Hello all, and sorry for the long delay. I hope you all didn't miss me too much. For the past little while I've been very busy visiting Holland. Unfortunately, no pictures right now, but I'll be sure to get some up soon.
Since I've arrived in the Netherlands, I've spent a day in Amsterdam, and then I went to stay with my relatives Hans and Pe, Pieter and Jaqueline, and their sons Lars and Jelle. They showed me all over the country, and it was fantastic.
On the night I arrives, Hans took me out to show me my grandparents old house. Well, not much of a house, really, more like a shack. No one's lived there since my grandparents left over 50 years ago, but it's still standing. Really something to see.
Over the next few days, we went to the Delta Works (basically massive dams which keep the North Sea out of Holland), Rotterdam (the busiest port-city in Europe, I think), Den Haag (just outside the city are some beautiful beaches, and the sea there is actually quite warm at 19 degrees) and Madurodam (a miniature Holland, basically models of all of Holland's landmarks, built with exquisite detail).
We also went to a small village (that I can't remeber the name of, off hand) that is built entirely in traditional style. The city is filled with old canals, the result of excavating fuel for fire. Most of the houses have roofs made of reeds, and many of the houses are only accessible by boat. It was a really neat place. We went to an old steam pump that was used (from 1883 to 1983) to pump water out from behind the dykes.
Finally, we went to a war cemetary. It is the largest Canadian war cemetary in Holland, with 6200 graves, nearly all of them from April of 1945. It gives me chills just thinking about it. It's definitely something that has to be seen to understand.
We had a good Dutch BBQ one night, with home made smoked eel. Definitely not for everyone, but I loved it! Don't ask me what eel tastes like, though: there's nothing like it.
I think that was everything (lots of stuff, I know). Tonight, I'm taking the night train to Copenhagen, and maybe I can upload some pictures there. But for now, I'm off.
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3 comments:
Sounds like your relatives really took you around. Beautiful!
Rotterdam is indeed the busiest port city in Europe.... it's pretty cool, I heard.
Are you able to meet up with Jamie in Germany?
Glad to hear that you're Dutching it up in Holland!
I refuse to eat eel in any form, not because I am disgusted by the thought of eating it, but because I refuse to acknowledge that eels have any place whatsoever in Earth's ecosystem, and thus refuse to take part in the role of "predator" to them.
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