Saturday April 1 started with a quick view of Google Nederland's April Fools video on how to wire up the windmills to improve the weather in the Netherlands. Last year's was on the self-driving bicycle. The Dutch have a great sense of humor and great technical skills to accompany it. We spent most of the day de-cluttering the apartment. Bonnie attended a rebroadcast of the Women's session of General Conference from last week and then we both watched the Saturday morning session (of course at 6:00 PM here).
Sunday April 2 we arose early and watched reruns of the Saturday afternoon session and priesthood session. We then headed off to Heerenveen and a delicious lunch with Sister Dikie Kniest. We enjoyed the visit with her and are impressed with her faithfulness despite great adversity in her life. She is an amazing lady!
After lunch, we all headed to the Leeuwarden Branch for the baptism of Sister Hellen Venix. She is the ultimate golden contact. She was baptized by our Stake President Hulleman. All four of her children were in attendance.
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The fellowshipping family, Sister and Brother Koenen, President Hulleman
Hellen and her three sons. |
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| Elder Henrichsen and Elder Robinson were very happy. |
Immediately after the service, we rushed back to Groningen to host eight missionaries, four new members and two investigators for dinner and to view the Sunday morning session of General Conference.
A map of the northern part of the Netherlands. You can see that we drive a fair amount.
Monday, April 3 at noon, we heard the traditional siren test that occurs on the first Monday of each month. It makes sense to test this system in a country where more than half of the land is below sea level. Throughout their history, the Dutch have paid a heavy price for not being vigilant in the maintenance of their dike and levee systems and the siren test is simply evidence of how seriously they take this responsibility these days.
In February of 1916 a winter storm surge swamped dikes and inundated many towns along the old Zuiderzee (Southern Sea). This prompted a plan to close off the Zuiderzee from the North Sea. The Afsluitdijk (Enclosure dike) was constructed between 1927 and 1933 and the Zuiderzee is now called the Ijsselmeer (Ijssel Lake). It has now become a freshwater lake.
In on the evening of January 31 to February 1 of 1953 similar flooding due to a storm surge breached more than 100 dikes in the southern part of the Netherlands. More than 70,000 people had to be evacuated and 9% of Dutch farm land was flooded with salt water. During that event, there was no warning and TV and radio stations did not broadcast at night. Ham radio operators maintained the only communications links for about 10 days.
These events reinforced the need for vigilance and planning into modern Dutch society and the monthly siren check is very reassuring. Last year we visited the Zuiderzee Museum where they had brought a number of historic buildings together to show what life was like before the Ijsselmeer was created. In remembrance of the Flood of 1916, they built a special display called Flood Street. It was certainly a good reminder of why the Afsluitdijk was built.
Monday night we had family home evening again with four investigators present along with four recently baptized members. These have been very successful, especially since Bonnie started serving dinner before.
Our normal district class on Tuesday was moved to Thursday so that the missionaries could have interviews with President Bunnell. This was our last regular interview with President Bunnell. We have really enjoyed serving with him and his dear wife. We are the only couple who were in the mission when they arrived. On Thursday evening we had the regular institute class with good attendance.
Friday morning we took the sisters and one of the investigators to the MAKRO store (Costco on steroids). The sisters got a little carried away with a large halibut on display in the seafood section. Friday evening we had a rehearsal with the Young Men and Young Women in preparation for a special sacrament meeting number on Sunday. With the help of the missionaries, they sounded very good. Sister Jessica Nayakoh arrived just before 10:00 PM. Groningen was the last city on her mission and she returned to her home in Gent, Belgium. She stayed with us through the weekend.
Saturday, the Groningen Ward held a cake competition. There were eight entries and we all had to try them and assign a grade of 0 to 10. The points were totalled and the Richardson family won first prize.
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| Bishop Bletterman and Brother Dallinga pondering the wonders of the various cakes (and a recent Public Relations success). |
Sunday looked like stake conference with the large Groningen ward and Young Men and Young Women from the northern part of the stake.
