Fletcher Hotel Paleis Het Stadhouderlijk Hof Leeuwarden

From Alice's Diary
"WEDNESDAY – LEEUWARDEN / GROUW – 08.07.09
The weather has turned sour but never mind we certainly can't complain as we have only had 3 slightly bad days in 5 weeks. Easy morning although I did spend a bit of time just to organize our cases ready for the big trip home. Christien and I went to the supermarket to get a few things and at 12.30pm Fenna arrived. After eating a ...

... 8217;s of us and waving at and every bridge we got to she was there again with her camera.  It was very funny.  After we got off the boat everybody of course had to have an icecream and then we went to Alie and Thewis house.  We sat outside in their garden, the weather had improved to a sunny day and the wind had dropped.  Thewis was home as well and it was great to see him I hadn’t seen him since I left Holland ...

... Terschelling West etc.  Had some lunch(typically dutch "warm sandwiches" at the seaside of course and then walked around looking at everything.  At 6pm we arrived back home after a long and emotional day and cooked dinner.  We had potatoes with raw witlof just like mum used to make and a piece of steak.  Yum, Yum.  The weather is still fine not cold now we will see what tomorrow brings."

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 ...

Some comments from Alice's diary whilst with her family
"MONDAY – LEKKUM – 29.6.09 We are now relaxing.  Pieti and Durk's backyard, beautiful weather, what more do we want.  I was up early as per usual but knew where to find the tea and coffee and sat very quietly getting my diary up to date.  Durk had gone to work and Pieti came down stairs shortly after.  Mac slept until 6am I think after all our travelling he had ...

... very famous dyke in the Netherlands and is entirely handmade. We finally got to Amsterdam, found where to drop off the car at the airport, and somehow found the right way to get ourselves on the train to the central station. Then we got on a tram to the right stop for the hotel. By the time we finally got there, it was about 12:30 in the morning, so we were all VERY tired, after such a long day, and all went straight to bed.

... campings erbij, waar eet je en hoe reis je. Het is heel luxe, wij gaan met 2 auto's, ook dit is aangeraden. 2 weken geleden een nieuwe tent gekocht, dus het kan zijn dat hij de eerste tijd op de foto er nog niet helemaal netjes erbij staat. In de meivakantie lopen wij tot Hardenberg en hebben regelmatig een rustdagje (al dan niet verplicht), dit ook omdat Bambi toch een dagje ouder wordt en wij natuurlijk ook. Al met al, wij hebben er zin in!!!

This was the most boring day of the week. We met at Stenden in the morning and then just went over things for school. Toured the school again and so on. Had some lunch, then back to more stuff in the school. After we were done at the school me ...

... room in half.) So I got off the airplane and I started my journey all the way to the other side of the airport. It wasn't too bad only about a 25 minute walk. So I went through the pass port area with no trouble and I got my bags and then customs was a different story. By that I mean, what customs? Their customs is 3 guys sitting on chair ...

... see the gas man cracking up laughing and an angry cyclist behind us, trying to decide where to go next.... But in Watties defence, who puts a cycle lane right through the centre of a petrol station! Still not quite sure why they need a cycle lane as they don't run on gas! I'm sure we made the gas attendants day though, im sure he is still laughing, now he has a story to tell everyone... "these folks from NZ....." And look out Germany here we come.....