Only one week left in Holland

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April 14th 2011

Published: May 1st 2011

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Alkmaar Cheese Market

We can't believe that we have been in Holland already for 4 weeks. We have only one week left and still feels like so much to see, do and hear.

April 01. 2011
After a great night's sleep and some time to relax for a couple days, we were ready again to see some more sights.
We headed back to Alkmaar, to check out the cheese market. Cheese has been weighed in Alkmaar since 1593. The cheese farmers would haul their cheese to the market and then the cheese inspectors would come to the market and examine the cheese. The merchants would then settle on a price for the cheese by slapping each other's hands. Once there was an agreed price they would shake hands and the cheese would go to the weighing house. Cheese carriers carry thousands of kilos of cheese from the ‘Waagplein’ square to the weighing house.
After being throughoughly entertained at the cheese market we did a walking tour of the historic old town of Alkmaar. Another city fill of interesting and facsinating history.
We then drove to Lisse where we finally found a campground that was open. We parked, ate some dinner and then went

Alkmaar Cheese Market

Cheese gets weighed every Friday and has been for the last 400 years

for a walk on the dunes and the shores of the North Sea. Hoped to see a sunset but it was too cloudy.
Another great day and it was so nice to have a campground with a shower and bathroom just steps away.

Sat April 02,2011
Woke up to wonderful blue skies and sunshine. We headed to the Kuekenhof. The Kuekenhof is 32 hectacres of beautifully manicured gardens and landscaping. Every year more than 7 million flower bulbs are planted in the park. It was also the weekend of the Dutch Costume Festival. When we arrived the Festival was in full swing with folks from many of the different provinces in Holland dressed in their traditional clothes. They entertained the audience with the dancing and singing of their tradiotnal dances and songs. It was very interesting to watch. Each province had their own traditions to share and we watched with fascination. We watched for quite some time and then we spent the next 3 hours or so walking through the gorgeous gardens. We were probably a week early for all the blooms, but what we saw was truly spectacular. So many flowers and the smell. WOW. WOW.WOW!!!!
We

Alkmaar Cheese Market

Inspecting the Cheese

finished our day by sitting on the patio in the sun at our campsite having snacks and playing some cards.

Sun April 03,2011
We had a lazy morning, reading and lounging in WICKED and finally left the campground at about 11:00 am. We headed off to Den Haag. We arrived in Den Haag about 1:00 pm and went straight to an attraction called Maduradam. Maduradam is a miniature Dutch city which is composed of typical Dutch buildings and landmarks, that are found at various locations in the country on 1.25 scale. What allot of work put into this minature city. Lots of work to maintain it as well. They told us that there are 35 full time employees who maintain this park. After several hours of checking out the teeny tiny people and the teeny tiny buildings we headed off once again. We really had no other plans, so we drove to a city called Utrecht. We parked WICKED and walked through the old part of the city. Utrecht is quite unique in that there is two levels along the canal. One level is the street level and the lower level is right on the water with a sidewalk

Alkmaar Cheese Market

Slapping hands to seal the deal

and shops along the bottom.
After Utrecht we were going to find a campground or truck stop close to Amsterdam because we had made plans to pick up Rene's nephew Shawn and Amanda the following day and take them to see some rural Netherlands sights. We didn't find any place to park outside of Amsterdam so we decided we would try to go close to Shawn and Amanda's apartment. We ended up parking the van just few blocks from the apartment, but decided we would just stay with the van. We ended up sleeping in the streets of Amsterdam. Well...... in the van... on the street.

Mon- April 04, 2011
We made plans to meet Shawn and Amanda at 10:00. By the time they came out to meet us we had cleaned up, had breakfast and were at the cafe for coffee already. They had not seen WICKED yet, so when they saw her and found out that she was the tour vehicle for the day they were thrilled. We all jumped in and away we went. Again Rene impressed all of us with his driving skills in the heart of the huge city of Amsterdam. With him driving

Alkmaar Cheese Market

Bringing the cheese to the weigh house

and me sort of giving navigational directions we were out of the big city within 20 minutes or so. We spent the rest of the day driving the tiny narrow roads and making our way to the Kinderdijk once again. We took roads that we had not yet taken so although Rene and I had been to the Kinderdijk already it was still fun and interesting for us on the new roads. Some of the roads we took were driving along the plassens. (lake in Dutch). These plassesns are right along the road and almost right up to the level of the sidewalks and roads.
We rode around all day and in the late afternnon we had to bring WICKED back to her lot. We said a fond farwell to our dear friend and went back to the apartment. It was kinda sad to leave WICKED because we had so much fun with this van on our travels, but it was time to continue with the adventure. We took the high speed train back into Amsterdam and then the 4 of us spent the remainder of the evening playing cards and having some great laughs.

