Harnessing the wind

Sorry for the gap in posts. It has been a little crazy around here. I actually wrote this one on time, but never had time to post it! So, this post is for the week of April 10-17th... 

This week has been one that I have been looking forward to for a long while. I got to plan a trip for our family to take during Gideon’s school break and I really wanted to go up to Belgium and the Netherlands (in our family we call them “waffle land” and “flower land”). And let me tell you, it totally lived up to all my expectations. It was just so incredibly fun to go on a family adventure together!! I drew a map for Gideon so that he could check in on our progress and anticipate our next adventure --- he loved it!

We started off Saturday and drove to Pierrefonds Chateau. My uncle Jeff had recommended it and it is the place where the show Merlin is filmed, so I thought it would be cool, but it far surpassed my expectations! It is one of those places that make it so easy for your imagination to run wild. You can just picture the knights of Camelot riding in after slaying a dragon or a medieval princess attending a masked ball in the courtyard. The boys loved all the animal themed sculptures and décor (including lizard drainpipes and porcupine wallpaper!) Thankfully there were not many other visitors, because the boy’s other highlight was bum-sliding on the old wooden floor…) After exploring the castle, we found a nearby playground and got some wiggles out while eating lunch, before forcing the seatbelts back on.

From there we drove to Ghent, Belgium. We wandered the streets, crossed bridges and gawked at all the picturesque views. At every turn there was another charming gingerbready style house or awe-inspiring stone church. We grabbed some waffles from a street vendor (trying both the Brussels and the Liege style --- Liege was better…) and then found a long line of people waiting for fries at a hole in the wall stand. We joined the line and waited for 45 min because #1 there were tons of people waiting and #2 the man running the stand was a grizzled old Flemish man who did not seem to care one iota about lines, social pressure or where he threw the salt. The menu looked like something out of Doctor Seuss with words that truly looked made up, but we asked one of our fellow line waiters what they got and followed their example by getting some fries with a type of beef stew on top. It was delish. We ate our fries next to the river, watched the kayakers float by and bathed in the warm sunlight. It could not get more perfect!

 

The next day we went to church at what appears to be the only Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints building in the Flemish half of Belgium (fortunately it was less than 5 minutes from our Airbnb)! All was going well until, partway into the program I reached up and pulled a lice from my hair!! For the rest of the meeting, I was freaking out, but Gideon had a good time in primary (despite not knowing what anyone was saying) and Benjin loved joining Pierce in nursery where he got to chat with the two nursery leaders and learn about their conversion stories.

 

From there we went to a local park to explore and have lunch. Pierce loved eating by the “water-fall” and Gideon was addicted to performing knight/dragon skits with daddy on the amphitheater stage. After lunch we made our way to St. Bravo’s Cathedral to view the famous Ghent altarpiece. My sister, Annilyn had helped educate us about this artistic and historic marvel before coming and again it lived up to all the hype! It was incredible to look at this huge work of art and consider all the back story. We thought about how this was revolutionary for oil painting as a discipline, we thought about all that this piece has been through including multiple thefts and nearly being destroyed during the reformation, and we thought about the symbols and all that Van Eyke did to try and testify through his work about the redeeming role of Jesus Christ. What an incredible work and what an incredible story that somehow after all it has been through it is back in the same church where it was originally placed in 1432. After seeing the altar piece, we sat in the church for a bit and enjoyed a concert of Renaissance music while admiring the lovely cathedral.

From there we drove up to Sommelsdijk in Flower land. On the way we MIRACULOULY were able to get our hands on a bottle of lice shampoo despite the fact that all the “apothecaries” were closed. After saying a prayer, Benjin happened to see an apothecary sign and suggested I check it out. It led me behind a dumpster, down an ally and through a weird looking office/storage unit (it felt totally sketch), but eventually I found the pharmacist who gave me the liquid gold! And eventually we all took anti-lice showers.

 

Monday brought with it a cold snap along with rain. This, combined with the fact that the bike shop was closed, canceled our planned bike ride past tulip farms. But, we still loved our time driving around and through the tulip farms. The colors were just majestic! The pictures really can’t do it justice.

Next, we drove up to Gouda where we, unsurprisingly saw and ate lots of cheese. We also checked out the original siroopwafel shop and just enjoyed wandering the darling streets.

Then we checked into our Airbnb which was sandwiched between two canals so that it had one canal in the front and one in the back. Pierce loved being able to sit on the couch and watch the “quack, quacks.” We had a nice relaxing dinner as a family and topped the day off with some Dutch chocolate milk… which only enhanced a growing addiction Pierce has for “call-it milk.”

 

In the morning we drove up to Zaanse Schans. Fortunately for Pierce we stumbled upon a small visitor’s center for Dezaan (a Dutch cocoa company). The moment we walked inside we were each greeted with a big cup of “call-it-milk!” Pierce was thrilled. We spent the next few minutes learning about the differences between cocoa powder and butter, how they are made, and the chemistry involved in supplying the perfect product. It was fascinating and our new Dutch chocolate chemist friend was fantastic.

 

We then made our way across the bridge to Zaanse Schans where got to embrace all the Dutch heritage and stereotypes. We explored old windmills, ate more cheese, and tried on wooden shoes. Our favorite part was getting to go inside one of the windmills and see how it works. We watched in awe as the wind's power was harnessed to crush linseeds, stir the pulp, and finally extract the oil. As the men worked, it was like watching an expert sailboat captain reading the winds and managing the sails. They told us they have to listen to the windmill in order to know whether they need more or less speed. 

From there we made our way into Amsterdam where we found out that bikers run the roost. As a result, driving is a bit harrowing, but eventually we were able to park and explore. We rode the free ferry across the river and back (which the boys loved) and ate delicious Dutch food at a quiet restaurant down a small side street. That evening we went to the Anne Frank house. I had tried to be on top of it and get tickets early, but by the time I got them the only time left for the day we needed was 9pm at night. So, at 9pm we started our tour with two exhausted little boys. Pierce was especially loopy and probably extremely distracting for all the other guests who were trying to have a meaningful experience. Our efforts to control Pierce made it a bit of a struggle to concentrate on our experience… but in some ways I wonder if it made it a bit more accurate. 

Life is complicated. We want to be able to control things. I feel confident that Anne and her family felt that as much as anyone. And yet, we can't. Sometimes it rains. Sometimes we get lice. Sometimes the only time slot for a tour is 9'oclock at night. The best we can do is learn to listen and do our best to harness the wind. And it is amazing the remarkable things we can do with the power of wind! 

Met liefde, 

De familie Facer