Parkheuvel

 

A 40th wedding anniversary is cause for celebration.

We took son and daughter in law to this 2 star Michelin restaurant in Rotterdam.

 

Parkheuvel is the best Rotterdam has to offer, dinner wise.

Absolutely fabulous.

 

Must be, for €750,-

 

Enjoy the pictures.

No better way to describe what a great experience this restaurant is.

 

Sightseeing on my bike (Schouwen-Zeeland)

 

On this beautiful Saturday, I biked a couple of miles.

 
 

 She has her nest in a potato field and is very alert.

New crops.

 ANOTHER FILM along the Grevelingenmeer.

 

Our cottage.

"Where have you been?"

 

Zeeland

 

We have a house near Brouwershaven.

The pictures below were made in this region.

 

Love is in the air and on our roof. 

 

Yep, I'm Dutch and the Dutch do their errands on their bike.

They take their bike:

to go to work

to go to....

to bring the kids to school

to enjoy nature

 

The Dutch can't live without a bike.

 

Today we went to the birth ground of my husband: near Middelburg.

 

 

The truth about the Dutch

 

It's always a pleasure to read someting about your home country in a foreign newspaper.

 

Today my son sent me this: The article

 

"In winter months, skating is a sensible form of transportation, as commuters skate along frozen canals to visit family or friends who live many villages away. Much of the country sits below sea level, so it’s fr...equently not a particularly arduous journey to travel by skates.
The Dutch begin wearing skates as toddlers, so for some, skating is as common as walking. Some travel for hours and hours on their skates and see nothing strange about it."

 

What a top story!!

What a skilled journalist!

 

Step by step Americans are learning more and more about the Netherlands.

 

Here's what they already know:

 

We live in windmills and walk on wooden shoes.

Kopenhagen is our capital.

Men do their daily business in the red light district.

We smoke pot.

We only eat cheese.

All Dutch are socialists.

We kill old people and unborn babies.

.........

 

I heard that Americans have guns and that there have been "thirteen school shootings recorded in first six weeks of 2014."

But ofcourse, THIS is ridiculous.

****

Dutch culture and tradition

It's Christmas in three weeks time.

 

But first we celebrate Sinterklaas on the fifth.

 

Sinterklaas [sɪntər'klaːs] (or more formally Sint Nicolaas or Sint Nikolaas; Saint Nicolas in French; Sankt Nikolaus in German) is a traditional winter holiday figure still celebrated in the Low Countries, including the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg, as well as some parts of Germany, French Flanders, Lorraine and Artois. He is also well known in territories of the former Dutch Empire, including Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Indonesia, and Suriname. He is one of the sources of the holiday figure of Santa Claus in North America.^[1]

 

Although he is usually referred to as Sinterklaas, he is also known as De Goedheiligman (The Good Holy Man), Sint Nicolaas [sɪnt 'nikolaːs] [ pronunciation (help·info)] (Saint Nicholas) or simply as De Sint (The Saint).

 

He is celebrated annually on Saint Nicholas' eve (5 December) in the Netherlands and on the morning of 6 December in the other countries. Originally, the feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas – patron saint of children, sailors, philatelists, and the city of Amsterdam, among others. Sint Nicholas being a bishop and this geographical spread make clear that the feast in this form has a Roman Catholic background, although the papacy has never officially recognized his existence.^{[citation needed]}

 

Closely related figures are also known in German-speaking Europe and territories historically influenced by German culture, including: Switzerland (Samichlaus), Germany and Austria (Sankt Nikolaus); the region of South Tyrol in Italy; Nord-Pas de Calais, Alsace and Lorraine in France – as well as in Luxembourg (De Kleeschen), parts of Central Europe and the Balkans.

 

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