Tuesday, November 10, 2009

When last we saw our intrepid traveler...

I was in Bakkeveen promising an update with photos. Now I'm in America and a lot of water went under the bridge and I have to scramble to catch up! So, let's start again. First, the promised pictures!

Let's start with the elusive and famous "Merrypippins", aka Mergpipjes!
Mergpipjes. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

And follow with Dutch Heather...
Heather.

And end with...Honey Buns! I mean hunnebedden (or hunebedden depending on which spelling you prefer. Some Dutch people seem to spell it with two n's, while others spell it with one.) These are large stones that were pushed into Holland from Scandinavia during the Ice Age. The early Dutch people in the area created a legend that giants brought the stones into Holland. The Funnel Beaker people (or was it the clock beaker people?) used the stones to make grave chambers. There are 54 hunnebedden in Holland in Drenthe and Groningen. If you're really interested you can read more about it here.
Hunnebedden.

See the kids climbing on the rocks? I wanted to tell them that the ghosts of the dead would come back and grab them from their beds that night and pull them under the rocks if they didn't stop blowing their ear-splitting whistles and screaming like banshees. AARgh. I should be more patient with children but those whistles were LOUD. Ton and I can still hear that sound. *shudders*

If you want to see the rest of the set, including market day in Roden, a trip to Groningen, and a climb up an observation tour in Bakkeveen, head over to my Flickr page.