The Week For Visitors SK. & AZ.

Wednesday 20th –

Brother Paul had contacted us awhile ago to see if we would like to meet up with him and sister Holly during a days stay they had planned in Amsterdam.
(My pastor from back home and his wife.)
We happily agreed to that and Mike planned a few things for them to see.

Mike had a customer to visit that morning before we met them and while he did that he dropped me off to get my nails done as a surprise 😊 

Once his work visit was done we headed to the hotel to pick them up.

Sister Holly came barring gifts, chocolate from Norway where they had just come from as well as gifts from home which mom had sent with them 😊💕

We headed to the Corrie ten Boom house, enjoying the conversation along the way.
While waiting for tour time we checked out a cheese shop close by.
Leaving with Gouda for them and a new red pesto for us.  

 

The tour of the Corrie ten Boom house was interesting and not too long so your attention wasn’t lost 😉👌🏻 

 From there we walked around the town of Haarlem and took a walk through ‘The Cathedral Of Saint Bravo’. Boasting of the 1738 Muller organ, which was played by a 10 year old Mozart at one time.  
The floor inside of it was big marble slabs which I found out were actually graves.  
The intercut work in those seemingly ancient churches never ceases to amaze us. 
carvings INSIDE of the wooden beams, faces and art built into the stone and arched ceilings, the organ of immense size covered in gold scroll work and iron work.
Mike always says you can stand in one spot for 20 minutes and still not see every detail put into it and it’s true.

After that we headed to find windmills for sister Holly.
We found an open air museum with three windmills and some small shops showing classic Dutch products. Clogs, chocolate making, candies and a diamond factory. Each windmill was built for a different purpose, paint, oil and also a sawmill. 

 

Those were looked at and the necessary photos taken 😏

By that time we were ready to start the search for dinner… Or I was at least 😉
Mike took us the famous fishing town ‘Volendam’ and we tasted some kibbeling as an appetizer before finding a real restaurant to stop at.  

 
Since it’s a fishing town it felt wrong to order anything but. Salmon for me, sole for Mike and bro. Paul and sister Holly got cod. A tasty starter of ham and cheese on baguette slices was sent to us as we waited for our main dishes.  

 

The waitress deboned the cooked sole right in front of us using a spoon and fork and that was pretty impressive to see.  The meal and the company were both enjoyed 😊  

 
After that we took them back to their hotel and parted ways.

Having english conversation all day with more than just Mike was a nice change 😉👌🏻

 

Thursday 21st –

Cleaning day!

All the new furniture, plus the old was still in the cottage so I had lots of rearranging to do and then cleaning around things that couldn’t be taken out of the house until Mike was back from work.

Pro and Josh would be arriving the next day so everything had to get done😏

Laundry, sheets washed and put on beds, dusting, sweeping, vacuuming, bathrooms cleaned, dishes done, some meals thought of, garbages out, pillows plumped, cat litter changed and mainly little bits of everything. The usual before having anyone over 😁

A simple salad with chicken was on our supper menu.  
 

Mikes been wanting to feel like he is healthy even if he (we) is not and he thought a salad would be a good way to not feel so guilty 😜
No matter that it lost lots of its ‘healthy’ after adding generous amounts of cheese, dried cranberries, pine nuts, croutons, dressing and fried chicken. 😏

 

Friday 22nd –

Josh and Pro pick up day!!!

Or not 😒

Through the night I checked my phone and seen that due to weather and delays Josh and Pro had missed their connecting flight and wouldn’t be arriving until Saturday morning. 😕

So we turned off our alarms and disappointedly tried to fall back asleep without thinking of how plans would all be changed and what would be done when etc. etc.

I think we slept in until around 10:00.. Or I suppose I should say I slept in until that time.
Mike decided that since he had that day free now he might as well work a half day from home since we had nothing else going on, so he had woken up a bit earlier.

I decided my extra time should be made use of so I made potato soup with a recipe that I’d been wanting try for a while.
Figured we could eat it that day and or save it for an easy meal with Pro and Josh.

Since I was doing that already I fried up some extra vegetables to add to a frozen chicken broth I had in the freezer so that could be ready to eat some other time.

Turns out I had lots of cream cheese so why not make a lazy cheesecake to have with Josh and Pro too? 😜  

 
Easy Cheescake recipe here!

By the time all that was said and done it had taken up a fair chunk of the slow day.

Mike forced me to go grocery shopping which was probably a good thing but I really didn’t feel like it 😁

One bright moment of the day was getting a package from Mel, a dear friend at home with a huge heart 💕☺️  
 
She made us a minnie scrapbook of the wedding using Polaroid pictures!

Mike was having a major craving for Kapsalon, also known as ‘barbershop’.
The Turkish dish with fries, lettuce, meat, cheese and sauce of your choice, garlic or mayo. I also enjoy it. 
So he ordered that and then had to go pick it up in town 😜
We settled in to eat that in the living room while watching the “war room”.