Going back to the roots

G'day Everyone,

A Happy Easter to you all!! Hope you are all doing well and haven't eaten too many easter eggs (I miss the Cadbury bunnies). Well I just got back from an awesome church service and thought I'd wrote a quick blog. Recently Hester and I started attending C3 in Amsterdam. It's a church plant of Christian City Church from Sydney Australia. The Pastors are from Australia but have become Dutch. So Hester and I feel at home here and its great that the service is both in English and Dutch.

Well as I said in an earlier blog I am planning another trip just before I come back to Australia in July. Over the past couple of months I have been working hard on tracing the Walter roots. I've spent many hours researching the place where our Walter ancestors come from and finally I traced the root back to Pfedelbach, Germany.

Pfedelbach is a small village in the southern part of Germany close to the French boarder. Nesting in the midst of vineyards and winery's Pfedelbach and its 8000 residents remain mostly untouched from the commecercial influences of tourism.

I don't expect to be wowed by the latest and greatest attractions but am not looking for that. I'm searching for history and tracing the footsteps of my ancestors who lived there 144 years ago. I have contacted the local evangelical church (who in those days kept the records) and they have found records of my early ancestors Christoph & Friedrich Christian Walter.

Needless to say I'm very excited and looking forward to what things I could discover. Keep an eye on the blog for some more updates.

Well I better sign out and make the most of the sunshine I can see out my window. I'm thinking about you all and look forward to seeing you in the not to distant future.

Take care

Matt

Pfedelbach from a surrounding vineyard, Germany

Pfedelbach from the sky, Germany

I.T. day out for Work

Howdy Strangers,Sorry its been quite some time since I updated you all.

Well life is continuing to roll along here in Holland. The LOOOOONG winter is finally starting to end and the signs of spring are upon us. We've had our first week of sunshine since ... since ... well a LONG time. It was BEAUTIFUL. The temperature is starting to climb back into double digits in the max although the minimum is still 4-6 degrees.Anyways to more important matters!!

Recently the company I work for had an I.T. day out. I'm sure you are thinking we played chess or did something really geeky but you'd be wrong. Work organised an afternoon out at a driving course called "Traffic Control".

All us petrolheads got a chance to let loose on some pretty cool pieces of machinery. For me it was great because it is my only chance to drive here again in Holland as the government refuses to recognise my Australian drivers license after 6 months of driving on Dutch roads.Anyway ... check out the pics and videos of our day out.

I hope to put another update up soon about some of my future plans.

Stay tuned.

Cheers

Matt