(Photo one: church in Spize on castle grounds. Photo two: inside church. Photo three: Thune. Photo four: shopping street in Thune. Photo five: New Years day at the beach)

Before I get into the rest of my Christmas vacation I must say that I will try to make this the last entry talking about holiday fun and get on with other stuff. There have been a lot of other things going on……..anyway, here we go.

Friday afternoon Dan and I took off for The Hague. We decided to take a slightly different rout home and drive almost straight north through Germany. Our first destination was Kandertal. We were taking another car train Leukerbad to Kandertal. The train ride ended up being only 15 min and it saved us about an hour of drive time.

Though I have to say, before we got very far down the road, we did stop to do some shopping. We stopped at the Carrefour (a large grocery store similar to Fred Meyer) right outside of Brig to stock up on Swiss wine and other goodies. OK, back to the travel. Once off the car train we drove toward Spiez, a great little town on the south shore of Lake Thun. This would be a great place to visit during the summer. We decided to drive through town and visit the medieval castle that sat by the lake. The setting was unbelievable. Snow capped Alps all around and lovely stone houses lining squeaky clean bricked lanes.

From here we headed to the town Thun which sat at the north Shore of Thun Lake. We arrived at around five in the evening and parked close to the center of town and just walked around for awhile. We walked up through the center of town and the headed up to the castle that sat on top of a hill on the east side of the town center. By the time Dan and I got to the castle it was closed to the public. From the grounds we could see the surrounding Alps and the town below. The sky was violet in color giving way to the onset of night. Looking across to the Alps it was like a scene out of “Lord of the Rings”, on several picks lights could be seen that had the look of huge bond fires. I have no idea what they were.

On our walk back to the car we strolled through an old shopping street called Obere Hauptgasse. This street had shops at different levels. The sidewalk split allowing you to walk at street level by lower shops and the upper sidewalk was the roof of the lower shops. So as you walked in front of the upper shops you were walking on the roof of the lower ones, if this makes any since. From Thune we drove to Basel where we spent the night.

The next morning we skirted along the eastern part of France heading for Germany. Outside of Millhouse we had to make another stop at the local Carrefour for more shopping, or I should say hamstering. I bought several bottles of French wine and this wonderful butter with sea salt, also bought several cans of caussoulay. Who knew that caned white beans in gravy with sausage and duck could be so unbelievable good? Only the French can put heaven in a can. Oh and there were other odds and ends that made its way into our basket. By the time we were done the car was sufficiently loaded down.

After our shopping detour it was peddle-to-the-mettle and off for home. Once in Germany and on the Autobahn, we were just in driving mode. Our rout took us past Heidelberg, Frankfurt, Köln, Düsseldorf and then into the Netherlands. At one point both of us were so travel weary that we could not see straight and stopped to get some sandwiches.

Finally at about eight pm we entered Holland and soon the land became flat and familiar. It was a strange experience to have this feeling of home creep in the closer to The Hague we got. It was like this homing device was triggered with in me. I guess this was a sign that this is my home, at least for now. It was an awakening within me to know that I really have landed in a place that holds comfort for me. We drove up to my front door at a little after nine and Mojo was very glad to have humans in the house again. I have to say that my co-worker Marta took very good care of her because she did not show her usual separation anxiety.

The next morning, December 31st, we took the car back then spent the day walking around the Centrum. Of course that night was New Years. I had been warned about New Years in The Hague as being a crazy night. A time when the Dutch feel the need to reenact every war they have ever been in and try to blow their country up with illegal fireworks. Well how bad could it be? The Dutch are so mild mannered…….To be safe Dan and I thought we would stay away from down town and head to the beach instead. We left for the beach at around 10:30. As we walked, we could hear the constant sound of one kind of fireworks or another going off. Then it began to rain. Once at the beach it was a down pore with gale force winds thrown into the mix. We then lost our enthusiasm and headed for home.

We were socked through. With heads bent we walked past a police station and saw several police pulling in with full riot gear on. Then as we walked into the neighborhood next to mine we past a few Christmas trees pulled out into the street on fire in a burn pile with a bike thrown in for good measure. Then we saw a couple of teenagers walking down the street pulling old computer monitors by there power cords. It was strangely quit as we walked except for the occasional burning tree. We past several homes with people gathered with friends celebrating the pending New Year.

We got back to the house at about five minutes to midnight. Stripped out of our wet cloths and pulls something warm off. Then midnight struck and you would have thought WW III was just declared. All the people snug in theirs homes with family and friends popped out into the street to take part in blowing up the country. Things were exploding outside of my front window. You could hear things being launched into the air. The sound was defining and in every possible direction. Dan and I headed up to the third floor bedroom to go take a look outside from the balcony thinking it would be safe because it overlooks the backyard area. I have a skylight, and as we walked up the stairs, the stair well was lit up with all the colors of the rainbow, going from green, to red to, white flashes. Once out on the balcony we could see fireworks lighting up the sky in every direction. We watched for about five minutes then went back inside. All I can say is I’m sooooo glad we made it back before midnight. I would have freaked out if we were caught in the middle of all this. It was scary enough being inside the house. The noise was constant for more then a half hour. Now I know why my co-worker Steve and his wife leave every New Years.
New Years day there is a tradition here in The Hague similar to “the Polar bear club”. At noon, several people gather at the beach (close to an area known as “The Board Walk”) and run into the surf. The North Sea, I think is colder then the Pacific along the Oregon coast. Plus it’s January 1st. Dan and I decided to go and check out the festivities, so we made our way back to the beach. We arrived right at noon. All up and down the beach there were groups of people stripped down to bathing suits running into the surf. There was also plenty of Dutch authority around to make sure everyone was safe and I have to say, no one stayed in for very long.

The rest of the first week of January was spent doing some site seeing around The Hague and Amsterdam. Then Dan flew back to Portland on Saturday the 6th. Then it was back to work the following Monday. I was lucky enough to work in court during the closing arguments of the Martic case witch proved to be an interesting and entertaining time. I will talk about this in my next installment. Until then I wish everyone well.

Cheers!

Kim