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| Corina and Werner |
We got back on Sunday from a four day trip to the Netherlands for the wedding of our Dutch friends Werner and Corina, who we know from our time living in Wales. They now live in Australia but had the wedding in Holland. We were so glad we are living close by in Ireland so we were able to attend. The flight from Dublin to Amsterdam is only about one hour.
We first arrived and were picked up by Lex and stayed with him and his wife, Sharon, at their house in Leiden. Leiden is a really nice university town with a lot of students, good restaurants and very nice old architecture and surroundings. And of course, lots of canals. For a true Dutch experience, we travelled through town like the locals do-- on bikes. There are so many bikes in Holland it is amazing. I got to ride on what Lex called a "Hallelujah" or "Grandma" bike. The handle bars are high so you're sitting pretty much vertically and it's really comfortable. There aren't any gears and the brakes work by back-pedaling. This type of bike really would only work in flat landscapes, and I think I want to try to find one in Dublin.
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| Richard and Lex in Leiden |
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| The Hallelujah bike |
On Friday morning we drove to Friesland for the wedding. Friesland is a province in the north of the Netherlands that is very beautiful with a lot open space and farmland, and they have their own language, Frisian. The wedding activities started at the home of Corina's parents, and we were all transported to the wedding ceremony in a 1950s bus. They were married in an old church, we had some cake and champagne, then were transported back in the bus to the starting point for an Aussie-style barbeque. The weather was great and the yard was beautiful and perfect for a party. The party then continued at another location that was a bar/cafe with an outdoor terrace. It was great to be at Werner and Corina's wedding and also to see the differences between a Dutch wedding and a typical American wedding. Luckily most of the wedding ceremony was spoken in Dutch and then repeated in English.
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| The 1950s wedding bus |
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| Marius and Lex on the wedding bus |
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| Richard crossing the canal- he was successful. |
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| I got part of the way across but turned around. |
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| The Bangor Crew - Marius, Werner, Richard, Martijn and Lex |
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| Aussie BBQ |
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This adorable blonde kid in the front was the bartender.
He quickly became close friends with Martijn and Richard. |
On Friday night our friend Marius drove us to his parent's house in Wageningen where we stayed the night. It was great to meet his family and also to see their beautiful house. It was built I believe in 1895 where a castle used to stand. His parents recently bought the house and restored it to it's period architecture. As we noticed with other Dutch houses, it is tall and narrow (theirs was three stories) with very steep stairs. The next morning they took us on a walking tour through Wageningen and showed us many historical buildings, Dutch architecture, the Rhine River, and several gardens and an arboretum.
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| A view in Wageningen with the Rhine in the background. |
On Saturday we took the train with Marius to Amsterdam to meet up with our Dutch friends Joost and Karen who we met in Nashville. It was great to see them again and reminisce about Tennessee. We stayed at their apartment and they introduced us to some good Dutch and Belgian beers (Jupiler, Grolsch, Duvel), food (especially
Bitterballen snacks) and general fun times.
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| Joost and Karen in their apartment |
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| Enjoying Grolsch with Karen, Joost, Vincent and Marius |
