A Day in Antwerp

Saturday morning we drove (only 1.5 hrs) to Antwerp, Belgium. I love Antwerp, because of the legend. And who doesn't love a good legend? OK...centuries ago (during Roman times) there was a giant (Antigone) who stopped the boats going down the Scheldt River right at the part where the river makes a "U". (Guess where that is?) Anyhow, this nasty giant demanded a HUGE (50% of the value of the goods being transported!) tax for the boats to continue down the river. Naturally, the sailors were ticked and decided to fight the giant. Naturally the giant won. Always. AND to add to his nastiness, he would cut off the hand of each sailor he fought and toss it into the river, as a warning to others. Then he moved into the nearby castle, killing everyone inside. So along comes Brabo, the hero, he fights the giant for DAYS, and with the help of the god Mercury, kills him. In the name of justice, he cuts off the giant's hand and throws it into the river. The city is named Antwerpen (in Dutch) and that stands for "hand twerpen" or "hand throwing" in English. Good story, huh?
There's a statue of Brabo in the city center (tossing the giant's hand) and you can also see the castle in my pictures. We went through the cathedral of Our Lady looking at Ruben's masterpieces. Ruben's home is in Antwerp too, you can still go through it. We found a wonderful Italian restaurant for lunch. (Southern Italian..yum!) and of course, another Christmas market. Love that glug wine! One more week of school, and the kids in my class are going everywhere from Bangkok to South Africa,London, the U.S., and I'm off to Italy to meet Brad !

German Christmas Markets

We decided to drive into Germany for the 4 day Thanksgiving break from school and visit the Christmas Markets. They're all over the country, very traditional, and people walk around drinking glugwein (hot red or white spiced wine) , eating sausages, and shopping the booths. Last year we went to Cologne, and there were seven huge markets, so this year we went to a small town, Ahrweiler. That way we could also go to the spa in nearby Bad Neuenahr. We combined this with a trip to Oberhausen to Centro, the largest mall in western Europe, which was decorated beautifully for the holiday, AND had it's own Christmas market just outside. We shopped, we drank and ate, and we drove our pooped bodies to the spa to recoop! What a fun weekend! Now we have school until Dec. 18th, and then yet ANOTHER break!

The Chunnel, Stonehenge, Bath and Amiens, France.

Since I had a week off of school for fall break, we decided to drive through the Chunnel from Calais, France to Folkstone, England, and drive to Stonehenge. It was amazing that "the crossing" as they call it, took less than a half hour! They announce that "It's almost time to disembark, turn your clocks back one hour and drive on the left!" The roundabouts were the MOST fun...trying to figure out who had the right of way! I HAD to drive in England though,as a personal goal since learning to drive stick-shift, and even drove us back on the Chunnel when we left England. Stonehenge was amazing, and there are other stone circles around the area too, just not with stones quite as large. We loved seeing the abbeys at Salisbury, Bath, Wells and Lacock. (The Harry Potter movie was filmed there!) We enjoyed the thermal baths in Bath, and were amazed by the Roman Baths there that are STILL airtight and holding water hundreds of years later there. After England, we drove to Amiens, France for two nights to see the largest cathedral in the country. The symbol of World War II, the weeping angel, was there. It took only about four hours to drive back "home" to Holland (after we fixed our flat tire)...another great trip!

A Trip to Maastrich

We finally got away and took a drive down to the southeastern tip of The Netherlands Saturday morning and went to Maastrich. It's a stones-throw from Belgium to the west, and Germany to the east. Even with the Tom-Tom, I think we crossed the Maas River river seven times! Still, it was a lovely old walled city, (the Romans were here!) and we enjoyed walking around. The weather cooperated too, which is unusual for this time of year. Sunday morning we went to the oldest thermal spa in Holland, Terme 2000. We spend four hours in the different pools, and even went in one that was outside. Total destressing needed for standardized testing in school this week. (A first for third graders!) Looking forward to October break when we take the Chunnel to southwest England.

