Netherlands to Germany and Then Home

Driving to Germany

Our last week in Doesburg was pretty quiet due to my catching John's cold virus and the weather was not great either so we kind of took it easy and rested up for our little trip to Germany.  On Saturday morning, in the rain, we picked up a rental car in Arnhem.  I carefully printed out a lot of Google map instructions to get us where we were going in Germany but we did not have a real map.  The one given to us by the car rental agency was written for eyes with built in magnifying glasses and it had no details.  So, off we went towards Zeven in northern Germany east of Bremen.  We did o.k. with very few wrong turns and arrived at the Ringhotel Paulsen in Zeven where John's genealogist friend and his wife live.  They do not speak much English, John's German is a bit rusty so we were glad that their daughter, Hella,  was there to help us out with translations.  They picked us up at the hotel that evening and we took them to dinner in a nice country gasthaus where we had a delicious schnitzel dinner and good conversation.

Typical north German architecture

The Ringhotel Paulsen was very nice and the owners/operators were 7th generation at the hotel.  We stayed two nights and enjoyed two very hearty German buffet breakfasts there.  In case you haven't had a German breakfast, it consists of rolls and breads, cold meats, cheeses, smoked salmon, musli, jams, Nutella (of course), juice and coffee.  Also they had scrambled eggs, bacon and sausage.  You really don't need lunch after one of these breakfasts.

On Sunday we visited our friends at their home and discussed genealogy - Germans who went to Missouri from this particular area of Germany and particularly to Concordia where John was born and Cole Camp where John's mother came from.  John and his friend Ewald have been collaborating for many years on this subject.

Late in the afternoon, they took us to a charming cafe in the country where we had the most fantastic cake you can imagine - full of whipped cream and other yummy ingredients.  I wondered how much cream they use per day in their small cafe and Hella found out for me that it is about 30 liters.

On Monday morning we drove over to another village about 30 minutes from there to visit John's German cousins in Grasburg. We also stopped at the Lutheran church there where many Schnakenberg's have been members.  Several members of the family gathered at the ancestral farm and we had a nice visit - showed them some pictures of Mexico and enjoyed coffee and German pastries.  One of the cousins speaks fairly good English and she helped the conversation along.

Monday evening we drove to the outskirts of Bremen in the village of Borgfeldt where we had reservations in a country small hotel.  It turned out to have a very nice restaurant where I had a delicious dinner of brisket with a mushroom sauce and John had a schnitzel that was so big it was falling off the plate.  They had their own micro-brewery so we tried some of that and it really hit the spot.

Amsterdam Centraal Station

So now it is Tuesday and we have arrived in Amsterdam at the Airport Hotel.  We found our way here quite easily with our Google map directions.  We checked in and then returned the rental car at the airport and from there took the train into central Amsterdam where we took a combination bus tour around town followed by a boat tour on the canals.  The bus tour wasn't much but the canal tour was very nice.  The weather was actually decent with the sun poking out every once in a while.  Before heading back to the hotel we ate in a pizza joint near the train station and it was o.k. but not great.  However, the beer was cold and good.

Amsterdam was buzzing with activity, people, buses, trams, boats and BICYCLES.  It is incredible to see the bikes everywhere.  On the tour they said that there are over a million bicycles in the city - more bikes than people.  It is a little tricky walked because you have to watch out for cars, bikes, trams and busses when you cross the street - kind of scary for the uninitiated.

Our plane leaves at 2:30 p.m. tomorrow afternoon so we can have a good night's sleep and a leisurely breakfast and take our time to prepare for the 10 hour flight to Mexico City and then bus ride to home sweet home.

We've made some great memories from this epic home exchange extravaganza but 8 weeks is a very long time to be away.  We enjoyed all of it - all the exchanges were successful but we have to say that we enjoyed France the most - even though we didn't speak the language.  The weather, the house, the area, the wine, the people - it was special.  Scotland was interesting and we stayed in a very nice house but the weather was kind of depressing and the driving difficult.  Doesburg and Holland were interesting and we enjoyed it but again, the weather leaves much to be desired and both of us coming down with colds kind of put a damper on our activities. We didn't get around as much as we had hoped there.

Now we will enjoy San Miguel for about 3 1/2 months before our next travel adventure which is to be a month in Buenos Aires, Argentina in January.  I guess I will have to do another Blog.

