Please excuse the messiness of the site. I am editing old pictures and entries. I have trips from Canada, New England, Wisconsin, California, and more to add. Check back soon.

This special day arrived at midnight, and I sang “Happy Birthday” to Gerben. We stayed up late watching television together and had ice cream to celebrate.  At noon we woke up and rode the bicycles to the seaside of Noordwijk. We decided to make a local day and visit area monuments. While reading about the Netherlands, I came across Monumentendag (Monument Day). Once a year, most landmarks or public buildings are open to the public for visitation.

Gerben recommended the lighthouse and water tower in town. We acquired the last two tickets for a tour in the late afternoon. During the two hour wait we had lunch at Zeemeeuw, a nice restaurant on the beach front. The weather was very windy, but the sun managed to sneak through here and there. Also, we took a ride down Wilhelmina Boulevard along the shore. Gerben nerded  with the amateur radio group stationed outside the lighthouse. They have equipment up top and were listening to people from Tunisia through Italy.

The lighthouse was crowded and warm, but worth the visit. The view was beautiful and the water tower was even better. The view was open and wide from the top.  It was very humid outside due to the weather, so we returned home early evening. While we were relaxing, two overzealous schoolkids climbed onto the back fence, scaring me silly. At eight o’clock, we met up with Gerben’s friend Roberto and his girlfriend. The four of us had dinner at friends, complete with a sparkler in a banana split. While we were eating, a huge thunderstorm caught our attention. Gerben and I drove around watching the storm and passed the rest of his birthday “sightseeing”. We even passed through Amsterdam near the train station. After we got home, I started packing….

The happiness and laughter from last night’s gift took a very long time to settle down. In between the driving and day’s excitement, we didn’t get much sleep during the night. We woke up at 8 am or so, and the three of us dragged ourselves to the car. The road went up through Amsterdam and past Lelystad, where Gerben and I flew in the Cessna last winter. We ended up at Walibi World in Biddinghuizen. It started out cold and sunny, then turned cloudy and warm. I was overwhelmed by the first ride we went on, a rollercoaster named Goliath. I screamed so much on the ride, I felt it in my throat. I prefered the wooden rollercoaster, which had a better feeling to it (despite the screeching). On the next rides, Andrea (Gerben’s sister) and I took turns riding with him. This park used to be a Six Flags, so some of the rides are very similar to the Great America in Gurnee, Illinois. Gerben and Andrea braved a swinging ride called the Tomahawk, despite the ice cream we ate shortly before. Andrea and I backed out when Gerben went on rides that flip completely upside down. He was brave enough to venture onto the front of the rollercoaster, and came out looking like he’d been through a haunted house. We stayed in the park for most of the opening hours. On the way back, I passed out in the car and didn’t wake up until we stopped for dinner. Andrea took a train back to Zeeland, and we continued back to Noordwijk.

We stayed up too again, and woke up at noon this morning. I passed out for most of the drive, waking up when we reached Goes. We stopped inside of an auction house/reseller, which had lots of antiques and second hand items. There were a number of old cameras (at least 50 years old), but they were either useless or overpriced. We left early to visit Gerben’s mother’s house. She, Kees and Gerben’s sister spent the evening with us and provided tortillas for dinner. This was an early birthday dinner for Gerben. He finally received his mysterious surprise birthday present, a certificate for his motorcycle license. He was through the roof. It was nice seeing them all again, and Gerben’s sister returned to Noordwijk with us. On the way out of Zeeland we stopped by Wilfred’s house (Gerben’s uncle). His family gave us the time late in the evening to talk at their house. It was gracious of them, and I had a good impressiom from what I understood. The car ride was enhanced by a stop for milkshakes at midnight outside a shady establishment in Delft.

We woke up early afternoon, finding it was raining outside. We guessed correctly the rain would ruin our plans to visit Den Haag. Instead, we took the day slow and locally. Gerben took me around the corner to a local bookstore, which had tons of local Dutch books. Once my Dutch improves, I plan on picking up a nature book about the area wildlife. We walked into the shopping street and had sandwiches at a store named Hema. The rain was infrequent and light, but the wind remained powerful throughout the day. Instead of taking the bus, Gerben drove us into Den Haag. I managed a short visit to see his office, which is quite classy. I had asked to visit Madurodam, but the rain ruined the chance to visit. We drove by it anyways. At dinnertime, we stopped by the Pancake restaurant I visited on several other trips. Despite the heavy dinner, we decided to ride bikes around Noordwijk. Darkness was beginning to fall, but there was plenty of light to cycle.

The weather continued to be rather grey today, so we stayed inside. In the late evening, we visited Vincent for a few hours. It was worth braving the rain for a visit. We stayed wide awake afterward, feeling restless after being inside all the time. A brief lull in the storm gave us the idea to walk around Noordwijk at 2 am in the morning. We wandered along the boulevard with a tripod and my Canon 40D to take long exposures. We experimented with steadying the camera in very high winds. The sea and sand blew across the town, but it was a very decent walk.

The weather held up through today. We stopped by McDonald’s for breakfast/lunch. We tried the American Classic 1955 burger from the campaign they’re running in the Netherlands. Early afternoon we spent two hours at the Schiphol Observation deck. There is an awesome view of the gates and airplanes from there. They hollowed out a city-hopper plane and placed it on the roof deck. Gerben could name plane models off the top of his head.  Planes landed and departed on the nearby runways every few minutes. A KLM plane landed and parked the gate next to us, and the co-pilot waved back when he noticed my camera. We left Schiphol at the onset of strong winds and rain. At home, we ate the rest of the lasagna, and braved the winds for a walk outside.

Today we took the car out for a random drive, one of the best kinds. We ended up driving into the Groene Hart (Green Heart in English), an extensive agricultural area. It runs inside the Randstad (City Ring). This turned into one of the most beautiful drives so far. We passed very narrow stretches of villages, castles (Haarzuilens), and older architecture I saw in the Open Air Museum in Arnhem. Some of the older properties maintain the traditional technology on their land, and one private property (De Ham in the town of Vleuten) owned a tower from the 13th century. A few times it was hard to drive out of a town, especially with narrow roads. Gerben was able to easily figure his way around the area and get us home. We had homemade lasagna for dinner, consisting of egg, spinach, salami. We made two pans and had enough for leftovers!