Home for Easter

The husband and I just returned home from a week long road trip. We had a great time zipping around to look at potential retirement lakes in the husband's new ride. We also got to spend three days with our law student in Dallas. It doesn't matter that she's 23 years old - I still put together an Easter basket for her. Once I get a handle on the mountain of dirty clothes I just dumped in the laundry room and give our doggos some attention, I'll get my pictures downloaded and share what we saw with y'all. I hope everyone had a lovely holiday weekend celebrating the precious gift of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross at Calvary. He is risen, indeed!

But He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on Him, and by His wounds we are healed.  Isaiah 53:5

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die; and whoever lives by believing in me will never die..."  John 11:25-26

Another day touring in Amsterdam

On my last full day in Holland, we toodled over to the Van Gogh museum to check out some of his works. I had no idea the man was so into self portraits. It seems he wanted to practice painting people, so he found himself to be a handy model. He painted between 35-40 of them in his rather short artistic career and there was an entire room in the museum dedicated to Vincent's visage.

 

Poor Vincent was plagued with emotional issues, bouncing in and out of a psychiatric hospital during the final years of his life. Painting was recommended as therapy, which he took to heart, producing quite prolifically. It was during this time that he painted his "Pieta" below, so appropriate to this Lenten season. Unfortunately, Vincent committed suicide in France at the age of 37.

His famous "Sunflowers" was on display, along with "Irises". I especially enjoyed seeing his more light filled paintings of the Dutch or French countryside.  

I found the crab painting below to be more of a one-off, certainly not something typical of his usual style. And yet I was drawn to the rather charming and whimsical quality of it. 

Below are some pics of colorfully painted and floral bedecked bikes we spied around the city center. Of course, my eye was also drawn to some of the interesting old architecture, too. Alas, so much history, and certainly not enough time to discover it all, even on my third trip.

Playing tourist in Amsterdam

Since this was my third trip to Holland, it was nice to relax and enjoy time with TJ rather than racing around trying to see all of the major tourist sites. However, we did squeeze in a couple visits to Amsterdam, a mere twenty minute Uber ride from her digs. As we walked along the canals, which are everywhere, I noticed stumble stones in the pavement and pointed them out to TJ. I saw our first stumble stones when we visited Berlin in 2016.

Stolpersteine aka "stumbling stones" were created by a German artist who has now placed approximately 70,000 scattered throughout Europe in over 1,200 towns and cities as diminutive monuments of remembrance to victims of the Holocaust. Approximately four inches square and made of brass, each commemorates a victim outside their last known freely-chosen residence. The inscription on each stone begins "Here lived", followed by the victim's name, date of birth, and fate: internment, suicide, exile or, in the vast majority of cases, deportation and murder.

Below is Westerkerk, the church I remembered Anne mentioning (Westertoren) in her diary just a few days after they went into hiding. Completed in 1631, Anne wrote about hearing the chimes from the church's imposing bell tower ringing the hour, and that she found it reassuring. I don't know why I can recall this bit of minutiae from the diary I initially read so long ago, but there it is.

The last time I toured the Anne Frank house was with the husband and girls back in 2011. This time I got to actually stop and read all of the information and watch the videos since we didn't have our girls tapping their toes at the exit after they rushed through the hiding place. I first read Anne Frank's diary way back when I was in 8th grade in Mrs. Campbell's English class in the early 1980s. She didn't spare us many of the Holocaust's horrors, and man's inhumanity to man made a big impression on me. Twenty years later, I found myself teaching this same important piece of historical literature to my own 8th grade students. When I had the opportunity while living abroad, I scheduled tours of Dacchau and Auschwitz to allow our family to witness firsthand the horrors of Hitler's final solution. It's a sobering reminder, especially in light of what happened in Israel on October 7, 2023, that hate is alive and well in our modern world.

The week before touring the hiding place again, I picked up a copy of Hannah Pick-Goslar's book "My Friend Anne Frank" and read it before visiting the Anne Frank house. Sure enough, there on the wall in the snack shop, there was a picture that contained Anne and her playmates in a sand box that I recognized. The girl on the far left is Hannah, with Anne right next to her. Childhood friends, the girls crossed paths again at the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Unlike Anne, Hannah survived the war and moved to British Mandate Palestine - now Israel - in 1947, which was what her father longed to do to escape Nazi persecution. She lived the life Anne and so many of their Jewish friends were denied, passing away in 2022 at the age of 93, surrounded by her family. It was an inspiring recollection of perseverance during this dark period in history.

