Well, can you believe that the last day of October is tomorrow?? My, how the time is flying by and, before I know it, this year will be over! Now that is a scary thought :-).

On the weekend we traveled to Marcel's mums home-province of Fryslan (Friesland) where we enjoyed some beautiful countryside and some very lovely cities.

We left the house Friday morning in a leisurely manner to travel by train to Alkmaar, Noord Holland (North Holland and then by bus across the Afsluitdijk one of the largest dykes in the world. We were amazed at this manmade "lake"! Crossing the dyke and looking inland there is no land in sight, just water for as far as the eye can see.

Haringen was the next town we visited. It's from Haringen that you can travel by ferry to the islands at the top of the Netherlands. We plan to see some of the islands in warmer weather!

Walking down the street we caught sight of this man wearing clogs while working! Yes, people still wear clogs for everyday use. :-)

Family shot!

Now it was onto Franeker, our final destination for that day!

We were totally smitten with Franeker, with it's canals, lovely houses, the old streets, lush greenery. For such a little city there is a large amount of history to be gleaned from over the years.

On Saturday we came downstairs for a leisurely breakfast of bread, fresh juice, cold meats, boiled egg, an assortment of jam, peanut butter, patee, and then there was fresh coffee and tea.

After breakfast we strolled across a couple of streets to visit with another family for the day. We had a lovely morning of chatting and enjoyed a lunch together of smoked fish and fresh bread. I won't embarress Michael with photos of him trying some smoked fish! Tehehe. Actually, I was pleasantly surprised at how tasty the fish was to eat!

In the afternoon we were given a tour of Franeker and shown some of the cities historical points of interest.

One of the lovely gardens ~ even in Autumn the gardens so green!

Michael with one of the 'guards'

A house with a fascinating history ~ the ground floor office was added later when the owner decided he didn't want to be bothered with customers coming into his home. And the simple solution was? Rise the whole house and build a new office underneath at street level! Notice how there are only an inch or two separating this house from the ones next door.

Eise Eisinga's Planetarium was one of the other places we had the prigilege of visiting. We are in awe of what this man accomplished in seven years in his spare time: an Orrery (the oldest working one in the world today)!

A man-made mound used for the defence of Franeker

After another filling breakfast on Sunday we traveled back to Amsterdam via Leeuwarden and Zwolle, getting back to Amsterdam for our church meeting where the children sang a song they had practised in their Bible Class.

A quick overview of our first weekend away staying over two nights!!