August 25

This morning was another restful and delicious one here in Blijham.  We headed out a bit before noon again, this time just with Petra, to see a cool fortress in the shape of a 5 pointed star, surrounded by two moats.  It was a pretty important defense in the past, but now it is for historical purposes rebuilt, and actually, people still live in houses inside the fortress.  The walls are just made of dirt, but they are quite high and steep.  It was pretty cool to see, and even cooler because we could walk atop the walls all the way around it.  We had some coffee and cookies when we got back, then headed out later with Petra and Edward for a drive to the sea, to see a sluice system that regulates the water level in the canals there.  It had a lock in addition to the sluice, and was of course very windy there.  The landscape reminds me so much of West Michigan, down to the variable weather patterns and clouds that we have been seeing the last few days.  I could find myself at home here pretty easily, aside from the Dutch language of course (learning German helps you read some of it maybe, but it is not really close enough all the time for meaningful comprehension (maybe for Germans it does, but not me)).  After seeing the sea, we headed back into town to get some food stuffs for dinner, and to look for a Netherlands national team jersey from the World Cup, which no one had unfortunately.  After that we headed back to the house.  For supper tonight we had Edward's famous pumpkin soup, which was quite delicious indeed.  The main food was a stalwart meal of potatoes, beans and beef though and was quite tasty with some red wine.  We always have very interesting talks with Petra and Edward about a variety of things too, which is always fun.  They are full of interesting stories.