Summer Trip - Bonn/Nieuwvliet/Glessen (31July-10th August)

Matthew sings a song at his 80th Birthday dinner:

Summer Trip 2008 – Bonn (31st July – 2nd August)

We had organised to have a day with Matthew, so early in the morning we drove to Beuel (in Bonn) to meet him at his accommodation. Ingo and Troute were also there and we boarded the ‘Poseidon’ for a two hour cruise along the Rhein River. We disembarked at Linz, a lovely old town with narrow cobble-stoned streets and colourfully painted buildings. We walked around the town and had some lunch before boarding the ‘Moby Dick’ for the return to Bonn. Mark quickly visited Ushi while we got ready to go out for dinner to celebrate Matthew’s 80th birthday with Ingo, Troute and some of his school friends. It was an entertaining evening with music and magic tricks.

Summer Trip 2008 – Nieuwvliet, The Netherlands (2nd – 8th August)

We packed up the cars and headed off for a six night holiday at Nieuwvliet, a seaside resort in Holland with Irene and Eckhard. Once we were settled in we had a walk along the beach, some chile con carne for dinner, played ‘31’ card game and hit the sack.
Mark and Terri-Lyn went for an early morning run along the dunes at the beach. We drove our cars the 12 kilometres into Sluis. Rain started falling when we arrived. We walked through the shops and stopped for coffee/hot chocolate under the town’s windmill. Spent the afternoon relaxing.
After brekky the girls, Mark and Ecki rode their bikes for about 20 kms on a round trip to Cadzand and were hot and tired when they met up with Terri-Lyn and Irene (who had walked there). There we had a drink/ice-cream. Back at the unit we had a BBQ, sat and chatted til bed.
We tried the beach out after breakfast the next day, but it was too cool and windy to sit, so Zoe and Irene went for a walk along the beach searching for shark's teeth but were unlucky. We played ten-pin bowling in the afternoon before enjoying a delicious spaghetti Bolognese.
The morning was lovely and warm, with very little wind so we ate our breakfast of eggs and bacon outside on the porch. We all went to the beach for a few hours, then Mark, Alexandra and Zoe rode their bikes to Bretzens, while Ecki rode for 96kms.Farmer’s Omelette was a delicious way to finish our day.
During the night we were all woken up by a thunderstorm. When we got up in the morning the rain was still relentless, with the rain running full pelt down the glass doors (Irene called it the Rheinfalls at Schaffhausen). Due to the weather we had a very quiet day in, reading and playing games, before another round of ten-pin bowling.
Once we had packed and cleaned the house we drove off towards Glessen. There was heavy rain and major staus (traffic jams) which made our journey a few hours longer than it should have been.

OVERVIEW OF NIEUWVLIET:
* Breakfast each morning was spent together around a table of rolls, cheese, ham, jams, eggs, bacon, juice, coffee - courtesy of Ecki. We really appreciated his cooking each day.
* Beaches were nice, but no surf and murky water, yet jam-packed with people.
* Summer weather in Europe - very ordinary - only about 5/6 warm, sunny days in five and a half weeks.


Summer Trip 2008 – Glessen (8th – 10th August)

When we arrived back in Glessen we watched the last part of the Olympic Games Opening Ceremony with Auntie Netty. It was interesting that the Germans and Swiss call Beijing ‘Peking’.
The following day we dressed up and drove in to Cologne to attend the wedding service of Irene’s friend, Rosemary's daughter. The church was a beautiful, historical place and there was a choir playing wonderful music during the ceremony. Afterwards, outside the church we met the bridal couple and had a glass of champagne/orange juice with the guests. We dropped the girls off with Aunty Netty before walking to the house of an Australian woman who lives in Glessen, Judy (with her husband Franz). It was great to catch up for a chat with an Aussie accent.