Thorn, Netherlands

Today we took a quick morning trip to visit the town of Thorn in the Netherlands. Thorn is a beautiful little town with whitewashed buildings and was originially built around an abbey. The abbess and the approximately 20 members of the chapter were all highborn ladies, needing to prove the existance of at least 8 ancestors of noble birth on both the paternal and maternal sides before being admitted. We toured the church and Brennan loved climbing up and down the staircases to the altar and ladies' chancel, as well as to the crypt. Patrick was a little skeeved by the crypt with it's 2 mummies under glass and an interesting forearm/hand relic of St. Benedict. He claims that it was the musty smell that he didn't like, but I think he just doesn't have the right amount of zeal for archaeology. ;) Included in the pictures below are the original rooster weathervane from the steeple and a close-up of a painted vaulted ceiling.



Across the street from the cemetary stands De Pannekoekenbakker, admittedly our primary reason for making this trip. Pannekoeken are Dutch pancakes. We had heard great things about them and finally decided that it was time to judge for ourselves. The menu is extensive, offering over 300 topping combinations for your plate-sized cake o' the pan. The toppings range from your run of the mill strawberries and ice cream to edgier selections including a Mexican combo and gyro meat with garlic sauce. We finally decided on a "lunchy" combo of cheese, tomato and leeks (Patrick added peppers and mushrooms to his) and ordered a "desserty" combo of blackberries, powdered sugar and whipped cream. They are huge however, even for the 3 of us, and I passed more than half of mine over to Patrick "The Finisher" to dispose of and skipped straight to dessert. Brennan was not interested in any of it until he tasted the whipped cream. Yum. In true European fashion there were provisions made for those of us venturing out with small children. We sat near a Lego table and Brennan made a little Dutch friend and assisted him with the construction of a Lego tower.



There were some beautiful canals, hydrenga (hortensia in German) and climbing roses in amongst the lovely whitewashed buildings surrounding the church grounds. Photo ops abounded, but Brennan has learned how to turn OFF the charm when a camera is pointed at him, either refusing to look or actually pitching a fit. Here is the best we could do.