We left the beautiful Belgian countryside with a car boot full of Belgian chocolate and beer which Geoff thought would be gifts for our next hosts. He was only partly right as Lucy wasn't keen on giving away her newly acquired chocolates!
We headed through to Nuenen, near Eindhoven, where we stayed with Willemijn and Sander and their bubbly son Oliver. Willa had been Geoff's host sister back in Cape Town and this is the closest he has been to uncle-hood so far. He didn't drop the child once and even tried to teach it to play the piano!
The wet and cool dutch weather kept us town bound, but we enjoyed the picturesque town of 's Hertogenbosch (Den Bosch) with its lovely dutch brickwork and canal systems.
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| Is this what "Baby Mozart" is all about? Geoff and Oliver thrashing away at the ivories... |
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| Willemijn and Sander with little Oliver |
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| Den Bosch town square during a break in the wet weather |
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| The brickwork is exquisite |
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| The cathedral of St. Nicolas only recently completed a 20-year long restorative facelift. It is a stunning architectural work including an angel with cellphone reception to whom you can forward your messages and confessions... |
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| Some of the spectacular flying buttresses |
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| The leaning walls of some buildings illustrate the trying founding conditions the Dutch have to deal with - this building had some spectacular reinforcing tendons which were simply incorporated into the facade, |
Though we were fascinated by the churches we saw, they were not the focus of our travels. They are however monuments to the prosperity of towns and remain focal points for the small towns. Our next destination was Billerbeck, near Munster in Germany. Here we stayed with the Dittmar family. Anna Dittmar and Geoff are old friends from his high school exchange to Canada.
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| Anna and Geoff: Some might say that they haven't changed much since high-school, although they are cumulatively a little more hairy now... |
Anna introduced us to the extraordinary world of ice-cream spaghetti, beer enhanced ten-pin bowling and raclette (a german culinary experience involving grilling and frying your food at the table).
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| Spaghetti al fresco anyone? Anna used to work in this classically styled ice-cream parlour. Their pistachio ice-cream was spectacular. |
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| Raclette is a very social way to eat dinner. (Verena, Geoff, Nikki, Christiaan and Anna) |
We also took a cycle ride through the local countryside to visit Anna's future in-laws. A break in the poor weather made for a spectacular ride through barley fields and forest amply rewarded with waffles and sour cherry sauce - yes please!!!
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| Outside the local cathedral - which is apparently disproportionately large for the town of Billerbeck. |
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| Lucy decided that european bicycles suited her far better than her mountain bike at home. |
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| Christian (Anna's fiancé), Anna and Geoff |
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| Billerbeck has a strong stone-working tradition which was evident in a number of the buildings and public sculptures. |
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| We tried to re-create a babotie from local ingredients and it actually turned out alright - our hosts loved it! |
After a lovely couple of days visiting friends, we headed back to Schipol to return to the UK for our last two weeks in the northern hemisphere.
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