PICTURES OF ZEVEN AND GRASBURG

PICTURES OF AMSTERDAM

Bronkhorst and Deventer

Here are the picture links which I forgot to post at the end of the Blog - so this is the update:

BRONKHORST

DEVENTER

John was not up to going to Delft on Sunday but felt that we could do something close by - and the sun was shining brightly!  So, we decided on the little city of Bronkhorst - said to be the smallest city in Holland (170 inhabitants). It is a very short distance from Doesburg - if we were cyclists - we could have pedaled there.  There wasn't much to do - just a few shops, a chapel with an art exhibition, a little Dickens museum and some cafes.  But it was a nice little walk through the town and a little different architecture to admire.  Just outside of Bronkhorst we found an operating windmill and stopped to take a look.  They continue to grind various grains on a regular basis and sell the flour.  However, I believe the man said they only operate on Saturday - I guess Sunday was just for the tourists.

Windmill near Bronkhorst

Back in Doesburg, we decided to have lunch at De Waag.  John ordered ravioli while I decided to try their hamburger accompanied by a glass or two of Warsteiner (German beer).  I suppose we could have tried a local brew but we'll do that another day.  We also order one small bowl of Mustard Soup - it was very unusual - I didn't care for it much but we finished it - not high up on our list of favorites. The hamburger was interesting but very different from what we are used to.  It tasted like meatloaf and had a fried egg on top - good, but not really a hamburger to me.  The fries, however, were outstanding - crinkle cut, thin and crispy - too delicious with mayo for dipping!  I don't want to think about the calories (so I won't) but at least, I ate the hamburger and left the bun behind.  As mentioned in a previous blog post, this building is the oldest continuously operating public space in Holland.  John enjoyed his ravioli.  

De Waag hamburger

Monday, we thought about a trip to Delft or the Kroller Museum but when I check into hours, etc. for various options, it turned out that Monday is kind of a day off from tourism.  All the museums seem to be closed on Mondays and we noticed that shops don't open until after lunch on Mondays.  But the day was again sunny so we chose a little journey to Deventer - not too far from here - about a 45 minutes drive.  

Deventer is another medieval Hanseatic city on the Ijssel.  We had no trouble finding it as the signage and street markings in Holland are excellent.  And, traffic is not bad either.  Even  the narrower 2 lane roads have a nice shoulder so that you can pull over to let someone pass.  

In Deventer, we crossed the bridge into the city and immediately went on to a ring road and found a parking lot at the edge of the old city.  In fact, it was right next to the big gothic church:  Lebuinskerk - Protestant and originally started by a missionary monk from England - Lebuinius in the 8th century.  The current church is enormous and grand with a beautiful main organ and a smaller one at the other end of the nave.  The aisles on both sides of the nave are extra wide.  The windows are huge and let in lots of light making this much lighter inside than most large churches we've visited.  We were lucky to find this church open because the other big church in town is closed on Mondays.  We took in the whole church with its old paintings on the walls and monument markers for those buried under the church from very early times.  There was the usual  gift shop near the entrance with books, postcards, etc. as well as honey cake.  We needed some coins to put more money in the parking lot machine so we bought a honey cake.  This type of cake has been made in Deventer for 500 years.  The purpose of using honey was so that the cakes could be taken on sea voyages without spoiling.  We haven't tried it yet - we'll let you know how it is later.  

Side Aisle of the church

From the church we headed out to the rest of the city center with its large plazas and many pedestrian streets.  It was lunch time so we selected a nice looking restaurant - all the tables and chairs were outside on the street.  It was interesting to see all the customers sitting at their tables facing directly into the sun and none of the umbrellas were open.  We arranged our chairs just the opposite since we normally try to avoid getting too much sun but we can certainly understand why the Dutch need to grab all the sun they find - especially on a cool but brilliant sunny day like today.  

Our waiter spoke a little English so gave us some assistance in translating the menu.  I did not need help because I spotted Caesar salade met kip - Caesar salad with chicken - one of my favorites.  John ordered something which we were not sure of but it turned out to be a sausage and a fritter made of mashed potatoes and  ground meat (maybe) along with french fries and mayonnaise.  The Dutch put mayo on the fries instead of Ketchup.  My salad, however, was a big surprise because it was nothing like Caesar salad as I know it.  The only similarity was the lettuce.  It was delicious but here is what was in it besides the lettuce:  pineapple chunks, tomatoes, walnuts, pine nuts, black and green olives, really, really tiny croutons, pieces of chicken breast which had been cooked in curry seasoning and finally - a light balsamic vinaigrette   It was accompanied by a slice of dark, very fresh and tasty bread.  

Caesar Salad?

