Scanning in some old photos(slides) and came across some of my sister Gwen with a friend’s Saluki pups. One of the oldest breeds. Beautiful dogs. The photos are from the early 70s – the last one is the mama – not being very co-operative.
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| Gwen van Kleef, Gwen Jones |
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| Gwen Van Kleef, Gwen Jones |
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| Gwen Van Kleef; Gwen Jones |
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| Gwen Van Kleef; Gwen Jones |
A few days before leaving, we visited Utrecht. About half an hour south of where we were staying in Amsterdam with Yvonne’s cousin Greetje. Beautiful city. I think older than Amsterdam and not as busy with tourists. Apparently is the religious centre of The Netherlands evidenced by the churches. Was an amazing sunny day with people out on the water, in parks and sitting outside restaurants in pretty much every available spot.
Yvonne and Greetje:
Where is Yvonne? #whereisyvonne
We went to Kinderdijk with Yvonne’s cousins Peter and Eric. That is south of Amsterdam a ways.
The windmills there are still completely functional. They were built about 400 years ago and still work. Maybe the automobile industry and computer industry could take a few lessons from the Dutch. Here, they are pumping the water from the field into the main canal with feeds into a major river that runs into the sea.
Is was still raining a bit when we first got there so we had some coffee and apple pie with cream while it cleared up and then rented bicycles for the day. I’d been dying to go for a good long bike ride but didn’t expect to go this far – we did about 40 kilometres (approx. 25 miles). When we got to where we were going we had lunch and some Belgium beer. Made the legs a bit rubbery for the first bit of the ride back. Going out it was pretty overcast as you can see in the first bunch of pics of the windmills. Sun came out later making for some different photos.
Roamed around Amsterdam some more. Managed to find ourselves in the Red Light District – AGAIN! But at night this time.
This is what the kids ride around in – no helmut (yea baby!!)
A wooden bicycle:
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| martin jones; gwen van kleef |
Yesterday we drove through Makkum, about 45 minutes north of Amsterdam. This is a small sea town where my ancestors – well, basically where my family tree on mum’s side started. The house below is where the first Kingma lived. That is the name my great(to the Nth) grandfather lived. You can see the plaque on the side of the house with his original name and the date: 1767 (Yeah, that’s me at the front door:) This is the great* ancestor of me and sister Gwen Van Kleef.
Apparently he was a shipbuilder and paid to have the locks there enlarged so that his ships would fit. Here is a view of one side of the lock from the house.
Another picturesque little town among hundreds. Here are some photos of the village and harbour:
My sweetie:
