A boy, a pond, and his dream...

Frans announced, the first day in France, "I want to build a hut that floats on the pond."  Ans, worried he would be disappointed by the likely outcome of such an ambitious project said, "but that's impossible."  Thanks to his tenacity, and a lot of help from Han, who happens to be a civil engineer (with a chainsaw) Frans' floating hut was enjoyed by all.

Han & Frans tying the sticks, while Renze and Douwe stand by to help.

Rose at the ready with a water gun in case someone got too hot!

Success (Frans is inside the hut, adjusting)...

Oma, Opa, grandchildren, and a lovely view of Vollore Montagne

The English - French - Dutch connection...

Here you can see Frans, Rose and cousins Renze & Douwe on top of Puy de Dome, an inactive volcano in the Auvergne region of France.  Sorry to have a gap in pictures, but those will come later when we dig out the camera cord to download again.  Our time in France was another period of language confusion as we spoke our usual mix of English (for my benefit) and Dutch while staying with Ans & Han at the edge of Vollore Montagne/Vollore Ville in a part of France that we sometime describe as forgotten, though very beautiful.  This makes for fine hiking, excellent berry picking, and complete relaxation, with the possible exception of the vertigo-inducing, narrow and winding roads.

One unique aspect of the Auvergne region is that this is a vacation destination for French, a few Dutch and virtually no English speakers.  Thus, one is forced to practice French.  This somehow did not prepare me to visit the bakery and appropriately order one of the 20 different types of French baguette which all have different shapes but taste exactly the same (non- ce n'est pas la meme chose, pas du tout!)

I must confess that my MANY years of French from years ago was no match for globalization.  How does one properly ask to ride "le surf-bike" pronounced "le serfff beeek"?  And what about Nestle's ice cream novelty treat, called "COOKIE"? Americans may know this as a Drumstick.  Is this Le Coooooookeeeeee or La Ceuky?  What about internet (a cognate in French), is this masculine or feminine? Though people seemed to understand my French questions just fine, I could never ask about these American impostors (posted clearly on all the signs) without getting blank stares. None of these words were in my high school and college text books, and Voltaire certainly did not cover them in his writing.

And of course, then when we returned home from an afternoon struggling with French, the conversation returned to Dutch.  In efforts to communicate with my 8 year old nephews in Dutch, I ended up asking baffling questions like "Douwe how is it going with all your rusting? (I had confused the word rust with cough) After each of these mistaken questions, my nephews would simply stare, puzzled, wondering what the right response was.  Eventually, Douwe developed the one-size-fits all response "Geen Idee! or (I have) no idea!"

Glaciers going, going...

Frans & I headed out yesterday for a guided hike on the Morteratch Glacier in Switzerland.  Over 5 hours, we hiked down onto the glacier, across to an island of rock (once covered by the glacier not long ago), across the other side of the glacier, and back down to its end.  

Our Swiss German guide, with that characteristic "survival of the fittest" approach characteristic in Northern Europe warned, "If the person in front of you falls into a crevasse, don't step there."  The tour was all in German (a language neither Frans nor I have studied).  However, German is close enough to Dutch that we followed a bit.  We learned all kinds of fun facts like how to use a glacier table (a big boulder on top of a pile of snow around which everything has melted) like a compass.  Similarly, the glacier has many mini-pools that similarly can guide you North South East and West as needed based on their shape.  The sheer mass of the glacier was amazing, but one could see where the glacier once flowed (slowly), one hundred meters or more above our head, ending 2 km further than it now does.   I hope something is left when Frans and Rose have kids old enough to hike on a glacier...

Frans before start of glacier walk with Morteratch in background.

View upward at Morteratch Glacier from below (on glacier)

Walking on the glacier

A few of our favorite things

Enjoying a crisp & stunning view of snowy peaks and
the Morteratsch Glacier (on the right) on top of Switzerland's Munt Pers

Later that day...happy (and very warm) after pizza, pasta & gelato across the border in Tirano, Italy

We have been on the road since last Saturday, mainly in La Punt, Switzerland in the Alps.  This part of Switzerland is near the border of Italy (though the language of the area is Romanisch (imagine a mash-up of German & Italian).  I keep looking for Julie Andrews as we hike through some Alpine meadow with Edelweiss and Swiss cows (they do wear bells) in the background.  A few of our favorite things about this part of the Alps are: hiking above the tree line with no bugs and stunningly beautiful views, delicious Swiss breads, mountain train rides through crazy tunnels and over bridges, turquoise mountain lakes, and lots of time together.  The ability to sneak over the border to enjoy an Italian lunch doesn't hurt either.  Soon we will pack up & head to France....our general tour is shown below...

