After lots of confusion and working around our schedules I finally caught a bus to Epe to see a relative! When I first learned that I was coming out here Grandma looked and I was awfully close to where Henk lives.. only a fifteen minute car ride actually.
A short walk from the bus station and I found his place without getting lost at all thankfully... first time for everything. I think Michael and I have gotten lost almost every time we try to get to bible study without assistance. Now.. as I understand it.. Grandma may need to correct me if im wrong on this one!!... My great grandpa grew up in The Netherlands and moved to the US in 1905... but one of his brothers stayed there. Between then and 1951 there was no communication between our families. Henk was in the air force and training in Miami and a fellow pilot was headed home for a short trip and said he thought there was Den Besten's where he was from in northwest Iowa.. so Henk came with him to see if they were relatives! He arrived and everyone had a huge reception for him because they hadn't heard from anyone that long.
Henk flew for the air force.. then KLM for thirty some years.. along with doing air shows and such.. and just recently quit flying actually! He has been around the world and seen just about everything so it was awesome to talk to him! We decided to go look at some family history so we went into the garage..
I was in awe. The jeep was at Normandy and then moved along with the war and ended up in Belgium I believe.. where Henk bought it a few years after the war. All original. Still has bullet holes in it actually! Henk says he drives it around for everyday vehicle as soon as it warms up.. so I will definitely be going back to visit again. He also told me stories about growing up with the war.. planes fighting over Holland and even watching one crash in a nearby field and being one of the first ones there.
This is the house where my great grandpa grew up.. along with i would suppose my great great.. not sure how far back it goes? Help grandma!
We couldn't get inside but could see some of the original tile through the windows.. The family worked for a wealthy family nearby.. And long story short there is a lot of mystery involving that family and the royalty out here.. a round house in the forest.. a fire.. some people disappearing.. and lots of other interesting stuff! So I need to do a lot of research into some of this.. We do know though that the family had lots of foreign relations so my family got trees from all around the world and planted them.. including this one that is the tree that would have been used in Christ's crown.
Meeting family of mine all the way over here was awesome and I am sure I will spend more time with them while I am out here!
On the 12th we took an excursion to Groningen with Culture and Art class!
We spent a loooong time in this house. The "Wall" - i know its original-... house is a model house that was built after the architect died actually. The goal was to keep work and everything else on one side of the wall.. and to have each room be the best for its purpose. For example the office is on the right and is circular so that noone is at the head of the table. The window is at chair height and really wide so one can think clearer.. The three rooms on the left share no walls either so that every wall can be utilized.. It was interesting but not that functional of a place in my opinion!
Next we went to the Martinikerk.. a massive church named after the St. Martin..To put it into perspective this is three shots wide and two high...it won't fit in otherwise! So that ceiling is a lot higher up there than one might realize.
Looking up in the choir room.. Then we all got a surprise when our guide opened a door and we started going up some stairs. The tour took us above the domes inside the church! He told us how they were handcrafted from above.. by young non married men so that if one fell then there would be no widow left behind of course. It was crazy to be above the ceiling in the church! We even got to walk around on the roof.
There was lots of little places that we could look down into the church below as we walked.. not for the faint of heart that's for sure.
Hot chocolate break in an awesome little pub of course.
Then we were off to yet another museum.. this was one built in the canal so it was fun to see from the outside.. but inside was a lot of paintings again... so after a quick walk around we had to come up with new ways to pass the time!!
February nine some of us decided to get out of the country for the first time and head down to Brugge, Belgium! After a couple of people bailed.. thanks Brian and Michael.. it ended up being me and seven ladies.. not a bad weekend! It ended up being a long trip down there.. bike, train, ferry, and then a looong bus ride. Once we got there we learned the hotel we booked was actually NOT in the center of town like it said.. but thirty minutes out of town.. another bus ride and we were there just before the front desk closed! After "only three" of us checked in.. eight of us managed to sleep in the three person room! Yes- I did sleep on a cold hard floor.. but it was worth it to save a few bucks!
We hit up a city market right away for some Belgium brats!
The whole group in one of the city squares.. :) Lots and lots of old buildings in this city!
