cottleston news

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Day 3 - Lida's house and family reunion

A big day yesterday!  In the morning we went for a walk around the park and saw the petting zoo with Marianne.  On our return we were informed that the All-Blacks had won the Rugby World Cup by 1 point.  Then we packed up all our stuff and slapped on some lippy and drove to Lida and Walter's house for the reunion.  Of course we saw many old houses, windmills and canals along the way.  They live in a beautiful 3 story house with manicured gardens not far from Amsterdam I think.

The Middeldorps (all 42 of them) were just so much like the Middeldorps at home.  They were all talking, talking, talking, with the same sense of Middeldorp humour, and very friendly and welcoming.  Many of them did not know one another so it was an afternoon of introductions and people comparing notes and catching up with their various family members.  It sounds silly but we were struck by the family likenesses between some of them and our family at home.  Lucky for me everyone here speaks English so well but still some of the conversation was in Dutch of course and with everyone talking so fast it was a struggle to keep up - really I need subtitles.  I left my camera in the bag but Mum's cousin Adri must have taken thousands so I will post some of them when I get them by email.

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