A Day at Rijksmuseum

This Saturday we took the train to Amsterdam to spend the day looking at Rembrandt's masterpieces at the Rijksmuseum. One of the most famous paintings...The Kitchen Helper by VerMeer, was on loan to the Met. Museum of Art in New York. We did get to see The Night Watch, which is gigantic, dark, and typical Rembrandt. It was a nice day, but usual Dutch weather. We always bring an umbrella! We passed one on the street that died a sudden death due to the wind which can be brutal this time of the year. We're planning Oct. break in England, and got tickets for the Chunnel. That should be fun!

Back to work...Back to Reality!

After a summer vacation in the states when we visited BJ in California, checked out Brad's new art gallery in Chicago, and I went to my (GASP!) 40th high school reunion, we are now back in Holland, and I'm back at work at the American School of The Hague. I moved from grade four to grade three because of numbers, but got to stay in the same classroom. I have 16 children, 8 boys & 8 girls. All speak English except one beautiful little girl from Rome who only speaks Italian. :) My class is about half American, many Northern Europeans, and one South African.
Today was very warm, so we rode our bicycles to the North Sea Beach in Wassenaar.(about 4 miles west of us) There are dunes there, and the land is not flat like the rest of Holland. As long as you're biking downhill, and WITH the wind, its a delightful ride. (the other way...not so easy) I thought the water was relatively not so bad, something like Lake Michigan in early June. It was PACKED with bicycles and Dutch people. Literally, there must have been 500 bicycles locked to the fences! And that explains why people are so healthy here.

Sunday in The Hague

We didn't want to go too far today since I have end-of-the-year things to do for school. We went downtown since yesterday was the start of The Hague Festivals. We wanted to see the sandcastles. We remembered them from last year, but by the end of July there were big chunks that has fallen off due to the frequent rain here. Don't know what the theme was this year, but they reminded me of the park in Oslo, Norway, where one artist has tons of statues of naked people of all ages. There were some really cool sculptures in the park too, but the material was like that of hardened liquid plastic. We will be back in the states a week from today! Looking forward to a nice, safe flight and seeing friends again.

A weekend in Calais

Today is "White Monday", and it's a holiday, so Saturday we decided to get away for a short trip. In just a few hours, we were able to drive to the northern coast of France. Calais is where the chunnel connects France to England, a trip of less than a half hour. In fact, while we stood on the beach in Calais, both of our cell phones rang text messages welcoming us to the UK! We should've known better to go without reservations on a holiday weekend, but we didn't, so we spent some time searching for accomodations. Still, walking the beaches with German bunkers all around knowing much of WWII took place on that ground was disturbing. There were WWI markers in the area too.
There were two areas that jut out into the Channel: Cap Blanc and Cap Gris, which means "White Nose" and "Gray Nose". Both gave magnificent views, and many of the observation areas are atop German bunkers. The tide comes FAR inland, and in the daytime there are huge areas of damp sand.
We also walked the streets of Boulogne au Mer, who was having some sort of celebration. There were black & red balloons everywhere. The special dish of the region was mussels, and Fred ate them at least three times in two days!
School ends in only three weeks, so this will probably be my last entry until August.

Four Days in Berlin

Last weekend we made the six hour drive directly east to Berlin since I had four days off of school. What a great city! It's steeped with history, everything being either 50 yrs old, or half there due to being bombed off. (like the church) There is still an East center and a west center, but of course most of the wall is gone, except for the parts where you can see where it used to be in the sidewalk, and small pieces for people to see. We just happened to be there for the 60th anniversary of the unification of east & west. We saw the president of Germany, walked through the Brandenburgh Gate (which was on the eastern side) and even got on tv, as the stations and all three million city inhabitants were there! Lots on beer, brats, pretzels and Russian goodies. We walked until our feet about fell off. We also loved seeing "Checkpoint Charlie" (You are now leaving the American sector...), and various sculptures. (Like the one where the east and west are so close, but not quite touching. That one also stands for the U.S, France, Britian and Russia as the four strands. The Pergamon Museum blew us away as they've reconstructed entire ancient monuments the size of Petra INSIDE the walls. The Istar Gate, Pergamon altar, and more were incredibly impressive. Lots of good shopping, (including KaDeWe, the 1st German department store) but were crazy expensive. Who would pay 179 euros for a cotton shirt? (even if it is designer!) I'll wait until I get back to the states and shop the sales. No wonder people shop like crazy when they visit the states! Less than a month of school now...the time has gone by so quickly! We're moving to a new apartment, a little bigger (and less expensive too) in August. Not much time more. Hopefully we'll get in one more adventure before we come home June 21st!

