Ziest, Netherlands~ July 1st

At 10 am, we met Michiel at our hotel and headed to the store with the orange shirts. After we bought the shirts, we headed to the bus station.  We then took a bus to Zeist.  Zeist is where Granddad was born and lived until he was seven.  We were able to see where he was born and the area where he lived, although the house he lived in doesn't exist anymore.  We saw the park across from where he lived and also the school he went to.  We saw his old church as well.  It's a beautiful little town and there were so many pretty flowers!  We also went to the Sola Silverware Factory where his dad (my grandfather) worked. We bought some silverware.  We also bought a really nice silver platter.  For lunch, we ate inside a Hema store.  It was very similar to La Place. Later we took the bus back to Utrecht.

In Utrecht, we ate dinner.  All of us girls got sandwiches while the guys went to Pickles.  Then we walked to Uncle Frans's house to meet more relatives.  We definitely have some funny stories to tell from our evening there!  Everyone except for John & I tried the Vocking Leverwurst.  They call it vockingwurst.  They say their "v" like an "f" so you can imagine what it sounds like. John had fun on the walk home talking about "the vockingwurst piece of meat he had..." Even though he never even tried it. I took the smallest bite I could and had to will myself to swallow it without gagging. It was terrible. Thankfully Grandmom came by after my first bite and discretely threw it away for me in the kitchen. Here's a picture from vocking.com.  It's basically liver sausage and they call it "Liverwurst from the heart of Holland." 

They also had some "stinky" cheese to go along with it. It wasn't as bad as the meat, but it wasn't good. I did like the pound cake Uncle Frans made though.  It was really good!  We enjoyed looking at old pictures and talking with the relatives.  After leaving Uncle Frans's house, we walked back to our hotel.  I think it took around 45 minutes. 

 Waiting for the bus to take us to Zeist

 Mom, Sarah & Me

 Mom, Sarah, me & Ryann

 Granddad & Neil

 There are bikes everywhere!

 Granddad lived here in a building like this, but not this same building.

 All of us in front of the park, across from where Granddad lived.

 Neil, Sarah, Dad, Mom & Me

 Granddad & Grandmom

 Granddad in front of the park

Granddad's old school

 Granddad standing in front of his old school

 Pretty flowers

 I don't know what kind of tree this is, but it's really neat looking!

 Love these flowers!

 Walking in Zeist

 Granddad in front of the house where he was born

 Granddad was born in a house on this street.

 The tower of St. Joseph's Church (Granddad was Baptized here)

St. Joseph's Church

 "kerk" is Dutch for "church"

 Inside St. Joseph's Church

lighting a candle inside the church

 Mom, Sarah &me

 Neil

 This is how you travel in Zeist with little kids.

 Walking to the Sola Silverware Factory

 Sola

 Sarah with the flowers we bought to bring to Uncle Frans's house.

 Utrecht

 We saw this while walking to Uncle Frans's house.

 Street signs in Utrecht

Just had to take a pic of this car! :-)

Granddad, Uncle Frans, Michiel & Grandmom

 The infamous Vocking Leverworst

 Picture of three of Dad's sisters

 Chamel (Eleonora's daughter), Trudy, Granddad & Eleonora

 Sarah, Neil & me with Granddad's cousins

 Granddad, Uncle Frans & Grandmom

 Neil, Sarah, Ryann, Chamel, me & John

 Picture of some relatives

 Neil tried a little piece of the "vockingworst."

 Cheese, "vockingworst" and pound cake

 Uncle Frans & Mom looking at photo albums

 Grandad & Uncle Frans

 Eleonora (granddad's first cousin) & Grandad looking at photo albums

 Michiel, Grandmom & Trudy (Granddad's first cousin)

 Eleonora, Granddad & Uncle Frans

 We had a great time visiting relatives in Zeist!

 Dom Tower

 The canal

 Utrecht at night

 Sarah & Ryann

Sarah and me

Adapted from Ryann's blog