Dutch Diamondzzzz!

This is a real diamond. Of course the biggest I have ever seen.

It's called the Brilliant lady

The owner was teaching me all about diamonds.....but I think it was really a lesson on how to make a sale.

But good old Rob did buy me a diamond ring! It has 56 diamonds and was for my 56th birthday. 

Well this is the final photo of the trip...someone asked me last week, after seeing my blog, if I had been out of the country for a REALLY long time. Nope, I was just dragging the memories on and on and sharing photos from a couple of really photogenic countries.

Check out this photo below. Look at the clouds and the sky. It really is different there. The sky looks like its right out of a Vermeer landscape. Its no wonder the Dutch were such masters. They had a lot to work with.  This ends the tour...hope you all enjoyed it....au revoir!

More of the cutest little town in Holland

What can I say.....Pictures do say a thousand words.  Just enjoy the photos everyone

 

The most Dutch town I have ever seen - Zaanze Schans

A REAL Dutch door - but blurry

It just doesn't get any cuter than this

It was well worth being stranded to see this cute little dutch town.

The Coolest little Hotel!!!

We are finally towards the end of our trip

We could not catch a flight home and were beginning to stress out. (We were on buddy passes.) We had turned the rental car in and just had the mind set of going home! Now we had to figure out what to do and where to go. There was another couple there from Florida who had been trying to get out a for a couple of days. They told us about this cool little boutique hotel that had just opened out and was walking distance from the airport so we this is where we stayed for a couple of nights. We weren't even going to try to get out for a couple of days as we saw all the oversold flights.

Well this part of the trip turned out to be a favorite part of mine. I'm all about the hotel.

This hotel is like - if Ikea built a hotel. Compact, comfy and hi tech.

The flat screen TV was right over the bed and we could watch any movie for free (I hate those annoying extra fees for pay per view) EVERYTHING in this room was operated by this handheld little computer. (Did I mention that the lobby had free mac computer use)

So we would just click to cross the blinds, get all comfy under the down comforter and relax. The suitcases went into a massive drawer under the bed.

The remote controlled all the lighting. WE could have it be any color. (It pretty much stayed lavender except for when we had the light show going.

The toilet was closed off when needed by a sliding door as was the shower.

It was just a really cool experience!  Plus the hotel was cheap!! It was lass than half of any other hotel....course its half the size also.

Another great thing about it is that being just a short walk from the airport there in Holland we could go in and shop for just about anything that there is in other parts of Holland, cheese, chocolate, licorice,  fab rolls, frites, souvenirs of course, and grocery stores with food to go. It was one stop shopping. I HIGHLY recommend staying - on purpose - in this cute little hotel if you go to Holland. Oh the other good thing is that being by the airport/train terminal you don't have to rent a car, you can catch a train to anywhere. We hopped on a train to Zanza, where the old clocks are made, the next day...and next blog.

Visiting family

I stuck this photo in at the last minute so it's out of order, but this is a cupboard in Cobi's kitchen. It is the MOST organized kitchen I have ever seen! Whenever I go there I just love to stare into her cupboards and everything else in this very compact kitchen, wishing that I could think like she does.

We drove down past the little towns  "Monster" and "Ghost" on down to Hoek Van Holland to see Cobi (Dad's cousin) and Dick. This is their backyard and the windmill that Dick built!

Cobi and Dick

Funny little car...probably gets unbelievable gas mileage

Here is Michel (Cobi and Dick's son) and Linda Koppe and fam. Tyler (right behind mom) just got his mission call to England. Linda made us the best dinner - real Dutchy, meat, potatoes and vegetables.It's nice to get a good home cooked meal while on vacation.

The drive along the coast was so pretty. It seemed like everywhere was a flower grower. There were massive greenhouse behind may of the houses. This photo is of a side yard of someone's house with greenhouses in the back. 

I've been published!

click here   to read article in Meridian 

It's not comfortable to have tender experiences hanging out on the web clothesline. I wrote this for my kids but hope it has meaning for others.

All washed up

So we were driving along the beach at Scheveningen and I saw this big thing out there and said "Rob stop, what the heck is that?" So I got out of the car and this is what I found! Dad didn't come down - you know how he feels about sand.

I asked the biologists what happened. They said that when whales are close to dying their sonar can get scrambled and they beach........or this is a prank and a fake like the news reported that night. So what do YOU think? But I tell ya I was up close and it looked real to me and it smelled!

Brugges - a nunnery and a cathedral

We went trecking down the winding streets of Brugges looking for a cathedral that housed an original Michelangelo statue.

While in the church I listened to a group of African women, touring, who spontaneously broke out into  an awe -inspiring hymn. I wish I had had a tape recorder.

Here is the Madonna statue - a little blurry though.

So here is the nunnery...

This convent was so pastoral and peaceful it made me want to live here...

maybe cuz my favorite handmade chocolate store was right across the street. So where are all the nuns?

Oh wait here's a nun now

and she lives right here on "Holy Ghost street"

This charming fellow's job is to keep evil sprits away.

Now its back to Holland for the last few days.

Open Market

Half of the market is flowers, the other half is FOOD, all prepared, fresh and ready to eat. Just about anything you could want. We got some roasted potatoes and some sausage I think. By the time we walked around to another part of town and back everyone was packed up and gone. The mart is there only 1/2 day once a week on the town square. We hit it just right. I wish we had something like this back home. I really love how Europeans live. 

this is roasted chicken

 One big pile of fresh picked cherries

This was a demonstration of chocolate making at the chocolate museum.

Flower market in Brugges

These gorgeous flower bunches just speak for themselves.

Boy, if I lived there I would buy these fresh flowers daily.