Kampen

Hello everyone,

I spent last weekend with Gerrit at Tim and Hanneke's place, which was a lot of fun. It was really amazing to be in the very city that Opa and Oma Kroeze lived in for such a long time. I really enjoyed driving around and visiting different parts of the city. Below is a snapshot of some of things we did! I also had my first Dutch bike ride so that was really cool!

Enjoy :)

Love Sarah xx

Just to show that we were actually there!
Freezing our butts off in Kampen. Man, it has been chilly in Holland - I've been wearing so many clothes but still haven't always felt warm! Reminds me of Tassie winter :)

The organ in one of the many churches in Kampen - the Boven Kerk. Gerrit played two organs here. This one has 4000 pipes and is from 1743. Amazing hey!!

Gerrit playing the organ - it sounded really nice!

Oma, this one is for you! I won't be able to bring any home, though :)

The Kleinste Huisje - the smallest house you ever did see! I had to duck to get through the door :) It was basically one room downstairs and one room upstairs - with both of these rooms being very small. A family of 5 lived there which is absolutely incredible!!

Yep, Gerrit is too tall for the door too!

Inside the house - it's set up for display so it's quite full of little things but you get the general idea... it's amazing how people can cope with small environments when it's necessary.

Oma - look what I found!!!

This is the station house in Kampen. Oma, is this familiar??! Was really cool for me to see it.

The canal outside the house that Opa used to live in. I loved the fact that you could walk out of the front door and there is a canal on the other side of the road.

Tim and Hanneke standing outside Opa's house

Gerrit and I standing outside Opa's house

Upstairs was a hiding place where Opa's family hid Jews during WW2. It was unbelievable to actually see it. So amazing to think that this secret place saved lives

Looking down into it. It's incredibly small!

Replacing the floor cover and then flipping the carpet back over

Standing in the front room. From what we could figure out, this fire place is part of the original house. A lot of things have been changed, but this seems to be the same :)

A strawberry farm. You don't even have to go in, you can buy boxes of strawberries from the vending machine. You see this all over Holland. It's quite unreal!!

The boats in Urk, on the Dutch coast. Urk has a rich history in fishing, which is still the main source of income for the local people today.