Ede, Gelderland, Holland

Before our trip to Holland, I asked my aunt to take photos of these paintings. I wasn't really expecting to see these things while I was in Holland. ...but if I did see them, I thought it would be really cool to get a photo of them in whatever state they were in.
The paintings are done on diagonally cut slices of wood with the bark still on the edges. They were my Grandfather's. As I grew up, I remember these paintings hanging on the wall in the farmhouse. "Grampa" was born in Ede. I'm not sure when or how these paintings came to him. ...maybe his mother and father gave them to him so he would know where he came from. ...maybe he came to possess them when his parents passed away. I do not know who painted them or if they are a mass produced souvenir (though our trip to Ede may have cleared that one from the possibilities - since it is not a normal tourist destination). Next time I am able to examine them, I'll look for any marks that may tell me about them... though I believe I have searched for marks on them years ago and there were none.

Sometimes when we visited my grandparents on the farm, I would run out of sticks to chase my cousins with, hikes to take, horses to draw portraits of, cans to kick, mud pies to make, birds to rescue, crawdads and frogs to catch, cows to chase, wild cats to tame, etc... so I would stare at these paintings (among other things... - who said I was normal?) and dream of walking along the streets of Ede. It was so exciting to find and actually see and touch these monuments after so many years of dreaming of them.

Oude Kerk (Old Church), Ede Centrum: I found some information and old photos on Old Church at this site (copy and paste link into browser)

http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ede.nl%2Fcultuur%2Fcultuur-en-kunst%2Fgemeentearchief%2Fkennisbank%2Fartikel%2Foude-kerk%2F

When we first got off the train at Ede Centrum, we sat at the station for a bit. We could hear the delightful bells of a church. The bells went on for at least 15 minutes. It was Sunday. I don't remember the exact time, but it was probably around 5pm ...or maybe 6pm. We started walking through the streets making our way to De Boskamp (where we would be staying while in Ede -and I might add- is a great place to stay). We walked through a shopping area and came across the church! I hadn't looked at the painting photo in a while so I wasn't completely sure that it was the one at first, but the more I looked at it, the more I recognized it. The church underwent a major restoration from 1963-1967. I'm glad it did, because it was so thrilling to see it there!

The next day our hostess took a look at the painting photos. Right away she knew which windmill it was! We rented bikes for the day and eventually made it to the windmill. It is right next to the Ede-Waginingen train station. When we first came into Ede, we switched trains there and while we were waiting for the next train, we walked over to a little ice-cream shop. If we would have looked up and through the trees, we would have seen the windmill!
The windmill is now a museum and they give tours on Saturdays. Sadly we were there on Monday so we did not get to go inside. I did talk to the woman who lives in the house and she said we could walk around and take photos.

The sign in front of the windmill property reads:
KEETMOLEN Achtkantige, gemetselde beltmolen uit 1750. Op as straat "De Prins van Oranje 1896, no. 1479". Vlucht 24 meter. Naam "Keetmolen" onststond tijdens aanleg van spoorlijn Utrecht - Arnhem, toen hier een keet voor de arbeiders stond. De molen bij de keet werd "Keetmolen".
(KEETMOLEN Eight sided, built mill from 1750 rings. On ash street "The Prince of Orange 1896, no. 1479". 24 meters escape. Name barrack mill stood during construction of track line Utrecht - Arnhem, then here a barrack for the workers stood. The mill at the barrack became barrack mill. *direct translation done with a digital translator)

Our trip to Holland

My husband and I went on a Belated Honeymoon Trip to Europe. Our original plan was to just go to Holland and Germany (where each of our known families come from). That plan was scrapped when our planning really got going. We are not of wealthy families, so our thriftiness kicked in... We went in the Off-Season. We found the cheapest flight to "anywhere nearby" (which ended up being Zurich Switzerland- not known to be thrifty, but we didn't stay there long). We traveled by train and ferry. We stayed mostly in Hostels. We ate at markets whenever we had the chance. We ate street food and at small restaurants when markets were closed or unavailable. We also decided that since we'll be over in their part of the world, we should visit a few friends in the UK (this added a couple more countries to the list). Then, my husband told me that since we would be so close to France AND since it is our honeymoon, he is willing to go to Paris for a short stay. My husband has never expressed anything positive about the French - political reasons. I had to take him up on his offer or I would possibly never get to go to France... with him (I would have gone by myself or with a friend, eventually). After going to France, my husband is not as anti-France as he was- we had a great time there. We had a great time on the whole trip but my very favorite place was my family's homeland, Holland.
A close second for me and my husband's favorite place was his family's homeland, Germany. So ultimately we wished we had more time in both the places we originally planned on going. We'll be back... we have dubbed our honeymoon trip as our Preview of Europe Tour.