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(Karannina) We biked all day, starting with the rare upside down wild tulips (just as rare as our lady slippers and equally protected by law), past the MotherShip - a complete eco-house, built into a hill, uses wine bottles and broken pottery for walls, tea cup handles to small pieces of broken pottery in a beautiful design. We saw the Google Earth car that was taking pictures every couple of metres with a 360 degree camera with 6 different lenses. Then we found the hidden Mennonite church after riding past it. The entrance consisted of four house fronts which were side-by-side. Only the first 2-3 metres of the original houses existed, while the back of the houses were built a huge auditorium. Back then, in the 1700's, during the Reformation, the Mennonites could not worship together. So they made a hidden church that had secret entrance and exit doors. The males sat on the parameter of the church while the women and children sat near the centre of the building. Surprisingly, it has an organ and a swallow's nest for the pastor to preach from. This was the only church was not a tourist trap. Mom was even able to read some verses in Dutch from the Bible and I also got to go up to the swallow's nest. I was also able to open up a Bible from 1715 and still intact and used for worships serves today. The church elders sat up front close to the swallow's nest and tested if what the preacher was saying is directly from the Bible. Then we went to the market and saw food, clothing, and necessities. Freshly made bread, fresh fruit, vegetables, and flowers (I was surprised to learn that florists would spray pesticides and insecticides to boost the colours and enhance their beautiful appearance). We bought olives, cheese, fruit, vegetables, bread, buns, pizza buns, and snacks. Alexander and I met a merchant who was selling sweets who gave us extra chocolate covered rasins as gift. He was Jewish and Mennonite. Aart and Karin treat us to a kroket, which is a speciality food - deep fried breaded gravy with mystery meat, vegetables dipped in mustard. It had a very interesting taste. We enjoyed a wonderful picnic of all the goods we bought from the market. Then we came back and did homework. After homework, we biked to the balance playground were we enjoyed the unique balance playground structure. Dad did a face-plant and I thought he was acting 007 stunt, but he really got hurt (his pride). We biked to LaBamba and had Dutch Fries with Mayo. Then we shared 5 flavours of gelati and off to home.
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