Cheese, Clogs, Cannabis, Red Light District and the Flower centre of the world!

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Having spent so long in France it was time to move on and our next destination was to be Holland. Our plans had changed again somewhat because we had to make a little pit stop in Dover, UK, to renew the MOT on our van (an equivalent of a road worthy test completed annually). So we ended up literally spending one day in Dover, thank goodness we passed our MOT.

We entered Holland from the south and slowly made our way north visiting Rotterdam, Amsterdam, Hoorn, Berkhout, Volendam and lastly the farming community of Wervershoof. We also wanted to see the small northern islands of Texel and Terschelling, however the weather was not playing its part so we had to give them a miss, this time anyway.

It was surprising to see how flat Holland is, no wonder there are so many cyclists. Of course we were in our elements as this is cheese country, mmmm. We even visited a cheese farm and stocked up with a shipment of different cheeses, well we require something to accompany that fine grape we are drinking. They are also famous for the wooden shoe, the clog. We tried on a few pairs but could not succumb to wearing wood under our feet. The other interesting part is the language of Dutch. In South Africa we speak Afrikaans which is a Dutch dialect. It was fascinating as a lot of the words are spelt the same however pronounced completely different. This meant at times we could hold a conversation but it did often result in plenty humorous situations.

Of course the notorious Amsterdam is worth a mention. It is a place where beauty and serenity coexist happily with a slightly seamy side. Stooped in history, lined with canals, museums, alternate Coffee shops, the famous Red Light District, home of Cannabis and of course sex shops and shows are all combined to make any visit interesting.

Also worth talking about is a little fishing village of Volendam. Although it is a little touristy it is famous for the Hotel Spaander. Many famous people have visited and inside it’s like a museum, it has 1600 paintings that are around 125 years old. The guests apparently used the paintings in lieu of payment for lodgings. Also Laura the Dutch girl we met on our Bolivia Jeep trip, way back in April 2007, once worked there. Laura thanks for the recommendation and we will have to take a rain check once you have finished jaunting around South America. While here we sampled the Dutch version of mini pancakes, poffertjes, tasty.

The highlight by far was visiting friends we had met back in Sicily at the beginning of December. Gerry and Wendy own a small farm/smallholding (not sure what else to call it) in Wervershoof . They have a few animals in dogs, ducks, pigs, ponies and “Billy” the goat. He seemed quite attached to Rob, check the pic. However their main business is growing Irises. We only intended to see them for one evening however that soon turned into an extended long weekend. Their main season for picking the flowers is through summer however at the moment they were planting the bulbs once a week. Rob had to earn his keep as he assisted in the bulb planting process; well needless to say he was lucky he even got dinner. Gerry and Wendy showed us the entire process and we even visited a few of their neighbours. The first visit was to an aqua farm where the whole process is done in water with technology being used for the first time worldwide. The other visit was to see the famous Holland tulips in action. It was all very interesting for us city folk and we even came away with a freshly hand picked bouquet of tulips consisting of all the different colours.

The biltong (dried cured meat) of Holland is a fish version called Maatjes Haring. It is lightly cured(not cooked) young herring and apparently an acquired taste. This being one of Gerry’s favourites meant we had to of course sample this cuisine. In the end it was not too bad and thank goodness we had plenty of the local brew, Amstel to wash it down.

Our last morning with them was an early 4h15 rise so that we could go and see the famous Holland flower auction. This is where all the flowers grown in Holland, and in fact world wide, converge with the buyers in what is a massive auction in a Wall Street stock exchange environment. The flowers are placed in crates and then into big trolleys called cars. These are on show before the auction for inspection. The auction itself takes place in what looks like large lecture rooms. The cars are linked together and hauled through as each grower’s yield of flowers are displayed and then auctioned off. Two large screens reflect the specific yield to be sold, the current selling price, which fluctuates with demand, and the volume available. It is of course all electronic and the lecture rooms are packed with buyers/traders all analysing the prices, pushing buttons to buy at the current price and negotiating simultaneously on the phone. Once purchased the cars are separated into each buyer’s allotment and loaded onto trucks to be shipped out. It was remarkable to see all of this in action and also to comprehend the large volume. If you ever are in Holland it is worth experiencing.

Gerry and Wendy thanks very much for your hospitality and some awesome experiences.

Next destination is northern Germany and then south into Switzerland for a last scurry of skiing for the season.

Dag (goodbye)

Farmer Brown and Dorris

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