Mary some chocolates and a couple of thank you cards for our time at the Frienetschool. We are going to miss the school and Eliot's teachers very much. Eliot said to me this morning, "can you beleive it is my last day of school in Holland?" No, I can't.
Eliot posed for pictures with Lucien and Mary. Good-bye to the roodborstjes (red breasts) class. They gave Eliot a wonderful book of pictures from his friends and teachers for his farewell.
Leaving the school yard, this will probably be our last time to see
the Earth centered on Europe and Africa. Back in the States, we always see the Americas version instead. Funny how self-centered we can be.
Good-bye to the Freinetschool of Delft. The
boys posed with sticks and hopped around on the concrete stools before we headed home on our last bike ride.
We enjoyed the familiar and favorite sights along our route home: the canals along the path, pile driver, coots and ducks in the water, house with the lace in its windows, Eliot's favorite tunnel, train, turning bridge, gas boat, my boat, Eliot's boat, the view of Delft, train station and our
weeshuisplaats turn-in at our apartment building.
In the afternoon, we packed our last bag and realized we were stuffed and even overfilled. We'd have to repack later. Mom and I cleaned the kitchen, the carpets, and the bathroom downstairs. We emptied the refrigerator and the cabinets and finished the last bit of laundry we needed to do. I popped my advil every 6 hours so that I could function. Biking home wiped me out; I was so achey.
At about 3:45, we all ran out to the antique store and to walk around the square one last time. I decided that I wanted to get an antique Delftware tile for a keepsake. Mom took the boys out walking, while I shopped. I found a great 1660s-1670s tile of two young boys playing with hoepels (hoops). What a treasure to remember our time in Delft. I booked on home to meet the Rottsvast (property management company) agent for checkout at 5.
Denis showed up about 5:10 for the walk through. It's funny because he pointed out marks or scuffs on the walls (what I would consider normal wear and tear), but didn't notice the wallpaper pulled off the wall where the baby gate had been. He wanted to make sure we wiped out the oven and refrigerator. I definitely got the idea they wouldn't have anyone come in to clean behind us. Interesting.
Gina invited us over to dinner for our last night. Mom wasn't back when I finished with Rottsvast and I had no way to get in touch with her. Since we were taking the bus, we had to work within the every 30 minute bus schedule. I decided I had better make my last delivery and headed over to Lucie's house. I was quite proud of my
bike-carrying abilities: bottles for recycling, a printer in its box, plus 2 bags of groceries and office supplies. Lucie was also getting my bike, so I would be walking home. I ran into mom on the way out and told her we'd take the 6:15 bus to Gina's. We'd need to bring the extra food (3 bags worth), her vase and the tulips with us on the bus. Sounds like fun!
I gave Lucie the quick lowdown on the bike, its front seat, and the printer and said my good-byes. I was at the station at about 6:08 and realized I didn't know what bus we needed to take. So I booked over to the apartment building and arrived as mom was coming down. I sent them on their way and went upstairs to get the bus number. We ran to the bus station. The bus heading the other way left after we got there, and I was sure we had missed its opposite. Eliot asked "what will we do now?" and I said "we'll cry." I was so ill and could barely walk.
There was no way to get to Gina's by walking with all the stuff we had and two little boys (it's a 25-minute walk) and the next bus was 30 minutes out. We considered bailing but we had all that stuff and we hadn't said good-bye to Ap and Gina and family. Luckily, the woman next to us saved me and said the bus was coming right now. Thank goodness. Mom moved the fully-loaded stroller through the back doors (she's getting good at this) and I took the boys in the front. We were on our way to Gina's.
Supper with Ap and Gina
We made it to Mackaystraat - this is the leukest (sp?, funest) street in Delft. I only wanted to curl up on their couch. Gina had made dinner for all of us. This was a wonderful finish to our adventure: we started our journey to Holland with a spaghetti dinner from Gina, whom we did not know except via email, and our last meal in Holland (at least for now) was a spaghetti dinner with Gina, now my good friend. The circle of life.
After dinner, Ap headed off to swim laps at the neighborhood sports center. We had dessert and then got ready to head off. The
boys all gave each other, especially Merricky-bear, big hugs. Gina and I said our good-byes too. I realized we forgot to bring over the cold stuff from the refridgerator, so Gina said she'd try to bike over tonight after Ap got home to pick up the grocery sack. We walked to our last bus ride and caught the 8:30 bus home.
