Hotel Morssinkhof Haaksbergen

... the beautiful sunroom they have. Pete and Bert were also comparing notes on the hardship of being a "floaty pen husband" – how every vacation is spent hunting for pens!

We then checked into our hotel and met Biggy and Bert downstairs in the restaurant an hour later for dinner. Wow! What a meal! It was huge and so delicious. No room for dessert, that’s for sure!

... food. Given that this journey took me nearly two hours in a car, it was no mean feat on a bicycle.

Some farming family took pity on Dad and took him in. I don't know how long he stayed or where exactly the farm was, only that it was somewhere near Hengelo. For all I know, it was Sander and Renata's place. I doubt if there is any way of finding out now, either. At the end of his stay, they put him on a bus back to ...

The cashew nuts were in a huff with me, after their earlier failure to give adequate directions. They folded their nutty arms and refused to tell me when to change motorways. I ended up back-tracking through a small village with no useful signposts, and some locals who waved every time we drove back past them looking for the way out. The cashew nuts smirked at me.

It was quite late by the time we got to Sander and Renata's farmhouse on the outskirts of Hengelo. It is a lovely ...

... terminal moraines of the glacial extent of the Finno-Scandian Ice Sheet. (Hey, lighten up... I majored in this stuff at University).

Mountainous, forested, Zeddam is lovely, and the Kind folks at Hotel Moors made the trip much easier and more comfortable. I can't wait to get back... Its at Benedendorpsstraat 15.

Lawndart

What we learned today: In Germany, when you order water, they will bring you fizzy water by default. And our kids do not like "bubble water." Our stupid American moment: Assuming credit cards are as widely accepted as they are in the US. Many stores here are cash only. We rarely carry cash at home. What made it all worth it today: Ben asking "Can we ...

... wonderful not having to hold her the whole time. Plus we had tons of legroom. Food was decent. Flight was on time and attendants were friendly. The only complaint was that Russ, Ben and I didn't really sleep at all. Apparently all three of us suffer from the inability to sleep in a sitting position. Elly may be afflicted but she was small enough to curl in a ball and get comfortable. Still even she had 4 hrs of sleep max ...

Before leaving on our trip to Europe, we traveled to Houston to stay with friends from college. Their daughter, it turns out, has just become engaged, so we spent most of the weekend celebrating. Hurricane Gustav didn't make it to Houston, so we spent time in their pool soaking up some sun. This was the beginning of our vacation, which I'm calling "eating our way across several time zones." The plane ride was uneventful. During the flight I noticed I could watch someone else's TV ...

... from Schiphol) that we should take a day trip sometime this summer; so we managed to find a weekend and plan a trip. We did a big loop through the middle & northern part of the Netherlands, driving about 300 miles, and stopping in 5 places as outlined on the travel map: Marken, Volendam, Enkhuizen, Afsluitdijk, and Kampen. Marken was at one time a small fishing community (an island, actually) just north of Amsterdam. After closing off the Afsluitdijk in ~1932 (and ...

... the weekend to just slow down and catch my breath. On Saturday morning I slept in, and then Mike & I went to the market. This is only the 2nd time that I have been to the market; It's in town, and just on Tuesdays and Saturdays, and seeing as how we travel on the weekends I have not been around much to go to the market! But Saturday we were able to go & stock up on fruits, vegetables, bread, cheese, etc. Then in ...

... from Arnhem and Nijmegen and just a few miles from the German border. On Sunday we took a quick WWII sightseeing trip. This area was the flashpoint of operation Market Garden, immortalized in the book and movie A Bridge too Far, which took place in September 1944. We saw the Waal river where the 101st Airborne made its heroic crossing and bridge capture, as well as the John Frost bridge in Arnhem - the fabled Bridge too Far. Col. Frost led the British airborne troops, who ...