So this blog was going to be a how-to-make-pumpkin-gin-step-by-step-blog, but it turns out that if you try to make it in old pumpkins, they just cave in before they are ready, so no gin. also this month i had a 450 pound pumpkin in my kitchen which is also pictured.

I also went to the netherlands. here is a dutch looking house.

The brown building in the middle is the oldest bar in dordtrecht, where we were. we went in for a pint.

Martin Luther may or may not have stood here in this exact spot. This is outside of the church where the cannons of dordt were written, which is instrumental in the reformed church.

I went to the netherlands for willem's wedding. the dutch get married at the court house, which was different and surprisingly informal.

They released doves after the wedding.

There is willem and corneili.
After the courthouse, we were on the boat for dinner. we went up the river to rotterdam and then came back for the church wedding. That giant church in the background is where they had the church service. It is on of those churches that used to be catholic, but got gutted in the reformation. its a church john calvin used to walk around in. yes it is leaning. it was supposed to be taller, but it was leaning too much. i went to the top, and it is a spiralling staircase and when you go up in that narrow staircase, you can definitely tell that it is leaning.
we went inside for the church service. it was all in dutch so i kind of snoozed. after church we went back on the boat for an other cruise, dropped off wilhem at the hotel and got a noise complaint from the harbor police.

here is a picture I like of a walled city in holland.
it had german bunkers around it.

after the wedding, i went to friesland and stayed with a horse and dairy farmer. friesians live in half house half barns. it was really cool.

we visited this working windmill.

we were able to go in. it was for grinding grain.

the blades were spinning really fast but roped off so you couldn't get hit. its roof was thatched and the guy says that it lasts 80 years.

i tried polte-springe, which is ditch jumping.

and salted herrin, which is raw and tastes raw. it is covered in onions.

then we collected wilem and corneili and went off to germany. willem drives fast on the autoban and soon we lost everyone else. while thinking what to do, we peeed in the forest.

luckily and suprisingly, we all met up at a place we hadden't discussed before and went touring. this is a outdoor theatre.

we stopped for some beers.

we looked a charlemagne's arm bone.

here is an apostle eyeing a rediculously bejewelled pulpit. note that one carving is of a naked lady. I also saw the robe of Jesus, his underwear, belt, and Mary's belt.
here is a roman bathhouse. they build fires in rooms and then vented the heat through tunnels to the bath water.
the view from the roman gate.
from here you can see the roman throne room. just off the picture is karl marx\s house.
and amplitheater that we were alowed inside.
we went to belgium. of all the things to see, brad really like the fork extenders.
a sculpture of naked femal kermitts.
and the ark replica. this is back in dordtrecht. we drove by once at night and it was pointed out, but i couldn't see it behind the warehouse, then i realized that the warehouse was really the ark. it isn't finished so you can't go in, but i hear that it won't be sea worthy because of the modern additions made to it.