Best Western Cityhotel Groningen

No photo's this time guys!
I just wanted to share the fantastic news with you all that I am officially a Dutch resident.
The lawyer called us with the news on Monday morning.
We are ecstatic. This means I can reapply for a five year residency in July next year.
It also means I can now search for work.
I will keep you all informed of how that search goes and of my ongoing travels.

Wish me luck!

Shannon.

On Saturday the 8th of August Petra, her mum and I went to Bourtange.
Bourtange is a medievil village that is just on the Dutch/German border and is still inhabited today!
Once a month they have a Medievil market in Bourtange complete with knights, armour, sword fighting, celtic music, archery, cannon fire and re-enactments of famous battles!
This was absolutely fantastic.
As we walked through the main gates we were greeted with cannon fire coming ...

... the Appingedam cathedral which was built in the 1500's and has artwork and architecture that was restored only 15yrs ago.
Later we walked through the Appingedam museum which was originally the residence of the local Brass smith and still had entire rooms full of his original tools.
It also had bikes from over one hundred years ago with wooden ...

Well I'm on my way at last: how strange after such a build up.....

Been resting, sleeping and chilling out with friends in Groningen after a mad dash onto the Dutch flyer overnight ferry and then connecting trains to Groningen. My friend Helen ...

The trip was for Alice to help Pieti buy a new washing machine so we took the opportunity to have a look around

 A trip of about 15km from Lekkum took us to Dokkum which is a dutch fortified town in the municipality of Dongeradeel in the province of Friesland. Not very big about 15,000 people.

This town (city) is also one of the eleven cities that form the 200km skating race which can only happen if all the course is frozen over. Averages about once every ...

... wie de weddenschappen gewonnen en verloren heeft. ;-) De kamers worden ingepakt en de tassen gevuld... 20 kilo op je rug blijkt toch best veel te zijn, maar we proppen de tassen gewoon vol en zien vanzelf wel wat we waar achter laten. Inpakken is lastiger dan je denk. Natuurlijk heb je alles wat net is ingepakt op dat moment direct weer nodig, je blijkt ook zo verschrikkelijk veel troep te hebben. Jaren gespaard weg gestopt achter in je kast... Allemaal troep, maar ...

... two interesting photos. Listed in the guidebook was one of the city's parking garages, described as one of the most beautiful in the Netherlands. Who the hell cares? The final sightseeing stop of the day was the rose garden - probably much nicer on a sunny day. I went back to the hostel to relax for a bit - they had changed receptionists, and the new one was a definite upgrade over the grungy guy that checked me in! Brunette, cute ...

We all know how proud the Dutch are of their height. Just barely pushing 5'0 tall, I spent a great deal of my time in the Netherlands looking up! Average to tall people probably wouldn't notice all the accomedations the Dutch have made for their taller than average population. Water fountains (when you can find them, which isn't often) are higher, and I've heard from male friends that urinals are set higher. In stores, clothing displays ...

... the train station and ended up almost outside the city. It took me around 2 hours to find my way back to the train station. There were no signs pointing to the train station anywhere until I could actually see it in the distance anyway! But all in good fun, I really enjoy getting lost. Once I got to the station I was informed that I had to wait until 6:30-7 am because that was when the place that sold ...

... without any success. Now my last chance was here in Groningen and when I went into a takeaway shop as a last resort the man behind the counter looked at me with about as much incredulousness as if I’d asked him for a lap dance. Had the people at my school been making this whole Olliebollen thing up? Had they thrown together any old household refuse they could find into balls, deep fried them, covered them in ...