Journey of a Lifetime

If one of the boys wasn't scowling, you would know that any photo of the three of us had been touched-up. So you know this one is the real thing- 

Here we are, at Düsseldorf airport. The count-down is being measured in hours now. We will be back in Maine by about 9:30 tonight. But you won't be surprised to hear that we filled our last few days. 

Since we arrived in the northeast region of the Netherlands near the Ems/Dollard estuary, we've been scheming to take a 

wadlopen (mud walk). This is a trek through the mudflats that stretch to the horizon here at low tide.

The walks were featured in National Geographic as one of the best 2016 summer trips in the world. So how could we miss that? http://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/best-trips/best-summer-trips-2016/dutch-wadden-sea-conservation-area-north-holland-netherlands/

And NG did not over rate the wadlopen. The interpretation was in German since our trip left from Norden, Germany. And while Katja and Peter only speak German "a little bit" they managed to translate for us, as successfully as ever. So we were able to take in a few facts about the flora and fauna of the ecosystem.

But the sensation of moving through the mud was amazing, distracting me from really focusing on the narration. 

The mud is often ankle deep, so actually pulling a foot out produces a stupendous slurping sound, and creates such a barrier to locomotion that I could take about 10 steps a minute. 

So we quickly discovered that it is actually more effective, and much more fun, to mud-skate. 

An incredible trip- I recommend it highly the next time you are in the neighborhood.

Oh, and the Raven joined us for our day out. 

To explain, Katja and Peter have apparently adopted the Raven as their totem animal and have mounted a plastic one to their car. 

And on special occasions, the black bird gets to come along on family outings.

With a drive further down the coast that same day, we boarded a ferry to Norderney island to see the colony of gray and harbor seals there.

We also got close-up views of 2 other North Sea islands - Juist, and Baltrum. Depending on who you ask, there's is a total of 15 - 25 of these islands, running from the Nerherlands, over Germany and to Denmark. Ferries can only make the passages to some of these islands at high tide, since at low tide you must walk - the mudflats connecting the islands to the mainland at that time.

To wrap up the day, Caleb had his first chance to play grill-meister at the cookout Andrea hosted. 

Back "home" in Bad Nieuweschans on Wednesday, Katja and I treated ourselves to the Fontana Bad Nieuweschans - one of only two natural, mineral-rich, hot springs in the Netherlandshttps://www.fontanabadnieuweschans.nl/en/ I'm not a regular visitor to spas like this, so this was a special event for me. No photos allowed inside, but as you can see, we were new women after the experience.

And after our hosts in Bad Nieuweschans hosted us to dinner on Wednesday evening, Katja took a nice group shot of us in the gallery - 

Again, if you are interested to see more of Jonathan and Miranda's work, find it here http://andersomanders.nl/

Our travels back to the US began on Thursday with the train from Leer to Düsseldorf, Germany. Our send off was a memorable one, with Katja, Peter, Balder, Ronja, Andrea, Miranda and Mirile joining us. We will miss them all, because it has been all of them that has made this the journey of a lifetime. 

Four days and counting

About two months ago, I started this blog with a countdown of days until we left for NL. And as we approach late July, the blog winds down with the heading home countdown - 4 days until we fly back. 

So as I start to sift through the stacks of memorabilia I've collected, I'm aware of the moments here. 

Like the moment on Sunday when the boys and I walked into the train station in the provincial capital, Groningen. 

While Ben and I gawked at the stained glass and ceiling murals, Caleb walked to the exit to disassociate himself from the geekish tourist behavior.

And the instant I entered the Groningen art museum's rooms featuring "De Ploeg" collection http://www.groningermuseum.nl/en/about-de-ploeg - a group of artists in this region of NL, post Van Gogh. They chose the name "The Plow" to describe their belief that the Dutch art scene needed to be turned over and cultivated with new ideas. I could have spent hours soaking in the colors in these artists' pallets, thanks to our host Jonathan who pointed me to the collection.

And my wanderings around the art museum itself, giving me a moment to see the art of the museum. 

And of course the many instances during which the boys tolerated my photo set ups in front of Groningen's churches, 

Provincial buildings,

and universities,

trying, but not always succeeding, to get the light and vantage point right....

And appreciating that Ben consented to another bike ride with me this morning

even as it threatened to rain on us. 

But we made it home, with moments to spare. 

