July 28th 2009 - Getting Ready

Although we are in the Netherlands, I'm speaking mostly German. My German is returning slowly. It has been 15 years since I last used German and more like 20 since I have used it significantly. I can understand most conversations but speaking is more difficult. Speaking a different language makes you more aware of the complex act of saying a sentance. There are at least a few part of this complex act that are causing me problems. First, my vocabulary is small and I can't always remember the words. This should improve dramatically as I listen to people speaking. Second, German grammar is hard. A few times I heard a sentence and grinned. While the sentence was not humours, the construction of the sentence brought me back to my high school German classes. I'm now wishing I had paid a little more attention in those German classes or taken a crash course in German grammar before we left. Finally my pronunciation is poor. Even if I can remember the words, know how to construct the sentance and can hear the correct pronunciation in my head but my mouth will not say it. The important part is that I am making myself understood. I guess that is all that matters.

The kids had a full nights sleep waking up around 11:00 AM. While the kids were sleeping, I unpacked and assembled the tandems and Sue organized our bags. The boxes did their job and the tandems arrived without a scratch.

In the afternoon we picked up a few supplies and then went for a 27 km ride with Irene. It was a beautiful ride on the dikes of the Rhine through the dutch country-side. The area around Amerongen is mostly farmland with a few towns. We saw many cows, horses and goats wandering around the neat and tidy Dutch farms.

Along the way we found a store and purchased a soccer ball for Alex. After a fine dinner, Alex found a soccer pitch and was able to kick the ball around for a few hours and burn off some energy.

Tomorrow we leave for Arnhem and start our bike tour. It should be about a 40 km ride with overnight accommodations in a Youth Hostel. Hopefully there will be wifi access so I can updated everybody on our days adventures.





Assembling the bikes



















Ice cream!









Refreshments on our bike trip.