Grand Hotel Post-Plaza Leeuwarden

... bit of lunch we all hopped into the car and drove to Grouw . This is a little place 15 kilometers out of Leeuwarden and where the family including Tiny used to go with their boats. Tiny used to sleep in the hotel and her room was permanently booked looking out to where the rest of the family were on the boat. In the morning she would open her window and groan good morning and when they all shouted back good ...

... I was eighteen.  We had dinner and then Japie called in, another brother of Christien.  I had seen Japie three years ago and it is at times like these we miss Gurrie.  We sat and talked until 10.30pm and decided it was time to go home.  We are so fortunate and really enjoying our time in Leeuwarden with my family but tomorrow we have the big job of trying to organize the cases and repacking everything for our big trip home."

... 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<br><br> 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.<br><br>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 ...

... Pieti&#8217;s grand children came over in the afternoon and we put up the little swimming pool for them.  It was just like at home, I had to bend over so they could wet my hair and it was a lot of fun.  You wouldn&#8217;t believe it, late afternoon when it was time to start up the barbie, big dark clouds came over and we had a thunder storm but never fear they put up a tent and because it was still hot we sat outside.  There wasn ...

... find out where to go for the car. Finally, we were told which bus to take, and dropped off near enough to the rental office that we could find it. Jennifer, Kathryne, and Ryan were in one car while Mom, Alecia, and I were in the other. The plan was to explore the Northern Netherlands, where Mom had gone with Grandma Kingma and with Dad on her two prior trips to Europe. We were recommended a restaurant in Assen, a short drive ...

Eindelijk gaat het gebeuren, het Pieterpad. Al jaren hebben wij het erover gehad en nu er mooi weer is gaan we op weg. We starten in Pieterburen. Door velen ons aangeraden om de Noord-Zuid route te doen. Vrijdag gaan wij van start, natuurlijk met Bambi en zaterdag lopen wij de eerste route van Pieterburen naar Winsum. 10 kilometer om lekker in te komen. Op zondag lopen wij van Winsum naar Groningen. Voorbereidingen zijn heel goed gegaan, route ...

... of things that I knew other people would like so I bought them as presents - and as I was looking around I found this beautiful painting which I fell in love with. Next thing I know we're being invited into this ladies house for a cup of coffee! We go in and meet her husband and her 20 year old cat and she starts serving us all these fantastic little Dutch treats and really good cups of coffee. We were chatting away with the lady and her husband - Olga and Walter for ages - us ...

... for some lunch. After lunch we all headed off in different directions. Me and a few other students bummed around town for a while the headed to a friends apartment. At 11ish that night we meet up together with the other foreign exchange kids and the headed to Rumors Club for a big international student party.

... very hospitable, and she greets us with a hug and cheek kisses (which we accept awkwardly, not being too used to that - but she is very gracious) and then works on dinner. I don't want to impose on them, but Gary insists that it's ok for us to eat there, and we end up having one of the most memorable meals of the trip. Everything is very tasty, and we feel perfectly at home. We feel so comfortable with Gary's ...