Now fortified, we continued our stroll through the city.  The old weigh house (De Waag) is now a museum (but being Monday, closed).  On the outside of the building there is a large copper kettle hanging.  It is said that it was from the 1400's and a man was punished for counterfeiting by being cooked in the kettle. A bit extreme, wouldn't you say?  The building, however, dates from the 16th century.  

All-in-all we spent a pleasant few hours visiting Deventer. 

We haven't decided what we are going to do today - weather is not like yesterday.  John's cold is still hanging on.  I may be catching it - bummer.

More About Doesburg

Said to be oldest continuously operating public space in Holland now a restaurant De Waag

Doesburg became a city in 1237 and the historic old city is where our home exchange takes place. (Total number of inhabitants of Doesburg is a little less than 12,000). The old house we are living in is completely modernized and it has three floors plus a basement.  We live only on the 1st and 2nd floors except for doing the laundry which is on the 3rd floor.  The house is very comfortable but we old folks do have to be careful going up and down the old stairs which are very steep with a narrow tread.  The living room, dining room, powder room and kitchen are on the first floor.  The living room opens out to an outdoor space with a fish pond.  The second floor has the master bedroom, large bath room, dressing room and office.  The decor is completely modern.  One of the many nice things about the house is its location - step out the door and you can walk to restaurants, shops and a supermarket.  We have not used the bicycles but bicycles on the streets of old town are abundant; possibly there are more bikes than cars.  And everything is incredibly clean and tidy as you can see from pictures that I have been posting on Picasa.

How to Make Mustard

One of Doesburg's main tourist attractions is its Mustard Factory and we paid them a visit.  It is relatively small with a little gift shop and museum all about mustard.  Unfortunately the signs were all in Dutch with no translations.  However, we were able to talk with the tour guide in English and learned a lot about mustard making which is, actually, very simple.  The factory has been making mustard in nearly the same way since the 1400's.  There are only 4 or 5 ingredients - mustard seed, vinegar, sugar, salt and water.  Sometimes seasonings are added too.  They did not allow us into the actual mustard making and packaging area but they had a small working demo in the museum where the guide actually produced mustard and hand filled a few jars.  They also make their own vinegar which is a simple vinegar made from sugar.  The mustard seeds are fed into a mill stone for grinding; then cold vinegar, salt, sugar and water are added and out comes stone ground mustard.  The mustard from this factory is sold locally in the supermarkets and other shops and shipped to other towns in Holland.  It is very tasty!

We also visited a little museum about the history of Doesburg in an old building with 2 floors of exhibits and a basement with a small exhibit.  We wished that we could have read all the signs on the display cases but, of course, they were in Dutch.  We spoke with the volunteer in the gift shop and he spoke some English - in fact, he said that every Dutchman speaks some English.  We have generally found this to be true in our experiences here.  Anyhow, he told us about an old building that came down a few years ago and an archaeological dig took place before a new building was constructed.  The basement of the museum had interesting artifacts that were collected from the dig including items dating back to the 600's.

Finally we went inside the Martinikerk so that John could see it and I could take some pictures (I saw it the other day but didn't take pictures).  Especially poignant were the pictures taken right after the tower of the church was destroyed in 1945.  Here is what it looked like.

Martinikerk - April 1945

As we were heading out our door yesterday (Saturday) we noticed that the carillon was playing a concert rather than one of the on-the-hour simple melodies that are automatic.  So I aimed my iPod and took a short audio/video clip and put it on YouTube.  It gives you an idea of what the carillon sounds like and you can see how close we are to the church as we are standing at our door.  Turn up your volume and give it a listen: 

 MARTINIKERK CARILLON.  

PICTURES OF DOESBURG, MUSTARD FACTORY & MARTINIKERK.

iPOD PICTURES OF RED TOWER MUSEUM IN DOESBURG

We may or may not go to Delft on Sunday, depending on how John feels as he may be coming down with a cold.

Battle of Arnhem

Hartenstein 

You have probably read "A Bridge Too Far" or watched the movie with the same name from the 70's.  The Battle of Arnhem is not far from where we are staying so this was our first out-of-town trip yesterday to the Airborne Museum Hartenstein in Oosterbeek.  At least, it did not rain even though it was brisk and cloudy.  The museum was located in the former Hartenstein Hotel where the British Major General Urquhart, was headquartered.  There are three floors of interesting exhibits with everything labeled in Dutch, German and English including a couple of short films and some interviews with soldiers who are still living.  The actual battle of Arnhem involved mainly British and Polish troops fighting the Germans while the larger Market Garden operation involved US, Canadian and other allied divisions.  If you wish to refresh your memory about this battle - read this from Wikipedia.  The last part of the museum was in the lower basement and was called the Airborne experience.  It was a life size reconstruction of the battle that took place at Oosterbeek by the Hartenstein with all the sights and sounds of battle which you walked through.  Overall, the museum displays were very moving.  Since I was too young (barely) to remember anything at all about WWII, I found it very interesting and a well spent two hours.

