We are going to the Netherlands!!!

Just wanted to share my happiness! We have booked the tickets for our holiday in the Netherlands, from June 14th until July 8th. After more than 2 years in Australia we will finally be back home for a few weeks. I'm so excited!!!

Although I am usually quite happy here in Brisbane, I have bouts of terrible homesickness. Of course I miss my family and friends, but I also miss my country, my language, the way of life in the Netherlands (especially riding a bike everywhere and not having to worry about aggressive car drivers the way you have to do here). I am quite certain now that I do not want to stay here forever, it's just too far away! I would be happy to live in another European country, but also I more and more feel that I want my children to live in the Netherlands for a few years at least, to know what it is like to be Dutch, to speak Dutch all the time - to really develop a Dutch identity before we move off again to another country. Funny how this identity thing does not become an issue until you are actually living somewhere else for a longer period of time.

However, we will be here for at least another 2-3 years and that is fine - but it will be lovely to be in the Netherlands for a few weeks, meet up with family and friends, visit the places where we used to live and show them to the boys, shop in Dutch shops!!! (buy lots of licorice), speak Dutch all the time... Oh, I am so looking forward to it!

To illustrate this posting I have added a few photos of the Dutch city of Groningen, a place where I lived for 12 years, first as a medical student and later while working in various health care positions. It's not as famous as Amsterdam, but a lovely old city (much older than Amsterdam, actually!):



It has a very beautiful Central Station - this is the (not so remarkable) outside, where you can see what I mean about riding a bike everywhere:



And this is the way it looks inside - it was beautifully restored a few years ago:



And finally, to show you that it's not just old stuff, here is a pic of the Groninger Museum. This building caused a lot of commotion when it was build (in my student days) but is now considered one of the highlights of Groningen. It houses an interesting collection and often has great, sometimes controversial, exhibitions.



End of the Groningen promotion! ;-)

And to keep this blog on a quilty note: I finished quilting the Aussie quilt and hope to attach the binding tonight or tomorrow. I'll be glad when it's finished, I want to start on new things! (I can't work on the Hawaiian quilt as I have to get some other thread. No time to go to the quiltshop at the moment, so it will have to wait until next week)



PS As you can see, I have added my Facebook-profile to the blog. If you are on Facebook too, let's be friends!