We also found out that Sister Vandenberghe was being emergency transferred to Belgium because a sister serving there had her visa for Surinam come through. Sister Vandenberghe has been serving the longest of the missionaries here in Groningen, so we will really miss her.
Sunday night we had the De Jonges over for a couple of hours. They have been great friends for 49 years and we will miss them when we leave.
The Monday family home evening was fairly sparsely attended with four members and two missionaries. It is exam week next week and that always impinges the attendance.
On Tuesday, April 11 we drove to see John Van Fleet and his family. Bonnie taught him the fellowshipping discussions 48 years ago and we have maintained good contact over the years. They visited us twice in Utah and once in Kuwait.
Tuesday evening we drove to Zoetermeer and met Doris and Heijo and their two darling daughters at our hotel where we ate dinner together. They have been friends for many years and we attended their wedding celebration about seven years ago.
Early on Wednesday morning we drove to the Zoetermeer chapel to prepare lunch for the zone conference. This lunch had to be served quickly so that the missionaries could eat and head for Keukenhof (the world's largest spring garden).
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| Elder Goebel and Sister Caldwell preparing the croissants |
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| Sister Van der Put slicing croissants |
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| Sisters Goebel and Van der Put preparing the tables |
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| The speedy missionary lunch. There were plenty of seconds, thirds ... |
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| The missionaries chowing down |
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| The birthday song being led by Sister Caldwell (Belgian/Netherlands missionary style) |
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| Our beloved, but quite cold Elder Robinson from Jamaica |
After Keukenhof, we headed to our remote parking spot at the Schiphol Airport and then took to bus to our hotel at the airport. We booked the hotel so the Alicia and Maggie could catch a shower on Thursday morning after they arrived from Indiana and before we all boarded the Thalys high speed train to Paris. Fortunately, our girls arrived almost an hour early on their American airlines flight from Philadelphia. After we returned to the terminal, the grabbed some Flemish fries (and ice cream for Maggie) and then headed down to our train for Paris.
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| Maggie in deep meditation |
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| In about 3 hours and 20 minutes we arrived at the Paris North station. |
We decided to try the Eiffel Tower that evening. Unfortunately, all of the reservations for the tower were sold out for the entire month of April, so we waited for about 2 1/2 hours in line and then found out that they weren't allowing anyone to go the top because that was also overbooked. We still made it to the second floor and had a good time.
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| Arriving at Gare du Nord (Paris North) |
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| Great view of the Eiffel Tower |
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| We made it to the second floor, at least. |
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| Maggie liked the tower. |
On Friday morning, we ate breakfast at a bakery a few steps from our hotel (how French is that?) and then headed out on the subway for the Louvre Museum. Here we had reservations, so it was quite simple.
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| Maggie enjoying breakfast at the bakery |
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| Our girls admiring Venus de Milo |
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| Maggie trying on armor |
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| A little hard to get near the Mona Lisa |
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| Enjoying lunch in the Louvre Cafe |
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| Next was a ride on the large ferris wheel |
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| Maggie decided that French crepes were much better than the crepes in Africa |
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| Cruising the Seine |
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| Enjoying dessert at a lovely restaurant near our hotel. |
Saturday morning we headed off for Notre Dame and then the girls spent two fruitless hours waiting in line to visit the catacombs. We then discovered that the people at the front of the line had been waiting for five hours. While the girls waited in line, we ate lunch at the Indiana restaurant across the street and resupplied the girls with bakery goods.
We caught the train back to the Amsterdam airport that evening and ate dinner, retrieved our car and headed to Groningen.
Sunday was Easter and the girls accompanied us to Church and were soon pressed into helping the missionaries sing in Sacrament Meeting. Alicia also helped put out the chairs for the large crowd that attends in Groningen.
