November 12

After waking up a lot during the night we all managed to sleep in until 830. I was worried Henry and Aganetha would have been waiting for us for hours but luckily they slept in as well. After breakfast we went to Jan’s workshop. He does a lot of welding and fabrication and right now he was working on making sliding patio doors. After a tour and a cup of coffee we all piled in the car and went to the national military (war) museum. The building was stark black and glass. It was quite the building. Inside there was so much to see. Tanks, trucks,planes, guns...Michael and Henry loved it! They had some good history displays too so I mainly read those while the boys ooh’d and ahh’d at all the toys. We spent the majority of the day wandering around the museum and after I wanted to go see a town surrounded by a canal so Jan took us to Amersfoort. I loved it! It had all the cute cookie cutter buildings and the old town was surrounded by a canal and a wall. It was fairytale perfect! There was a huge tower that was built in the 1500s that used to be part of a church but during the war it got so filled up with gun powder that it blew up! Luckily the big tower was spared. After wandering around for a while we all needed an ice cold Heineken! We found a cute pub, enjoyed some great beer and people watched. For dinner we went back to Jan’s moms house where she made pancakes! Some had ham and some where just plain, then you filled them with syrup and powdered sugar and rolled them up. Apparently it’s the special occasion dinner so I felt quite lucky! For dessert she made a Dutch dessert that had fresh milk, soggy bread, sugar and cinnamon...I think...that’s what it tasted like anyway! We had a great evening chatting with his family and sharing stories about Canada and holland.