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Sean Is gone! Haley is Here! And I have finally posted pictures and a video thanks to Bert!Dag (Good day), We have now traveled by plane, train, automobile and bicycle.We got into the Amsterdam Airport from Dubrovnik late at night. We went and bought tickets for the train and the ticket guy says if you hurry you will catch your train on platform #1 so we ran and caught it...only it wasn't our train. He told us the wrong place. So the ticket checker guy says you are going the wrong way and we say: "how do you say Oh My! in Dutch?" and he says "s***". We start laughing. We finally get on the right train and then we get on the tram and go 10 stops past the one we were looking for because the directions from the hostel was incorrect. So we got in to the hostel at 12am. Ugh. So this was the worst hostel yet! We got no sleep at all!We got up the next morning and we are walking to get some breakfast and we see Katie's future husband. Rick Steves describes the Dutch people as the world's most handsome people - tall, healthy and with good posture. This man had on a suit and curly blond hair. He could not take his eyes off Katie. We then went to a cafe and about 20 min later the man walked by again with his eyes on Katie. We then sat and watched as everyone rode by on their bikes to work. There were some very handsome people. We decided that this country may be a fabulous place to live. We saw a sign for a Fisiotherapist and thought hey it could be us. We got on a train to Venlo and were met at the train station by Bert and Maryska family members of Haley and Katie. They Live in Tegelen. They made us some lunch and we learned Pindekaas (peanut butter) Yes they have it here! Then they took us on a bike ride. Haley and Katie were a little tentative but they did great. We had these old bikes and we rode all around the countryside. We had smiles on our faces the entire time, it was soooo much fun! It is absolutely beautiful here. The farther we went the more we thought we could live here. We learned that about 1/3rd of the Netherlands is below sea level. They have dikes to keep the water out. Holland is just the nickname for Netherlands and they call it Nederland. Venlo is about 5km from Germany...Very close. We rode about 25km and went to Bert and Maryska's soon to be new home. What a lovely town. We were exhausted and our butts hurt pretty bad. We had this amazing dinner and I tried what they call milk meat a new vegetarian substitute. Bert and Maryska are really kind funny people who are very giving. They make you feel comfortable right from the start and are very easy to talk to. They have traveled all over the world. Maryska is a really awesome painter/artist and Bert takes photographs that look fake they are so phenomenal. We slept upstairs. Everyone in town seems to be related, and it seems everyone knows everyone else. We went to the Missie Museum in Steyl which has taxidermy like I have never seen before. These animals were originally collected to educate missionaries about foreign countries. WOW! kinda gross but very interesting.We then went to Bert's parents who were very welcoming with tea and cookies. This is were we got to listen to Anthony play the Harmonica in the video. Then we went to Aunt Mia's house and had a tour of her house which is 100 years old. More chocolate. The rain came down and we had to wait to leave. We went to dinner at a Chinese/Indian food restaurant which was very good and then stopped by Maryska's parents house. They were very funny and her mother is a very good oil painter and her father is a woodworker and watercolor painter. They had fun shape puzzles to play like my mother would have on her coffee table. We had more sweets and tea. Everyone is so kind and generous. We have had quite a day with all of Haley and Katie's family.Tomorrow we are going back to Amsterdam for several days. More fun words: Alstublieft (please), Dank u wel (thank you) ~Renel
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