And THIS is Holland!

Today we drove all the way up the the northern part of Holland to see the tulips. The weather was rainy, but then again this is Holland! We saw the most spectacular fields of tulips that no one seemed to mind. I have never seen anything like it! I also had no idea as to the variety of tulips. Some were almost up to my waist, and others were so short that you could hardly get them into a vase. Some had beautiful feathered petals, some had three or four flowers growing from one stem. And of course the colors were incredible. The farmers grow them for the bulbs, and throw the flowers away. (GASP!) We took six friends with us, and had a great time in the rain. The windmills, bicycles, rain and wooden shoes were good indications that we lived in Holland, but THIS tops the cake!

Driving through France

We had a great spring break driving from The Hague all the way to the Mediterranean. We stopped first in Reims, the center of the champagne grape vinyards in France, and loved the cathedral there, especially the window by Marc Chagall. From there we stopped in Beaune to visit the famous Hotel Dieu. We loved the colors of the tiled roof. Then we explored Lyon and decided that salad Lyonese and our Tom-Tom were both excellent! We kept heading south, and finally entered Provence when we came to Avignon, where we stayed in a restored monestary. I remember teaching church history when I had grade 7 at Holy Ghost School in South Holland (back in 1986!) and teaching about how there were 3 popes at the same time, and one of them left Rome and built a palace in France. Wow! What a palace it is! Plus, the half-bridge from the song "The bridge to Avignon", that I think is the only song in French I know except maybe for Marmelade! From Avignon we explored the Pont du Gard, which was the highest bridge the Romans ever built, and is at least 2,000 yrs. old. We also walked through the amphitheater in Nimes, and imagined the bullfights along with the Roman sacrifices. The next day we pushed our "sunshine" luck and drove to the sea. We opted for Cassis (home of the raspberry liquor) rather than Marseilles. The ocean was cold, but the shoreline beautiful, much like Italy. That's when the rain started. The next day we drove up to Dijon (of mustard fame) and had the BEST hotel. We celebrated our 35th anniversary at a great restaurant in our hotel, and I recieved the beautiful white gold earings I saw in a window at St. Remy de Provence. It was a wonderful way to spend spring break, and I'm so grateful that we're here and can drive to France with only a week to spend. It's the biggest perk of living overseas...you're already overseas!

We've made our plans to come back to the states for the month of July and part of August. Anyone interested in using our apartment while we're gone? It's 2 blocks from bus transportation, a half hour train ride from Amsterdam, 10 minutes north of The Hague, close to the beach...really a great location.

International Day at ASH

Last Friday was International Day at school, and it was on a scale I've NEVER seen before! In the pre-K-through grade 12 school, there are a little over 1,000 students, from 67 countries. Students all wore national dress, and the classrooms were converted (overnight!) into countries. There were foods from many different countries in each room, souveniers from each country, music and dance presentations, an opening and closing ceremony, and a homemade lunch with signs to let you know what you were eating! The parents did SO much work, and the students & teachers really enjoyed it! I learned that yo-yos were invented by someone from the Philippines and were originally weapons! (Plus lots of other good stuff too!) Now I have several other countries I want to visit! The school is flying me to Miami for the weekend on March 26th for a teacher's conference, paying all expenses. :) Then, for Spring break Fred & I are getting the cat and getting in the car and heading for the south of France for 10 days. No reservations, no pre-determined plans. I have a French mother who is giving me tips. I get a new student tomorrow who speaks Chinese to her mother, French to her father, and Dutch. No English yet, but it won't take that little smartie long! We're looking for a larger apartment for next fall, as other teachers are making plans to move to other countries. Everyone here is a nomad. We kinda' fit right in!