We headed out to Giethoorn, a city with no roads in the historic center. We caught a canal ride and then snacked on Dutch delicacies. We also enjoyed the visit to the recently restored historic farm house.
In the Netherlands, they celebrate both Christmas and Easter for two days. That meant that Monday was the second Easter day and most things were closed. We were invited to spend the afternoon with the De Jonge family. They have many grandchildren who are fluent in English and Maggie had a great time. She didn't want to come home with us, so the De Jonges brought her to our apartment later.
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| Hiding Easter eggs and bunnies filled with smarties |
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| Demonstrating a Dutch game with a large steel ball and walnuts |
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| Maggie playing dodgeball |
On Tuesday we headed into the historic center of Groningen. Unfortunately, the poffertjes kram was not serving poffertjes since the chef had to visit the doctor. We then headed off to Apenheul in Apeldoorn. This was a favorite of our kids when they visited years ago and it was fun for the girls to visit.
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| Alicia proving that she is faster than a bonobo |
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| Alicia likes monkeys |
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| These little guys didn't like the rain |
On Wednesday, we headed across the Afsluitdijk to Volendam, the Zaanse Schans and Amsterdam. We intended to stop at the monument where the dike was completed, but when we arrived, there were swarms of mosquitos. While they are a great food source for the eels, we weren't excited about becoming their meal.
After having our pictures taken in traditional garb, we headed off for a traditional Dutch seafood lunch. We finished off with a serving of poffertjes and collected our pictures.
The girls enjoyed the wooden shoe making demonstration at the Zaanse Schans, visited a wind mill and had a few treats.
We headed to our hotel on the outskirts of Amsterdam, took a canal boat ride and ate dinner at 't Loetje - famous for filet mignon cooked Dutch style. After dinner, Maggie wanted to walk to the dam to see the carnival there and ride on the "Around the World" ride.
On Thursday morning, Maggie patiently let Bonnie do her hair and we went back into Amsterdam to visit the Anne Frank house. This has long been a favorite of Alicia. With the new reservation system it is not as much of a hassle as it used to be. They had also installed a new portable audio system since our last visit and that also enhanced the experience.
We then headed off to Keukenhof for the afternoon followed by a trip to Delft and our hotel. The hotel was in a converted farm house and it proved to be the girls' favorite on the trip. Breakfast in the country kitchen was also fun.
On Friday, April 22, we headed into Den Haag (The Hague) to visit Madurodam which features miniatures of the most famous buildings in the Netherlands and lots of fun activities for kids.
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| The boy with the finger in the dike |
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| Seeing how heavy the cheeses are |
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| Bonnie showing the Gout Kantor (Gold Office) from Groningen |
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| By the Rijksmuseum replica |
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| Maggie got wooden shoe replicas from a miniature factory |
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| Maggie operating the container loading and unloading machine |
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| Maggie flying an airplane. Next time it will be mine. |
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| The replica of the beautiful Groningen station |
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| Maggie trying to plug holes in the dike. |
Our last stop was Kinderdijk, a world heritage site featuring 19 polder mills (that pumped water in the old days). We ate a quick lunch at the snack bar and were surprised to find poffertjes by the entrance to the first windmill.
Saturday morning, the girls caught the bus from the hotel to the airport and we bid them a tearful goodbye. We had so much fun together. It was very hard to tell these girls goodbye. At least we'll see Maggie in a month when she joins us on our trip to Hawaii.
We leave the Netherlands exactly one week from today and we'll do one more short update to finish out this blog.
After having our pictures taken in traditional garb, we headed off for a traditional Dutch seafood lunch. We finished off with a serving of poffertjes and collected our pictures.
We headed to our hotel on the outskirts of Amsterdam, took a canal boat ride and ate dinner at 't Loetje - famous for filet mignon cooked Dutch style. After dinner, Maggie wanted to walk to the dam to see the carnival there and ride on the "Around the World" ride.
