Dick’s cousin Els and her husband Frans graciously offered us a place to stay for three nights while we did some exploring and met up with other cousins. We had a nice Chinese take out dinner with them when we arrived on Monday night. Frans prayed a blessing over us after dinner, which was very special.

Tuesday, we took a ferry to Schiermonnikoog, an island in the North Sea. It was cloudy and cool in the morning, but we sat on the top deck anyway. When we arrived, we rented bikes at the pier and biked into town. We took a short coffee break and then walked around the small town before heading to the beach. The beach was huge and almost completely deserted. Dick walked into the water, but I chose to stay dry. 😌 The sun had come out by this time and made it feel warmer. We continued on by bike to a lighthouse to take some pics.

Back in town we paused so Dick could conduct some business by phone and then we had lunch. We decided that biking around the whole island would take too much time and there wouldn’t be much to see that we hadn’t already seen. So we biked up to a nice sitting spot, relaxed for awhile and did some reading. The ferry ride back was nicer in the sun. We didn’t realize until we got back how sunburned our faces were! 😳

We drove into Leeuwarden to have dinner and check out some art installations. Leeuwarden is one of this year’s European Culture Capitals. We ended up having a lousy dinner at an Irish Pub (probably the worst restaurant meal we’ve had in Europe) and saw just a couple of art pieces.

Wednesday was a relaxed day. We slept in (yay!) and then took a long walk. We brought some of our food leftovers along and made a picnic out of it. In the afternoon, we went to Giethoorn, a picturesque village with a series of canals and bridges. There is no car traffic allowed inside the village. We rented a boat a took a slow cruise through the main canal, out to a big lake and then back into town. In the evening, we met Dick’s cousin Joke and her husband Coen at their favorite Italian restaurant. We had a table outside along the canal, which was lovely! Our hosts had arranged a three course Sicilian meal, which lasted almost 4 hours. Very Italian! The food was delicious, the service was incredible and we really enjoyed the company of Dick’s cousins.

On Thursday morning as we were getting ready to leave, a street organ pulled up in front of the house. We went out to listen for awhile and give our regards to organ grinders. We won’t see this in America! We said our goodbyes to Els and Frans and packed up for the final leg of our journey.