DAY SIX IN HOLLAND

Tuesday, October 14th, 2025

Ebe, Netherlands

From Achterveld at dawn in the lightest of drizzle, we met Sylvia, another relative I didn’t know I had.  We were in an internal debate, “Am I the uncle and she the niece, or are we second cousins?”  It doesn’t matter.  We got along.  She is a retired school teacher.  She and her husband were on a biking trip through parts of Europe, had just returned, and she decided that a day with a monk with his friends would be cool.

With our core crew of Nama, Rabindra, Helga, and Jayden, we breezed through Dutch countryside and were entertained by cows and bulls, chickens, deer llamas, even a kangaroo, and had snacks at the windmill Walderveense Molen.  We came to a plaque with a maple leaf embossed on it which reads, “50 years of liberation of the 5th Canadian Armoured Division.”

Those baby kiwis brought by Meta was a real treat.  Every once in a while, one of us find a discreet corner for releasing and relieving the bladder.

After 20 kilometres of fun, endless talks, and occasional light spray from clouds, we came to the centre of Ebe and our second windmill for the day, the Molen Concordia where we met Isabel and Denise.  They were poised with many questions and very interested in the Dutch/Canadian connection and what to speak of monastic life and how a national walk ties into it all.

Sylvia joined us in the evening along with many guests for new talks of my past marathons.  We completed the day with offering petite lames to the adorable image of child Krishna and mother Yasoda.  

MAY THE SOURCE BE WITH YOU

30,047 FOOTSTEPS (20 km)