On Tuesday, the sun came out for a short while and I ran out with my camera to take pictures and also I went inside of the big church:  Martinikerk which is practically next door and plays the bells all day.  They had very interesting displays inside including a model of the carillon.  A nice volunteer who spoke some English showed me around.  The church was blown up only one day before the liberation of Doesburg by the Canadians - how sad! There were quite a few pictures of the results.  The church was, of course, reconstructed.  There was a chapel on this site as early as the 13th century.  Visiting hours were nearly over so I did not take the time to see everything there and John did not go along since he was having a nap so he and I will have to visit another day.

We also walked over a few blocks to see the River Ijssel (don't ask me how to pronounce) - just outside of the old town where we are staying.  There are some large new condominiums/apartments there overlooking the River.  We saw ads in the real estate business windows advertising them - they were in the 400,000 Euro price range.  If you look at my pictures (link at the end of the post) - you will see them.

Yesterday morning was market day around the corner from us.  It was not much of a market compared to the ones we visited in France.  I suppose that when the large supermarket two blocks away opened - that was the beginning of the end.

On market day, the carillon is played manually and there was about a one hour concert of the bells which was lovely as we were walking around town.  We didn't know about the market until the volunteer in the church told me about it and we had already done our shopping so there wasn't anything we really needed.  Of course, I had to take a few pictures.

Cheese stall - charming goat

It is now Thursday and we are going to visit the Mustard Factory in Doesburg and who knows what else.  Nellie and Theo (our home exchangers) left us a gift of a jar of local mustard and I must say it is one of the best I have tasted and I am not a big mustard fan.  We had it on bratwurst that I cooked last night.  Yum.

Pictures:  DOESBURG WITH THE SUN OUT

               MARKET AND MUSEUM

Arriving in Doesburg

We're here and we're glad to be here.  Getting to Doesburg involved driving to Tourlouse, flying from Toulouse to Amsterdam, taking 3 different trains to Dieren and a short car ride to the house.  We started our day really early and were glad that it was a Sunday so that there was very little traffic getting to Toulouse.  We arrived at the airport in plenty of time to check our baggage and then meet Christine and Pierre (our French home exchange partners) who were arriving from Mexico via Madrid.  We had a delightful but short visit with them over an expresso and swapped stories of our exchange.  Then we flew KLM to Amsterdam - everything was on time.  Schipol is a huge airport - it seemed like we walked miles to get to the baggage claim but it felt good to walk after sitting.  We already knew where to buy train tickets from our previous time in the airport.  The ticket seller was very helpful and even spoke English.  He fixed us up with the best way to get to Dieren but it involved 2 train changes - not a happy prospect with luggage to carry. The train station is located right under the airport terminal so we just went down an escalator and were on the platform for the first train which would take us to Utrecht.  A very nice young Norwegian couple noticed us two old folks with our luggage (2 normal size suitcases and 2 carryons) and came to our rescue. We were able to put the bags on empty seats and it worked fine.  They were changing at Utrecht also onto the same train as we were so the young man helped us again. Our second stop was Arnhem where we changed to the last train to Dieren which is only a few miles from Doesburg. The whole journey was only about an hour and a half.  We were supposed to call our home exchanger's sister from Arnhem but there was no time to find a pay phone between trains.  At Dieren, we looked for a phone and there were none.  However, another very nice young man offered his cell phone for me to make the call and all worked out just fine.  It was minutes to the house.

Our Home Exchange in Doesburg - the white one

We checked into the house and it was getting close to dinner time. We were ready because lunch was a dry sandwich on the plane and practically no breakfast.  We walked less than a block to have a nice dinner at a cozy restaurant where we couldn't read a word on the menu.  The waitress, however, bailed us out with a little English and we ended up with sea bass, lots of salad, veggies and potatoes.  We were pretty worn out from getting up before 5 a.m. and all the travel so we retired early to the sound of the church bells next door, which, by the way, are quite nice - a carillon plays different tunes on the hour and then strikes the hour. It plays partial tunes every 15 minutes.  However, I think they shut down at 10 because we didn't hear any music during the night or we were dead asleep.