Tues - April 05,2011
Rene and I stayed for the night

Alkmaar Cheese Market

2 Dutch girls

and woke up in the morning to rainy and cold weather. We hung out for the day with Shawn and Amanda. I made some traditional meatball soup for lunch and then for the afternoon we read, worked on the computer, went for a walk and played some more cards. For dinner we went out to Burgermeester for burgers. Kinda of a lazy relaxing day to end our time in Amsterdam with Shawn and Amanda. It sure was nice to have them right in Amsterdam to hang out with and explore some of the amazing city with them.

Wed- April 06,2011
We had packed our gear again the night before as we were once again vehicle-less and working with the train system again. We were on our way to Rene's uncle and Aunt in Harderwijk. We left Amsterdam at about 8:30 am and after
riding the metro train and then the EuroRail we arrived in Harderwijk at 11:45. Uncle Jaap and Aunt Reit met us at the train station and brought us to their condo. Uncle Jaap is recovering from some complex medical issues so we made sure that they understood that we weren't there to be entertained but

Alkmaar Cheese Market

Weighing the cheese

rather just to spend some time with them. We had some lunch and in the afternoon went for a bicycle ride into town. We spent a couple hours exploring the city and back to the condo to sit, visit and enjoy each other's company. One of Rene's cousins, Ester came to the condo and stayed and had dinner with us.
For sleeping arrangements we stayed in another condo. A friend of Uncle Jaap and Aunt Reit was travelling and offered that we sleep in her place while we were visiting. It was nice to have our own place to relax before bed.

Thurs- April 07, 2011
Another great day with Uncle Jaap and Aint Reit. While Uncle Jaap rested in the afternoon, Aunt Reit, Rene and I went for a 30 km bicycle ride through the amazing bike paths in and around Harderwijk. After our long bike ride (my butt was killing me) we went back to the condo. That evening we went out for dinner to a fantastic Chinese resturant.

Friday - April 08,2011
So we had another great night in our "own" condo. Uncle Jaap was feeling great in the morning so we decided to go for a drive in the countryside of Harderwijk. We had a

Alkmaar Cheese Market

The birds like gouda too!

few hours more of sight seeing and we got out of the vehicle a couple of times to stretch our legs and check out a small village. We were leaving to continúe the adventure at 4:00 pm. We were on our way to Leeuwarden, back to the north to visit for a few days with members of my extended family. Before we left Uncle Jaap and Aunt Reit they wanted to make sure we tasted yet another Dutch treat.......smoked eel and kibbelling. So off we went to a little cafe and ordered a couple orders of each. Smoked eel is just like it sounds, and kibbling is a deep fried white fish. Both were very tasty and the 4 of us ate our fill. Uncle Jaap we wish you God's speed and blessings as you continue your own journey of healing and health and who knows....maybe we will one day see each other again. Thanks for everything Aunt Reit. We had a wonderful time.
At 4:00 pm they took us yet again to the train station and off we went again. We rode the train for a couple of hours and finished our journey at 6:00pm in Leeuwarden. There we

Downtown Alkmaar

Houses on the canal

met Dirk. We had no idea who we were looking for as I had only met Dirk once in 1997 and Rene had never met him. I had chatted with him through email and phone before arriving and he knew who he was looking for as he had peeked at facebook. As we walked off the train, looking at strangers faces, we spotted a most friendly face and as soon as I saw him, I knew he was the man we were looking for. We had a cheery hello and after introducing Rene and myself all over again we jumped into Dirk's car. Within minutes we were at Dirk and Lenie's home. Lenie is my dad's maternal cousin. She had an amazing dinner ready for us, so we sat down and had a great meal together and learned about each other's lives. For the rest of the evening we sat an visited together.

Sat- April 09,2011
We both had a great sleep in yet another strange bed in a strange house. One day we are going to sit and count all the different beds we have slept in during this year. I'm going to take a

Alkmaar

The Canadian Plaza. Dedicated to the Canadians who liberated Holland. Not sure about the figures??

wild guess and say around 250 beds. Anyway we were ready to hear and see some of my paternal extended family history. We spent the day out and about, driving to the town of Marrum and area. Marrum is the town where my grandmother was born. then where my grandparents lived and where my dad was born. We took some pictures, talked about family history and had a great day. We also drove along several canals, dikes and more polders while Dirk shared with us his love of Holland's, and especially Frieland's history. It was so interesting to hear this history from Dirk as he knew so much and was passionate about it. We ended the day back at Dirk and Lenie's enjoyong yet another meal and great conversation. My dad's other cousin Cor and his wife Annika came over for coffee.

Sun - April 10, 2011
We got up and went to church with Dirk and Lenie. Again the service was totally in Dutch, but it was interesting to be there and see some of the similarities and differences between church in the Netherlands and in Canada. After church, Dirk and Lenie's daughter and her husband and

Wooden Shoes

Brightly painted wooden shoes

2 boys came over for coffee. More extended family to meet. After lunch we went for another drive to the town where my paternal grandfather was born. A town called Twelizheida. Again another afternoon of history and family information. We had a relaxing afternoon and evening.