 

TJ's Dutch puppers

While in Holland, I enjoyed getting to know TJ's pony-sized doggos. Old man Monty is a Landseer and puppy Rabbit is mostly St Bernard. That's a whole lotta fur and slobber on four legs, y'all. But they were just so danged sweet. Truly gentle giants. 

While our terriers aren't particularly fond of riding in the car, both Monty and Rabbit were happy to lounge in the backseat while we took in some of the sights. I thought Rabbit might be rambunctious since he won't celebrate his first birthday until the summer. However, they were both at ease lounging around in the apartment minding their own business most of the time.

 

 

Rabbit really enjoyed time spent on the balcony watching the world go by. Monty was always glad to flop over and let me scratch him until my arms got tired. Walking them was so very different from our little yappers. Because of their sheer size, my friend devised this double leash method of attaching them to your waist in order to maintain control. She learned this lesson after being dragged down a few times. It didn't take long for me to get the hang of it... keeping up with their leisurely pace, not scraping up the sidewalk with my knees.

I couldn't help but laugh when big ol' Rabbit assumed the same legs up pose our Finn does when he's totally relaxed while snoozing. It's obviously not just a smaller dog thing!

My friend's Shangri-La, Sluishuis

The older I get, the less I enjoy plane travel. However, I've discovered it's more bearable in business class. That extra legroom with the fold flat seat is worth every penny, and then some. You'll notice it isn't a tremendous amount of space, but at least you don't have seat neighbors breathing on you. Or leaning back onto your lap. A lovely perk was that KLM gifts business class fliers with these cute little blue painted delft houses. They brought around a selections of several darling options and I'm quite pleased with the two I chose.

My childhood friend TJs place in Holland is an architectural marvel named Sluishuis. Cantilevered out over the water, it's this lovely mix of metal and wood that really catches the eye. Her unit has a patio/windows looking out into the courtyard as well as towards the shipping lane and house boats moored adjacent to the building. For a mere $285K, you too can have a permanent spot to dock your floating home. 

 

 

The vista from the 10th floor was pretty amazing. And windy. You can see Amsterdam in the distance. It was nice to get up there to get oriented as to where we were and have a bird's eye view. I couldn't help but notice this pair of ducks appeared to have staked a claim to the area leading up from the water. TJ told me that in the summer it's a regular occurrence for folks to dive in and go swimming from these platforms and convenient ladders located in the inner courtyard. 

Sisterhood of the traveling suitcases

Yesterday we went out to the barn for me to select two suitcases to take on my upcoming trip. We had accrued quite the collection of large cheapies over the years when we lived in England and thus traveled quite extensively. (I'm at 43 countries visited, which is hard to believe.) Alas, both suitcases needed a good wipe down due to the accumulation of dust, and the fact that I haven't used them since the fall of 2022. I recalled I had ordered new luggage tags after our move, so I got those replaced. Now it's just a matter of fitting my clothes plus all of the sundry fun Texas items I bought for my expat friend into the available space. Though after almost 30 years living in The Netherlands, Europe has replaced Texas as her home.

As I get older, I've noticed my travel bucket list has gotten shorter. Beyond a second trip to the Holy Lands with the husband after he retires, about the only gotta-go place that's a bee in my bonnet is New Zealand. Oh sure, there are still places on the US mainland we plan to hit on road trips in retirement. Plus another Alaska trip, as well as river cruise or two, but that's about it.

Growing up and in my early adulthood, we had no money for travel. I didn't take my first ride on an airplane until I was 26. Once we had the girls, it became more about waiting for them to mature a bit, and then scheduling travel around their interests and activities. Now it's about arranging a dog and house sitter for our rotten fur babies here in our empty nest. Alas, I guess I didn't realize I'd hit this stage in the game quite so soon, where we'll have the money and time to travel but lack the inclination because it's kind of a hassle to be away from home. 

The husband has been investigating travel trailers and motorhomes lately. I do my best not to think about Cousin Eddie's tenement on wheels in "Christmas Vacation". The husband thinks this is a fabulous option because we don't have to unpack, travel with all of the amenities of home and can take the doggos along for the ride. There's no need to be at the mercy of folks to dog/house sit, which is a lovely thought. However, I've gotta admit I'm not exactly sold on this idea. But who knows. Lots of folks are big fans, including the husband's parents who spent a big chunk of their retirement toodling all over the US in their motorhome while towing their little SUV behind it. At this point, I'd probably give it a go if it provided a means to escape our ridiculously hot Texas summers and head to the mountains for a couple months at a time. Never say never, y'all.