Friesland and Groningen

On Tuesday, September 9, Sandy drove Rosalie and I to Friesland and Groningen. We went over the Afsluitdijk, the dike that keeps the North Sea out of the Lake. On average about 15,000 cars and trucks cross the Afsluitdijk per day and it takes 50 people per day to maintain the dike. The Afsluitdijk is 32 kilometers long and was dedicated on May 28, 1932.
We stopped at the tourist spot to take pictures and browse the tiny gift shop. Here is a picture of Rosalie and I by a monument dedicated to the workers. After we crossed the dike, we stopped at a McDonald's for lunch.
We found the small village we were looking for; Witmarsum, where Menno Simons was born in January of 1496. His first church was here, there is a frame where the church stood and also a monument for Menno Simons. The small Mennonite Church in Witmarsum had a few books for sale. I purchased the large one on Menno Simons. It was the only book in English, except for "Passing on the Comfort" a story about An Keuning-Tichelaar who was born in 1922 near Witmarsum and how she and other Dutch women during WWII made quilts to raise money to help save the Jewish people in Holland. Sandy had given me this book a few years ago.
The monument was over a small bridge and down a lane in a very rural setting. Very peaceful and quiet. We took several pictures, see them at flickr.

We went on to Groningen and spent the night there. We found a Mennonite Church on the same street that our hotel was on. It was set back from the street, unlike the other buildings. We went inside and took pictures of the organ pipes and stained glass windows. Groningen is a college town, so there were lots of young people everywhere. (And lots of bikes!) There was a large area with with a lot of small tables and chairs outside where the young people sat and talked and ordered beer and other drinks. We found a table and sat there also. Sandy ordered some Bitterballen for us to try. It is deep-fried, crusty on the outside with some kind of gravy holding it all together on the inside. I didn't care for it that much. Rosalie liked everything, but I like my familiar foods. We went to the Archives, but didn't find David Dircks (born between 1699 - 1703). Another source says he was born in Prussia, so I guess the family had already left the area. In the Netherlands there is no central place to find old documents, you have to go to the source, whether in Amsterdam, Rotterdam or Groningen, etc. We enjoyed the trip to the Northern part of the Netherlands, we travelled over country roads part of the way, just to see what it looked like. We saw many very nice houses in the country; a large horse farm. The people living there had to be rich.
For more information on Menno Simons, see this article at Wikipedia.