Staying with Martha in Landgraff 22nd - 27th

22nd October

We arrived in Landgraff at 2.30pm. Martha had a buffet lunch awaiting us and we where so grateful as the train trip was 3 and a half hours long with know time to stop for food! After getting settled in and having a nap Martha cooked us a traditional dutch meal! It was dutch sausage with a mashed potato with spinach in it. Im not a fan of spinach, but i would never have told her that! It was just nice to be in a home for a change, with a clean shower and nice big bed! Marthas daughter Unky and her husband picked us up at 7.45 to go see an Australian Movie in a dutch Cinema! The movie was called Sansom and Delilah and it won an award this year at the Adelaide Film Festival. It was about two aboriginal kids that lived out in the bush of Australia in an aboriginal community! It was very confronting and very sad.It was good though for Ryan to be able to explain to them what was happening throughout the movie! We went back to Unkys house and met her daughter Esther. She was 9 when Jasmyn went to Holland and I believe they spent alot of time together!

23rd October

A Lazy day today. We slept in until 1pm, went to the supermarket to buy food for the next couple of days and we cooked dinner for Martha this night so she could relax after being with Jan for the afternoon!

24th October

Today bought us a as a day of adventure. Unky had given me the names of places to go and the times the trains came to each of these places and Ryan and I set out early Sunday morning for our adventure. First stop was Mastrischt, a fairly large size town a half hour from Landgraff, but still in The Netherlands. Everything was closed as it was a Sunday but we made the decision we would had bacxk there another day.

Next stop was Leige in Belgium. Anoither half hour away. Leige was a very pretty town and we spent the afternoon walking the markets and a fair they had on. I got to buy some Belgium Chocolates... yummy! So i was a happy girl!

After Leige we went to Aachen which is in Germany. it was 5pm when we got here and the city was closed aswell, however we went for a walk to see all the old buildings, the church and the town halls. Then we headed back to Landgraff.

25th October

Martha took us to Kerkrada today to show us the house where dad was born. We also went to the town centre for a walk and for Lunch. After lunch we went to visit Jan in his home. All i can say is i think it is amazing that Martha goes and sees him everyday from 2pm til 6 or 8pm. It was very sad seeing him that way but you can tell he is not unhappy and that is what helps Martha manage I think. We stayed with him until 5.30pm and then ordered dinner in tonight.

26th October

Our last day in Country Holland. We woke up early and caught the train back to Mastricht. We spent quite a bit of time wondering the streets and had our picnic lunch in the town square. On the way back to Landgraff we stopped of in a town called Valkunberg. A very very touristy town! I bought myself some wooden clogs and a few other goodies for the house, which are on there way home! We cooked dinner for Martha again tonight and Unky and her husband (cant spell his name) came over after dinner, we shared our bottle of wine from Italy with everyone and stayed up talking until late with them.
 
27th October

It was sad to say goodbye thos morning and as Martha said her holiday is now over too! Unky took us to the train station and off to the Airport we went. 3hours and a change of trains and we where there. Going through Amsterdam Security was not nice. I got patted down quite vigourously from a lesbian security guard because i beeped going through the metal detector. Im not joking either, she was a lesbian and she felt my boobs to see if i was hiding anything in my bra, and pulled the underwire away from my skin to see if anything fell out. Ryan had a joke with her saying... "shes hot isnt she, grab her bumb, her bumb is awesome, grab it i dare you" The security guys had a good laugh about it and they are lucky i didn't really mind to much, most people would feel a little violated after that. She fall on gropped me! yuck!

Anyway we arrived in Athens at 6.30pm. It was 25 degrees which was a nice chamge from the top of 17 degrees in The Netherlands but boy was it raining. It rained and rained and rained and rained for atleast 2hours, the streets where flooded and it was absolutly pelting down, we got saturated!