Piet turns 64

A wooden house ... not typically Dutch

A marvelous birthday adventure for Piet! Ad and Corry took us to Arnhem to the Open-Air Museum (Openluchtmuseum). Ad had never been there, so it was a special treat all around. There are many working exhibits, with a farmer’s wife making soup and coffee and tea in the kitchen that you could sit at her table and partake of the fare. There were actually two of these … one was a poor farmer and one was rich. The soup in the rich farmer’s kitchen had meat in it!

My favourite exhibit was the paper mill. The paper maker had quite a production going with the museum’s watermark on each sheet of rag paper.

Corry liked the old farm houses that were built into the backs of the barns so that you lived in the same room as your animals. We learned how to make brooms so that we could sweep the cobble and dirt floor.

Piet liked the windmills best. Each of them served a different purpose, including a sawmill, a watermill, a pulp mill and a grist mill. The gears and workings of each were entirely different and very ingenious! It was truly amazing to see how each of them operated using the power of the huge vanes turning in the wind.

Ad really loved the old General Store. It carried old toys, candy, flour, clothing … everything the people of the village might need. It really was quite unique, packed to the rafters with goods … a lot of them made on-site at the museum.

Canadian Maples in Holland!

On the way home from the museum, Ad decided to drive through the countryside for us. The tour was truly the best gift of the day. We drove along roads that were even narrower than normal, passing bikers and hikers along the way. I was convinced that we were on a one-way road … until we met a car coming the other way. This road from Tiel wound along the top of the dyke that was built to keep the River Waal inside its floodplain. Most of the time it works, but last year the water breached the top and flooded the beautiful homes and orchards. It’s so hard to imagine. The yards and fields are lush and manicured with neat, orderly rows of crops and trees; sheep and cows in pastures; and tidy fences marching across the landscape, and it was all under water!

The Bringers of Babies have their own!

The wildlife gods decided to treat us as well. We saw a pair of storks on their nest, ducks with their new little puffballs bobbing on the water behind them, and baby lambs of all colors. The storks must be good luck or something, because the farmers build tall nest racks for them. Most were empty, but this one is definitely occupied!

Bart, Ad, Riet, Linda, Corry, Piet

For his birthday dinner, we went out to Stad Parijs, a restaurant just 1km from our little house. They served us a delicious meal and the company of Ad, Corry, Riet & Bart was the best we could have had. For a change, Piet and I didn't have typical Dutch fare ... he had scampi and I a wonderful rare steak. They really know how to cook steak over here. I think some of our restaurants could learn something from a Dutch cook. Tomorrow I will attempt White Asparagus Soup with Passham and boiled egg. Yummm.

Official Fietsers

Fietspad … yup, it took a bit to figure out that this is NOT a footpath … a “fiets” is a bike … and bikes rule here in Holland. We have acquired two borrowed touring bikes from Ad’s Mom & Dad that are very comfortable and easy to ride. We’ve made very good use of them so far, and are headed back out today on another adventure on wheels.

Now I have to warn you that when a Dutchman asks you if you want to go on a little bike tour, make sure you ask beforehand just how “little” this tour is going to be! Today we did 50 kilometers on the bikes with 2 necessary stops in town squares. This is, of course, where the fietsers can stop and buy bier and wijn or koffee. Yes, Art, we’ve followed in your footsteps and tried the local beers whenever we could. As a matter of a fact, we have a few glasses from some of the breweries. The monks brew a wonderful concoction that is dark and quite delicious! Pete still prefers “Pils”, but I like the Trappist Westmalle. It’s pretty potent at 10%. Did our fiets wobble a bit when we left????

Our trip today took us from Gilze to a little town north of Westmalle in Belgium (not far from the border) and then back up to Breda and then back to Gilze. Not, of course, in a straight line. We meandered through woods and past streams … checked out the farms and fields … stopped to feed sheep and horses and cows … and oooh’d and ahhh’d at the old castles and houses along the way. We even, remarkably, got rained on for a half hour or so.  The fietspads are pretty good for the most part, although when you travel through the forest, the roots sometimes make for rough biking.

We peddaled through Chaam and saw the place where the German soldiers had their barracks during the war. They somehow still look like they could house soldiers … it’s strange. Now, they are used for political asylum refugees who are waiting for citizenship or for working papers. There are always a lot of foreign people living there from all parts of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

The roads here are narrow. I mean NARROW! When you park a couple of cars on the side of the road, then have a couple of lanes of bikes travelling inside the two lanes of cars … I’m amazed that there are not more squashed bikers! Oh yes … I forgot to mention the pedestrians … they take up their share as well. This picture is typical. This is not an unusually narrow road, but is the norm. I’ve taken it when there’s no traffic, but you can imagine how it must be. If you’re on a bike, though, the pedestrians and cars patiently wait for you to make it to a safe spot where they can get by. It’s all very lacking in road rage. To quote a favorite local expression, “I love it”.