Mom drew me a bath to help me feel a little better. Mom met Gina downstairs with the last food bag. I finished some end-of-the-line cleaning. At 10:30 pm, I really couldn't stand up anymore and went to bed.
In the afternoon, I packed and mom did some cleaning. We had 6 of 7 bags packed, but realized we probably needed to buy one more bag. We just weren't going to fit otherwise.
There's a lot of things we didn't get to do before we left, but we did get to enjoy one last meal in the
upstairs room of the Wijnhaven Cafe.
I worked on my list of things to do before we leave Wednesday morning early. Mom always saves room for dessert, so
she and Miles shared a chocolate delight.
We decided to walk over to the square one last time and enjoy the night views around old Delft. The
hippolytusbuurt has beautiful light strands over the canal. It is one bridge past the Wijnhaven. This is the location of the bric-a-brac market starting back up in April and the Thursday flower market.
After splashing in some puddles, the
boys headed for their favorite circle on the Markt. They had fun just being able to yell and run around. I simply tried to take in the views of the Nieuwe Kerk and its large market square. Time was running too fast; I was not ready to leave. I captured this shot of the
old church tower with the Visbanken (fish market) in front using my new tripod. The light is a bicycle coming toward the square. In Holland, you are required to have a front and back light on your bike for night riding. We walked home and prepared for our last day in Holland.
This morning I took Eliot to school via bus. It was raining and dark this morning. It was going to be his last day of school, but he didn't understand why it was his last day when we were going to be in Holland tomorrow. So, it became his second-to-last school day! As always, we were running late and had to run over to the bus. The 130 bus runs every 15 minutes in the morning, so I don't mind taking it. The problem lies in the afternoon when it stops running past south of Delft Station.
Traditionally, when it's your birthday, you bring a special treat to share at snack time. Apparently, the parents at this school bring potato chips. Eliot said that was the only thing he had seen for birthday snacks. I asked Lucien if we could bring and do something special for Eliot's last day, like a birthday celebration. We asked Grammy to bring some special things from the US: rainbow goldfish and Oreos for our treat. I thought it would be fun to have something really American. Lucien and I decided that it would be best to have the "party" today just in case we ran into trouble tomorrow.
Riding up in the elevator after taking Eliot to school, I started to feel achiness in my legs. I noticed that I was more tired than usual running to the bus. I think I am getting the ick that mom had - let's hope not. Gina was meeting me at the apartment this morning to help me deliver a few items to folks. We took the baby gate and some food over to Roberta; then we headed over to Deborah's house with the big desk, trike, and stool.
By noon I had biked to school to pick up Eliot. I was hoping to catch a few pictures of the class before they adjourned for the morning, but the children were too ancy and hungry. They have been working on airplanes this past week. Eliot made this second version of his tube paper airplane. This one had a tail and two wings. I was pretty achey when we got home, so I popped two advil and carried on.
Laundry
This shows our little laundry and utility room.
Miles wears his favorite shirt and thinks really hard about what to do next. A few comments about laundry in Holland:
* I ruined more clothes here than I thought possible. Sometimes everything would turn blue - even when I didn't wash anything new. I mean loads that I had essentially done at home with no problem. For my first ruined clothes, I used the "wit" detergent without really thinking about it. Using white detergent designed to pull out color was not so good for my dark loads. But even after I figured that out, I still had problems. I don't know if it was the temperature of the water or the strength of the soap here, but man it was frustrating.
* Apparently, dryers are a fairly new thing to Holland. Only in the last 5 years have they become common in peoples houses. Most houses aren't wired for both appliances, so there is a switch to run either the washer or the dryer. Most people dry some or all of their clothes on a drying rack or a line. I can see why given how much our clothes aged in just 9 months here.
* Our dryer was not ventilated so all the water collected in a tank or compartment that you had to empty out after each load. Gina told me about the tank: SO that's why our 3rd and 4th loads weren't drying! Miles loved to run in and help me empty the tank. He especially liked to put the plastic tub back in it's spot (top left).
* The washer would take 1.5 hours to wash a load; the dryer followed for 45 to 60 minutes. That's way too long for each load.