All the people with money to spare can take horse rides around the city.
A very very gorgeous city..
An old church we found while wandering..
I love all the organs out here!
And of course Brugge is the chocolate capitol of the world.. literally there is over a hundred small chocolate shops that handmake their own chocolate.
As always I LOVE shooting people on the street.. not sure what instrument he was playing but it was awesome!
Picture turned out funky.. but this is the Basilica of the Holy Blood.. the relic here is believed to be blood of Christ collected by Joseph.. interesting but it cost to go in so we didn't take the time.
It was only a short trip but we saw a lot and it was good to get away from Zwolle for the first time... and we all learned that "just winging it" is sometimes not the best solution! Of course we also had to try a waffle! They don't even serve them before noon however, so we had ours in the middle of the afternoon between rounds of chocolate.. and yes they are so so much better than the Belgium waffles served in Iowa.
Time to catch up on some blogs! Heading back a few weeks to a trip to Leiden that the theology class took. Leiden was the home of the first university in The Netherlands, and because the Netherlands allows a lot of thinking that other countries did not at the time a lot of intellectuals came there to study.
Back then it wasn't okay to cut open the human body for religious reasons. However, somewhere they found a loophole that it would be okay if it was a person that had committed a murder or such. This "theater" of sorts was where at Leiden they would cut open and look at the human body for the first time.. and the public was invited to come watch. People would stand around and watch the doctors and scientists investigate.. led to lots of awesome things! The museum had the first iron lung and lots of other "firsts" in the field of medicine and about everything else.
Astronomy and just about everything was in that museum.
The "Burcht van Leiden Castle" was built in the 11th century to defend the city.
View from the inside with the professor and some other students of course.. and an awesome church in the background!
Could see a lot of Leiden from up there.
We hit up another museum... this one was from the time of the pyramids.. way back with the mummies and such. Fun stuff! - and yes I learned this blog counts for reflections on some of these excursions so i will be covering every excursion we do all semester ;) Oh, and we learned that Leiden was the home of the pilgrims before they went to America, so we walked past their church and the home of the pastor.. that is now a museum.
The past few days have been busy as always! Later I am going to do on a blog on some of the differences between Iowa and The Netherlands, but for now I'm hoping to just quick get caught up on some trips. Saturday afternoon I wandered around Hattem for awhile..
This bunker is on our bike route to school.. didn't even really realize what it was the first few days. Apparently a lot of the locals want them, there is two of them, to be taken down, but they are still standing for the history as of now.
There used to be four of these if I remember right, but this is the only one still standing in Hattem.It is part of the original city wall and was a defense tower.
A massive image of the church in the middle of Hattem.
One of the cheese shops! My sandwiches to school consist of wheat bread and a slice of gouda cheese.. I have eaten more sandwiches here than I did my entire childhood.
Another glimpse of the old city wall and moat.. I also had the opportunity to go up into the Hattem windmill but not to happy with the pictures from that so I needa head back. Speaking of which, I miss my computer and big monitor I have at home in Iowa dearly! Editing on a laptop screen is brutal when I can't see the details.. so I apologize and will be re-editing a lot of images when I get back home!!
Saturday afternoon I biked to Brian's and we rode with his host brother and a friend down to Einhoven for a soccer game- PSV vs ADO Den Haag.. two teams within the Netherlands. We ate at Mcdonalds before the game, Brian and I had a coupon two big macs for 5 euros.. so about 6 bucks.. We got to the game plenty early and noticed a lot of things! The seating is awesome! It is a lot more staggered than I have ever seen.. so even a seven foot guy sitting ahead of me and I would have been able to see the whole field without a problem!
Walking around before the game- most people don't come in until about fifteen minutes before the game starts. All of the seating was covered by the overhang.. thankfully because it started to rain later! and also there was a massive row of heaters on the overhang which you can see at the top of the picture, so it did not get to cold even!
An amazing shot for goal..
The second half PSV, who thankfully we were cheering for, scored six goals in front of us to win 7-0. Good game!
I started taking video.. and they scored! The atmosphere was awesome to say the least. I got called "paparazzi" by some not english speaking individuals for taking pictures.. haha. But there was continual chants and cheers around the stadium . lots of security guards in front of the section with the drum! And the guards had the one section of visiting fans surrounded at a 1:1 ratio.. presumably for their own safety!
The fans all were continually looking at yelling at the visitors section.. It was crazy to see how much tension there was between them! The visiting fans were escorted to and from the stadium by police! A link to a highlight video from the game- http://www.footytube.com/video/psv-ado-den-haag-feb02-156480
After we got home Brian and I joined the rest of the SPICE students and had a long night of fellowship.. until it ended quite dramatically around five in the morning. While biking home Michael and I went to cross the road.. as the car was a half mile away... but he came on a lot faster than normal and ended up hitting the back of Michael's bike!! Yes- he is fine he didn't even fall over. The taxi driver driving home a van full of drunk people was going extremely fast.. way over speed limit.. so we underestimated and he didn't even slow for the light. The cops had a great time beating the drunk guys into a new taxi, and Michael and I have a great story to tell out of the deal!
Michael and I made supper for the host family the other day! We slaved over the bubble pizza (thank you Mother for the recipe!! ) but it turned out amazing, and the host family loved it! Desert was provided by my spectacular family via a care package with some cookies, which they also thought were amazing :) And before you ask.. no we were not rude and forgot glasses.. they do not drink with meals, and really have no side dishes either.
AMSTERDAM
For class we went on an excursion to Amsterdam on Tuesday It was a extremely fast, fun filled day with lots of pictures but I will try to cover just the highlights for now! I can't forget one thing though, and that is the morning commute to the train station. When Michael and I left it was sprinkling rain, which turned into pouring rain, then sleet, then HAIL, which did hurt out faces.. a LOT. This was followed by thunder and lightning.. and then a blizzard, yes a blizzard complete with high wind and huge snowflakes.. all of this on our way to the station on our bikes. Ten minutes on the train and the sun was shining! And before I forget, one of my favorite quotes of the day- "It's like we are on a safari!"- CoriAnn. On the train there is a lot of random animal farms along the tracks which provide a lot of entertainment.
The train station grand entrance
We walked through Chinatown and then the Red Light District early in the morning, on a Tuesday.. for obvious reasons. There was still lots of people in the windows, but as a Christian group we were able to talk about their situation from a Christian outlook, and our guide told us about some of the groups reaching out to the girls and men and are down there. It was a crazy crazy experience!
The group was always moving so it was hard to get pictures and not get left behind.. but the "magic mushroom" sign was to cool to miss!
More than 100 km of canals in the city..
We took a tour on a canal boat. The amount of houseboats in the water was crazy! They have water sewer and gas even, if they are legal ones that is. The old ships turned houseboat with garden was awesome.
Seven bridges all lined up, squeezing the boat through them was quite hairy!
We were in to much of a hurry to pay to get him to move sadly.
The Royal Palace where the queen will hand down the crown to her son this year, along with it being The Netherlands 200th anniversary I believe? Sadly I am going to be down in Italy during the celebration though..
Epic bagpipe guy outside the palace.
Combined with the jazz players.. and it was a sweet sound!
The Rijksmuseum was awesome!
Lots of interesting things to see..
Like Rembrandt's Nightwatch! It was absolutely massive!! There was probably around fifteen other original Rembrandt's.. most of them were biblical scenes which surprised me.
Our last visit was to the Anne Frank museum.. no pictures are allowed inside though. This was the church bell that she talks about hearing.. literally 50 meters down the street. A statue of her is outside it. We went inside and toured her hiding place which they had set up extremely well.. walked one through the progression of her life and the war until her death and her story afterwards. Extremely humbling.
When we returned to Zwolle we ate in a Pancakeboat with all of the buddies.. pancakes filled with cheese and bacon in a canal boat...
It was an awesome night! Well that's it for now! I know it was long but lots to cover! Still missing family and friends back home.. especially when my friends.. and my cousin Jen are all getting engaged!! So congrats to them.. hopefully ill be around for the weddings! Off to Leiden tomorrow and Belgium this weekend!
