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Published: March 19th 2011
Windmill
Just one of so many in the NetherlandsSo we are on our way to Holland, often times called The Netherlands. The Netherlands is made up of 11 provinces
and a bunch of small islands. There is a very unique culture in Holland and we are interested to learn more. Both Rene and I have deep roots in this Dutch land. Both of our families are from the Province of Friesland, a province in the North of Holland and we are both very excited to explore these roots and see where our ancestors came from and how they lived and loved in Holland.
So let's check out Holland
Mon- March 07, 2011
We flew to Amsterdam and arrived at 9:00 am. In Thailand time that was about 5:00 pm. anyway we had connected by email with Rene's cousin Seite and her husband Henk. Henk insisted he pick us up from the airport. We had never
met each other before, so he had made a placard with our names on it. We picked up our luggage and walked through
the arrival gates and there was Henk, his placard and his wonderful smiling face. He took us to their home in
Mildam Friesland, Netherlands. We thought we would
Rene's cousins
Nice to meet extended family be really tired as the day wore on, but as it turned out
neither of us were very tired at all, so we went for a long walk to check out the area.
Rene's maternal and paternal families are both from this same area. He was here 32 years ago for a family
celebration and so our first walk was full of memories of the places he had seen so long ago. He remembered lots
but of course there were also gaps after 32 years.
After she was finished work we met Seite, and Sanna we met after she was finished school. Sanne is 17 years old.
All 3 of them spoke very good English, so it was very easy to communicate with them. We practiced our Frisian (the other official language of the Netherlands) with them and they practiced their English with us. They were better in the communication department. Rene's mom and dad still speak Frisian in their home and spoke Frisian to their children so Rene still can understand quite a bit, but he struggles to find the words to communicate back. I, on the other hand, know about 10 or 20 words and the whole language
Church and Graveyard
Church were Rene's family attended and attends still and the graveyard where his deceased family is laid to rest issue is a mystery to me. I do allot of smiling and nodding and trying really hard.
Anyway we had a great evening together and when we finally hit our bed at about 9:00pm we were exhausted.
Both of us feeling it was really great to be back in the Western world.
Tues - March 08, 2011
We woke up and spent the morning doing laundry and hanging out while Henk and Seite were at work and Sanna at school. After the laundry was washed and hung on the line, we jumped on peddle bikes and off we went to do some more exploring.
Cycling is very popular here in Holland. Many people have bikes instead of vehicles and if a vehicle is owned by the family, it is used only for long trips, when visitors come or for emergencies. Henk, Seite and Sanna are no exception. They all ride about 30 minutes to their jobs and school each day. Even in winter they cycle. The Netherlands gets very little snow, but even in that little bit of snow, most people will cycle to their work, grocery stores and visiting.
Anyway we were now part of the cycling
Typical transportation
Mom can have 3 little ones on this bike with her. See the little seat just in front of hers? WOW!!! crowd. We rode our borrowed bikes through the villages of Mildam and Katlijk, where both of his parents were born and raised. We stopped at the dairy farm of Rene's paternal cousin, Reitsa and Eileen and their 3 children live and work. They were busy with farm stuff, but insisted we come back another day for coffee. We agreed to come back on Thursday morning for coffee.
Another interesting sight in Holland is the houses and barns. Often the house and the barn are one big structure. The house in the front and then the barn with the same roof directly behind the house under one roof. Really interesting and efficient. I guess the challenge of this kind of house is keeping the barn smell out of the living quarters. I guess it's not too difficult as there is often a couple of doors and a mud room or other small
dividing room between the house and barn. Fascinating architecture.
So after chatting with Reitsa and Eileen we rode our bikes to the closest city called Heerenveen. This city like many
in Holland is built around a canal system. Really all of Holland seems to be full of canals. Big
Everyone rides bikes
These bikes are true work bikes canals, little
canals, deep canals, shallow canals, some very busy and others not so busy. There are canals everywhere. While in Heerenveen we stopped for a late lunch and had typical Dutch food. Croquettes!!! A croquette is a small fried food roll containing usually as main ingredients mashed potatoes, and/or minced meat (veal, beef, chicken, or turkey). The croquette is usually shaped into a cylinder or disk, and then deep-fried.. Very Yummmy!!!
