Amsterdam

I finally made it to Amsterdam this past Saturday! Amazing, I have been here for over 2 months now and I had not gone. I must say that I was very impressed! Of course the last time I was there in the city was 10 or 11 years ago when I stayed there on the way back from the Ukraine. Gosh it is so hard to believe it's been that long, I'm getting old. Well anyway Amsterdam has to be, if not the most beautiful, one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to in the world. Of course beauty is in the eye of the beholder but in my opinion it is one great place. Romantic old canals lined with picturesque old houses, you just can't beat it. Oh well, I will let you know when I have been to some more European cities. So anyway, I went to Amsterdam on Saturday with a girl from my Dutch class (Joanna) and her Dutch boyfriend. We had a good time and most of the time I did not feel like a 3rd wheel surprisingly enough. We first went to the Van Gogh museum which was fantastic before enjoying a lunch at one of the local restaurants. Then we went to the Anne Frank house where she and her family hid in a secret annex of her father's warehouse during the German occupation of Holland until they were discovered and captured by the Nazis in WWII. That was the highlight of the day for me and a very moving experience. I highly recommend visiting it if you are ever in Amsterdam. After that we walked around the city for a bit talking in the canals before heading to the car and back to Rotterdam.

It doesn't sound like we did a lot but there is so much to see and one really could spend a whole week in Amsterdam alone and not get bored I am sure. Well it seems lately I am being exposed more and more to stories from life in Europe during WWII. First the meeting of Ineke's 92 year old grandfather (see previous blog entry), and now the Anne Frank house. At the museum I picked up a book "The last seven months of Anne Frank" which contains the stories of six women who were in the concentration camps with Anne Frank. It seems the more I learn about the holocaust it just rips my heart out even more. The stories in this book are so vivid and the mental pictures are frightening. Eating dinner tonight I could not help but think about the starving Jews in the camps and how blest I am to simply have a good meal and a comfortable place to live. Well it certainly has made me appreciate what I have and makes me want to fight for human rights or some worth while cause . Maybe I will join Bono and fight for Africa or something.

Well I probably won't blog until next week when I get back from Austria/Slovakia. God bless you all and don't forget to leave a comment or two so I can know who reads this stuff.

This is an old government building in the center of Amsterdam with a carnival going on. I was told it was the royal palace in Amsterdam. Is that right Dutchie?  

This is the Rijk Museum which is the national museum for art and history. It is located at museum park.  

Another canal house 

Very old canal houses. I would have to say that Amsterdam is perhaps the most beautiful city that I have been to. The old houses and buildings along old canals, what more could you want? Why did those freakin' stupid Germans have to blow up Rotterdam? It was supposedly once a beautiful city as well. Don't get me wrong, I like Rotterdam a lot and I enjoy it's sleek, modern look but you can't beat beautiful old houses and canals. Sorry if you are German. I have been reading about the concentration camps during WWII so I am a little ticked at the Germans right now. Well I know things have changed.  

Typical canal tours in Amsterdam. Haven't been on one yet, maybe I'll catch one in the Spring. Come over and we will go one one together! 

Another canal shot 

A canal in Amsterdam, the pictures just don't do them justice. Thay are so beautiful and Samantha Brown from the travel channel was right that no matter how many canals in Amsterdam you see you never grow tired of them.  

Here is a bag piper in Amsterdam. He is kind of out of place here and a little far from home. I guess he was just sitting at home in Scottland and thought to himself, "Hey I bet that there are tourists in Amsterdam who will pay good money on the street for some good bag piping". Well I have heard much better. So there you have it.  

This is a statue of Anne Frank in memory of her just around the corner from the Anne Frank house. Sorry there are no pictures of the house but it would have been a tough shot to take as with my camera you have to stand far back and I would have been standing in a canal to get the shot. So you can check it out on the web if you really want to see it. It wasn't a pretyt building though as it was not a canal house but a warehouse.  

An unforgettable meeting...

On Wednesday I had the honor of meeting Ineke’s grandfather who is 92 years old! Realizing his age it dawned on me that he lived here in Rotterdam during the German occupation of WWII. I love history and prior to now have only spoken with US soldiers who fought during the war here in Europe. So I asked him if he would tell me a little about what it was like living here during those times. He began to describe to me how terrible it was. He told me about his good friend who was a Jew who had all of his rights taken away, then had to go into hiding but was eventually captured and shot to death by the Germans. Tears began to well up as he told me how terrible it was to see the city where he had grown up burn down. He said how he remembers the day the Italians surrendered and he heard it over the radio. He said he remembers jumping up and down screaming and his little girl thought he had gone mad. During WWII and after he worked as a meter reader for the city. He said that he will never forget going into one house and seeing a picture on the wall saying “After life you will spend eternity in one of two places, heaven or hell, where will you be? Coming from America the majority of us really have no clue what living through a war is like. We have only read about it in our history books or watched a war movie or two. This was this man’s reality! He told me about his friends who went off to fight, some of them never to return home. I was reminded by him that freedom isn’t free. It is paid with a great price and we all have forgotten that. Men have bled for freedom, suffered for freedom and we have forgotten. We live out our comfortable lives forgetting that someone had to die so that we could have the comforts that we have today. Let us always be learning from the past and living our lives to preserve the freedom that we so enjoy.

Embarrassmints

Ok, allow me to say something first...I am still a conservative Christian who supports his country and president! These are national embarrassmints and they were given to me as a gift because I am American. I must say I got a good laugh and the mints are quite good. I can't approve of the Bible being brought into it but if you left that out of it then it would be a stitch. This is a pretty good representation though of what most of the world thinks about our president. In fact one of the first questions most people ask me is if I support Bush. Interestingly enough the mints were made in the USA but the tin was made in China! Now what do you think that tells us?