Tomorrow will be three days, and we will have our moments in the mud... More on that to come. 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

Sights and Sounds

Leer, Germany is a beautiful, ancient city close to the Dutch border where the first settlement was established in 791 AD. And during our recent visit there, we DID visit the local historical museum. To torture the kids, Katja and I poured over every exhibit (or almost every- Peter pointed out that we apparently missed an entire floor). 

But mostly, we hung out in the waterfront playground and took pictures and slow motion videos of everyone on the baby bunny ride. Luckily,  Katja took the shot of me, so it's unavailable for me to post...

Second only to the playground was the time spent experimenting with the city's vast collection of interactive street art including balancing poles

 a cooperative maze,

And a role play called "flee from Peter the Viking"

Eventually we made it over to the local castle though - Sloss Evenburgh, a medieval "water" castle (from what date???) that was rebuilt in the 1800's by the nouveau riche Evenburgh

http://www.ostfriesland-tourism.com/my-ostfriesland/barrier-free/sights-activities/evenburg-castle-leer.html

Stunning place even so

With arguably more stunning grounds 

including Evenburgallee, the kilometer-long, canopied way to the castle

Then when we got home from Leer last night, the boys were talking about the fact that they had not heard much Dutch pop music yet. Which is true, since much of what teens in NL listen to is American or at a minimum, in English. So to remedy this, we headed for the "Festival Hongorige Wolf." This is the annual summer arts festival in the nearby village of, you guessed it, Hongoride Wolf (yes, there is a village named Hungry Wolf...)
http://www.festivalhongerigewolf.nl/
Caleb immediately had a run in with the mascot 

And then we kicked back with music that was the genuine article - this band is called "Wolves Dressed in Sheep." Here's their site for your listening pleasure- 

http://wolvesdressedinsheep.nl/home/

And our host here in Bad Nieuweschans is a real music junky, so when I asked him for ideas on Dutch music, he was only too happy to send a sampling along-

Did you know "Twilight Zone" is by the Dutch band, Golden Earring?

https://youtu.be/a1sf2CzEq0w

And this singer is referred to as "the Dutch Bob Dylan.

https://youtu.be/PVficyeANcI 

And Dutch electronica 

https://youtu.be/8tIgN7eICn4

And the legendary Dutch crooner

https://youtu.be/gkX7ga_uR-U

Glad to have done my part to internationally promote Dutch pop culture.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Fifth of Six

When we first arrived in the Nerherlands 5 weeks ago, everyone kept apologizing for the terrible weather - "It feels like November..." they would say in perfect English, after telling me they spoke English "a little bit." And indeed it was unusually cold and wet. So it's only fitting that by the end of our stay, the weather should be unusually hot and dry. But for the most part, the Dutch don't seem awfully surprised, since there's no serious debate here about the changeable climate. I've heard repeatedly, for example, that appreciable amounts of snow are basically accepted as a thing of the past. 

So to tackle the heat wave yesterday, we headed for a lake near Leer, Germany with Katja and her family. It's only about 30 minutes by car from here in Bad Nieuweschans, and they are staying there for several days holiday with Katja's friend Andrea. 

We packed a picnic lunch for the beach, and the boys and I contributed the exotic American specialty dish, PB&J sandwiches... Our Dutch friends were incredulous and to be fair, these WERE made with lemon curd. But really, the big deal was the very idea of putting PB with jelly, of any kind. Here PB is pretty exclusively paired with hagelslag. But everybody tried it - and this outrageous combo was deemed "interesting" and "an acquired taste."

After our exotic meal, we pretty much camped out in the water, and Katja was the lucky one to be "treated" to a mud bath by her kids. 

For clean up we headed over to Andrea's house near Leer and the boys had a chance to check out Andrea's Dutch army truck that's been converted into an RV.

This vehicle has the noteworthy accomplishment of having made 2, trans-African tours!

The day wrapped up back in Bad Nieuweschans where we hosted everyone for dinner. This would never have worked in our teeny cottage of course, but luckily we're still caretaking for the main house and could spread everyone out at the big garden table.

