Another busy week

The fountain in the gardens at Palace Het Loo

This week has once again been busy with seeing many great things and hostessing family and friends. On Monday morning, I drove to Germany to pick Dennis up from the airport. He dropped me off at home and I spent the day cleaning, grocery shopping and preparing for the week.

That evening, Harry van de Sande (whom Dennis had known on his mission and I had met when he visited us in Bountiful) brought Elder Chlarson, Tric and Ashleigh to our home. We had a nice evening of visiting.

(Ashleigh took this beautiful picture with the garden and the fall leaves.)

On Tuesday, Chlarson's and I rode the bus into Nijmegen. It was their first time on the bus here and so it was a nice time. Elder Kenny C. had served in the area on his mission so in some ways he knew a little more about the little alleys and little obscure places than I did but we saw all the main sights, did a little shopping and ate dinner on the river bank. It was a beautiful sunny day so it was perfect. In the early evening, we took a bike ride to Valburg to see the countryside and windmill and then rode into Elst to see our little dorp and visit the grocery store. Dennis brought us home a rijstoffel for dinner so they were able to taste Indonesian food.



On Wednesday, they finished packing and we loaded everything in the car and headed out on another adventure. After dropping Dennis off at work, we drove to Apeldoorn to visit the Palace Het Loo. We had a wonderful morning seeing the palace, learning a little history and then exploring the gardens. It was once again, nice weather so it was fun to be outside. We went to a little cafeteria for friets and croquettes for lunch and then I drove them to their hotel that is near the airport Schiphol. Traffic was quite backed up on the drive home so I didn't get Dennis picked up from work until almost 7:30.




Thursday, Dennis dropped me off at Vermillion's first thing in the morning and we headed for Haarlem. We spent most of the morning sitting in traffic on the highway. We eventually were able to pass one of the worst accident scenes I've seen since coming here. We made it to Haarlem at 11:30 and found the Corrie ten Boom huis just in time for a tour in English. It was a very good tour and the tour guide was a very sweet old lady. She was a wonderful story teller so it made for a nice experience. We ate lunch in the Grote Market and then toured the Frans Hall museum. It had quite a few of his works but also a lot of others of those who where fellow painters from Haarlem. It is a big museum and besides great works of art there were beautiful pieces of furniture and delft ware. I really enjoyed it and have loved the opportunities I've had to see so many great works of art.

Standing in the Grote Market in front of St. Bavo KerkThe beautiful organ pipes

Today, I had a hair appointment and did some grocery shopping. I should be cleaning the house and getting ready for Tom and Sandi and family but I'm taking a break for a bit to do this.