Alstublieft
The one store custom that took me a month to even realize I was doing wrong and then another month or two to get it right was the interaction when paying for something. I noticed that everyone said "yes" or "ja" when I handed them the money. I thought they were just being polite that I had in fact pulled the right amount of money. When Gina and I talked about the custom, we decided that they didn't know what else to say. The conversation is supposed to go like this in money transactions:
I hand the clerk the money and say "alstublieft" (if it pleases you; here you go)
The clerk replies "Dank je wel"
The clerk hands me the change "alstublieft"
I reply "dank je wel"
The clerk hand me my item (food, houseware, etc.) in the bag with an "alstublieft"
I reply "dank je wel"
Then I say "good-bye" or "tot ziens" as I leave the store (it is impolite to not say good-bye when you leave a store)
Here's someone else's description of the word/phrase:
http://www.geocities.com/stevenedw/alstublieft.htmlOften times, instructions or notices on buildings are followed by A.U.B. I thought this was shorthand for "the management." One day I finally figured out it was short for alstublieft!
Dutch Expressions and Language Customs
There's a couple of phrases that you hear a lot here when speaking English with people. The wording is different than you expect in the context of the conversation.
"It is possible" - that actually means yes. If you ask a postal worker, for example, if you can send a package to the US.
"It's OK" - also means yes. It is always used differently than I expect. Usually, it's given for a yes or no question.
When the Dutch talk, they use a lot of "ja" when conversing; it's like confirmation of what people are saying.
Everyone speaks English in the Netherlands. It would be a mistake to assume that those around wouldn't understand your English conversation. Numerous times, I have had people, especially older folks, speak to the kids in English after they heard us speaking English. Most people will say they don't speak English very well, but often (like Eliot's teacher or the customer service people at Eneco) the whole conversation happens in English. We also had the opposite situation, where everyone spoke Dutch to us. Of course, that is the language of the Netherlands and we did look quite like the Dutch (though I don't think that changed their interactions with us). It took me months to even realize that they were talking to me. I simply responded that we don't speak Dutch.
It's interesting because everyone speaks English here, but it is not a bilingual country (our landlord first pointed this out to me). Unlike the US, where government information is sent in English and Spanish and sometimes other languages, anything official is in Nederlandse (Dutch). All of the customer service automated phone systems are in Dutch too. We always had to rely on a friend to call and figure out which numbers to press to get a to person, who would always be able to help us in English.
There was one other funny thing that both Jim and I did with the Dutch language. You know how when you don't speak the language, it all sort of runs together. I remember Gina telling me websites to look at and hearing commercials that gave website addresses too. There was always this strange ending. I kind of just zoned out. One day I realized they were saying "punt nl." Think dot.com:
www.whatever.nl. Duh! It took us 3 or 4 months to catch that one!
TV
We watch some TV here. Unlike France or Spain where the TV stations dub foreign shows, Holland does not bother. They simply provide subtitles in Dutch and leave the original language intact. It's nice because we can watch a little TV at night if we want to veg out - mostly Law & Order, 24, Greys Anatomy, Will & Grace, CSI, and American movies. There are other random shows on TV: Ophrah, Dr. Phil, Murder She Wrote, Jag, Judging Amy and ER. Mostly, we watch Animal Planet (AP) - our favorite shows are Big Cat Diaries, Meerkat Manor, and the animal police shows. Eliot likes Monkey Business - actually the advertisement for it.
We get English childrens shows on BBC (C BeeBees) - Arthur, Tweenies, Underground Ernie. We haven't seen Thomas at all and Bob the Builder only a few times. The Bob characters have British accents - they sound pretty funny to us! Foreign children shows are dubbed into Dutch (Dora in English and Dutch, Arthur, Bob de Bouwer, Sesamstraat). Nickelodeon has its own channel here with Nick Jr shows at odd times (early).
Commercials
TV commercials here are pretty interesting. The TV stations must be required to tell you when the advertising starts with a "reclame" screen. They have fewer commercials than US TV, but they last longer (over 5 minutes). On Animal Planet, the commercials consist mainly of animal and wildlife charitable organizations - WWF, humane society, Save the vogels (birds), the
orangutans, etc and TimeLife CD sets. The best two are Body&Soul and Sternstunden der Volksmusik. Pretty humorous to watch. I spent 3 hours watching Animal Planet in the middle of the night this week trying to capture the Volksmusik one on video.