We stayed in the city of Heerenveen until about 5:00 pm and headed back to Mildam to have dinner with Henk, Seite and Sanna.
After dinner we went with Henk to Seite's oldest sister Grace and her hubby Garrett. Had a wonderful visit with
them and were invited to join them and the rest of the 8 sisters for Grace's birthday party on Saturday night.
Home to bed after our first day of exploring both of our roots in the Netherlands.
Wed - March 09, 2011
Henk, Seite and Sanna all had the day off so we all loaded into the car and went to check out the province of
Freisland. Freisland is one of 11 provinces in Holland. It also has 5 islands that are
Not just for leisure
Check out the bright orange mittens!! inhabited and several smaller ones that are not . We were on our way to check out the island of Texel, the 2nd largest of the 5. Texel is famous for it's special island sheep. I guess these sheep are only on the island of Texel. Before taking the ferry across to the island, we drove across the Afsluitdijk.
This dyke is 30 kms long and was built between 1927 and 1933. It was built all by manual labour. It is a very impresssive huge structure that is only about 7 m above sea level.
We stopped to read the information and also, so Rene and I could be good Dutchmen and put our finger in the dyke. Good thing we were there.... I think the dyke was ready to break and becasue of our plugging the dyke with our fingers we were able to diverted this disaster (just kidding!!!)
Fun and funny!!!
We then continued on to the 15 minute ferry crossing and had a great day exploring Texel island. Quaint little
villages, beaches, big sand dunes, old beautiful brick home adn churches. The island is scattered with many sheep. Texel sheep they're called and I guess they are
Spring in the Netherlands
Crocuses to remind us about the renewal of life only found on the island of Texel. WOW!!!
Returned home after another great day and fell exhausted again into bed.
Thursday - March 10, 2011
We went off to our scheduled coffee with Reitsa and Eileen. Had a nice couple of hours with them talking about kids and farming. They both speak very good English, so it was easy to chat with them. After coffee Rene and I went for another bike ride all over the countryside again. We ended up back in Heerenveen in a little cafe. We got out the map of Europe and attempted to make some plans of where we might want to go in the next month. No definite plans were made, just lots of options.
Back to Henk and Seite's for dinner and then out again with Henk to visit Rene's paternal uncle Jan. He also
speaks very good English so we had a very nice evening with him and called it a night.
Friday - March 11, 2011
Another day off for Seite, so she took us in the morning to her parents, Tante Seitske, Rene's maternal aunt and Anna her husband. Neither of them speak or understand English, so
communitcation was a little bit more difficult, but with lots of help from Seite translating we had a great visit. They are all so excited to see Rene and spent alot of time deciding who Rene looks and acts like. Rene says it's kind of embarassing, I think it's quite funny and
entertaining.
After lunch Uncle Jan came to collect us and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening with him and his adult children and spouses who live in the area. Rene was reaquainted with his paternal cousins and I got to meet these cousins. To start the afternoon Uncle Jan took us to this incredible garden paradise. A orchid and butterfly farm. After spending almost 3 hours in the gardens we headed back to his home. First we stopped at a take-out resturant and ordered 3 Frikendel specials. Yummy spicy Dutch sausages and French Fries (with mayo of course!! The Dutch dip their fries in mayo, not ketcup). It was a another great Dutch treat.
After dinner we jumped into Uncle Jan's car again and then off to the cousins. We went to Tineke and Wim's home. Tineke is Rene's cousin. Monda, another cousin and her
Typical Farm Site
The house and the barn are ONE building. husband Jurjen came to Tineke's as well to visit with us. we had yet more coffee and conversation with them. How wonderful to meet this extended family. So many maternal and paternal relatives. It is sometimes hard for me figure out who is who and who belongs to who!!
After a wonderful night Uncle Jan dropped us back off at Henk and Seite.
Sat - March 12, 2011
We woke up this morning and we made plans to visit in the morning with yet another maternal Uncle from Rene. This
visit was with Uncle Klaus and Aunt__________. Again, although they spoke no English we were able to communicate with the help of Henk and Seite.
After our coffee visit we went back to the house, had some lunch and waited for a short time for Sanna to come back from her part time job. When she returned home we all piled back into the car and went for another afternoon of exploring more of Friesland. Our first stop on this tour was a little town called Sloten. This town is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. They call this town "little Amsterdam". It has a small canal running through the
middle of the cobblestone streets and a huge windmill at the end of the village. Such a quiant little town and hardly anyone around.
