Friday, July 11, 2008

A Nice Day For a Bike Ride and Golf

While Anita was off helping two Golden Retrievers delivery their pups (she has three Golden Retrievers, two of which she is training for hunting competitions), Preston headed to Weert to play golf with Rob and Anita's brother, Paul. He hasn't played much this year and was a bit nervous that he wouldn't do very well, which turned out to be the case.

I asked Wouter and Jeske to take me on a bike ride and by the time we were done we had gone about 20 km, to Belgium and back and through the center of their town Goirle. It was a great day for a bike ride and Holland/Belgium are the places to do it - it is all flat and they have beautiful bike trails.
My tour guides took me to a little place in Belgium where we stopped and had a drink.
The town of Poppel, Belgium was as picturesque as the rest of the area we are staying in. You can see the church steep in the background.
Another shot of Poppel.

This is one Goirle's main streets. It doesn't look like Mesa at all and there aren't anywhere near as many cars on the streets or illegals standing on street corners looking for work. We ended the tour with a stop at a park with a windmill and a lot of ducks, deer, chickens, rabbits and goats. Note the typical Dutch houses in the background.
Along with my tour, I got Dutch lessons, of which I am a very poor student (can't seem to remember anything or make the correct sounds) and an in depth explanation of the differences between Belgium and the Netherlands from the roads and bicycle lanes to gas prices and housing styles. I was well educated by my two teenage Dutch guides who can both speak English while I can only say please and thank you in Dutch.


Tomorrow we are leaving for five days to see Luxembourg, Germany and Belgium. We will stay with Anita's Aunt who lives close to them all. Lucky us!

1 comment:

The Longs said...

That's SO cool! I've always wanted to visit the Netherlands. And yay for the bikes! Bikes rule!

- Steph