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Dutch holidays and celebrations, festive days, parties and festivals

Snow and ice skating fun in the Netherlands

...thus in Kerkrade too. Since Christmas there was already moderate frost over night time in the southern provinces of the Netherlands. After the turn of the year the frost became even severe and sometimes very severe and even on day time temperature hardly rose above minus 5 °C. Snow had fallen too and so on Wednesday January 7 2009 after school the three of us had a lot of fun in the city park of Kerkrade, where there was a nice slope near the last two ponds of the city park, that the webmaster has used too for sledding when he was a kid. In surrounding cities Brunssum, Landgraaf and Heerlen the authorities have given permission to skate on some ponds, but the citizens of Kerkrade had to wait until January 9. Then it was allowed to skate on the the pond in Kerkrade known as the "rowing pond" while there wasn't any more a boat in it since ages :-) There was also taken care of a van serving some food and drinks to keep warm. Due to the snow the Anstel valley looks like in a Christmas tale. Unfortunately the condition of the ice surface was bad on most locations. According to brother Cor, whom we were supposed to meet, the state of the ice of the pond in the Schutters park in Brunssum was much better. That was true, because on Sunday afternoon we made some great rounds there. At home that weekend we took measures too for the extreme cold, having prepared a large pan of traditional Dutch pea soup and an ice cold bottle of Berenburg on the balcony. At least that one could stand the extremely low temperatures, in contrast with a bottle of lemonade which exploded on Saturday afternoon with a loud boom.

Celebrating New year's eve - Silvester - at home with our friends from Schiedam and Zeeland

Anita and the webmaster decided to celebrate the turn of the year from 2007 to 2008 with our friends from Schiedam and Philippine in Zealand. Really great that Nettie and Jean-Pierre wanted to be our guests for one time, after all those years of hospitality and those many overnight stays in the Dutch mussel town number one Philippine during the mussel festival. Anita and the webmaster had to go to work on that very last day of the year. Fortunately the whole group had arrived in time in Kerkrade and in pub Jules on town square they already discovered the beer named after the abbey Rolduc. Most of the visitors to our website already have noticed that we love Croatia and in particular the Dalmatian area. No wonder that we did not have to think long what we were going to serve them: čevapčići and pljeskavica, but also pizza and lasagne are quite easy for us to prepare. Salads are Anita's responsibility.
After reviewing the everything we can conclude, the celebration of new year's eve has been a success. All plates and casseroles were almost empty. The kegs of Bitburger too :-). Lots of evergreens and hits that meant something to us were played and we remembered old stories.
On January 1st 2008 traditionally for the people of Kerkrade the new year's meeting in pub de Wieëtsjaf on town square of Kerkrade is held, meanwhile a habit something for our relatives to meet here too and shake hands. Of course the kids were allowed to slide down the super slide on town square and of course the club from Zeeland and Schiedam go on a photo with statue "d'r Joep" whose 50th birthday it was in 2007 and who is a tribute to the coalminers of the province Limburg.

Indoor skiing in Alpincenter Bottrop and Queen's day on Hoek van Holland beach

Only shortly before Queen's day in Holland over the last weekend of April of the very sunny spring of 2007, we booked a two night stay at van der Valk hotel in Gladbeck in Germany in the Ruhr Area including a whole day of skiing on the slope of indoor Alpincenter in Bottrop. The Offer of only €35,- (Saturdays and Sundays €46;-) included equipment and all food and drinks. Anita experienced, that skiing is something that looks easier than it is and good teaching of the basic techniques is indispensable. In between of course we enjoyed the drinks and good buffet and from the easy chairs on top of the hill we enjoyed the bright sunshiny weather conditions and the amazing view over the Ruhr Area. On Saturday we went shopping in the completely sheltered shopping centre by the name of "Centro" in Oberhausen. The webmaster needed some new clothing and since there were a couple of H&M stores, where Anita as a staff member got a discount, the two of us arrived at the hotel with several bags. But before that we watched German Bundesliga soccer league in a pub that, according to the webmaster, was designed for this purpose. On Sunday we drove to Schiedam in Holland, where our friends invited us to a barbecue that day. By way of compensation the webmaster bought a keg of Bavarian Paulaner white beer. The keg was emptied a day later on Queen's day on the beach of Hoek van Holland, also called the Hook. Of course we wouldn't want to struggle with our kids through the streets of Amsterdam or Rotterdam watching the celebrations of Queen's day. Then you are better of walking along the "nieuwe waterweg", the street that takes the ships from port of Rotterdam to the North Sea. Speaking in a geographical matter, Limburgish people like us are living in an ideal part of the Netherlands close to many interesting attractions and cities, also in bordering countries only some hundreds of kilometres from each other.

white Easter 2008

Incredible but true. The weather over Carnival in Kerkrade was not good already, particularly during the carnival street parade on Monday it was raining cats and dogs and the clowns parade on town square on Tuesday was not really better. Everybody was longing for spring and hopefully warmer weather and sadly remembered the nice and warm carnival days of 2007. Could it be worse? Well, it became! Over Easter.
Easter Sunday was not bad at all, though it was really cold, especially over night time. But we enjoyed the Easter Sun-day and planned a trip by train using the Euroregion ticket and went to the old town of Stolberg, a city in Germany near Aachen. Easter Monday wake up then was filled with great surprise: a snowstorm was going over Kerkrade and outside was a real winter wonderland. One would expect Rudolph rather than an Easter bunny hiding eggs.

The photos below, shot on second Easter day 2007, express the contradiction compared to the year 2008 so well. Enjoying the sunshine and a Belgian special beer on the side walk terrace in Moresnet under the largest railway bridge in Belgium and following that even do some gardening and firing up the barbecue on our camping site. A temperature of more than 20 degrees higher than this year. Unique, even despite that Easter was two weeks earlier this year. It's time to go on holiday. Fortunately we have scheduled it early this year and it will not take long any more. However, we have witnessed some remarkable things over there in Croatia too. One day swimming in the pool and even in the Adriatic Sea and having a snow battle the day after. On top of the Biokovo mountains, that's true, but still extraordinary.

Christmas tree decorating

Gemütlich at home the three of us: decorating the Living room, the Christmas tree, eating and drinking favourite things. Every Christmas ball a swallow of sparkling wine (especially for this occasion I bought another box of Christmas balls the day before :-)

St. Nicholas eve

St. Nicholas visited us too. As he didn't find us at home he left a sack with sweets and presents at the front door and a letter for Jennifer. After unpacking the presents we toasted to the Saint and had a delicious gourmet evening.

Jennifer's sixth birthday party

On December the 1st we planned the celebration of Jennifer's birthday. That would mean it was going to be a tough Saturday, for the three of us, because today St. Nicholas visited Kpn, the employer of Jos. But we got home in time and had a nice evening together with both families. The children's celebration is going to be a little later.

St. Nicholas at Kpn-Getronics.

On the December 01 2007 St. Nicholas visited the kids of the employers of Kpn and Atos Origin. It was a nice afternoon with a lot of dancing and presents. Jennifer unpacked it immediately at home and the painting was finished in a jiffy.

Arrival of St. Nicholas in Kerkrade

On 17 november 2007 St. Nicholas was welcomed by Jos Som, the mayor of Kerkrade. St. Nicholas' gift was a copy of the calendar 2008 written in the local dialect.

Anita en Jennifer have completely forgotten if they have been good in the past year. After waiting patiently in the queue St. Nicholas welcomes Jennifer en Jos on the stage "Focus" on town square of Kerkrade.

 

© Jos van der Burgt