It has been over two months since we last sent a message and updated our webpage with new photos. The last couple of months have been much like the ones before--visits to pretty places in Europe while progressing our work for Trend Technologies. After shuttling between in Hungary, Spain, Ireland, the Netherlands and making a trip to the U.S., our work and our lives are falling into place. We are working on acquiring a company in Hungary and will be moving there in the next two months. Our goal is to help this business grow as quickly as possible. We'll continue to travel for Trend to help coordinate the company's existing businesses in Europe and identify new opportunities. This message gives the highlights of our visits to places, friends and family this summer.

In July, we visited some of Bert's relatives in Holland. Among them were Oom Cor and Tante Ank (aunt and uncle), who live in this house in the southeastern part of the Netherlands.

While we were there, we also dropped by their son-in-law (Sjeff) and granddaughter (Miriam) at their house in the woods. The rest of their family (Marianne, Hanna and Gea) were on vacation in the U.S. Among the animals at their house are a horse and a Shetland pony shown in this photo with Miriam, tante Ank, and Sjeff in the background.

This part of the Netherlands has traditionally been a farming area. Here is a photo of Oom Cor and Tanta Ank, with a statue of a prize draft horse in the town of Gerwen, just down the road from where they live.

We also visited to Oma Boon, who happened to be home for a week from her summer on Schiermonnikoog (an island in the north of Holland). The weather was nice, so we had tea on the balcony of her flat.

Most of our work this summer has been in Hungary. Sometimes we've been able to explore the surrounding area on the weekends. In June we drove to Zagreb, Croatia, a unexpectedly beautiful city. Zagreb sits next to the mountains and part of the town has been built into the foothills. The area around Zagreb was not damaged by the war in Yugoslavia. The buildings look clean and life was vibrant. Here is a picture of the typical architecture in the town.

Here is another photo taken at the market on Sunday.

This part of Croatia didn't have many tourists when we visited. We arrived on a Saturday afternoon and were able to get an immense room at a reasonable rate in a hotel overlooking the town's central square. The service and breakfast were excellent. This picture shows the view of the central square from our room.

On another weekend we visited Tamir (a friend of Bert's from England) who is now married with two kids and lives in Celje, Slovenia. This photo shows the family at a little café in town.

Although Celje is the third-largest city in Slovenia, it has the feel of a small medieval town. There is a partially-restored castle overlooking the city. The town sits at the base of steep, lush, green mountains and has a history that goes back to Roman times.

Earlier this month we returned to the U.S. to meet face-to-face with some of the key people in the rest of Trend and present our plans. This also brought us to Colorado, where we saw Bert's parents. This photo was taken among the flowers on the back patio.

This photo was taken at Tom and Koren's house (Bert's brother and sister-in-law). Tom and Koren are selling their house and moving to Kona, Hawaii, where Tom got a job working for the Mauna Kea observatory and Koren will be be working as a special ed teacher. In the last year, their daughter Sydney has grown considerably.

We also had the opportunity to visit with Linda and Matt (Jean's sister and brother-in-law), and their daughter Jennifer. One of the events was a barbecue at their house. I couldn't resist taking this colorful photo of Matt making the shish-kabobs.

Bert has already traveled back to Europe and will be spending the next couple of weeks in Hungary. Jean is staying a bit longer in the St Louis area with her family and will fly out before the middle of September. This photo was taken at Jean's father's house.

We hope that you've enjoyed keeping up with us. We'll let you know more as we get settled in Hungary.

Best regards, Bert and Jean

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This page was last updated on \\12/31/01.