Keukenhof - the colors of Holland

Fields of flowers that the camera cannot do justice to

Today dawned very sunny and unseasonably warm. Riet and Bart (Ad’s parents) picked us up at the caravan at 9:00 and we headed N/W to Lisse to visit the Keukenhof gardens. It was supposed to be 1.5 hours away, but the traffic in Holland is pretty horrendous. Even small towns have traffic jams for kilometers. When we hit Rotterdam …. Well, you know how it is.

Our arrival in Lisse was heralded by two barges moving serenely through the tulip fields. How odd! Oh! I see it now … the canal … and the bridge that they have raised so that traffic is backed up for miles. Another delay, but we have a brand new Peugeot with air conditioning, so it’s “nee zo bad” as they say in slang. The temperature hit 30 degrees in the afternoon, so it was a good thing we had a cool ride back home.

The gardens are very much like Butchart Gardens in Victoria, with different themed areas. We arrived during the 2^nd weekend of open flowers, so the displays were at their peak, but the crowds were … well, crowded. It was actually tiring just trying to navigate through the different gardens, and we didn’t see the whole thing. The tulips were marvelous, of course! What was even more impressive were the orchid gardens and the lily house. There are constant competitions here for best blooms and best presentations. I know Gill will be VERY impressed with the 1^st place orchid winner pictured here. I tried to sneak it out in my purse, but the orchid Politie are very strict about what you take as a souvenir. Sorry, Gill!

A  serene scene in the madness of Keukenhof

The fields of tulips are everything they show on postcards, although the lack of windmills is very noticeable. I asked Ad about it, and they honestly have not noticed that the working mills have been slowly replaced by electric pumps and large turbines. We’re going to go to an area where the canals are still pumped out by mills later on next week. I’ll definitely do a ‘report’ on them!

Napoleon's Road

"Fransebaan" - Napoleon's Road

Yesterday, Saturday, we went for a walk through the Calm Forest. Well, actually it's "Chaamsce Bossen", but it sure is a calm place and it sounds like 'calm' because the Ch is pronounced like a hard k. This entire oak forest was planted as parkland with biking and hiking trails throughout the whole of it. There are also car paths and horse trails, but everyone seems to share it all without fuss.

We hiked for 14 kilometers through field and forest and even one man-made swamp! There is very little underbrush, so the forest seems clean and clear. The owners of the forest (nobody is quite sure who owns it) are now trying to plant small shrubs in order to develop some low cover. The swamps and marshlands are being created to attract different birds and waterfowl. It seems to be working, but the marshy, wet spots also attract mosquitoes! We had to make a detour to find a bug-free place to eat our lunch.

We got a bit turned around once and ended up in some farmer’s field, but nobody challenged us as we trooped through his back yard and out his front gate. Maybe he wasn’t home

Ad, Corry, Piet & Linda

For our lunch break during our hike, we stopped on a road that is now paved, but under the pavement is a wooden road that was built by Napoleon Bonaparte. The posts were sunk vertically into the sandy soil so that the troops could safely traverse the land. Ad also thinks that it was probably a good way to keep his troops busy as he was stalemated while here in Holland.

A Timely Return

Pete is the small one in the middle

Our arrival in Holland was quite momentous, really. Pete was born here in a little village called Gilze. On April 15, 1953, however, his whole family left war-torn Holland for a new life in Canada. On April 15, 2011, we touched down in Holland … the first time Pete had touched the soil of his homeland in 58 years!

The Marinus family had originally left by ship from Rotterdam, and we flew in to Amsterdam airport, but the feeling of coming home was still very much alive. We were met by members of the same family who saw the Marinus’s off when they left and we’ve been treated to amazing Dutch hospitality since our arrival! Ad and Corry outfitted a ‘caravan’ for us with everything we would need for our stay … right down to a fully stocked wine rack! We have our own living room, kitchen, dressing room, bathroom, and bedroom sitting right in their back garden.

Ad’s Mom and Dad, Riet and Bart, loaned us a couple of bicycles and Pete’s cousin Stan is arranging a car for us on Monday. We’ll be able to tour in style.