We're rather behind in the blogging (again!) so we thought we'd put the next two days of our trip into one. We've been having such a nice time with family that the blogging has taken a back step :)

We should start with a great big thank you to Aunty Margareth & Uncle Albert who have been looking after us these past few days. It's amazing how 'at home' we felt :)

We arrived in Schoonebeek on Saturday and had a tour of the house and got to see all the renovations that have kept Uncle Albert busy (their house is a historic farm house which looks historic but well-maintained from the outside and lovely and new from the inside).

In the afternoon we went to see a real Dutch windmill. We were just expecting to take a few photos from the outside but when we got there we met a passionate miller who took us on a very interesting two hour tour of the whole thing! The windmill is working exactly as it was in the old days with only wind power driving the mill, sifter and all manner of bag lifting devices. They also produce ultra-organic flour, made from organic grains and milled using only wind. We took some of this flour home, made it into pancakes and lovingly covered it with E150 caramel flavoured syrup.

We went for a drive around the town and saw lots of houses connected to Aunty Margareth, Uncle Albert and Uncle Albert's family. It's a really pretty town with the old houses, big trees and lots of grass.

We left Uncle Albert making the above-mentioned pancakes and headed to the Dutch-German border for the obligatory photo opportunities.

The next day we went to Giethoorn, the Venice of the Netherlands. It's an old and pretty town with lots of canals connecting the houses. We had a guided tour by boat (a private tour as luckily we were the only ones on it!) and got to see a bit more than our lazy legs would take us. The captain was very funny but we must have seemed like the dumbest tourists as we laughed at least a minute after each joke as we had to wait for a translation from Dutch to English.

On the way home we passed an eerily quiet funny little town with all wood painted blue and green. We can't remember its name but we do remember that it was an eerily quiet funny little town with all wood painted blue and green.

I had a driving lesson on the way home to get me used to driving on the right (but wrong) side of the road. It was really weird and I felt like a beginner behind the wheel again but Uncle Albert was a very patient teacher.

The day finished with another yummy home cooked dinner and a late night as we were chatting too much :)

- Brett