Mon - April 11,2011
Dirk and Lenie insisted they drive us back to Rene's family in Mildam, so after going out for one last lunch together with Dirk and Lenie, we drove back to Henk, Seite and Sanne's to end our last days in Holland. We arrived at about 5:00pm and shortly thereafter everyone was home. We talked about our last 2 weeks of travelling through Holland and then we were off to bed.

Tues April 12, 2011
Today was "Famke's" day at Katlijk. Famke is Freis for sister, so translated it was Sister's Day. Most of the sister's from Rene's aunt were getting together on this day and although Rene nor I are sisters, we were invited to spend some time with them. First Rene and I went for a bike ride. We headed towards a town called Wolvega. Going there was wonderful with a strong wind in our backs and

Sand Dunes

Rene and Crystal's World Tour 2011

helping us pedal. On the way back of course was then absolutely horrible. The wind was so incredibly strong and peddling was HARD!!!!! Anyway we finally made it and went to hang out with the sisters and Rene's Aunt an Uncle. We had a wonderful afternoon and left after several hours of visiting and trying hard to understand eachother. Interesting trying to communicate. Often funny things were said and done in the process of translation. (Usually at my expense!!!!) After we left the family we decided we would cycle into Heereveen one last time. We wanted to go to McDonalds and have a McKroket. So we cycled to McDonalds and each ordered a McKroket. We were not really impressed with them in fact we really didn't like them at all. We finished our dinner and cycled back to Mildam to spend our last night win Henk, Seite and Sanne. We had a nice visit and said good night as it was going to be our last night with the family.

Wed- April 13, 2011
We were up early and packed because we were going to Lisse again today on the train. We were going to rent bicycles and peddle

Kuekenhof

Dutch Costume Festival

through the tulip and flower fields around the Kuekenhof, then stay in a hotel close to the airport and be at Schipol airport bright and early to catch our flight to Toronto. Our flight was leaving at 9:40 am. We booked our hotel the day before so all we had to do was to take the train to the airport, call the hotel and they would send the shuttle to pick us up and bring us to the airport.
Our train arrived at the airport, we called the Hotel Zwanenburg and within 20 minutes there was our shuttle. We unpacked all of our stuff in the room and took off to find the tulip fields. We took the local transit buses and we ended up riding on the bus for a couple of hours. (We could have peddled there quicker I think) and we finally found our stop. OK... We kinda got lost and the bus driver didn't help much. Anyway, we finally found the Kuekenhof and rented the bicycles and for the next 4 hours we peddled around the most beautiful flowers fields. Miles and miles of beautiful colorful and fragrance filled fields. Almost like the pictures on emails. The smell was amazing!!!! Just a quick side note:

Kuekenhof

Dutch Costume Festival

most of the tulips that we ouhed and ahhed over are totally destroyed while in bloom. Most of the tulip fields are really about the bulb. The flowers are mowed down and the bulb is then cultivated. Remember, I said Most, not All!! Anyway the fields were simply amazing and well worth getting a little side tracked and lost. Again on the way home the bus took a very long route and we ended up getting to our hotel room not until about 9:00pm. We read for a bit and called it a night as we booked a shuttle to the airport at 6:30am.
What a great day.

Thurs- April 14, 2011
Up to catch our shuttle. Arrived at Schiphol Airport by about 7:00 am. Plenty of time to get good seats and to relax before flying away. Our daughters Amanda and Cyndi and our grandbaby, Natalie were arriving in Toronto to meet us and spend the following 5 days with us at Rene's family in Ontario. We were so excited to see them it was hard to think about anything else. We would see them in about 9 hours and we hadn't seen them for 3 months.
As

Kuekenhof

Dutch Dancers

we sat in the airport I thought about our time in the Netherlands.
Really what a great 5 weeks we had. We saw most of what we wanted to see. Out of the 5 weeks we were there we had only 3 days of rainy, miserable weather and so many sunny warm wonderful days. Both Rene and I were able to meet each others extended families and enjoy learning about them. We were able to see and explore this country that has given us both our heritage. We heard, saw, touched, smelled and tasted so many of the things that make us the people we are today. We left Holland excited to continue our adventure, but also feeling a little sad to be leaving our roots. We both left believing and hoping we will return one day. We felt we added yet another dimension to each of our life stories and we felt so blessed to be able to experience this last 5 weeks. We are proud of our Dutch heritage and now can talk about our history with more knowledge, understanding and passion.
When we were teenagers a saying went; "IF YA AIN'T DUTCH, YA AIN'T MUCH. Now we found something new and we are now the "UNDUTCHABLES"!!!!!!!! GO ORANGE and BLACK