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!