Schiphol airport at Amsterdam is a major international hub and it was a very long trek from the plane to passport control. The terminal is built around a "plaza" which is in fact Schiphol railway station. At the airport, there was an English sign pointing to "Information about Holland" which reassured me - it is supposed to be very incorrect to talk of the Netherlands as Holland since Holland is only a part of the Netherlands. (Cf. this Wikipedia article which explains everything...)Update: I have now realised that Schiphol Airport is in fact in Holland. So yes, we should speak of "The Netherlands"
My train takes me via Amersfoort to Groningen. We have just stopped at Hilversum which is a name people of may age remember from old wireless sets. The journey is about two and a half hours through flat and fertile country, much of which is below sea level.
My destination has a Wikipedia article of its own: Warfhuizen. Here it is on the map:
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The connection has now dropped to 2G so I'll get on with my email and probably get back to you with some pictures tomorrow or Friday. Say a prayer for all those on the boot camp and for me that I help them with what I say.
6 comments:
Father, please send my regards to my friends over there! And tell Livi to calm down and enjoy herself :D!
I have to work this week but I am so jealous I can't be there. Are you still there on Friday, maybe I will be able to drop by in Friday?
I wish you and the rest of Bootcamp a very blessed time and I'll hope to visit on Friday
Excuse my english, but I'm dutch :D
Anja Eerhart
Father, will you be visiting Belgium at all ?
This is totally off topic but may be of interest to you. RTÉ News reports today, http://www.rte.ie/news/2008/0828/uselection.html , ‘The Delaware Senator (Joseph Biden, Democrat VP candidate) started by introducing his 90-year-old Irish-American mother Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden to the audience (at the Denver convention).’
She’s a sprightly-looking woman, God bless her, and possibly related to you, since all the Finigans/Finnegans/etc are the same clan. But, sadly, there seems to have been a ‘hermeneutic-of-discontinuity’ in passing on the Catholic faith to her son who ‘believes’ that life begins at conception ‘because that is what the Church teaches’ – he ignores science – but aggressively pushes the most extreme form of child abuse and continues, it seems, to receive Holy Communion.
Wow, that's quite a trip. Good luck up-north! Are you planning on visiting more places while you're in the Netherlands?
Dear Father
I thought The Netherlands was the home of euthansia, sorry, mercy killing, and of not letting children born under 24 weeks to survive. Perhaps you have found a beacon of hope there. Some years ago I tried various websites about the above problems and came up with zilch.
Anja - Livi is having a great time and the Bootcamp is really going well. I was so glad that I accepted the invitation.
Am - Yes, the Netherlands is the home of euthanasia. Please pray for the young Catholics - lay and clerical - who may be able to re-evangelise their lovely country.
Others - no time to do much visiting: it was a full programme. But I did manage to see the Cathedral at Groningen on my way back.
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