Thunder and lightning ended the evening and broke the heat at least until the early morning. But by 11:00, it was the kind of hot when breathing makes you sweat. So a walk in the bos (forest) seemed like it might be a heat-minimizing alternative. But finding a forest is not as easy in NL as it is in Maine. Because land here is basically for human habitation or for farming, if you want land for anything else, you have to preserve it as such. So I looked on the map for an area marked "bos." I found it in the closet city, interestingly- Sterrebos. We jumped the train to Winschoten and ate our fabulous PB&Js in the shade of the bos. 

In addition to being home to an urban forest, Winschoten also boats 3 urban windmills. We discovered the first in what I have to call a Dutch strip mall and the second in the shadow of a used car dealership and gas station. 

City Hall is a spectacular monument though. Our neighbor here in the village works in this building, along with the city's Burgermeister (meaning mayor - but we need the 2 dots over the U).

I had to ask our neighbor about the onion dome atop the tower, since it conjures up St Petersburg, Russia maybe, but not at all Holland. Eef, our neighbor, had no explanation except that the architect was popular during the Victorian era when the hall was constructed... Who can argue with that?

And I will close out with a sabbatical research update. My 16th interview had to be rescheduled as a video call in early August when I'm back in the states. In the meantime, the daily work of coding about 22 hours of interviews continues - but does not make for very colorful photos...
 

 

 

 

Summer arrives

We've been in the Netherlands almost 5 weeks now, long enough to do real-life stuff. With two boys along - a tween and a teen- the grocery shopping is a daily routine. Laundry could be too, but we haven't always had easy access, plus I simply refuse. But it became a must, so the last two days have been laundry days. 

The process was made easier by the fact that our hosts, Jonathan, Miranda and Mirile have gone on holiday and left us in charge of their house. So we have the run of the place including the big kitchen and living room, clothes washer, and the entire garden.

Our wooden house at the far end of the garden is charming AND teeny, so it's been nice to spread out. We've been eating at the big garden table these two days - chicken soup was on the menu for dinner tonight. It's Ben's favorite and I teased that he needed to eat 3 bowls. When he moved on to number 4, I was so amazed I took a picture 

and when he ended up eating 5 bowls, I begged him to stop....

Yesterday summer also arrived in the Netherlands and today the temperature reached 30 C (90 F)! For the most part it's been between 16 and 22 (-mid 60s to low 70s) so today was a shocker. The sun made us lazy and we spent most of the day yesterday in the garden. I did some drawing 

And Caleb took jonathan up on his offer for us to use his art studio (he his a painter and the front of the house serves as his gallery). http://andersomanders.nl/

Before the temperature reached its apex today, the boys and headed out for another ride along the North Sea. To follow the route we like best, we cross the border into Germany. But to tell the truth, I did not know where exactly the border was.... This sounds odd I know- in  the States we live within 1/2 mile of the Maine/NH border. And you never have to wonder when you've crossed state lines since you are immediately bombarded with "Welcome to NH" or "Maine- the way life should be" signs. But not here, at least not since the advent of the EU- now you essentially have no way to know when you've crossed most international borders. But today I asked around in the village and I think I figured it out.

This bridge where the boys are standing - the general consensus is that the water in the canal and the bank on the other side are in Germany. So there you have it.

Anyway, our tour took us back into "nature" and along the  Ems/Dollard estuary. Because the estuary is highly protected as a national park and UNESCO world heritage site http://www.waddensea-worldheritage.org/wadden-sea-world-heritage/ems-dollard it's not terribly easy to access it, so long boardwalks wend through the marshes and mudflats

To observation towers.

I've been to this tower twice now, the first viewing at low tide

And the second at high tide.

And in truth, these are the first times I've  seen the tide in 5 weeks here. Because most every drop of water in NL is managed behind the system of dikes, this is a rare opportunity to see the tide.

By the time we were riding back from the sea, the temperature was soaring. So the boys were pretty spent by the time we returned to the village, but they humored me with a visit to the local vestigmusea (fortress museum). The wonderful and knowledgeable guides at the museum told us of the history of the village's development as a fortress, build in the 5 pointed star shape that we also saw in our visit to Oudeschans. Here's the museums replica of the fortress 

We were also escorted down the street to see the village's only Jewish synagogue in its history. It was established in the early 16th century when 12 Members of the Jewish Orthodox Church had enough membership to begin their own synogogue. 

The plaque on the building was raised in memory of those members of the synogogue who were taken by the Nazis during World War II and whose lives ended in German concentration camps - the names of which you will recognize. 

History is always present here, giving us perspective.