Life and Times in the Netherlands: Sights and Sounds

Leer, Germany is a beautiful, ancient city close to the Dutch border where the first settlement was established in 791 AD. And during our recent visit there, we DID visit the local historical museum. To torture the kids, Katja and I poured over every exhibit (or almost every- Peter pointed out that we apparently missed an entire floor).

But mostly, we hung out in the waterfront playground and took pictures and slow motion videos of everyone on the baby bunny ride. Luckily, Katja took the shot of me, so it's unavailable for me to post...

Second only to the playground was the time spent experimenting with the city's vast collection of interactive street art including balancing poles

a cooperative maze,

And a role play called "flee from Peter the Viking"

Eventually we made it over to the local castle though - Sloss Evenburgh, a medieval "water" castle (from what date???) that was rebuilt in the 1800's by the nouveau riche Evenburgh

http://www.ostfriesland-tourism.com/my-ostfriesland/barrier-free/sights-activities/evenburg-castle-leer.html

Stunning place even so

With arguably more stunning grounds

including Evenburgallee, the kilometer-long, canopied way to the castle

Then when we got home from Leer last night, the boys were talking about the fact that they had not heard much Dutch pop music yet. Which is true, since much of what teens in NL listen to is American or at a minimum, in English. So to remedy this, we headed for the "Festival Hongorige Wolf." This is the annual summer arts festival in the nearby village of, you guessed it, Hongoride Wolf (yes, there is a village named Hungry Wolf...)
http://www.festivalhongerigewolf.nl/
Caleb immediately had a run in with the mascot

And then we kicked back with music that was the genuine article - this band is called "Wolves Dressed in Sheep." Here's their site for your listening pleasure-

http://wolvesdressedinsheep.nl/home/

And our host here in Bad Nieuweschans is a real music junky, so when I asked him for ideas on Dutch music, he was only too happy to send a sampling along-