Saturday July 25, 2015
The weather turned out to be really crappy making us feel
like scrapping any plans we had to travel somewhere new on this rainy windy
day. As Jackie was feeding Brooklyn her lunch, we got a text from her new friend
that I told about the mussels festival in Zeeland that they were still gonna go.
They convinced us to get on the road too. We put Vlasmarkt, Middelburg in the
GPS and were on our way. The parking garages in the area were filling up every moment
you would get near it. Joe parked in an extremely tight parallel parking spot.
We walked down Vlasmarkt, but they were still just setting up for the mussels
festival.
We met up with Meghan, Steven and Anna for a coffee at Grand
Café Brooklyn (fitting name). They have recently moved here from DC in the
beginning of summer. Steven is in the Air Force and is on a 3 year direct
exchange with the Dutch Air Force. I was connected with Meghan through a friend
who’s husband was the last American pilot stationed here. She had her 4th
child here who is only a few months older than Brooklyn. We were connected
through one of Joe’s American co-workers wives who is friends with her because
they had older kids in school together at the International School Eindhoven. Meghan
and I had met at our house and walked to Lucifer on Kleine Berg for coffee.
Funny thing, we grew up miles away from each other. Me in West Bend, her in
Whitefish Bay, Wisconsin. Steven is from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and
would go to the big city (Green Bay) to go shopping. My favorite thing about
the Midwest is how friendly everyone genuinely is. Yes don’t get me wrong. I
love Southern hospitality but so much of it is fake and an act.
Around 3pm a few shops were open for mussels. We all sat
down and enjoyed some beers and buckets of freshly caught black Zeeland
mussels. Brooklyn enjoyed a great deal of bread. I unfortunately was too busy enjoying the
company and food to take any proper photos, but these shots can give you an
idea of the atmosphere:
Afterwards we parted ways and Joe, Jackie and Brooklyn walked
around the town of Middelburg for a bit. Middelburg is the capital of the
Zeeland province.
Stadhuis van Middelburg (Town Hall) on the Markt Square
Brooklyn is happy to be out in Middelburg in Zeeland
Abdijtoren de Lange Jan (Abbey Tower of Long John) has
great views of Zeeland and a large part of the island Walcheren.
Not worth doing the climb today.
Abdijcomplex met Lange Jan is a huge medieval abbey.
Oh just a building from 1582. I love how old
Europe is
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