Trip to Boxtel

So last week I went to Belgium for 2 days and I went to Boxtel on Sunday to visit Luc and family. Luc is the brother-in-law of Steve who is the director of Camp Spring Creek in Bakersville, North Carolina, USA. A little less than 2 years ago, I was in Camp Spring Creek working as a summer camp counsellor looking after dyslexic children, ensuring their safety and organising activites for them. Luc, Suus (Steve's sister), Daan and Bart (2 boys of theirs) came to the camp to help out and have fun at the same time. Steve is Dutch by the way. So Luc and Suus stays in Boxtel, which is less than 25km away from Tilburg. Much as I was tempted to cycle there but I didn't want to get lost in the cold. Besides cycling alone quite sian. I took a train there and it took less than 20 mins. Luc, Suus, Daan and Bart came to pick me up from the station and we took a slow walk back to their house. They didn't change much, still as friendly and lovely as ever. Along the way, they showed me the castle of Boxtel.










It was such a cold day, the moat was frozen and Bart could stand on it!


Daan with a cheeky smile


Bart


I had a typical Dutch lunch which consists of a Sausage Broodje (Sausage bread) and KaiserBol with a generous serving of cheese and butter on the side. I was also served juice and tea after lunch. It was delicious despite the simplicity of the meal.


I learnt that Daan got a tortoise and named it after me!

It's so heartwarming to know that the kids missed me. I feel rather flattered. Haha.

Daan is really quite a kid. He converted a small guest room into his personal museum where he kept all sorts of things. He has shells, gems, shark's teeth, a range of dinosaur figurines and he even called up the newspaper reporter to visit his museum! He wrote me a museum pass which allowed me limitless entries! Haha. To be honest, the "museum" really looks impressive.

After lunch, I joined Daan in a few games of Wii. He wanted to show me all the games he plays and I played along for a bit. In the afternoon, we decided to head to oosterweijk. It's a city in between Tilburg and Boxtel. At Oosterweijk, we took a walk in the woods before heading to the main attraction: Mini Golf!









We played 18 holes of challenging obstacles and it wasn't that easy! Haha, in the end, Luc claims that he and I are tied at 63 points. They bought me dinner and a Dutch goodie bag! I was so surprised and touched by their thoughtfulness.

I had erwtensoep (dutch pea soup) for the first time and it was DELICIOUS. I thought Dutch food was all about deep fried stuff with mayonnaise but I was wrong! The pea soup was heavy and filling, the most ideal winter food.



In Erwtensoep, it has potatoes, peas all mashed up. Together with it is rookworst (sausage). On the side, it has ham and a slice of bread. It's not an ordinary slice of bread by a hard piece of bread. I don't know what it's called. Haha...

In the Dutch goodie bag, they gave me a pack of stroopwafels, Dutch chocolates, liquorice drops, Unox Broodjes (sausage bread) and a Dutch recipe book! I had such a great time and they were really nice to me. They sent me home and I showed them my apartment. The kids want me to visit them again and we can take a trip to efteling (amusement park just outside Iilburg). I plan to do so when their cousins from America come to visit them in Spring. I think it'll be fun.