We had dinner at my in-laws’ place last night. They’re planning a trip to Europe and I was heartened to see that they had a couple of travel guidebooks for the Netherlands on the coffee table. I said that I always feel like a fraud when M and I go to Malaysia because we always need the guidance of the Lonely Planet‘s Malaysia edition. J, M’s mum, laughed and said that they want to know every single place they could possibly visit while they’re there…
They’ve been looking at the Lonely Planet Netherlands guidebook, as well as the Dorling Kindersley (DK) guidebook for Holland. I’d never looked at the DK guidebook series before, and was really impressed by the lavish illustrations and maps.
It was interesting to locate the places where M, J, and W (M’s Dad) were born. J was born in Veendam, and W was born in a small town named Westerwolde. I’d love to go and visit the town where M was born, Stadskanaal, sometime.
W and I discussed the meaning of the name Westerwolde – with wolde I thought I recognised a cognate with the German word wald ‘forest’, which W confirmed. Apparently the wester is actually an old German (Saxon?) word meaning ‘dark’ or ‘shimmering’. The things you learn while sitting around a coffee table!