Charged up, active and close to family!

3 great discoveries in the past few days:

1.)The König-Otto Tropfsteinhöhle in Velburg, DE http://www.tropfsteinhoehle-velburg.de offered a moment to do something other than drive, eat, make music, sleep. Hans, Sven, David and I put on head-saving helmets and entered the limestone caves. Cool, by temperature and description. Discovered by a man's dog who went into a fox hole that lead to this under-world of ...pillars, stalagmites and stalactites. (Growing only 1 mm per year!)

2.) The German snowball! I discovered this while in line at a giant truckstop - tankstelle.  Crispy light pastry twisted round like a cat-toy or ball of yarn and covered in a lot of powdered (icing) sugar. Best enjoyed outdoors! (Where the wind can carry the snow powder).

3.) I love Hagelslag (dark chocolate sandwich sprinkles served on soft bread with butter) as much today as I used to when I was a child.

Now in The Netherlands: Playing a concert in a tiny chapel (without a PA) brings to the front the feelings I get when I am sharing something special for the first time. Inspiring, revealing and wonderfully un-enhanced. The show in Nijmegen, NL was precious, and so was checking out the super underground heated bicycle garage afterwards! 

We picked up my joyful Mama in Deventer, NL where she was visiting my dutch relatives (Bergman / Sweitser) and now was going to hitthe road with us!

Previously 'Vanslag, the gorgeous Borger, NL venue and cultuurpodium was formerly a rural village church.  David witnessed the bells being rung manually, with power and precision! Photos and review from the show by Klaas Guchelaar:

 http://www.kjguch.com/2014/10/05/melanie-dekker-and-david-sinclair-in-vanslag/#more-10043 A fabulous sound tech,Ramon Boerman, made a great Live recording from the show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_-DE8Ud8NOc

 

Thorn, NL is a town painted in white! We had a fun show and stayed at a designer's bed and bötram (sandwich). I went for a run to Belgium. Pretty fun to experience a run across the street without stopping, that lands you in a different country. Also, very touching to read the little World War II memorial next to a tiny creek and bridge that once separated these countries.

The two days off offered moments alongside the curious black and white dairy cows, dog walking, and laundry. From one day to the next the corn fields went from hairy to bald. From our little farm house in Olst, NL we were kept awake for hours on a stormy night as a distressed cow cried and hollowed by our window. It hurt to hear it..with no known or available remedy :(. We also made a 3 hour trip along dykes, 'n fields 'n a raging thunder storm to get to radio Enkhuisien, NL for a live, repeated and syndicated radio show. It coordinated with a warm, spontaneous, with visit with my Aunt, Mary Dekker, whom I haven't seen for 10 years! She made the sun come out the second she arrived! 

Playing alongside the Maas river http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meuse_(river) and a collective of convent's botanical gardens at Jochumhof in Steyl, NL was a super success. Even the staff were taking photos of how crammed full it was. 

What is a Canadian restaurant?! One with a moose's head above a fireplace, Tim Hortens' coffee and cups, a totem pole, native first nation's carvings, pancakes, salmon and buffalo on the menu, Clamato juice...and a Canadian band performing of course! At Mondani in Lochem, NL some DEKKER's surprised me (a few of my Dad's Dad's siblings and a 2nd cousin)! They brought a family tree drawing with them for us to follow along the path of genes!