Three Days 'Till We're on Our Way

This week has been with much emotion. I have loved it here but am getting wound down to leave to come home. We did a little shopping this week with one last trip to the market but didn't buy anything. On Thursday evening we took the new employee Dad and Dave have been training, Mathias Ledoux, to dinner at the Cesar Restaurant on the downtown market. He then come back to the flat for an evening of conversation. He is just out of college and is a lot of fun. Dad says he is learning quickly.

On Saturday we took another drive to the North Sea. The sun was bright, just what we had been wanting. The sea was great and beautiful. The temperature was cool so a walk on the beach was all we did.

The scenery along the drive was good also including a marina full of sailboats and another huge WWI memorial.

Sunday we attended our last services in the Gent Branch here. We said many goodbyes to the friends that we have made and I hope to hear from them sometime in the future. My prayers will be with them that they can build the branch to a ward with there own chapel.

We Are Getting Close to the Time

Our time here is winding down. I am so excited to get home. This week it has been raining a lot still. But the farmers are finally getting some of the crops harvested when it dried out for just a day or two. It has been fun to watch them harvesting the fields out in the area where we live.

Harvesting Carrots

Harvesting Sugar Beets Next Door to Us

Our trips grocery shopping are getting fewer now. I have made it through a trip or two without having to have help. On Wednesday Steven, Dad's boss, and Valerie came over to the flats for dinner. We had a real nice time with them.

Dad, Me, Steven, Valerie, Laurene and Dave

 

On Friday night Dad pulled an all night at work. He didn't get home 'till seven the morning. He did get a couple hours of sleep then we took a ride to the North Sea coast again. The weather was cold and windy as it was last time we went.

We made the trip short and came home. We continue to enjoy our walks most evenings in the countryside out where we live.

We are coming up on our last Sunday in this branch. I will miss  the people that we have met here. It has been a lot of fun meeting the people in the branch. I sure do miss the ward back home and will be glad to be home again. Dad's former boss at ON, Paul Petersen, is here this week. We went out to dinner with him and George Longdon, a new person who works for ON. We had a good dinner and visited with them last night.

Windmills in Kinderdijk, Holland

The week was full of rain. It has rained most days. I don't know how the farmers are going to harvest their fields. We have had weeks of rain and today it is windy too. All the fields are full of water standing in puddles. On Wednesday evening we invited Cedric Vanrykel, a former colleague of  Dave and Dad here with AMI, to dinner. He brought Laurene and I each a beautiful bouquet and we had an enjoyable evening of reminiscing and conversation.

Then on Friday Dad finally got the entire crew together at one time for a picture in his office area. Steven Dick, the one who invited Dad and Dave to come to work this summer is in the striped shirt on the left side of the back row.

Laurene had a birthday on Saturday so she chose to go to Kinderdijk. She wanted to see the windmills. It was a two hour drive to get to this small town in the Netherlands. The weather was great with no rain. Dave drove and the trip was uneventful. We pulled right into the windmills. It was amazing to see and understand what the windmills were for. I guess I thought they were for power or I guess I never realized what they did. They pumped the water out of the swamps so people could live there and were built in 1738. The peat moss that the swamp was made of was like a sponge holding the water. When they pumped the water out the land dropped to below sea level. We first got to see the great diesel-powered augers that pump the water to a river to take it away from the town.

Diesel-powered open auger pumps

There are canals that run water to the pumps to pump up to the rivers. They don't use the windmills all the time for this purpose now. They keep them in running order just in case the don't have electricity or diesel to run the pumps.

Windmills pump lowest water in center two channels up to two outside channels backed up by diesel-powered auger pumps into the Lek River at bottom of display. Water is raised four to five feet.

At the visitor center they had a neat movie that we watched. You sat on a stool so you could turn all the way around. It was comprised of six screens that were three hundred sixty degrees around you. People were talking in conversation on different screens. I think I wore out my pants bottom turning to watch the movie screens.

By this time we needed a spot of lunch. We sat at a restaurant table outside to have a sandwich. Outside the restaurant I tried on some wooden shoes.