On commercial TV, there is a weird commercial with women's breasts popping out (well just one side) while doing everyday things - playing the violin, waitressing, walking down the street, doing aerobics. I can't figure out if it is a lingerie add or a public advertisement on breast cancer. The pink ribbon appears at the end of the ad. It's quite explicit and not something you'd see on US TV.
Late at night there are advertisements that you might see on an XXX channel in the US. They are pretty explicit.
We headed east out of Roden. I had always wanted to visit Bourtange since I read about the fortress city in the Lonely Planet guide to the Netherlands. Since our journey had already taken us so far north and east within Holland, we figured what's another 60 km! We looked for hunebudden that supposedly dotted highway N34. The stones weren't obvious from the highway, so we went off highway once to catch one of the hunebudden.
The prehistoric hunebudden were described as impressive groupings of sombre grey stones. Little is know about the builders, except that they took burying their dead very seriously. The arrangement of huge stones were each used to bury many people, along with their personal items. I was expecting something larger, but it was still neat to see one. Apparently, some stones are as heavy as 20,000 kg. We decided that our final destination would not be the hunebudden, but rather Bourtange.
The town we detoured at had many typical farm community houses, with great examples of
interesting window decorations, as well as
beautiful thick thatch roofs.
Bourtange, NL
Bourtange, very near the German border, was
built in the late 1500s and represented the pinnacle of the arms and fortification at the time. Behind its walls and moats, it could withstand months of siege by an invading army.One interesting thing about this town is that the battlements and the town itself were completely restored to its 1742 appearance, when the fortifications around the citadel had reached their maximum size. By the early 1960s Bourtange's walls had been mostly breached or levelled and the moats were largely filled in.
Check out another aerial photo:
http://www.geoeye.com/gallery/top10_2003/top10_2.htm
The walk to the main gate of this star-shaped fortress is quite circuitous to deter unwelcome visitors. On the way to the old center, we walked along 2 moats, 2 draw bridges, and through the main gate. It was a step back in time, complete with
guardhouses, cannons, and a windmill.
Through the
main gate, a short stroll drops you at the
market square with its cafes and shops. We had a nice lunch before heading out to walk around the town. When we finished buying some postcards, the rain was really falling. Grammy took the boys back to the car, and I took at quick walk along the walls. At least it wasn't freezing today!
Views atop the fortress walls
Looking out across the moats at the countryside
Cannon and guardhouse
Toward the town center
Walking along the fortress wall toward the main gate and drawbridge
After meeting up with the gang at the car, we drove on into Germany to hit the faster highways. Erik thought that would be much faster for our return journey to Delft. We got in about 7 pm and had some snacks for dinner. I returned the car by 8 pm and walked home. We had a very busy two days in front of us. Mom was feeling better but still not great.
Unfortunately, we woke up to a very cold room. The heat was definitely not working, which made it really hard to leave the warm covers. The letter under our door said that the service company worked on the heat until 3:00 am, and needed another specialist out to fix it on Sunday (translated for us by Gina after we returned).
We threw on clothes and headed down to breakfast with our coats on. Thankfully, the bar, lounge, and restaurant still had heat. The kitchen must have been on a different system, so we had the full breakfast buffet as yesterday. It was funny watching everyone come down to the restaurant in their coats. The coffee was especially warming this morning.
The hotel gave us a 50% discount for the second night and were of course very apologetic about the heat situation. After checking out, we drove over to the Engels for coffee and cookies before hitting the road home. We fly home in 3 days.
Erik's whole family came over this morning, so we could meet his wife and his other son Sander. They were happy and active little boys!
Eliot was quite a sight with his eye patch on all weekend. Actually, we all were quite a sight since the hotel didn't have hot water!
We had a lovely visit with the Engels. I am sorry it took me until my last week in Holland to get to visit them, but it was nice that mom got to come as well. I also was sad to have missed Pauline; she couldn't travel the long trip north this weekend. We had nice talks about Suriname days and retirement. They are a lovely, kind, and happy couple. We enjoyed their hospitality. By 11:00, we were on our way out of town.
