REMEMBERING FAMILY
Easter weekend turned into an unexpected walk through history. Originally the plan was to join Martijn's parents camping on the weekend; however, the Dutch weather was not cooperating. Martijn's mom emailed us a week before and said that they've decided to forego camping due to the weather; however, we were still going to celebrate Easter together, but it was a surprise. When they picked us up on Saturday morning, they let us know we'd be going to Drenthe - the only province I had not seen in the Netherlands. I was so excited! Not only was I going to check off the last of 12 provinces, but Drenthe is where half of my Dutch family originates. My Oma and Opa lived in the city of Assen until after World War II when they immigrated to Canada.

Saturday: On our way to the hotel in Westerbork we stopped in Veenhuizen to take a tour of the jail museum there. The jail isn't in use anymore, but it was an important one until recently. I had just learned a lot about Sweden's justice system the week before in Stockholm and here I was able to learn about another system in the Netherlands. It even spurred a lot of discussions among the four of us about various popular criminal cases in the Netherlands. Following the museum, Johan took a quick detour through Assen, where my Oma and Opa had lived. Even though I didn't know much about how it looked when they lived there, it was surreal to pass by places they might have frequented. I felt a surge of interest and excitement and spent most of the car ride to the hotel texting with my mom questions about their history. At the hotel we relaxed with a welcoming cup of coffee and raisin bread (with almond spice in the middle). We picked a nice place by the fire and enjoyed each others company before taking a nap in our rooms before dinner. We enjoyed a delicious surprise 5-course dinner. It was so exciting not to know what they were going to bring out for the next course. It was so enjoyable to chat over a drawn out meal.

Sunday: They had an Easter package for the weekend which included a morning horse ride through the town of Westerbork. The towns in Drenthe are so cute! The houses are beautiful and having the woods around us made it seem we were really in the middle of nowhere. Perfect for a relaxing Easter weekend. Arriving back at the hotel we sat down to enjoy a fabulous Easter brunch. Delicious food and yet again great conversation. After brunch we headed out to Westerbork concentration camp (http://www.kampwesterbork.nl/nl/index.html#/index). It hit me a little since my Opa had spent time in a concentration camp in Germany during the Second World War. We arrived just in time to hear a survivor from the Westerbork camp speak about her time there. She explained that it was a transit camp where people would only stay for about a week before being transferred to Germany. After her talk we were able to walk through the camp, although there was really nothing left as they dismantled in the the 70s. In the evening we again had a lovely dinner at the hotel. This time a four course dinner which again allowed us a lot of time to chat at our hotel.

Monday: We had a late checkout which allowed us time to sleep in. After a busy weekend, we enjoyed it! On our way back home we stopped at the cute museum town of Orvelte (http://www.orvelte.net/). It was so beautiful there! No tourist cars were allowed in the village so you walked through, which wasn't a problem since it was quite small. Many of the barns/houses had various museums inside. Some were used bookstores, glassblowing, make your own cheese and so many more. It was lovely to walk in the sunshine checking out various places. We even stopped at a small bakery to buy kniepertjes, a delicious cookie my Oma used to make. One more stop on the way home was the Hunnebeden (http://www.hunebedcentrum.eu/en/). Similar idea to Stonehenge, but smaller scale. They know the stones came from Scandanavia (Sweden and Finland), but that's where the knowledge stops. They had a great museum there to learn what you could know about them.

It was such an amazing weekend! And even better that we could share it with Joke and Johan. It was really amazing to spend so much time together and we can't wait until we get to do it again!