Time for Some Dutch Color! Contributions from Beth's Camera too.

White bells on a tall stalk.
Roses in full bloom in the center of a round about

Roses is a front yard garden

Lavender display

Bells

Closeup by Beth

Lying Down on the Job

It would be nice if all of life was this easy and enjoyable.

Abby and Rebecca

Abby took one look at Rebecca behind the new gate and figured it was time to make her hair stand up!

Its Shopping Time in Germany. What Was Not Missing?

The exterior was not quite as well appointed as the new super centers here in the new world but it was there! Sam isn't doing business in the Nederlands yet but Germany is well stocked with his stores.

It is Grocery Shopping Time but What Is Missing In Holland?

The Expats, Rebecca, and I did an unplanned grocery store stop the other day. Planned grocery stops always include the two wheeled pull behind grocery container (for a better word) or large reusable cloth or leather bags into which the groceries are packed and hauled home! Since this stop was unplanned we had brought no bags so the groceries were checked and put back into the cart to be wheeled out to the car! At the car the groceries were neatly stacked in the back for the ride home!

An observer often sees "lose" groceries being stashed into saddle bags or baskets on bikes, into pack sacks, or into the bottom bin of a kid's stroller. Stores do sell shopping type bags for a hefty bunch of change so I would say only a few are sold. Can you imagine shopping here in the United States without the convenience of "would you like paper or plastic"! So now you know what's missing at the grocery store in Holland! And so too at many other kinds stores for that matter! It makes me wonder how many trees and what amount of oil are saved with this European BYO sack concept! (Please note that this writer has no allegiance of any nature to Paper Nor Plastic, LLC and refers to the website only for interesting facts and information.)

School Is On But What is Missing in Holland?

Mother probably taking her daughter to school

Older kids by the hundreds bike past the Expats house morning and afternoon

Here appears to be a group of school kids on a field trip. Were they biking off to a farm?

So what is missing in the education process there in Holland? I did not see one, yes not even one, yellow school bus in three weeks. Kids in Holland pedal to school. The son and daughter of one of the Expats' friends pedal multiple kilometers taking about 30 to 45 minutes morning and night to bike to their high school in a neighboring town. Only in severe weather do they take a bus or train. And by the way their dad is a professor and mom is a medical doctor so they could probably afford a car for the kids. There are no overweight kids there and they really don't need P. E. to get into shape or burn energy! And consider the cost savings for the education process! Millions if not more not spent on fuel, vehicles, and drivers and support folks. Would it work here? On a limited basis in fall and spring maybe but its sort of hard to pedal in a snowstorm. But what would happen if bussing was ended? I suppose parents would take over transporting the kids with their cars as is the case in many areas even now. Nonetheless, it is interesting to know that in some cultures like most of rest of the world the kids are responsible for their own ride to and from school!

It is Snack Time in Holland but What is Missing?

*******************I suffered withdrawal pains for lack of the above!********************
(Well almost)

Never Knew This!

Did you know that Amazon in in the grocery business? What is next for this internet peddler?

What Does the Price of Gasoline in Holland Mean in English?

Rebecca loves to sleep in the car. Somtimes it took no more than a mile or two and she would turn her lead into the side of the seat and fall asleep. She does not appear to be interested in the price or gasoline!
Biker Mama and Rebecca going out for an evening ride! While many of us here in the United States would jump into the car and head for the Dairy Queen or Walmart the Dutch love their bikes for such adventures.

I took a picture of the local gas stations price list the other day. This one was a few miles north of Rebecca's house. While I did my photography she was probably snoring in the back seat! Anyway what does Euro 1.409 mean. First that is the price for a liter. There are 3.784118 liters per our gallon. Thus the price for a gallon of the gasoline would be Euro 5.33. Now we have to figure how Euro 5.33 converts to USD. If I did my figuring correctly Euro 5.33 would be USD 7.13. So what that means is that gasoline in The Nederlands is about $7.13. Now I just bought gasoline for the Grand Caravan today and paid $3.129. Thus we need to heed the fact and be overjoyed that our gasoline is less than half the cost of their gasoline. Thus we should motor about with great pride that we can do so much more cheaply than they can! Maybe that's why so many bikes are everywhere over there and they are not used only for pleasure but for transportation to work, school, shopping, and whatever.

Flying Stupor Day

The NWA pilot is making sure our plane for the Detroit to Green Bay flight is air worthy!

Thanks to him and many others who work in commercial aviation I'm home again in this sort of "flying stupor" today. It was a long day of travel yesterday and of course the mourning doves welcomed me home at 6 this morning! So I eventually got going to the store and the post office and then started getting some stuff out of the big luggage still in the car. I was not about to try to carry those cases up the stairs intact. While sorting through the "stuff" I remembered the customs man in Detroit who asked what I had bought overseas. I started "Oh, I have some books for the grandkids here in the states, there are some baby clothes in there too, and some tourist type things like caps and wooden shoes and calendars and hot mits and quite a bit of candy........" At that point he said "Good Bye" figuring he wasn't going to collect any fees from this old man high on albuterol huffing and puffing his way through the underground maze of security and immigration and customs and TSA folks all busy "welcoming"

us home and "welcoming" the guests to the United States with their endless supply of questions and paper work examination and screening and undressing and unpacking stuff and scanning and dressing and packing it up again! Whew! Next stop was National Coney Island and the tuna sandwich and then I happened to spy one of the plane drivers out on the tarmac doing his "pretrip". It was just like at the shop in my previous life! Reggie commanding us to be sure to do the pretrip! "Don't forget the pretrip" was his favorite order! I wonder if the pilots too have a Reggie somewhere out there saying " Make sure you do your pretrip"!

Home Again Soon

Well the time here in the Nederlands is almost up. Its been a fast 3 plus weeks. The first time in my life that I've been away from home for so long! On this last evening we had dinner with the neighbors and will now resume packing the bags! The baby Rebecca is going into dreamworld and the sun will set by 11 or so to allow me to Lunestatize! Tomorrow brings the 2 hour car trip to Dusseldorf and the 9 hour plane ride to Detroit, then the short one hour hop to Green Bay and the short drive home! It is quite the world we live in where a person can leave Europe and be home in Michigan the same day. And as goes the story for any extended vacation I am now flat broke, so if you, dear readers, have any extra money for me to live on till the next SS check send it by Pay Pal or USPS to Iron Mountain! I'll be forever grateful!

Its been quite a week here in the Nederlands. The weather has been cooperative for adventures here is the Zetten area and for the past three days in Germany in Bremen, the home of the Bremen Town Musicians one of the classic folk and fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. The picture shows the fivesome's famous statue. We explored the historical areas and took a boat ride on the River Weeser. The building is the Bremen Town Hall dating to the 1600's and is still used for city administration. Of course the photographing of the baby Rebecca continues as she first learned to sit up and then started crawling a few days ago. Its time to crawler proof! Whoops, as I write this she just dumped over the floor scrub water pail! Oh, well, that's a part of being a baby! We don't have much planned for the rest of my stay here. A few walks and possibly a bike ride or two in this beautiful Dutch country setting are in order! Of course we won't forget to eat some more cheese!

Our trip to the Saturday Market

Our trip to the market in the neighboring town requires crossing the Rhine on the local ferry. The kids play in the town squares fountain. Our baby Rebecca was still of bit too small!

The marketers sell a variety of veggies and fruit and meats and a few trinkets and things. We

collected a bunch of strawberries, a watermelon, red peppers, tomatoes, some breads, and some delicious cooked fish! Of course a stop for coffee was necessary too!