The weather is not great - overcast, coolish and a bit rainy.  It is supposed to get better.  However, our first task this morning was to figure out how to use the expresso maker in the kitchen.  The instructions were in Dutch, of course.  So, I looked it up on the Internet and found a couple of YouTube "How-To's" and we were soon enjoying delicious morning expresso.  It turned out to be incredibly easy - it's a Nespresso Machine with an automatic milk frother.  We didn't have any milk so I can hardly wait to have a latte tomorrow morning.

We have a car to use as part of our exchange but there is a good sized supermarket only 2 blocks away so we walked there and to a bakery and bought enough food to get us going.  This town is just downright cute! And, walk-able and I know we will love it.  This afternoon the sun came out - sort of.  I grabbed my camera and we headed out the door to take a walk to the river or canal or whatever it is a couple of blocks from here.  There were still lots of clouds so we didn't need the sun screen but I got a few pictures for a start.  However, before we got to the water, it started raining so we turned around and went back home since we didn't take umbrellas.  The neighbor from 2 doors down spoke with us briefly and in excellent English welcomed us and said to just ring their doorbell if we needed help with anything.  Very nice folks everywhere we go!

So, now I am going to go cook some salmon for dinner.  When you're close to the sea -" Eat Fish", I always say.

LINK TO A FEW PICTURES ON A CLOUDY DAY

Cassoulet and Duck Confit

We're still here in France - our last full day is tomorrow.  We were going to go into Limoux for lunch at a pizza restaurant today that I read about on Trip Advisor.  However, at the very last minute, we remembered that we had bought a can of gourmet cassoulet with duck confit.  The weather had turned cloudy and a bit chilly so we elected to stay home and eat the "canned beans".  Well, this is not like any canned beans we have ever eaten before.  Cassoulet and duck confit are specialities of this area of southwest France and this particular brand came from Castelnoudary - the self proclaimed cassoulet city of the world.  Early on in our stay here we had bought a small can of cassoulet and it was good but not memorable.  Then, I ordered it when we had lunch in Carcassonne and it was good but not superb.  So, as I heated up this can of cassoulet, I did not have high expectations but since we were hungry, having had practically no lunch, I was optimistic that it would be at least satisfying.

I prepared a nice salad with buttery lettuce, cherry tomatoes from the yard, a fantastic pear from Christine & Pierre's orchard and goat cheese - with a touch of balsamic vinaigrette.  This was accompanied by a bottle of local Limoux Brut bubbly and, of course, French bread.  We were blown away by the taste of the cassoulet from the can!  Wow!  And it contained two duck legs and two pieces of sausage - tender and tasty.  I wouldn't mind taking a case of this home because I'm sure I won't find it at our local Mega Supermarket.  Oh well - I may have to try to make it some day.  Oh, we very much enjoyed the Brut too.

Tomorrow we will have our final French meal in Limoux at lunch - maybe we will go back to Le Lounge where we had the fantastic creme brulee foie gras.  Then, it's on to Holland Sunday morning.


   

The Abbey in St. Hilaire

St. Hilaire Abbey

 Things are winding down here in our French home exchange.  We'll be heading for Holland on Sunday so we are taking it pretty easy until then.  But, not far from Magrie, is the tiny village of St. Hilaire.  There is a lovely 11th to 14th century Benedictine abbey that we thought we would toddle over to view. (The first chapel there was even before that - like maybe the 10th century, if you can imagine that long ago).  The trip was scenic and short.  However, we made the grave mistake of arriving there at 11:45 a.m. when the Abbey closes at 12:00 for a 2 hour lunch break and we were told that it takes 30 minutes to take the tour.  Oh well.  We saw the lovely grounds of the abbey but didn't get to go into the church which is really what I wanted to see - the sarcophagus of St. Sernin, the first Bishop of Toulouse.  It is a beautiful piece (which I only know from looking it up on the Internet).  Instead we walked the streets of St. Hilaire and took pictures which is always a great pleasure for me, especially on a picture perfect day like today is.  HERE ARE THE PICTURES.

By the way, supposedly the Benedictine monks of St. Hilaire discovered Blanquette - the sweet bubbly wine which is so much in abundance here, made from the little sweet green grapes.  I really love the mental image of these monks discovering bubbly wine, don't you?

Benedictine Monk with his Blanquette in St. Hilaire

We debated whether to have lunch in St. Hilaire or not and decided instead to stop at LeClerc and buy some salmon to cook at home.  We did and we're glad we did - it was delicious and we enjoyed it with a lovely fresh salad, French bread and a nice bottle of St. Hilaire chardonney.  Who could ask for more?