Dec 2006

December 5th is the day Sinterklaas and Zwarte Piet come from Spain to bring gifts to the children of Holland.

Zac must have had a good year as we were having dinner, there was a knock on our door and we went out and gifts had been left by Zwarte Piet for Zac and the other kids. Zwarte Piet meanwhile was no where to be found, luckily we caught up with Piet earlier in the week and was able to get a few pictures.

Had a business trip to Dubai in the United Arab Emirates leaving the day after Thanksgiving. Here is a picture from my hotel looking out at the Persian Gulf and the famous Burj Al Arab hotel.

Here is a picture of the hotel I stayed in the Jumeirah Beach Hotel. It is shaped like a rolling wave.

Her is another pic of the Burj Al Arab I took with the sun going down.

We all went to Brugge, Belgium for the weekend. Old, beautiful city of 22,000 people with 29 Churches. All are unique and one has a Michelangelo sculpture. The picture below of Zac is outside the Church of the Holy Blood.

We had dinner in the Brugge town square on the Friday night.

On Saturday morning we took a ride on a canal boat Brugge is sometime called the Venice of the North.

Before going off to buy some of the great Belgian Chocalate we settled in for a nice lunch.

All in all a great weekend!!!

Martha had a surprise party at our house with our new friends here in Holland and my co-workers. My colleagues bought me a shirt not so sure why they picked that number???

We had good food and cake. All had a great time!!!

Went to London for the weekend.

Friday night we walked along the River Thames and took this nice picture of Martha and Zac with Big Ben in the background.

On Saturday we toured the Tower of London and saw the Crown Jewels. Here's a few pics from inside The Tower walls.

Later in the day Zac and I went to a soccer match (Fulham v Sheffield United) and Martha toured Buckingham Palace.