Curtis and Laureen Euro 2016: Sights in the Netherlands

"We travel, some of us forever, to seek other states, other lives, other souls." - Anais Nin

Today will be a full day in the Netherlands. Yesterday, the weather was quite rainy as we made our way here (Heidelberg & Cologne), but I guess we can’t complain because it’s really only the second day of rain we experienced in about a month. The weather on this trip has been remarkable.

On the bus we headed to a working farm, not too far out of Amsterdam. This is one of the things you notice here: only a few kilometers from city center, you have plenty of farms with all kinds of animals. There are cattle, sheep and goats everywhere. The first thing we saw at the farm was the cheese making process. The farm was located in Edam – but the cheese that was being made was Gouda (I should have expected that I guess). It was interesting to see the process for making cheese and to find out that the mild cheese needs to cure for about 30 days and the old cheese cures for one full year. We even got the curds & whey description again (where is little miss Muffat when you need her?).

From there we went into another room and watched a young Dutchman make a clog right in front of us, from a small block of wood. He was sure to tell the group that they use Canadian Poplar which the Netherlands brought from Canada and now grow locally. Apparently our poplar is waterproof when it dries (they carve the clog out of a green/damp piece of wood). The gentleman was quite entertaining and he showed us a number of different uses for the clogs. I also found it interesting to know that wooden shoes are apparently so good for your feet, that doctors now where them in the operating room and they allow them to operate longer because of the support from the shoe. After the demonstration there were a bunch of clogs in the room that we could try/buy if we were interested. Laureen almost convinced me to get a pair (I had tried on a slip-on type wooden shoe), but I wasn’t sure that I would wear them. I decided to pass this time. Maybe when we come back again I’ll have another look.

We also got a chance to taste about 14 different kinds of cheeses that they make on site. I didn’t taste one that I didn’t like (Laureen too), so we bought a couple of kinds to bring home and enjoy when we get back.

Next we went to a traditional working Dutch windmill. Given that it was a windy and wet day; the operator of the windmill was in very good spirits. This was really something to see operating. A windmill is a mill that converts the energy of wind into rotational energy by means of vanes called sails or blades. Centuries ago, windmills usually were used to mill grain, pump water, or both. Thus they often were gristmills, windpumps, or both. The majority of modern windmills take the form of wind turbines used to generate electricity, or windpumps used to pump water, either for land drainage or to extract groundwater. The latter is exactly what the mill we visited was purposed for. Much of Amsterdam is below sea level. That means that water has to be continuously pumped out in order to keep that land dry. Through the advent of the electric pump, all but 900 of the Netherlands 3500 windmills were destroyed and replaced with the pump mentioned above. Then, about 25 years ago, one member of the Netherlands parliament realized that they would be in trouble if they lost electricity - so they began to preserve, and even rebuild, the traditional windmill.

It was quite interesting to see and hear the sound of the sails turning in the wind as well as watch the 4-ton oak beam in the middle of the mill spin.

Above is why there are two doors on a windmill

After the tour was completed, we hopped back in the coach and were taken to the small fishing village of Volendam. Here we did a little shopping (ok – the girls did a little shopping) and we even found Laureen a nice rain jacket in one of the little places. I also picked up a cap (which I have done for each of the countries that we’ve visited) from here; and yes, it is orange!

The streets of Volendam

It was lunchtime, so most of our gang stopped at a Dutch pancake/waffle place. I had noted a seafood place just as we walked into town, so I headed back and grabbed myself a little dish of Calamari with tar-tar sauce. Mmmmm. Kassie had also picked up some traditional herring & onion mixture which I tried. It’s a little like a tuna sushi. I also came back to the Dutch pancake/waffle place and thought I ordered a waffle with Nutella & Cherries. Instead, I got two waffles – one with Nutella and one with Cherries. There was no way I was going to be able to eat them both – and even the waiter said “Good luck”, when he dropped them off. So, I ate the Nutella one and had them wrap up the cherry one. We walked back to the coach parking location and I had the idea to offer the cherry waffle to Piero, our coach driver. At first he didn’t want to take it – but then he eventually did. I caught up with him later and asked him how it was and he gave me a big smile and a thumbs up! Piero doesn’t speak much English (actually he doesn’t speak much at all), but he does speak Italian. Glad he enjoyed it.

From there we headed to Amsterdam city center and the red-light district. Amsterdam looks much like a number of the other places we have been and could be described a little like a cross between a typical European city & Venice, Italy with all of the waterways. Amsterdam has a whole series of canals that one can navigate by boat. They dropped us off in town and Kassie had us take out our VOX’s one last time as she walked us around.

Amsterdam

I’m not sure the red light district is exactly what I would have expected. Kassie walked us through a couple of the streets where the ladies were in the windows. She walked us down one street which they called “Fat Street”, partly because the street was quite wide by comparison with some of the other streets and that the ladies in the windows were a little more…shall we say…full figured. They were wearing rather revealing lingerie. The next street we walked through was called (can you guess) “Skinny” street, and both the street the ladies were quite a bit thinner than the previous street. I found it difficult to look them in the eye (and not because my eyes were wandering else-where) as our entire group paraded through the narrow passageway, I guess because it’s not the sort of activity I would participate in. In Amsterdam, the feeling is that by legalizing and regulating prostitution, the women involved in the trade (because let’s face it – the oldest occupation is probably not going to disappear anytime soon), are better protected from abuse. It’s interesting to see this first hand.

Start of the "Red Light" district. The Grasshopper Bar is the traditional start.

Canal right by the Red Light district

The canals are quite picturesque

After the quick tour of the area and warning by Kassie to be careful of the “Coffee shops” (these are the ones with marijuana in various forms) as opposed to the Café’s (these ones you can get an actual cup of coffee), we were given some free time. We wandered with Alf, Di, Margaret & Steve down the main shopping areas. The girls hit a few stores and Alf was looking for a sports store to pick up some team jerseys. We spent the whole hour and a half walking around in there getting regular wafts of marijuana as those smoking it walked by. While waiting outside of the stores waiting for the girls, Alf & Steve tried to explain Cricket to me. I got bits of it – but I think I would need to spend a little more time with it before I understood it better.

Central Square in Amsterdam

The shopping area

Laureen, Di & Margaret (the three musketeers) dress shopping

The view from the Puma store (Alf was actually shopping there)

Bikes outnumber cars in Amsterdam

Back to the pickup point for 3:45, we were taken back to the hotel where we had a few hours before our last dinner on a canal cruise. Laureen and I looked at our bags and did a little re-packing to prepare for our trip back to London and then onto Ireland. We had quick showers and dressed up a little more for tonight’s dinner.

The cruise was very nice. We had a glass topped boat that was expertly piloted trough the canals as we were served a three course dinner. What a great way to spend our last night together as a group. A few of the folks were leaving tonight (Say; Kay & Nigel; Steve and Margaret), so we said our goodbye’s at the bar at the hotel and headed back up to the room to get ready for an early start tomorrow.