Impressions from our first week in Europe

Delmer: Loves the bread from the bakery. Likes everything else including the fact that all men's cloths come in tall.

Ron: Loves the laidback, relaxing life style and friendliness of the Dutch. He is also glad that the men's urinal's aren't any higher than they are (they are built for tall Dutch males). 

Eileen: Loves renewing friendships in Grou and the beautiful gardens in the Netherlands. 

All: Love icecream from Scoop in Grou. The wine and cheese are also hitting the spot! Life is good.

Giethoorn

At the recommendation of Ron's son Jim, we took a short drive to the "Venice of the Netherlands". Giethoorn is filled with canals and tourists and is best explored by boat. There are thatched roof cottages everywhere and their gardens are simply beautiful. We stopped for supper before we came home. When we arrived, to our surprise, our neighbours William, Helene, Jesmine and Bastiian were back from their holidays in France.

A day of rest

We took it easy today. Delmer and I made a visit this morning to our dear friend, Billa, who lives down on the haven. She is doing well at 78 years young and still rides her bicycle everywhere. Although Billa speaks little English we still manage to communicate with her quite nicely. Later in the afternoon Ron, Delmer and I walked down to the aquaduct on the edge of Grou. This is where you can see cars travelling under a huge aquaduct carrying small and large boats and trains passing over top. While I tried to catch all three at once the timing wasn't quite right. Check out our photos we took on our walk.  

Friese Ballonfeesten in Joure

Our day began with a trip to Sneek for lunch at the Walrus restaurant. This is also a wonderful town only 17 kilometres from Grou. The picturesque downtown is filled with narrow cobblestone streets and wide variety of interesting stores and restaurants. 

We then made our way to Joure for an early evening of hot air balloon watching. The Friese Ballonfeesten in Joure is a great opportunity to blend in with the locals and enjoy watching the great sport of hot air ballooning. Check out our photos.

Getting back in the groove

We started our day with having coffee and apple cake with Tini and Betus, our next door neighbours. We had a lot of carching up to do. After lunch we drove to Leeuwarden for some shopping and an afternoon tea break.There are lots of very nice stores there. I discovered that  Delmer looks pretty 'hot' in skinny jeans! And, the leather boots are better than anything you can find at home. We finished the day off with icecream at our favourite ice cream shop, Scoop, and a walk down along the haven.

Home in Grou

We arrived in Grou by train this afternoon. For Delmer and I it brought back so many fond memories from 2010. Our house swappers had left us a few groceries so we powered up and then headed out for a walk and some groceries. We met a lovely young store clerk who when she found out where Ron was from said she would love to work on a ranch in Alberta. So anyone out there who knows of someone who is looking for an eager young lass, let us know. We also bought our tickets on the Rondvaartboten for the final big Skutsjesilen race to be held near Sneek on August 2. We met so many nice people at the Grou race the last time we were here. Here are some photos from the day. They include catching our train from Schiphol, our train, Grou train station and scenery aroung Grou's haven (harbour area).

 

Arrived in the land of tulips

We have arrived in Amsterdam via Glasglow and Manchester. We have managed only cat naps since we left Calgary, some 22 hours ago and 31 hours since we woke up on Tuesday morning. 

We have met some very interesting folks along the way. Delmer and I had a delightful conversation with Billy Gordon from Lockerby. Billy was in Olds at the world plowing competition. He's a Ford and New Holland man. He told us that it cost $14,000 Canadian to ship his team's tractors and plows over for the competition. Quite the hobby I'd say. Ron sat with a man and his daughter from Kelliher (not far from our old hometown). They are originally from England and moved to Saskatchewan to farm a number of years ago. It's a small world. I have also been telling folks along the way that Ron's bandaged arm is the result of him falling off his horse at the Calgary Stampede (its much more interesting than what really happened.

Tomorrow we are catching the train to Grou, and hopefully some down time to recharge our batteries.

Calgary

We are patiently waiting (not really) at our daughter Sherri's house until it's time to leave for the airport this afternoon. Ron, Delmer and I are very excited about our vacation. Ten weeks in Europe seems surreal at this point. We have  itinerary, plane tickets, Eurorail train passes, hotel reservations and a trusty GPS, so we are set. Our first stop is Manchester, England.

We will keep you posted along the way.

D & E plus R

Time is flying by!

The countdown is on!  Only 5 more days until we depart!