Heaven in Rijnsberg

This is our apartment (top right) in Heaven. It is right next to a elementary school and accross the street from a church will bells that play music every 15 mintues during the day.

We go running every morning along the canals. These are nice duplex homes with backyards that face the canal.

This is a single home on the other side of the canal. Ducks are everywhere.

There are five bakeries within a minutes walk from our apartment. Everyday we buy fresh bread for the day. The bread is on a shelf unprotected. This keeps the crust crips yet the inside is light and moist. When you buy they run the bread through a slicer and put it in a bag. Zuster Everton did not eat bread for a year before we arrived in Holland. She fell off the wagon big time once she tried this bread. We jog past this bakery every morning and wave to baker. One morning we left early for inspections and needed 9 loaves of bread. The baker was kind enough to open the door for us at 7. Normal opening is 8:30 am. They close at 3:30 pm. It seems like the baker works all hours.

This is a ferry point from Rijnsburg to Valkenburg. We were never jogging when the ferry was running. The ferry is for bikes and people on foot.

This is one of our favorite homes.




Swans are everywhere. This one has been in a small canal for weeks. We pass it every morning on our jog.

 

Groningen

The Afsluitdijk (dike) is 20 miles long. We crossed it on the way to Groningen.

This park is at the enterance to the old city of Groningen.

Boats in a canal in old Groningen

Groningen is a University town. This is the main buidling for the University

The Martini Tower is a famous landmark.

We visted Edlers in Zwolle. This is the gate into the old city.

Next stop was Amersfort. This is a canal at dusk.

Haarlem Molen

We were doing inspections on Monday and the Sisters Harrington and Perry invited us to go to a Molen (Windmill) in the city. You can take a tour of the inside of the Molen.

This molen burned down before WWII. The town decided to rebuild it. The original Molen was built on top of one of the original city gates. Windmills are constructed with wooden pegs instead of nails so that it can be disassembled and move to another location. The windmill is not attached to the foundation. It is heavy enought that it will not blow over. At the peak of windmill usage, there were 11,000. Now there are about 1000 left. Windmills were used for pumping water, milling grain, sawing wood and making vegatable oil.

This shows the grinding wheel inside the windmill. Our tour guide is telling us how the stone can be removed to have the grinding groves refurbished. There would be four stones located at this level.

These women are moving the windmill so it will face the wind. The lady in the pink jacket recently certified as a windmill operator after 3 years of training. The other lady is training.

When we left we turned and saw that they were running the windmill. That is the second time I had seem one in operation. The first time was in Deventer two week prior.

Here are the beautiful Sisters Harrington, Perry and Everton

We saw this molen on the way to Stake Conference in Noordwijk. Note the paddle on the side which is used to pump the water up to the canal. We passed by the windmill on the way home from conference and it was operating.

We passed this windmill on the way to stake confernece also. The shape is different. I think it is for pumping water only but seeing the round molen pumping water makes me unsure now. I will have to check that out.



Leiden

Lieden is close to where we live and is where we go to church. It is also a beautiful city and university town.

This bridge is close to where William van Orange returned to the city. The Spanish had occupied the city until Orange breached the dikes and flooded the city. The city is 6 feet under sea level and about 15 miles from the coast.

This is a nice place to eat on one of the canals.

For 2 or 3 euro you can get fresh cut flowers year round.

This is for Ruby (and Fox, Samantha and Maddie). Candy Shop.

This is a saw molen. The long building at the bottom is where long logs can be cut. It is located in a present day  lumber yard.



Wassenaar Beach

Wassenaar is a wealth community with many international residents. There is an English Branch from Wassenaar that meets in the Leiden Chapel.

This is Wassenaar beach. Sarah - just like California right?

We saw this guy riding on paths through the sand dunes by the beach.

This is a fietspad (bike path) near the beach. There are thousands of miles of paths that criss cross the Netherlands.