Yes, Stokershorst is the Christian retreat center in the Netherlands that my grandparents have run, up until recently. There is no way you can pronounce it right, so don't try. For a kid, it is the place where dreams come true. It is about six acres in size, and for me, much larger in sentimental value. The layout is like this: somewhere near the middle sits my grandparent's house, and the Haupthaus, or "Big House." This is where the guests stay. A cool fact about this building is that it used to be a monastery. A church just next to the monastery was bombed during WWII, and only one corner remains, which was masterfully covered up with bushes by my Opa and Oma (grandparents.) There are still some punctures in the brick wall of the monastery from bomb fragments. Near the bottom of the property is a horse pasture, goat pen, and a recently added playground. At the very bottom is a strip of forest, and then a canal, built by Napoleon for transport, but which now mostly just adds to the scenery, and offers a good fishing location. Above and around my grandparents house is another goat pen, a pavilion, game room, pond, and scenic garden. Everything around Stokershorst is beautiful, perfect. This is due to decades of hard work on the part of my grandparents, as it was little more than a parcel of land with an old monastery on it when they took over the management. About two acres above their house a dairy farmers barn on the right, and slightly lower and to the left a deer pen, which normally contains four to five deer. My Oma and Opa have an awesome agreement with this dairy farmer. He gets to pasture his cows on a field that they own but never use, and in return, they get as much milk as they want. I'm talking fresh, milk right out of the udder, not that ultra-homogenized, ultra-pasteurized, shelf stable, factory milk. It is just about my favourite thing to drink, and I regularly consume 3 to 4 glasses at each meal when we visit my Oma and Opa.
Some of my fondest memories are in Stokershorst. My grandparents always take us to really cool places in the Netherlands, including: various theme parks, a WWII museum with hundreds of tanks, airplanes, and ships on display, castles, a laser-tagging place, and lots of awesome restaurants. My favourite restaurants are a Greek restaurant, and a Yugoslavian restaurant. At both, we generally order several huge meat platters, which everyone helps themselves to. My mouth is watering just thinking about that Schnitzel (among other great dishes).
My grandparents have worked hard for the Lord at Stokershorst for nearly thirty years, and have reached retirement age, and feel that they should retire before they get old and start making mistakes. Unfortunately, this means that the organization is now shutting down. They definitely deserve retirement, but it is really sad to me that they are selling the property, and we aren't going to see it again, except, perhaps, on bike trips going through the area.
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| One of the castles we've visited with our Oma and Opa |
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| Us with our Oma and Opa at a traditional German restaurant. Note the huge glasses of alcohol-free "Weisbeir" (wheat beer) on the table. I've tried some, and it wasn't bad! |
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| Johnny jumping swinging on a rope into the water in a German park. I think everyone left wetter than they had been. |
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| Me and my brother Johnny sitting on a WWII tank at a museum. |