Settling in & moving on

Transportation

We spent time this week getting some good used Dutch bikes.  These aren't road bikes, mountain bikes, or hybrids, but something different altogether.  They are heavy and cannot be dragged upstairs the way one might with other bikes.  One rides this bike sitting straight up, not hunched over.  Many have no gears, but this one has 7!  I thought it was silly in such a flat country until I realized how steep all those little bridges over the canals can be.  The brakes are internal, and thus still work when it's wet out (read always).  The chain is also covered, so no worries about bike grease all over your clothes.  Similarly, every bike has good front and rear fenders to keep the rain and mud off your clothes.  Then there are the bike bags, waterproof of course, which will fit quite a few groceries or whatever.  However, I inexplicably still see people carrying bags on all appendages even when the bike bags are empty.  The other thing one notices immediately is that this bike allows one to make crazy sharp turns, handy when avoiding many other bikes, cars, sidewalks, pedestrians, etc.  

Yesterday, Erzo and I tried out the commute to our offices in the Hague.  The 13 km commute has one long stretch along a quiet canal, followed by several miles biking essentially straight from the outskirts of the Hague, through the city almost to the Dutch coast.  The bike lanes are great, but with all the stopping and starting, and some classic wind, the ride took 60 minutes one-way.  With a tail wind, on the return, it took 54 minutes.  Perhaps when we get in better shape, we can shave off a few more minutes?

Erzo at the door to Delft apartment - back of building

Ellen on canal side of Delft apartment

It's been a quiet week in Delft.  Frans & Rose are away at sailing camp.  The University is also on a break so there are hardly any students in town.  Although Delft isn't very touristy, even the tourists have been quiet (we're wondering if this is a sign of the bad European economy or simply a sleepy summer week).  By day, we settled in and worked.  At night, we took advantage of the quiet to have dinner out several times, quickly topping the number of times we have been out to eat alone in Hanover since we moved there nearly 2 years ago... We also took in a movie at the local artsy film house. I'm thinking you can skip the latest Almodovar film, but I love going to the movies.

And tomorrow we are off to pick up Frans and Rose and head for the real summer vacation, hiking in Switzerland and visiting with Ans and Han and Lieke's family in France.

Departures, Arrivals, & Calamities

If you count carefully, you can get all 12 bags, and 4 travelers (including our photographer, Erzo) getting ready to head out from Logan airport. After a quick stop in Iceland to change planes, 12 hours later we touched down in Amsterdam, and, later on Thursday entered our new apartment for the first time... Ellen is proud that she carried all 12 bags up the stairs to the apartment while Erzo figured out how to shoehorn our rental car into our parking space nearby.  Back at the apartment, note the vertigo-inducing spiral staircase to the upper level where the kids sleep.  We are all afraid of these stairs even though they look nice, but I think they are probably better than yoga for balance...

Ellen in the living room of our apartment in Delft.

Frans & Rose in front of the fallen tree at 2:30 am...

 It often rains in the Netherlands, but usually lightly, and thunder of any kind is unusual.  Thursday night, while staying at Erzo's mother's house, we all awoke at 1 am to a shocking storm with lightening, torrential rain, and heavy winds.  A few moments after the storm died down, we heard a familiar Hanover sound of chainsaws.  An enormous old tree along the canal had blown across the street, totaling 2 cars in the process (not ours, parked only 2 cars away).






On Friday, we spent many hours on administrative details like visas, registering our residence in Delft, visiting the kids' school (where the kids were having the last day of school before the summer vacation) and unpacking.  On Sunday, we travelled again to drop Rose and Frans at Neptunus sailing camp, for a week of sailing (perhaps rain) and fun.

Frans in his wetsuit, ready to go...

Look closely and you'll know Rose as the one to the left of the instructor since she is, characteristically, pinching her neck, even through her wetsuit!  I guess she's still  a little nervous, but she is already to go & speaking Dutch.

Tulips

To get ready for the Netherlands, Rose & I planted tulip bulbs last Fall (surrounded by a rather large fence since I didn't want to give my tulips to the Hanover deer...)  so the fence part isn't very Dutch, but this was the result - not bad eh?  3 weeks to go, time to stop daydreaming about flowers and start packing...