June 8 – Paleis Het Loo and Herke’s Birthday Party

We did get an earlier start this morning. We were at breakfast by 8:30. Yes, I know that’s not all that early but then we are on holiday. Breakfast was very good.

We drove to Stuit’s after breakfast to pick him up to go to Apeldoorn Noord to see the Paleis Het Loo. Turns out that Dirk is going to drive so we all piled into his Volvo and off we went. The drive up was lovely. The weather was cool but sunny and often we shed out jackets while we were strolling around on the grounds.

We only went into two areas of the palace. On displayed many artifacts from as early as the middle 17^th century when the palace was erected. On the upper level there was a gallery with portraits of Queen Beatrix. She recently abdicated in favor of her son, Prince Willem-Alexander. His coronation was just about a month before we arrived in the Netherlands. Many of the portraits were quite stunning and some very imaginative. There were traditional photographic, painted, and sketched portraits but also some made from pennies, coffee cream containers, wood intarsia, and a host of other materials. This was a very nice exhibit. There was quite a lengthy line to get into view the palace rooms and we left that queue behind and went into the palace garden.

The garden is spectacular. It covers many hectares and of course has meticulous care. There are many fountains, structures, and separate areas of the garden. It’s easy to see how a stroll in the garden by a couple could be considered a romantic liaison. Before the garden was restored the level was much higher and the fountains had been filled. It went from a French garden to an English garden and then was restored back to the original French style. This garden is quite breathtaking and was worth the admission by itself.

The time in the palace and the garden were enhanced by the commentary of one of the people in charge of the renovation. That is one of things that Dirk did before he retired. Was a pleasure have him as our guide.

From here we went back to Alpen. We had to pick up our car since neither of the vehicles would hold 7 people. We drove  to Hoofdorp for Herke's birthday party. Herke is Dirk and Bea’s son. We met most of the rest of the family here. We shared many stories of previous encounters. Talked about things we could do if we had more time. Ate a lot of food. Had many desserts. All in all we had a wonderful time with great food and great people. The best thing is that we were included as part of the family.

Dirk left the party to go to the Amsterdam airport about 6:30 to pick up his wife and daughter. We got to chat briefly with them before it was time to head back to Alphen and a night’s rest. We had a lovely time and looked forward to the next day when we would go to the north coast.