Thursday, June 3, 2010

The Netherlands....

Wow! I am so incredibly blessed! I have had such a wonderful time in Holland! The first day me and a girl named Elizabeth flew into Amsterdam quite tired. I ended up being awake for a good 48hrs. We arrived at 8am and had a full day to try and get on the right sleeping schedule. Iemkje Potsma is a wonderful dutch lady friend of mine :) She is my age and her and her parents picked us up from the airport. Everything about this trip has been blessed by God. I am so so so amazed and thankful. Wow. I never even thought of coming to South Africa, and never imagined I would get to see Holland as well! Iemkje (M-kia), was a fire in the night roommate in Sept of '07. We have been friends ever since:) She is such a sweetie and so so funny! So Elizabeth and I were really out of it but we had a wonderful day. On the hr and 1/2 drive to Leeuwarden we stopped several places and got to drive over a dike. On the one side was a fresh water lake that I couldn't even see land it was so big! On the other side was salt water sea, and no land could be seen on that side either! We stopped to get out and look. We also stopped in a little town where there were tons of boats and places to eat by the water. So beautiful. I love all the older buildings, boats and brick roads! We stopped and watched how the boats passed from one side of the dike to the other. The boats enter into a middle canal area. There were doors on each side. The fresh water side would open and let the boats in and then close behind them. Once the water reached a high enough level the door for the sea side would be opened and the boats would leave and the door would be shut behind them. All to keep the fresh and salt water separate. They had to lift up the bridge in order for this huge boat to make it under. It was fun. We arrived in Leeuwarden at Iemkje's apt and I changed and then went with Iemkje to town to rent bikes for me and Elizabeth for the week! Elizabeth slept. :) I got a first hand experience at riding a bike in Holland. A little scary since I haven't ridden one in a while and the multitudes of bicycles, cars and people everywhere! And I was seriously delirious :) I was laughing at everything. Wow :) it was so fun though! I throughly enjoyed the day, So so thankful and feeling so blessed by the Lord and Iemkje!

We came home and I survived the bike ride. I also got to see the lovely town of Leeuwarden and where Iemkje works with troubled youth. The stair cases here in Holland are amazingly steep and narrow! Everything is small and cute :) Love it! It is so beautiful here! So I took a shower got ready and then Elizabeth, Iemkje and I went to her parents house for dinner. They are so lovely! They served us a lovely dinner with pasta, veggies and Vla ( some kind of chocolate and vanilla pudding).. Had a wonderful day and crashed at 8pm-8am!! I gotta run but I will post what we did wed and thurs later :)
Steph Q

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