Zutphen
Zutphen is a lovely Dutch town full of historic and quaint buildings. This is our third time here and the aire is very close to the old town which makes it an ideal spot for the night and at 2€ for 24 hours it’s a bargain. After a slow start we explored the old town and stopped for a coffee and cake. We have been educating Lori on some Dutch food culture, so far she has tasted salted liquorice, stroop wafels, Vla [dutch custard], Hagel slag, Tompoos [dutch vanilla slice], appel stroop, croquettes, poffertijes, dutch cheese, and blindevinken.
So in Zutphen when we saw the stall selling raw herring she had to give it a try, served with onions, eating by holding the tail and lowering it into your mouth [see the photo Lori is a natural]. For lunch we had kibbeling which is small pieces of fish deep fried in a thin tasty batter. When we return to Holland at the end of our trip we will continue Lori’s education.
On the way back to the Bunyip we went to the supermarket intending to buy some bread rolls and came out with a six pack of Rose’ beer, a six pack of grapefruit beer, a bottle of liquor 43 and a bottle of Aperol. We did remember the bread rolls. After a pleasant day we headed off to Hengelo to catch up with some family.
The weather over the last few days has been extremely hot for Holland, on some days in the mid-thirties. Clear skies and a bit humid with all the water around.
Unexpected Family
Every year we have visited our cousin Mike and Aunty Janette, and we had arranged to meet up on Friday night at Mikes place. When we arrived we were pleasantly surprised when Dennis, Mike’s brother was there. It has been 7 years since we have seen him and he informed us that his wife Mirjam and son Maurice would be joining us for dinner.
Dinner that evening was at a very nice restaurant in Enschede, where we sat outside as the weather was still very warm. A good time was had by all and Aunty Jeanette took care of the bill, which was very generous of her. Dennis offered his driveway for us to park overnight and when we arrived there we also met Judith his daughter. A very pleasant surprize to see family we have never met before. In the morning we said our farewells and headed into Germany and headed to Oelde to visit our good friends the Motzki’s.
Weekend with the Motzki’s
This will be the seventh time that we have visited our friends the Motzki’s who we met at Lake Balaton, Hungary on our first trip in 2009. As always the passing of a year had not diminished our friendship and as always we were greeted warmly and it wasn’t long before Ewout had a beer in his hand with Jenny and Lori drinking bubbly wine. The time was spent drinking, eating, laughing, telling stories and enjoying each other company. Manfred who now lives 230 kilometres away made the effort to come for the weekend, which we appreciated. Its lovely to feel so welcome and loved when we are so far away from our own family in Australia. On Monday morning we said our farewells and headed off towards Luxembourg.
