Wednesday

Wednesday 17 July Well this was one of those early mornings again. Anneke was working today so we did our own thing. Rotterdam was on the radar today. Now our bathroom has the toilet in it as well. Normally not a problem but when the room needs to be shared with 5 people, you can imagine that it is not only the room that we share... On top of that, the time limitations we have due to wanting to depart on time, means that the air-freshening system is not given enough time to get breathable air back into the room. So far trying to give us all a rating from 1 to 5, 1 being the worst, has not provided a clear leader. Anyway, we all survived again and after nutricious breakfasts we loaded the car. Kinderdijk is where those famous 7 windmills are. We decided to go for that first. During the drive I made use of the fact that the children could not walk away: I gave some rudimentary explanation of dijken and the workings of windmills in pumping water away. The drive toward the mills, gave nice views of the many houses built on the side of the dijk. Very unique. It was one of those days when the temperatures were pleasant but there was high cloud which caused it to be rather sticky. Pictures turned out rather bleak as well. Nevertheless it was a sight to behold. We were however not the first once that mourning. There were a significant number of aliens around already; two or 3 busloads I think it was. I was not the only one to notice either. Two young women driving past us later: one commented to the other that it seemed they were the only Dutch people there. I could not help comment back that it was not all that bad. after all our different cameras had immortilised identical pictures as many thousands of cameras had done during the last 50years or so before them, we decided to move on to the Spijkernisse Straat where the GLO School is where I went to the primary school. Following that we went to the Melissant straat where I lived. Some of the childhood stories that came to mind were related to the available offspring. They politely nodded and listened for a while and probably had some vain attempts to imagine me as a small child, doing the things I just told them about. Who can blame them? Since it had come close to lunchtime we started looking for a place near the river Maas where we could sit and eat. That proved a short adventure in in itself but after a tunnel under the Mass and several bridges, we parked the iron horse and found a spot closer to the water. A memorial we passed on the walk to the river edge, reminded of the many Jewish children, some as young as 1 year old, that were shipped out from that warf to the destruction camps. We appreciated our freedom all the more... Next we headed for Zwijndrecht where Oma Amoraal used to live. Tante Gera's place was a bit harder to find. When she did not respond to the door bell we asked next door if they knew where she was. Boy they were very helpful and when the older chap found out there was some sort of distant family, we received further help and even free drinks. The free use of the toilet was also appreciated to provide much needed relief from internal pressures. In Dordrecht we bought some lunch, and chocolates for Oma. Then it was time to head back. On our way to the freeway we noticed tho funny looking ship somewhere. On closer inspection it turned out to be the replica of Noah's ark. It is built by a private individual but it was done in reaction against evolutionism. His story had been in Creation Magazine last year or so. It is a big setup and dimentions are closely according to the biblical information available. It is used as an educational tool to show people the Bible can be believed. We hope to go back there for a visit still. After an uneventful ride home we took in some dinner and were then off to Oma Amoraal again. Oma was very attentive and alert. We talked about her past and she remembered a fair few details. It helped that she was nearly on her own in the sitting room because ten she does not get distracted. After some organising and relaxing we turned in to give our weary bodies a much needed rest again. Another day to be thankful for to the Lord our heavenly Father. signing off for the Amoraals-in Europe dad