Wednesday,
Raining again and visited another cousin today, (Selma and Jan) but met at Jan’s mother’s home in Oldehove. They came to pick us up so we could follow them to the town. On the way we stopped at Hamsterborg which is the original Wierenga family (Wendy’s) home and where the family started (well, as far back as has been traced - to the 1600’s). The home has a really long driveway and has a moat around it and is now part of the national trust system and available for functions. There are three apartments built into the old farm shed that are rented out to people to help pay for the up keep. It’s a beautiful old stately building and the boys were very impressed to be able to visit a place that is part of their history. The original house dates back to the 1500’s and needed to be rebuilt in 1633 due to damage sustained during the 80 year war with Spain. The Wierenga family also have a book that traces the genealogy all the way back to this couple and (from the 1600’s to about 1984) and has Wendy and I in it. It’s quite a volume.
Then on to Oldehove and past a farm where a farmer had built a church (must have been a quite year) that seats 60 people that can be hired out for functions. We had to drive through a downpour that was that heavy we had to slow to 30 kms and it would have been handy to have a couple more speeds on the wipers. There was a thunder storm after that that passed right over the village and we were glad to be inside. Jan’s family home is opposite the church and his family is busy with cleaning it up as his mother has just passed away. We had a great visit and caught up on the past 23 years. It’s really interesting to see how much people have changed physically over that time and mostly it doesn’t seem to be all that much. Maybe a bit less hair and sometime a little greyer but mostly the people we’ve met have aged well. The boys went off to Zuidhorn with Wendy and Selma on a successful shopping expedition and came back with some soft clogs (slippers that look like clogs) while Jan and I did the dishes and caught up on our respective jobs.
Late afternoon it was back to Groningen for more sightseeing and more rain - had a huge downpour that made us all a little damp. I walked into a coffee shop and realised the odour inside wasn’t a mix of coffee and tobacco but something else. Wendy and I were trying to find a coffee shop but over here a ‘coffee shop’ is generally something else, like a place where you can buy and use soft drugs (typically marijuana). We did find a real shop which sold coffee and enjoyed the respite from the weather. We tried a typical takeaway of some croquettes a frikandel (sausage) and patat (fries) with a huge serve of mayo.
We got a bit lost in Gronigen as we had forgotten to take the maps, and did a lap and a half of the city before actually turning right into a potentially good road but it was bus freeway (that supported a park & ride), so we enjoyed a quiet couple of kilometers (hoping that we wouldn’t get picked up by the police) and didn’t see any buses. Everyone thought it was hilarious except me! The driving is fairly stressful as it’s on the other side of the road and you do need to be focussed that you don’t end up on the wrong side and you need to allow for traffic coming the other way at intersections. I’m the only driver as it costs a fair bit more to have another designated driver for the hire car, it’s going OK, but it makes me tired.
Finally found the ring road and we headed back to Hanneke and Willy’s place to pick up my rain coat and a pillow we’d left behind and then on the way home we visited another cousin, Erna and her three children. It was fairly tricky to find her place (she care-takes and old farmhouse) as it was actually off the main road a bit, and the house is at the other end of the shed where you drive in and park the car. Not to worry, we found each other and enjoyed a short visit with her. The kids got on well with ours and now they are quite interested in Australia. The boys played around a bit and matt did some skipping and acro-balance with Isebella. Rimmer had a broken arm and will start high school after the summer break and will join his Mathilda at school in Groningen. School finishes here this week and everyone is getting ready with final celebrations, reports etc. We had a tour of the the old farm building and up into the solder (ceiling) to see where they stored the wheat grain) and also the kelder (cellar) before heading home at 11!
Raining again and visited another cousin today, (Selma and Jan) but met at Jan’s mother’s home in Oldehove. They came to pick us up so we could follow them to the town. On the way we stopped at Hamsterborg which is the original Wierenga family (Wendy’s) home and where the family started (well, as far back as has been traced - to the 1600’s). The home has a really long driveway and has a moat around it and is now part of the national trust system and available for functions. There are three apartments built into the old farm shed that are rented out to people to help pay for the up keep. It’s a beautiful old stately building and the boys were very impressed to be able to visit a place that is part of their history. The original house dates back to the 1500’s and needed to be rebuilt in 1633 due to damage sustained during the 80 year war with Spain. The Wierenga family also have a book that traces the genealogy all the way back to this couple and (from the 1600’s to about 1984) and has Wendy and I in it. It’s quite a volume.
Then on to Oldehove and past a farm where a farmer had built a church (must have been a quite year) that seats 60 people that can be hired out for functions. We had to drive through a downpour that was that heavy we had to slow to 30 kms and it would have been handy to have a couple more speeds on the wipers. There was a thunder storm after that that passed right over the village and we were glad to be inside. Jan’s family home is opposite the church and his family is busy with cleaning it up as his mother has just passed away. We had a great visit and caught up on the past 23 years. It’s really interesting to see how much people have changed physically over that time and mostly it doesn’t seem to be all that much. Maybe a bit less hair and sometime a little greyer but mostly the people we’ve met have aged well. The boys went off to Zuidhorn with Wendy and Selma on a successful shopping expedition and came back with some soft clogs (slippers that look like clogs) while Jan and I did the dishes and caught up on our respective jobs.
Late afternoon it was back to Groningen for more sightseeing and more rain - had a huge downpour that made us all a little damp. I walked into a coffee shop and realised the odour inside wasn’t a mix of coffee and tobacco but something else. Wendy and I were trying to find a coffee shop but over here a ‘coffee shop’ is generally something else, like a place where you can buy and use soft drugs (typically marijuana). We did find a real shop which sold coffee and enjoyed the respite from the weather. We tried a typical takeaway of some croquettes a frikandel (sausage) and patat (fries) with a huge serve of mayo.
We got a bit lost in Gronigen as we had forgotten to take the maps, and did a lap and a half of the city before actually turning right into a potentially good road but it was bus freeway (that supported a park & ride), so we enjoyed a quiet couple of kilometers (hoping that we wouldn’t get picked up by the police) and didn’t see any buses. Everyone thought it was hilarious except me! The driving is fairly stressful as it’s on the other side of the road and you do need to be focussed that you don’t end up on the wrong side and you need to allow for traffic coming the other way at intersections. I’m the only driver as it costs a fair bit more to have another designated driver for the hire car, it’s going OK, but it makes me tired.
Finally found the ring road and we headed back to Hanneke and Willy’s place to pick up my rain coat and a pillow we’d left behind and then on the way home we visited another cousin, Erna and her three children. It was fairly tricky to find her place (she care-takes and old farmhouse) as it was actually off the main road a bit, and the house is at the other end of the shed where you drive in and park the car. Not to worry, we found each other and enjoyed a short visit with her. The kids got on well with ours and now they are quite interested in Australia. The boys played around a bit and matt did some skipping and acro-balance with Isebella. Rimmer had a broken arm and will start high school after the summer break and will join his Mathilda at school in Groningen. School finishes here this week and everyone is getting ready with final celebrations, reports etc. We had a tour of the the old farm building and up into the solder (ceiling) to see where they stored the wheat grain) and also the kelder (cellar) before heading home at 11!
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