Our next object was to see a windmill from the inside. They had a museum in one of the windmills. We hiked up a path that had canals on either side.

We crossed a bridge to see one up close. The arms of the mills were huge and spinning around at great speed. Inside you could see the huge wooden gears that turned with the wind to run the pump.

The millers also lived in the mills. There was a picture of the family that had lived in the muesem windmill that had six kids. With all the mechanics of the place there was little room to live. I still wonder where they all slept. I only saw two small beds tucked in a corner of the octagon. There was a table with two chairs and the kitchen was very small.

Then up a couple flights of stairs there was another small bed tucked in a corner by the stairs.

On the second level you can see the shaft that rotates to transfer the power from the blades above to the pump below

I think that they had nineteen of these wind mills in service. One didn't work but the rest were spinning around.

From Kinderkijk we drove to Zoetermeer near the city called The Hague to visit the LDS temple grounds.

On our way home we decided we wanted to stop to have dinner for Laurene's birthday. We stopped a couple on bicycles to ask where to find a place and the man picked a restaurant on the GPS in the city of Breda in the Netherlands. It was a real nice Chinese buffet with cloth napkins and flare. We were at table 273 so you can see it was big. The food was good with lots to eat.

They brought Laurene a desert of fruit with whipped cream and a fire works flare ablazing.

Also they gave her a box of fancy chopsticks. It was a fun night. Sunday we made our way as always to the city of Gent to go to Church. We will share a few pictures of the church and branch members we have met here.

Sign on billboard out on the street with church name in third row from top

The chapel and meeting rooms are on the second floor of this building

Here are many Belgian members we have grown to love

 

Fun in Brugge

Our week was pretty much the status quo. We spend a day doing laundry. It cost us 4.60 euro per load to wash (x2) then add 60 euro cents for eight minutes drying time (x3). In dollars this was $15.95. It costs a lot for laundry. It takes a day to do the shopping and it wears me out although it is getting easier as the time passes. Thursdays are the open market days in the center of town. I did get caught up in the market this time. I even bought a few things. Now I have to figure out how to send a few things home. I have to keep the weight of our suitcases in mind with everything I consider buying. Friday evening we watched a movie with Dave and Laurene then went to bed early for a trip in the morning. We got up Saturday to drive to Brugge, Belgium, the lace capital of the world.

It is a city about an hour's drive from Oudenaarde. The first thing we did was find the usual maps. We have to have maps wherever we go. They are great helps in not getting lost. The river beckoned our names so we boarded a boat for a tour on the canals of the city. Brugge is referred to as the Venice of Belgium but they didn't have gondolas.

The trip was not a long one but it was beautiful for the eyes. One of the bridges we passed under was very low (as you can see in the pictures) to go under it.

The guide told us about the structures along the way.

It amazes me how old things are here. Four and five hundred years old are nothing here. After the boat tour we stopped at a deli for a sandwich. Dad had a Belgian waffle with strawberries and whipped cream. It was to die for good. The horse carriage ride looked like a lot of fun so we hopped on one for a ride. It also made a tour of the city center area.

The ride gave us a chance to decide what we wanted to see. As it seems in all European city centers there was a beautiful church.

Dad and Dave climbed to the top of the clock tower. I think it was three hundred sixty-six stairs to the top.

Laurene and I opted to go to the chocolate museum. We had a great time looking at the history of chocolate. Of course we got to sample some too.

Then we meet up with the guys and did a little shopping. We looked at some of the other buildings and statues.

Dave wanted us to hear a guy play steel drums, a didgeridoo and bells on his ankle. It was amazing to hear him play. He just set up with a container for people to drop money in for his CD or as a donation as he played.

After our shopping we stopped at an outdoor restaurant. As we contemplated the menu a local family just finishing their meal drew us into a fun conversation. We decided to try it and the food was excellent.

It was just fun to sit there at the table and listen to the chatter of everyone around us. The evening was warm and the waiters were friendly. What a great way to end the day.