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Essem, Holland
June 16th, Wednesday - Visit with Marjan & her family, by
TD & DW
 The
kids caught up on some missing hours of sleep this morning and
we were happy for it. Their personalities are more pleasant
with proper rest. The day is the usual, overcast and cool. It
feels colder than the last few days. We washed underwear in
the sink again and hung it out on the drying rack. Even the
drying rack is a luxury to us after our travels. The kids
played outside for a while before Marjan, a friend of a friend
of Debbie's. Marjan lives in the nearby village of Exloo.
 She
brought a number of local interest pamphlets for us to browse
through. This region of Holland is famous for Hunebeds.
Ancient people left "piles" of rocks over tombs. Some of the
rocks are quite impressive. It's unknown why these peoples
made the effort to move and stack rocks as big as 40 tons, in
an area where there aren't many rocks. It was after the visit
in Borger that AD & I split off from the group. We went back
to Emmen to get lunch and use the internet.
The rest of the group headed to Orvelte 'n belevenis which is
a small village where the people continue to use olden time
trades. Visiting the butcher, the clog carver and the candle
maker we made our way around this historic village. As you
walk the cobblestone streets you pass herb gardens, fruit
orchards and pastures. In one pasture was a new born colt
trying to stand and drink milk from it's mother.
 I
think that we all found the clog maker the most impressive and
learned a lot. For example, the typical clog is made from
Poplar trees. In the 1800's it took 4 hours to crave each pair
of shoes. Now they have more modern tools and are able to make
a pair in about 15 minutes. It was fascinating to watch the
lathe follow the mold cutting a pair of babies clogs. The
miller then uses a patterned bore to cut out the inside and a
sharp hatchet to trim the toes. The wood which is saturated
with water before carving, takes about one month to dry. What
we found most interesting was that the Dutch still routinely
wear these wooden shoes! They aren't just tourist trap gifts.
 Finished
with touring for the day, we went to Marjan's house for tea
and to meet her family. At 5:00 in her village, the area sheep
herder brings his flock back to the barn. So we went into town
to watch the event. Claire and Phil were laughing and running
along with the sheep as the dogs herded them quickly into the
barn. Even after seeing many such spectacles it is still
thrilling to witness a couple hundred sheep masterfully guided
into their pen by two dogs.
 Marjan,
ChrisBert, and their sons Bert and Wilhelm took us to a
traditional Dutch pancake restaurant for dinner. TD and AD met
us at the restaurant. Since we had only Marjan's car,
ChrisBert, Bert and I traveled the 4 km (3 miles) to the
restaurant on bicycles. The ride took us through the village
and into the country following bike paths into the next
village. The terrain is very much like Ohio with tree lined
roads, backed by wheat and potato fields along the way. The
restaurant food was delicious and everyone enjoyed their
pancake of choice. The pancakes are more like crepes filled
with, in my case, bacon and cheese. The day went by too
quickly and we were soon saying our good byes and headed back
to the Parc for the night.
June 17th, Thursday - Daniel arrives, by TD & DW
Another gray day in Holland didn’t surprise
anyone. It’s cooler this morning than the last few days. We
hand washed some clothes and gathered up others to be washed
at the laundry. Claire and Phil are excited about their father
arriving today. We’ve not had the discussion about, “who’s
going to pick him up”. They expect to be riding along, while
we feel they should stay back because of the travel time. The
“mommies” had naps during the morning while the kids sat in
the lounge room watching TV and playing game boys.
We taught Phil how to play “Hearts”, a card game. Claire has
also learned how to play since arriving. Debbie took over
while I made lunch for the kids. The “mommies” drove off to
Amsterdam while we went into Emmen to check the internet, and
go to the post office. We came back to the Parc so the kids
could swim in the indoor pool while I got the laundry started.
The pool closed a half hour later for swim lesson classes.
Guess we should have swam first! We went back to the house and
played more cards. The boys eventually quit and went out to
play. Claire helped me prepare dinner. The rest of the party
returned from Amsterdam around 7 PM, complaining about the
traffic in Amsterdam. Daniel was exhausted from his
Transatlantic travel.
We played more “Hearts” after dinner. The boys had gone out to
play with a couple of kids from Missouri who are living down
the street. Even though they are only 5 & 6, it seems to be
alright with the kids. The Euro 2004 soccer match was on again
tonight. France and Croatia tied 2-2. It was a great game.
France was the tournament favorite. Who would expect little
Croatia to do that well?
The word for the day is “traffic”. Deb and I had a very
enjoyable ride into Amsterdam to pick up Daniel. Throughout
our two hour drive the traffic flowed well. Deb is slowly
learning to drive the European way. Daniel’s plane was right
on time and he appeared 20 minutes after our arrival in the
terminal. Since Deb and I had not had lunch we sat down for a
quick bite at Burger King before leaving. Almost immediately
the traffic tie-ups began and we received a first hand lesson
regarding rush hour travel. Daniel was tired enough to snooze
for about 30 minutes while Deb and I kept up the usual banter.
Three hours later we arrived back at Parc Santur.
Anne Frank Museum...»
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