After a week back in Den Haag with Beer, Lindsay and I went to Nijmegen to stay with Dick and Marja, Tim and Nikki.
Tim picked us up from the station, took me to a pharmacy to I could get some antihistamines (they have 4 cats).. That evening Marja taught me how to do Mosaics. So I made a mosaic photo frame with her while Dick and Lindsay geeked.
The next day Marja took Lindsay and I to a museum in Nijmegen that had an exhibition of all sorts of funky shoes by a Nijmegenese shoe designer. The museum also had a lot of artifacts from archeological digs done in the area. The city of nijmegen is 2000 years old. There were lots of roman coins, pottery, metal works, jewellery etc. It was very fascinating.
The weather was incredibly hot, but we braved the heat outside the museum and wandered around the shops for a few hours, before heading back to Dick and Marja’s house via the bus. Air-conditioning and fans and sometimes even open windows have not yet been invented in Holland. The temperature outside was 30+, the bus as full and the one tiny window was closed. It was the worst bus trip ever.
But we made it back alive, and had enough energy to make our favourite dinner, Shoarma Brood.
4 cats were quite keen to share with us
they sat so politely at the table, and we gave them…nothing. I know its not their fault I am allergic to them, but they can stop being so cute. They deserve everything they didn’t get.
Because the weather was unbearably hot, Lindsay and I rode out to a lake called the Berendonk. It was so beautiful,
and the water was refreshingly cold
as was the storm weather that appeared shortly after we arrived at the late. So we packed up and rode back to the house.
On the way back we went through the local shops, and found this rather interestingly named Chinese Restaurant.
One evening we went for a bike ride and decided to pop in at my uncle and aunt’s house.
Never ever having had the chance to pop over and visit a relative, it was so exciting and really really nice. Only Marleen was home so we sat and chatted to her for an hour before heading back to Dick and Marja’s.
We completely forgot to take photos with Dick and Marja, we only have a few.
Me doing Mosaics
And Nikki and Marja have an after dinner siesta on their beautifully soft grass.
One of our days in Nijmegen Dick and Marja, Tim and Nikki went to a family reunion. So Lindsay and I went and spent the day with my uncle, Juriaan and aunt, Marleen, cousins Vince and Mick.
We got there and had fruit salad.
This was followed by a spot of:
alfresco ironing
Lego battles (the war was betten the aliens and mars lander, the mars lander won fyi)
and basketball (a tie, 7 all, fyi)
We went on a bike ride, the bridge to bridge bike ride. We rode down Sint Anna Straat, across the new cyclist bridge, through some countryside then back over the water across the Nijmegen Bridge.
The Nijmegen bridge sorts of looks like a pillar-less, albino Sydney harbour bridge.
we stopped for drinks on the boat cafe/cafe boat/boat thats a cafe.
Mick and Vince had a Dame Blanche each, which is vanilla ice cream topped with whipped cream and chocolate sauce. I love watching Mick eat, he really enjoys the food, gets it everywhere but makes it looks like he is having a lot of fun!
After heading back to Jur and Marleen’s place, we had a Siesta on the grass and then packed everything up in case of rain before heading out for dinner.
We rode in convoy on the 6 bicycles to a turkish restaurant. Vince and Jur helped Lindsay and I translate the menu by making the noise of the animal listed. Bok Bok was a chicken, (dutch chickens say bok bok) baa was lamb, oink was a pig, and popping noises was a prawn, the noise a mushroom makes is apparently a blank stare. it was hilarious and the food was delicious, I had moo sausages.
Back and Jur and Marleen’s house we had challengingly seductive, naughty, fresh lemon and potato (apple) cake. Well thats what the packet said. Then Marleen translated apple into potato, which is a bit like the time we talked about raping cheese. But I think you had to be there. Don’t worry we are not laughing at her ability to speak english, Her English is perfect, and word mix ups are hilarious for everyone.