Just the Basics

So much has happened in the last 3 weeks that we have been living in Holland that I don't even know where to begin... but I suppose I'll start with the basics.  We arrived in the country on May 27 and moved into the house we are renting on the 29th.  Here are a few pics of the house:

This pic below is part of our "garden", which is really cool because it wraps all the way around the house.  Lots of places for seating when we finally start having guests. I'll put the rest of the pics of Facebook for anyone who is curious.

Once we settled in, we had to go out in search of groceries.  This was an interesting experience, to say the least, because I never really considered that I wouldn't be able to read the labels on the packages.  Thank goodness most of them had pictures or who knows what we would've come home with!  As it was there were still a few surprises, but we did fairly well considering.

We also did some exploring in our new little village.  Hellevoetsluis is situated on an inlet from the North Sea, so we have some beautiful views of the water just minutes from our house.

The town, among others in our area, was used in World War II, and there are signs of that scattered around the town...like the cannons pictured below.

The beach has become one of our favorite places to hang out.  The weather is finally starting to warm up enough so we can actually enjoy it, with temperatures right now in the high 60s to low 70s-- a little chilly for me to be on the beach, but the locals love it.  The homes and many public buildings don't have air conditioning because they seldom need it.  When the temps hit the high 70s to low 80s a few days ago, they actually cancelled school because it was too hot for the children.  My thought was that they don't have a clue what HOT is!

The pic below was taken on the walk between our house and the beach.  If I didn't know better, I'd almost think I was back in Concordia Parish...

Well, this is just a taste of what is to come.  Now that we are settled, I will be blogging more often so you can all experience Dutch living vicariously...which is much less complicated, trust me.

The Farewell Tour

On May 27, we said "goodbye" to bonnie Scotland and "hello" to Holland.  It was bittersweet for me, but I suppose the "sweet" outweighs the "bitter", and I am ready to call pretty much anywhere home, even if it's just for a year. 

Before we left Scotland, we spent the weekends sight-seeing.  Those were the only times Keith was free to go with us, and since everything closes at 6 pm, with the exception of restaurants and ASDA (their version of Walmart), we couldn't even venture out to tour things at night.  This I thought was especially odd since they have daylight in Scotland until around 10:30 pm in the spring...but I digress...

Anyway, Mother's Day weekend, though not celebrated on the same day in the UK, we stayed around Aberdeen to take in some of the local sights.  That Saturday we found a place called the Satrosphere, which is like a children's museum that focuses on science.  The kids had a great time!

Sara learned how an electrical circuit works...

Keith and Sara played a few tunes together, and Levi got to watch his bones in action!

Sunday morning the family let me sleep in, and then we strolled through the downtown area.  We ate a Mother's Day dinner at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant.  The food wasn't bad, but it wasn't what I expected from an internationally acclaimed chef.  Still a cool experience though...

The following weekend we went back to Dunnotar Castle.  We tried to go shortly after we arrived in Scotland, but the castle was closed.  I suppose that was a good thing, though, because the weather had a chance to warm up some.  As the castle is situated on the coast, it is always very windy, so any increase in temperature is welcome!

The castle is nothing but ruins now, but there's something beautiful about it.  It's also not that easy to get to.  I can imagine it was a bit intimidating in its day.  In the first of the castle pictures above, you can see all the steps we had to take...all the way down level with the beach, then all the way up to the castle...quite a trek, but worth it.

The picture of Keith and Sara has the view from below the castle with the northwestern shore behind us.  The pic on the right shows the conditions of the castle now.  It's kind of sad that it has been let go, but I can imagine the harsh weather conditions make it difficult to keep up.

Finally, our last weekend in Scotland we went to a Scottish opera on Saturday and Loch Ness on Sunday.  We saw "The Pirates of Penzance" at the His Majesty's Theater in Aberdeen, which was more like a Broadway play than what I expected of an opera...except it wasn't shown on Broadway, I guess (maybe that's the same as off-Broadway?? I don't know).  If you think it's difficult to understand what people are "saying" when they're singing, trying figuring it out when they are singing with a Scottish brogue.  It was still very entertaining and we had a great time.


As for Loch Ness, Keith tried to tell me that there wasn't much to see, but my argument was that I had come too far NOT to visit Loch Ness...so we were going.  It's not like I expected to actually see the Loch Ness monster, but it's one of the few places I associate with Scotland, so I had to see it.  Below are pics of our stop in Inverness, which is at the northern end of the loch.

 I wasn't sure what that castle-looking place was, but it was cool-looking, so it made it into the blog. :)

And here is the exhibition center.  It was too dark inside to take pictures, but it was very informational.  There were about 5 rooms we weaved through, and each showed a short video on all the research done to look for Nessie and to prove--or disprove--whether he or she could exist in the first place.

Below shows Urquhart Castle in the background.  It is situated along the western edge of Loch Ness, almost halfway between the northern and southern ends.

Urquhart Castle above, and below a view of the loch from the castle. I think what impressed me the most was the size of the loch.  It's huge!! I expected a small lake, but it's actually over 22 miles long and a little more than 1.5 miles at its widest.

And look, we found Nessie after all!!

 Sorry... I couldn't resist.