Amazing Jordan

We spent an incredible week in Jordan during February "White week" when most people go skiing. We were thrilled with Petra, but were surprised that Jerash (a Roman city in the north that was buried in sand for 2000 years and was just dug up in the early 1800's) was just as incredible! We were human corks in the Dead Sea, and I got smeared with black Dead Sea mud, which is supposed to make you look ten years younger. I asked for three layers. We enjoyed the Syrian/Jordanian food, and the people were very friendly. Aaman was a beautiful city, and we wish that we had more time to spend there. We'd recommend a visit there to anyone. It is much more forward thinking than Egypt (and also more expensive) but has a lot to offer as far as history and beauty. We had a GREAT time there!

Driving to Friesland

Saturday we drove all the way up to northern Holland. (Past North Holland to Freisland, actually) It was a clear beautiful day, but cold and very windy by the sea. We crossed the dike with the ocean on our left and the Ijsselmee, (which I think means "ice sea", and it WAS rough, icey, and apparently half as salty as the ocean)on our right. It looks and feels like a bridge, but the water level is different on the two sides, and you can see water only on one side since the land has been built up with stones from Belgium. What a project! The Dutch are really masters of water management. They keep reclaiming more and more land from the sea, and we pay a water tax, which is used to pump the water out of the country, which is basically below sea level!
OK...here's a test. There's a picture of something in a canal in Workum. What do you think it is and what's it for? Post your comments, and I'll put the answer in my blog next week.
Freisland is ice skating country! In fact, some of the towns we visited are part of the "Elfstedentocht", the 11 town (124 mile) ice skating marathon, which they haven't held in many years due to the canals not being frozen. However, I think this will be the year since the temperature has been quite low all over the country this year.

A Good Weekend

This weekend we spent Saturday at a castle and Sunday at an art museum. We drove up to see the Muiderslot Castle. (about 15 km SE of Amsterdam) It took about 45 minutes to get there. The castle is over 700 years old, and although most of the signs were in Dutch, we got the main ideas. Also, since I'm teaching the middle ages at school, I was really into it! There were jousts to have, costumes to try on, swords to pick up, and virtual battles to hold. We had so much fun that I'm going to take my class there for a field trip!
Sunday we spent the day at the Escher Museum. We decided he must have been dyslexic, crazy or brilliant. His work is well known, and even though I totally enjoyed looking at it, Fred got dizzy and had to stop trying to make sense of the pictures. (He's SO logical!...Fred, not Escher)
Last weekend it was so cold that the canals froze. Apparently it hasn't happened here in thirteen years, and the entire country found ice skates and went outside. It's a very healthy/outdoorsy country! The windmills looked especially beautiful in the frost, I thought.

International Celebrations!

The 12th of December was Santa Lucia Day, very popular in Scandanavian countries. Since I have five Swedish children in my classroom, and the school is 20-30% Scandanavian, the whole school celebrated. The girls all dress as Lucia's helpers, and the oldest gets chosen to wear the candelabra and be Lucia. The boys wear clown caps and also dress in white gowns. They parade through the school and into the darkened theater and sing songs traditional for the holiday. The treats were wonderful, and I recieved several bottles of glugwine, which when drunk hot with spices, really warms you up! This holiday, along with Sinterklass Day (Dec. 6th) really gave me a different Christmas to celebrate this year!

Home for christmas

After a great flight to Chicago, arriving the one clear day between ice storm and snow, we have been enjoying some time with the boys, friends and relatives. BJ flew in from California and we hosted a Christmas dinner for nine, including new 5 week old cousin Beckum. I've spent lots of time using my credit card with all of the great sales and the Euro/dollar situation right now. We fly back to Amsterdam in a few days, and school starts again January 12th. Happy New Year one and all!