Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Tuesday, April 19, 2016: Doetinchem, The Netherlands to Schloss-Holte, Germany


After a leisurely breakfast at the Villa this morning we were on the road toward Germany. 

First, we saw one of the windmills we photographed yesterday was turning this morning, so we detoured into the village where it was located.  As we approached we saw the bottom door was open.  The gentleman who owns the mill was there.  We had a great discussion with him regarding the old windmills in Holland.  Holland also has lots of modern wind turbines and he told us we would see a lot more in Germany. 
Korenmolen Aurora, 1870


Mechanism used to grind grain

Bagging the ground grain

The mechanism used to turn the windmill 



Back on the road again.  The GPS took us via s’Heerenberg where the Castle Huis Bergh is located. I would have taken a different road, but this meant we could stop by the Castle and take the tour we could not do on Monday.  After we parked and walked into the Castle we found that it is closed this whole week for maintenance.  We struck out again!!!  It is not meant for us to see this castle!

We continued on to Germany. We are driving on the Autobahn to get there in the shortest time.  Holy Cow do they drive!!  Several cars had to be going 120 mph!! They just fly past you when we are going 90, but then they have to break for slower traffic!!  We saw fields of canola in full bloom – a mass of yellow. We hope to be close enough to a field to get a good photo tomorrow.    

We arrived here at the home of the German foreign exchange student (KB) about 1:30pm.  It was great to see her again.  At first her daughters (4 & 6) were in kindergarten, so we visited with her and met her 11 mo old son for the first time. After a while her husband came home from work (his business is next door) so we had a nice visit with him before the girls came home from school.  At first both girls were very shy of us (we did not expect them to remember us). Plus, their parents are saying words that make no sense – what funny noises are coming out of their mouths! Before long they began warming-up to us. 

We drove to a nearby village to see the home they will be moving into during the next two weeks.  Some stuff has already at been moved to the new house, but they are still painting and cleaning. They do need more space and this new house will definitely give them that.  We found one aspect to be extremely interesting - that is, an unfurnished house means, no light fixtures and no kitchen.  Yes, I mean no kitchen – no cabinets, no counter tops, drawers, appliances, etc.  It is bare walls!  The carpenter installed their new kitchen yesterday.  It is very nice and spacious compared to what they have now. The whole house is lovely – plenty of space, basement plus 3 floors with a walk-out patio and garden. It is great!      
The New Apartment - Left Side

We returned to their current home where we had a bowl of homemade soup and breads for supper.  By now the girls were warming up to us – they are showing us their coloring books, doing a little ballet show, playing musical instruments, etc.  We continued our great visit tonight here at the house.     

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