Last day in Friesland

Today we rented bikes from a place just down the road from our apartment.  It was super cheap - $5euros per person for a couple of hours, but they were very relaxed about the return time.  Rodger, Simon and I got the high handlebars, traditional type of Dutch bike, and Ruby and Cameron were given bikes that look like ours... they were disappointed.  Anyway, we were all set up with bikes and were on the road by 9:30 am, on our way to Heeg, with our bike route map in hand.  We started out good with the paths, but they weren't as clearly marked as they led us to believe, so of course we ended up on a "bike highway"... not the country-side kind of idea that I had in mind.  But regardless, we finally made it into Heeg and found the old church that Rodger's mom used to go to, and also the graves of Rodger's relatives.  The name Veenstra was everywhere in this town, so when mom told me to look out for the name, it was pretty easy!

 

We had pannekoeken for lunch, next to the canal... boats going by constantly, some of them stopping right at the restaurant so they could hop off for lunch.  So awesome!!  It makes me want to come back to Holland one day so we can spend a couple of weeks, rent a boat and also bikes, and just live this life for awhile.  I love it.

After lunch we tried to find the house where Rodger's mom lived, but we since we weren't given specific instructions, we didn't find it.  But it was nice to bike through the country roads and enjoy the old farmhouses along the way.



We dropped off the bikes at 1:30 pm then got in the car to drive up to the North Sea, where Rodger's Dad lived, in Paessens.  We found his house, no problem, and then had a snack along the dyke, with the sheep as company.

 

On the way back, we stopped in Dokkum to look for wooden shoes for Ruby.  She's been wanting to buy a pair since we arrived in Holland, and we kept saying "we'll buy them later, we'll see them everywhere..."  So now that we are ready to buy some, we can't find them!!  Oops, we have one more day, as we head out of Holland tomorrow... hope we're successful or we'll have a very sad girl on our hands.

After dinner we re-organized our belongings and repacked all our bags.  We're so glad we bought the extra bag the other day, we need it!  As it started to get dark, Ruby and I went for a walk through town.  There were lots of people enjoying their evening, either by their canal "stoop", or sitting on benches by their front door (which is basically right on the sidewalk - no yards in front.)  There were also alot of people sitting outside at the restaurant below our apartment... very cozy atmosphere.  We discovered a community library cupboard down one street, and also a hand-cranked ferry platform (max. 8 people) that takes people across a small canal to a nature park of some sort.  Pretty cool!  I am going to be very sad to leave this beautiful little country tomorrow.  :-(

Time for bed... tomorrow's a long travel day!