Photos on Flickr

Hi

I've started to load photos on to Flickr. I'll have to wait a while to get all of them up as my laptop has either a dead power supply or hopefully a dead fuse in the plug. Anyway, here's some Kettler Hof, Xanten and the Dorsten Jewish Museum photos.

Last day in Dorsten

We finished off yesterday evening with a wonderful bbq at the Dorsten church and yet another reminder of how much I have overeaten this holiday.
Today I did my first morning run of the holiday - I have consumed an awful lot of calories that need burning off. I got horribly lost but returned in time for our final service with the Dorsten church. This time it was all in German although we were given an English outline. Apparently the pastor didn't stick too closely to the outline we were given! Not that we were to know!
Our hosts Gabi and Verner work as volunteers at the Jewish museum and they were having a fundraising lunch today. The food wasn't quite to the kids taste although Lucy loves that sort of food so we called in to McDonalds on the way home for some familiar rubbish.
After that we spend over 3 hrs in the swimming pool. It was a huge place with the usual collection of slides, lazy river, hot pool, outdoor pools, kiddie pool, proper 25m pool, etc along with sun loungers and chairs around the sides. Much much bigger that Lisburn pool - more like Centre Parcs. As we left Jack asked if we could go back after tea - says it all! It seemed like a fitting end to a great holiday.
Tomorrow we leave at 10.30 and should be back in Belfast for around 5.30pm. So glad I'm off for the rest of the week!
Final photos -
1. Stewart and Jack cooling off in the garden yesterday.


2. Last nights entertainment after the BBQ (and Dorstens answer to Gary and Julie)


3. Kathryn and Vera clearly enjoying the festivities last night!


4. Some traditional dancing at the Jewish museum today. The local mayor turned up again to press the flesh (aren't all mayors the same?). The German word Bürgermeister does not (as the name suggests) someone who is an expert at flipping burgers in Johnny Whites. It does in fact mean mayor, a somewhat less important job. Now you know....


5. Stewart using the wall of the Jewish museum to practice his rock-climbing skillz


6. Megan felt aggrived that there were more pictures of the boys than her, so here is an older picture from our first visit to the Jewish museum of Megan and Vera listening to Mika.

Last trip - Winterswijk. and Bottrop

Todays 2 trips couldn't have been more different. First up was the short hop across the border into Holland to see a flower parade. I know this sounds awful but it was surprisingly good. Its like a cross between a 12th of July parade and the Ballyclare May Fair except ... good. The talent that was clearly needed to put on the floats in the parade makes our May Fair look amatuerish and embarrassing in comparison. These photos show the scale of what was on display, each floated painstakingly put together from individual blooms. We were all well impressed.



So that was good. Bottrop? Well ..... the local churches were celebrating 100 years in this area with a joint open air service outside the town hall in Bottrop. Rev Bell was representing PCI so he was up on stage the whole time and had to give greetings and a reading too. That was the only bit of the 2 hour service in English so once he had done his bit, I nipped off up the town for some ice cream - and very nice it was too.

Shopping!

Today we mitched off the program and took train to a big shopping centre nearby in Oberhausen. Lucy and Megan are hitting the shops while the boys and I are in Starbucks - Stewart playing Mariokart and Jack zzzzzz.
Tomorrow we go to a town in Holland and swimming on Sunday afternoon. Hot and sunny today.

Thursday 23rd August - Soest

Soest is a very picturesque town dating back hundreds of years. It reminds me a bit of Chester with cobbled streets and tudor-style timber frame houses as in the pictures. I ony wish we could have had longer to wander around the town.
On the way back we visited the Möhne dam which was partially destroyed by the famous bouncing bomb in May 1943 and made famous in the film The Dambusters. The dam and reservoir are very impressive - makes our own Spelga dam look small and ordinary compared to it! We could easily have spent an hour or 2 wandering around here.
Today in the blazing sun we thought we would be spared rain but oh no! Some very menacing thunder and heavy rain - but only when we were inside or on the bus which was nice. When its hot it is really hot. Finished day off with lovely pizza back at Dorsten church.

Excuse the dodgy verticals - the houses really weren't leaning backwards. Need photoshop to correct these.....

Some Ballyclare folk enjoying more cake with the German equivalent of the PWA! (the Evangelische Frauenhilfe)

Lembeck Schloss photos

1. Its a fine castle surrounded by a moat



2. Grand entrance



3. Kids had fun on a huge see saw



4. Jan enjoyed the merrygoround



5. Our musician for the folk singing! He´s not only better looking that Gary and Mark, but a better singer too!

Misc photos from last few days

OK here´s a few photos from Monday till now.
1. Megans favourite animals, meerkats


2. Regional Parliament at Dusseldorf


3. The doors into parliament chamber are never cleaned so we were told we could leave our fingerprints on them. Stewart and Jack decided to leave feet marks instead.


4. The kids were intrigued by some of the art on display at the parliament.



5. Inside of church at Lembeck