the Netherlands

Jocelyn Timmermans
Oct 22, 2023
3 min read

Sept. 8-11 - Final Set 3

During our TMB/Italy trip, we flew back to Holland twice for two weekends. This first weekend the purpose being to attend a wedding.

Sept. 9: We stayed at Bert & Janet's place as we usually do, out in the country. It was harvest time for the pear orchard.

Bert's childhood friends and son-in-law, came out to help pick pears. Notice the older men are all wearing wooden shoes. From left to right: Case, Adrian, Egbert (father of our son-in-law), Dirk, Fike, A.P. + Bert

While the men were busy picking pears, we went to visit Janet's son, Matthijs & Wilke with their new baby. Saar was born while we were busy hiking the TMB. She was 3 weeks early, but all was well.

Saar is 7 days old here.

Janet's oldest grandchild, Jade. The tradition is to eat pink or blue "hagelslaag met beschuit" when babies are born.

Sept 9 we drove to Oedenrode and spent the night there for Doy & Suus's wedding.

Doy is one of the students from the Netherlands who came for a few months in the spring and worked for us as part of their internship. Him and Case became especially close.

1) Knapweek 2) Common Earthball

Sept. 10: On the drive back to Bert's the next day, we did a 1-hour walk through this forest. It being a weekend, there were many groups of speed cyclers on the trail.

1) Hoary Ragwort

Oak tree

In the afternoon we biked with Bert, Janet & Jade to the neighbourhood campsite that has a playground and restaurant/bar.

We took the long way, on the country roads to get there.

Sept. 11: We did a morning stroll through the neighbourhood before flying to Milan where we met six fellow hikers for ten days of sightseeing.

Most dutch homes are made of brick.

Instead of tearing old homes down, they usually restore them. This is a typical farmers' home where the barn is attached to the back of the house.

Sept. 21-25: We flew in from Florence for our second weekend before flying home after a month-long absence. This time it was for a school reunion.

Sept. 22 - We spent our first night at Case's older brother's place, Gerrit & Meke's. This was close to Case's childhood home. It felt so good to be cycling through the Kinderdijk once again. When Case's parents were alive, I used to borrow Ma's bicycle and go there. Its only a few km from Case's home and is now a Unesco World Heritage site.

Only one of the nineteen windmills is open to the public. The rest are all still privately owned and lived in.

Case's childhood home on the dike. The Noort River is right infront of the house. It's the largest river in the Netherlands. Huge barges and boats are busy going back and forth all day, causing the house to vibrate.

Of course we had to go visit the fish stand down the road.

Case's elementary school was celebrating their 100th birthday. All of Case's siblings attended: Janet, Matthijs, Gerrit, Karla, Case Erik, Sita & Judith. They met friends from way back. One came up to Case and introduced herself as his former girlfriend (when they were 12 years old). He then remembered and said, "Oh yes, that was my first kiss! And I burped when I kissed you".

Sept. 23 - Back we went to Bert & Janet's. We went cycling again and Case just had to stop in and check out this fish pond and then boast about ours. He actually feeds our fish cat food! And then Sundays he or our grandchildren will catch a few for dinner.

This was a longer bike ride, along the Lekdijk from Meerkerk to Vianen where we crossed over the bridge to the other side of the river, and then heading back.