Another birthday!

Well today is Caroline's birthday and she is turning four! That means that she will go to school all day starting tomorrow. So today Ineke and I picked Caroline up from school and we all said goodbye to the friends and teachers that she has been with for the past year and a half. Now she is a big girl and will be going to school with the big kids. I think she is excited as yesterday when we picked up her brothers from school she was excited to show me her new classroom. So we will see how it goes tomorrow. Well I thought I woudl post some random pics today of the neighborhood as my friend Alex reminded me that I have not posted any of the neighborhood. So here it is and a few other random shots as well. I will try to take some more shots of the city and post them soon. As far as traveling...In two weeks I will be going to Vienna, Austria to meet up with one of my best friends Nathan Emerick who is serving as a misionary in Slovokia. We will spend Friday touring Vienna and then head out to Slovokia to where he lives. I am so excited and will take lots of pics to post! So

Timo eating some tomato soup and a sandwitch. 

Caroline and Ineke outside the school. 

Caroline saying goodbye to her friends at her school. Now that she has turned four she will start going to school all day with her brothers at their school starting tomorrow. 

Me sitting on a bench in the neighborhood enjoying perhaps the last nice day till Spring or so I have been told.  

Som the Male cat, well not anymore since we fixed him. 

This is the bakery "De Pistolet" that I go to about every day, mostly for bread. I have become addicted to the apple flaps sold here as well. Apple flaps are an amazing pastry filled with an apple filling. No matter what is going on in your life you can eat one and all will be well.  

"This here is the best apple flap in the city, perhaps in the country, definitely the world!" 

Apple flaps make me go crazy! 

Alex, you said that you wanted to see some pics of the neighborhood so here they are. This is right out our door looking to the left. 

This is just out our front door looking right, if you keep going you will run into Central Station and the city center. 

Here is the street where I have walked amost every day taking Caroline to school.  

Another Year Younger!

Yes it's true, Sunday I turned 25! Ahhh! The big 25. My dear brother reminded me that this means that I have now lived a quarter of a century. I definitely had a great day of rest and in the evening Robbert and Ineke took me out to a very nice restaurant in Den Haag for seafood.

As I have looked back in my mind, this past week, over these 25 years that I have been alive I can truely say that I am blest. I have a college degree. I live in Europe! I am healthy and I have just about the best family and friends that one could hope for and I have fulfilled many live goals and dreams. I was reminded though this past week that the greatest acheivement of my life is one that I did not accomplish. It is the salvation that I have been given by God through the Lord Jesus. Take everything else away, all of my accomplishments, my dreams and goals fulfilled, my college degree, EVERYTHING, and simply leave me with the salvation given to me and that would be more than enough. In the end and in the over all picture of life all is rubbish and there is nothing great compared to the riches of the love of God. I am so glad that I can say that I have been caught in the reckless raging fury of the love of God!

Birthday pics

Birthday pics

The past few weeks...

Well hello all you faithful readers of my blog. I am sorry I have not posted in a while. I need to do better! I had a nice past few weeks and I have been keeping very busy it seems. I am enjoying my dutch class that meets every Tuesday night form 8-10pm. There are about 5 or 6 au pairs in the class and I have enjoyed getting to know my classmates the past few weeks. I finally have some people to hang out with! I have also been attending a small Baptist church here in Rotterdam the past few weeks. Today was awesome as 5 people accepted Christ today! This is huge considering that there were only like 17 adults there today. The message was on why Christ came to Earth. The pastor had a very different appraoch than what I am used to but I kind of liked it. He gave the invitation and asked all who would like to receive Christ to come forward. Then he stopped the music and took the time to hold each one's hands individually and then pray individually with each one out loud. At first I was thinking how uncomfortable they must feel infront of everyone praying like that but then I thought how great it was because this pastor wanted to make sure that these people were serious about the decision that they were making to follow Christ. After each one prayed we all joined them up front and prayed for them to follow Christ and to live for Him. It was very encouraging.

Later today I went to a horse show with Ineke, Caroline, and Morten but it had already ended by the time we arrived. So I snapped a few picks of the horses and watched the concert that was going on inside. Man these Dutch like to party! This past week I finally got around to making the family dinner! I have started dinner for Ineke and Robbert before but this time I cooked it all (with some help from the kids). I decided to give them a taste of the South with one of my favorite meals meatloaf, mashed potatoes, green beans, deviled eggs, and for dessert banana pudding! It was delicious if I do say so myself! I was actually surprised just how good it all was. It was pretty close to what mom would have made. For the banana pudding I followed Paula Deen's recipe for "This aint yo momma's banana pudding". I had to cut a few corners as they don't have frozen whipped topping here (no coolwhip) and they don't have sweetened condensed milk either. It was stll pretty darn good and everybody seemed to enjoy the meal. Ok enough bragging about myself. I am actually getting ready to head to an evening praise and worship service at the Pilgrim Father's Church (Dutch Reformed). Well I would love to hear how everybody out there is doing. Don't be a stranger, drop me a line.

This is the "southern" meal I fixed for the family this past week. As you can see we had mashed potatoes, deviled eggs, green beans, and meatloaf! Morten and Caroline both helped. Morten really enjoyed helping with the meatloaf as you get to use your hands to mix the ingredients. When I told him to use his hands he got a big grin on his face and was like "really?" Well he had fun.  

This is the yummy lekker banana pudding I made for desert! It was amazing if I do say so myself! I am so humble but seriously you should have been there! 

This is Thea and her horse. 

This is Caroline and the kid's grandmother Toos. No, Toos is not trying to flip Caroline over her shoulder. She is actually trying to get Caroline to look at the camera which she never wants to do. Sorry abigail, I am trying to get some pictures of the kids for you but lately it seems difficult.