By Ethan Niven

You haven’t been to Iceland unless you have seen the icebergs flow through the chilling rich dark blue waters of the  North Atlantic on the shores of Iceland.   We arrived at Edmonton Wednesday July 6th at about 5:00pm we stayed for one night at My Ants house. On July 7th we had wok box for diner at the airport then at 6:30pm we started boarding the plane.  The first Plane flight was about Five and a ½ hour  but then the first  Plane landed at 6:40am Iceland time The plane landed we had to wait 10 minutes or more then we got off the plane and went through customs then had to hustle to board the next plane.  That flight was two and a ½ hours to Amsterdam then we drove to Acornnest with my Grandmas cousins Avert and Sippe.  That is what has happened so far in this Holland trip thanks for reading our blog Niven the Good life.

Iceland from the plane

We’re at it again!  It seems like so long ago that we decided to go to Holland again and then we started planning.  I guess it was awhile ago, but the time is now fast approaching.  This time we are going by way of Icelandic Air with a quick layover in Reykjavík, so we’ll be able to say we’ve been to Iceland…..Twice!  We have lots planned and we’re all very excited to go on more adventures.  We will endeavor to get Ben and Ethan to submit their views and some photos.

Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery and Memorial

July 13- Sunday we drove to The Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery and Memorial is located about three kilometres north of the village of Groesbeek, Netherlands. The cemetery contains 2,338 Canadian soldiers of World War II.

The cemetery is unique in that many of the dead were brought here from nearby Germany. It is one of the few cases where bodies were moved across international frontiers. It is believed that all fallen Canadian soldiers of the Rhineland battles, who were buried in German battlefields, were reinterred here (except for one who is buried in Reichswald Forest War Cemetery). General H.D.G. Crerar, who commanded Canadian land forces in Europe, ordered that Canadian dead were not to be buried in German soil.

Thousands of Dutch children tend the graves of the soldiers buried here as they do throughout the Netherlands.

July 12

We got up early today and drove north about 140 km to an island named Texel, pronounced Tessel.  First to the Port town of Den Helder and then a 20 minute ferry ride to the island. It actually took me longer to park our van and then walk back to the ferry.  We rented bikes and did about 15 km round trip. We stopped in a place called Den Berg and had some lunch and a beer. The weather was incredible and we enjoyed an awesome bike ride out in the country.

Today we took Grandma and Grandpa to Evert’s(Grandmas Cousin) in Laren for his 81 birthday.  We left all of them to visit and the Niven group headed back to Soest.  We stopped at the C1000 which is a grocery store and got some nibblies for lunch.  After lunch we grabbed some bikes and went for a little tour of Soest.

Day 3 Paris – it was a short day in Paris and a long day on a bus……

• Day 2 in Paris – July 8
• Action packed full day in Paris
• City tour on our bus
• Boat tour on the Seine
• A quick walk around Mr. Eiffel’s Tower
• Shopping, people watching
• Dinner – at a traditional French restaurant.  I had steak…..I definitely love and miss Alberta Beef
• Watched the lights turn on on the Eiffel Tower

Yesterday we went out to a great little French restaurant by The Moulin Rouge. We had raclette, which is beef,pork,fish,etc and you put it on a grill and cook it yourself. After supper we browsed around all the souvenir shops, kinda like Mexico. We then went to the Starbucks and people watched.

PS. Always keep an eye on your purse/wallets. Pit pockets are all over the place.