Holland: Groningen, Kornhorn, and Utrecht

My time in Holland was so lovely. I spent a week with some of the Bucks life-long friends, the Minnema family. They made me feel at home so much it was just what I needed after two and a half months of traveling. They provided me with so many of the things I love to do at home. They had a guitar I could play, Ankie's sister brought over a keyboard for me to play, and Henk and I worked on SketchUp at night and I drew a little in the daytime.

The first day Henk and Sanne took me out to see much of the land that Holland had reclaimed by building the dikes. And another day Ankie took me to Groningen where we saw many things.

They also let me use one of their bicycles that I rode into town a couple times and once was through a very hard rain. I got back to the house and was wet as if I had just jumped in a lake. I ringed out my clothes and ran inside to take a shower. Some of my stuff didn't dry for a few days.

I watched more Friends episodes with Sanne than I had ever seen in my life, that was a lot of fun. And I enjoyed watching countless Youtube videos with Henk, Alle, Wiebe, and Sanne. They mostly showed me Dutch musicians and funny Dutch commericals but I chose to share a few like the one where Courtney Cox first got famous by dancing on stage with Bruce Springsteen in the Dancing in the Dark video. And also some Regina Spektor since she is very unique.

We planned my leave for Sunday. Henk, Ankie, Sanne, and I drove down to Utrecht, the city that Alle lives in. After dinner we walked to the parking garage to retrieve the car but it was completely closed, no entry by foot or anything. So now Henk and Ankie didn't have a way back home. They had to be home, too, there was no time to wait until the parking garage opened the next morning. They decided to take a train back to Groningen and Sanne would stay and take care of the car in the morning.

Alle, Sanne, and I waved goodbye to Henk and Ankie as their train left. Then we went to the movie theatre and saw In Bruges. I had never before heard of the movie but I was excited to see it because just the day before I chose Bruges as the city I would visit next. The movie was good and it made me excited to leave for Bruges in the morning.

I will post more picture soon. And fix a few things too. <3

Ice cream story

I thought I would share another story from my time with the Minnemas. After nearly a full day seeing sights in Groningen, Ankie and I decided get groceries and head home. We picked out some ice cream to eat after dinner. One flavor she said her, Sanne, and Wiebe would like and the flavor I picked she said Henk would like as well. After dinner we all enjoyed some ice cream. When we were done and the ice cream was back in the freezer, Ankie said, "You know where the ice cream is, you can help yourself if you'd like." I said okay and I kept that in mind.

The next night after dinner, Ankie asked Sanne to get the ice cream out of the freezer. Worried that I had helped myself too much and too unexpectedly, I said, "Uh, do you mean the same ice cream we had last night?" Knowing by my tone what that meant Ankie replied, "Oh, you finished it!" And laughed and laughed.

Then she told Sanne to get the other flavor. At this moment I was thinking, how do I tell them I finished more than just the one flavor and all I could think to do was to interrupt Sanne getting the other flavor by saying, "Ummm..." Now Ankie realized I had finished all the ice cream and everybody laughed, but I felt kinda bad. So... the Minnema family found out my weakness for ice cream.

Berlin

Sadly, I lost a few pictures from Berlin. I went to the German history museum and took lots of pictures because they were allowed. Also, an addition and part of the renovation was done by I.M. Pei, so I was happy to photograph the addition. However, now that I lost the pictures I wish I bought a postcard.

Well, from my first day in Berlin I still have pictures. I walked to the Reichstag building. This is the building that houses the parliament of Germany, the Bundestag. At the top is the large glass dome, which symbolizes that the German people can now look in on their leaders.

I don't know if it was just that food was on my mind or what, but the inside vortex type pillar of the dome had a funny similarity to the dönner kebab. I took a picture of the meat at one kebab stand, but I am going to use one picture from wikipedia to show you.

Here are more pictures from Berlin:


The Brandenburg Gate:


The dome of the Reichstag building:


A memorial to 96 members of the Reichstag killed by Nazis: