FAMILY, FLOWERS, FRIENDS, AND FUN IN THE PAY BAS

We are off on the TGV fast train for an 8 day journey north to the "Pay Bas" or low lands of Holland and Belgium. We had been planning this trip for a while so we could see a group of Sullivans that also are doing a stint of living abroad, (Rob - Dick's brother, Joan, Chris, and Andrew, as well as Dick's niece, Claire Blum). All of this family grouping is living in Leiden, Holland (Rembrandt's birthplace 401 years ago!) - just outside Amsterdam. We were glad to see the Dutch Sullivans so happy and well settled in their ever so quiet and quaint town of Leiden. The boys love their school and they are so happy with living in Holland. They love their freedoms (they ride their bikes EVERYWHERE just like all good Dutch folks!! ). They don't worry about crime (Holland has about 2 murders a YEAR!!!) and with the endless designated bike paths, these boys are free to go where ever and when ever they wish!!! No teenage taxi driving for Joan. It is a wonderful life in Leiden and we loved sharing a few days with our Dutch foreign legion of family.

Leiden, Holland

Cousins Claire, Chris and Spooky)

Cousins Andrew (left), Chris (right) and friend George

The Dutch love their bikes ... used by ALL ages in ALL weather!!
Amsterdam has bike parking decks!

The timing of our trip was also PERFECT for tulip viewing season in Holland. OH MY, what a feast for the eyes. We visited the famous Kukenhof Gardens and saw the fields from the trian!! I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Kukenhof Gardens

and Splendor in the countryside

We did an afternoon visit to Den Haag (The Hague) to visit the Mauritshuis Museum to get a taste of painting by the Dutch Masters. This is a small museum, but full of wonderful paintings by the likes of Rembrandt, Steen, Leyster, and Vermeer. The next morning we rode the train into Amsterdam, for more Flemish School / Dutch Master viewing at the Rijksmuseum and of course a visit to the Van Gogh Museum was done as well. Both are incredible places, just not enough time. It was quite interesting to advance forward along the art history time line to the Flemish School, because this period marked quite a change from the previous centuries of art done for the royal courts of Italy, France, Spain, etc. We throughly enjoyed what we saw, but Walker still is a Renaissance loving kind of man. After museums, we visited the home of Anne Frank which is of course a very moving and thought provoking experience.


Next it was train south to Brugges, Belgium where we had another wonderful treat of meeting up with friends, Mary Margaret and Stan Link from Winston-Salem, and their son from Staunton, Virginia. Given that the Links are wonderfully informed history scholars, and we are curious history hounds, visiting the historic (and extremely picturesque) town of Brugges (via bike and boat) and a day touring Flanders Fields (of WW I historic importance) made for a perfect 4 day adventure. In addition to the Links, we were able to spend our last day in Brugges with Kay and Dan Donahue, also from Winston-Salem. For we Americans lost in France, this was a joyful family reunion of Americans.

Mary Margaret and Stan Link

Dick, Dan and Kaye Donahue

Brugges Roof Tops

Brugges Canals


*A note here for you fellow history tracing traveling types, we would highly recommend a journey to this part of Belgium!!! Flanders Fields was oh so beautiful, and learning more about the 4 horrific years of World War I that occurred here, enlightened us all! Another trip you need to add to your list!!!

WWI cemetary in Flanders Fields

w/ the famous red poppy

Next we were off to Bruxelles, to wrap up our journey. We spent two nights in the big, busy city (never our favorite kind of environment!). Maybe I should say we actually slept one night because our first night was such a total comedy (now) that sleep was hardly possible. Despite the lack of sleep, lots of hysterical moments were filed into the memory bank. Oh the joys of world travel!!! One has to be of tough skin I'll tell ya.

We had a gorgeous visit to the Belgian Royal Greenhouses, located just outside Brussels. This is where the king and queen reside, along with their 20 full time gardeners, and their INCREDIBLE greenhouses. The structures themselves are phenomenal, and then the range of floral beauty on the inside is just amazing. The greenhouses are open to the public only 2 weeks a year, and luckily our timing was just right. It was spectacular and what a national treasure for Belgium.

The next day we had to say good-bye to the Links as they flew back to NC and we chugged back south on the TGV to Valence where we were greeted at the train station by Carlos and Zydeco. Nice to see their happy faces. The next morning, the school bell rang bright and early for Walker, and then the next morning Dick once again did his "hop across the big pond commute" back to work in the US. With his being gone, the bright and beautiful spring days have kept me outside as I attempt to do some weed control.

Our next big happening will be the long anticipated arrival of Kate on May 11th. Dick will return on May 16th. At last we'll all 4 be living in the same hemisphere, in the same time zone and on the same side of the pond! It will be so nice for all of us to be here for our remaining 6 weeks in France. So stay tuned as the adventures, learning and laughter continue to take us to unknown destinations.

Solo, but not for long ...

LAST OF THE GREAT WHITE SNOW - Bessan, France

Mid April and we are all set for spring. But doing what spring does best, we had a cold snap that offered up an invitation from friends to go 2 hours north of Grenoble to the village of Bessan to ski. Naturally, Dick and Walker jumped at the chance for the season's last bit of skiing and I am always happy to sightsee and read. So off we go, striking out on a gorgeous Saturday morning, not a cloud in the sky. Perfect skiing and reading day!!! We traveled higher and higher into the mountains and literally at the end of the road was our destination. The road would normally continue on but the winter snows had the road closed for several months and who knows when the snow melt will allow traffic to cross through the pass again.

Steeple of Baroque church

Charming village of Bessan, France

We had landed at the end of the earth it seemed, but what a beautifully charming village we would now over night in. Bessan is a tee tiny village (350 inhabitants - more animals than people by far!), with a lovely baroque church, and lots of large farm dwellings. The village is known for Beaufort cheese (yummy)!!! The large farm dwellings have two levels. The lower level serves as the winter living quarters for many many cows, sheep and goats (milk supply for the cheese!) and the upper level is then for the human inhabitants. Due to the huge amounts of snow in the area, the cows, sheep,goats AND PEOPLE remain INSIDE from late October until late May. The reason for the animal / human co-habitation is body heat. The animals give off heat that then rises into the upper living quarters. Now my question was, is it only heat that rises??? Throughout our 24 hour visit, I did not see a single animal (except for a fox!). I did smell the animals, and saw many of the farm dwellings with the cow dung blocks stacked outside the door which is used as a heat source for the home when burned in the stove. So obviously these farmers have a way of life we have never seen before. The village thankfully does have electricity, though a neighboring village did not. The amazing thing is these farm animals do not see the light of day for all these long winter months, then when spring does FINALLY arrive, all the animals are taken up into the mountains for summer grazing. We developed a whole new appreciation for the mountain areas that produce the wonderful French cheeses we all enjoy!

Barn w/ ladder leading to dung block storage used for heating the house !

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But the purpose of the trip was not for me to sightsee, but for skiing! And what a day. Not a cloud in the sky and powder, powder, powder!!!

Skiiers on their way!

They found their heaven!

The Dehrbys have been wonderful ski buddies and instructors for Walker this year. They took him to Italy for a week of skiing, and that is when Marise really took Walker to a higher level of skiing. She began skiing at age 2 and was a part of the French national ski team, so needless to say, Walker has been a lucky fellow to have ski time with this family!!!

We stayed in the Dehrby's precious barn (no animals!) that they have converted to cute and comfy living space. They have beautiful views out their windows.

Window view on Saturday



Same window view on Sunday in a mid April blizzard!!!

No skiing for the die hards with blizzard conditions. Obviously all the animals of Bessan will remain in their cozy barns for several more weeks. It will be quite a while before the spring grasses will appear for sure.

We headed back down the mountains, and were greeted by full flown spring here at "home on the range." Our Vercors mountains seem so tame compared to the high peaks of Bessan.

News Report from Bucharest, Romania!

A WEEK TO REMEMBER

We have made the LONG journey from St. Marcellin to Bucharest, Romania and let me tell you, it is not only a lengthy flight across ALL of Europe, but Romania is a WORLD away from anything we westerners know.


We made the trip without a glitch, and upon arrival our Winston-Salem friends (Ken, Wade, Maria, Andy and Carrie) were also arriving from their very long journey from the US. Their trip had been glitch free as well, until they arrived at the beautiful new (now notorious) Heathrow Terminal 5. Our friends had none of the 9 pieces of luggage they left Greensboro with! Amongst those 9 missing items were 3 trunks of art supplies that had been gathered for our week of work at the Project Ruth School in Bucharest.

Missing luggage was FOR THE MOMENT working to our advantage. We had a wonderful driver, (Vasile), and he was patiently awaiting our arrival at the airport in a VW van. Sans luggage, our group could all fit into the van which was a good thing! Off we go, heading into the city to eventually land at our destination on the complete opposite side of Bucharest. A quick reminder here ... this arrival day of ours is 5 days before the much anticipated NATO Summit that Bucharest is hosting. So we have one van packed with a bunch of weary Americans trying to go from the extreme north side of the city to the extreme south side of the city. Road travel is difficult at best on this one and only north/south highway, but with the traffic reduced to 1 lane going north and 1 lane going south, we could only move at a snail's pace. Police and army personnel were standing along every few feet of roadside, machine guns, armored vehicles and all. We were not sure if that was to bring us a feeling of welcome and comfort or not. It was certainly a scene we had none witnessed before.

Our driver, Vasile

Our destination in Bucharest was to be the gypsy neighborhood of Ferentari, also known as Sector 5. One quick turn off a main city street landed us in a world one could never imagine. Sector 5 is predominately huts and tiny houses packed together behind fences that run along unpaved meandering streets. At present, the dirt roads are being dug up for new sewer pipes, so the dusty lanes turned into muddy quagmires after a day of rain. But these rugged foot paths were what we traveled all across Sector 5. Residents fill jugs at corner water faucets along the streets. Stray dogs are every where. The sights and sounds truly had us speechless, but here is where we would be for the next 7 days. The adaptation to this new world was not easy, but it was a necessity if we were going to accomplish our goal of bringing some joy to 100 +/- gypsy children.

Our place of lodging was The Ruth Center which is a part of Providence Baptist Church located in the midst of the Ferentari area of southern Bucharest. Our Romanian "home" was certainly a place requiring adjustment for we lovers of our Western comforts. We were now experiencing cozy communal living, running water but often not hot, sporadic heat which always seemed to be nonoperational following the COLD shower, but then all it took was one look out the window and we knew we were THE LUCKY ONES!

The Ruth Center

Cozy Living

Street Scenes outside Ruth Center Compound

View out our window

A Neighbor

Morning Chat

The city of Bucharest is full of an estimated 200,000 stray dogs. There is no Humane Society, no spay and neuter program, just sad sights all about the city. This was one cute pup that did have a home!

Creative Architecture in Sector 5

Although Sector 5 has extremely sad and dilapidated housing for the most part, one does occasionally see some creative architecture. Despite the poverty, it is fascinating to see the creativity, energy, and pride used in creating a home.

OUR WEEK'S WORK

The focus of our week was the Project Ruth School - a school for gypsy children. This school has grades 1 -8 with the largest number of kids in the lower grades. By the time the children reach 8th grade, the class usually has no more than 5 students, one of which may go on to high school. Education is culturally not valued and attendance is quite sporadic. The Project Ruth School does an incredible job of giving very positive things to children that in most cases are faced with incredible life challenges. So our week's focus was to do fun art projects, which is an activity the school rarely is able to do. We had 110 children, ages 6 to 18, and NO ART SUPPLIES. We had gathered a lot of art supplies in the US and had 3 trunks worth of things to work with for our week at the school. But the trunks only made it as far as Heathrow's Terminal 5 - they never made it to Bucharest. This of course presented a huge challenge - but on a wing and a prayer, we were off and running. Here is where photos tell the story far better than my words can.

Throughout the week, we took multitudes of pictures of the kids because they LOVE to pose for the camera. At the end of the week Dick set up the computer and a projector, and had MOVIE TIME. The popcorn we had planned on having for the show, was still stuck in London!
Even without the popcorn, the event was a HUGE success!!

TO THE GYPSY CHURCH WE WILL GO

Two excursions we had during the week were outside of Bucharest - destination, 2 gypsy churches. The first visit was a one room church for children to come on Sunday mornings. We sang, played games, and colored and again the photos tell the story.

Sunday morning in Bolintin, Romania

Ready for church

Gypsy Church in Glina, Romania

Fabulous music with accordian, fiddle, and lots of happy voices.

Gypsy Funeral flowers (all real)

Bucharest




A gypsy funeral is quite elaborate - thousands of flowers, a feast (note large grill)
and live music

It came time to leave Romania and it was a bitter sweet departure. We were ready for a hot shower, but during our week, we had made many new friends (especially Walker). It was hard to say good bye and I think we will always think and wonder what life will be like for these kind people.

On the plane, I was seated next to a NATO sharp shooter that had also spent his week in Bucharest. I was very struck by the fact that we had been in the very same city, but had seen two totally different worlds. Mine was a world I will never forget.