Our next stop was another town. Hinderloopen is another interesting Dutch town.
After another busy day of exploring, we ordered Chinese food take out and went home and ate our fills.
After dinner, about 9:00 pm we walked over to Grace's to celebrate her birthday. There we met still more of Rene's
cousins. All but one of the 8 sisters of the same family was at the party, so it was fun to meet them all, even
though language was a barrier for some of them. We went back to Henk and Seite's late after lots of visiting and
catching up.
Sun - March 13, 2011
Although church was totally in Dutch, we wanted to go and check out what church is like in Mildam, so after a 2
minute walk we were sitting in the Kerk (Dutch for church). For the next hour we listened intently trying hard to pick out some words to help us understand what the service was about. A couple of words, that was all. So left without knowing but
Eating Dutch food
Croquettes and french fries with Mayo instead of Ketchup feeling filled and it really was kinda interesting.
After church we were back at Henk and Seite's and at noon they brought us to the train station to catch the train
to Amsterdam. At 12:30 we jumped on the train. At the very first stop we were advised that there had been some
sort of accident on the rails and we all needed to exit the train and a bus would then take us around the accident
site and bring us back to the train. Onto the "touring car" and then back on the train. Got off the train in a
suburb of Amsterdam and jumped on the Metro line that took us to Amsterdam's Central station.
Rene's nephew Shawn and his girlfriend Amanda from Ontario are in Amsterdam. They are renting an apartment for 2 months, to explore as well. Lucky for us, to have someone in Amsterdam to stay with.
So with their address in hand we left the Metro and within about 20 minutes arrived at their apartment. Sure
enough as we got closer we saw Shawn sitting outside on a bench waiting for our arrival. So after hugs all around
we were invited to their 4th
Windmill
Downtown Heereveen floor apartment. Tiny, narrow and very steep stairs to the apartment. Quite an
adventure just getting up the stairs with our packs.
After unpacking and chatting we went out for dinner together to celebrate out time together in Amsterdam. How fun!!
Mon - March 14, 2011
We were all up early so we could get a head start on all the other tourists in Amsterdam.
We headed first to see Anne Frank's house. For those who don't know, Anne Frank, her sister and Mother and Father, who were Dutch Jews, went into hiding for almost 3 years during the second World War. They hid in a secret annex from 1942 to 1945 to escape from the Germans. Anne's way of fighting the boredum was to write in her diary of her and her family's experience while in hiding. In March 1945 she and her family were discovered and they were all brought to different work and death camps. Anne Frank died just one month before the liberation. Her father lived to see freedom and came back to the house in Amsterdam searching for his family. No one but him and Anne's diary survived. He published his daughter's diary in
Seite and Sanne
Being silly at the Afsluitdijk 1947, to let the world know of the tragedy's and life during the war. Anne's story is now in 60 languages and it is read by thousands of school children across the world each year in school. Hard to imagine being a young girl and not being able to play outdoors and to have to live in secret, fearing for your life. Very disturbing story of war. The hope of course is that by publishing her book the world will take heed and not allow history to repeat itself. HMMMMM...... I don't think we are doing a very good job of paying attention, with all the other Civil and other conflicts going on in the world.
After the Anne Frank house tour, we found another walking tour the 4 of us did on our own with a pamphlet. This tour took us to all different places in the city that were used by the Germans and the Dutch as the war unfolded.
Places where Jewish families were forever separated, places where family members were shot in front of each other, places like the Aushwhitz memorial where there are so many names and nothing to bring closure. To stand in the
Afsluitdijk
A 30 km long dike to hold back the sea spots where so much craziness unfolded was very sobering to say the least. To see Dutch names that we recognize made this tour even more real for us.
Next, since we were doing the whole World War theme, we found the Dutch resistance Museum and toured that as well. Again more stories of captured and persecuted Jews and then their fight to resist the German army. Again very interesting and informative.
After the heaviness of the day, we went back to the apartment and just hung out for a couple of hours. After
eating a yummy dinner of cheese, crackers etc we went out for an evening adventure. Amsterdam is very well known for having the world's biggest and legal red light district. Of course we had to check that out as well!!!!
There are about 250 windows where, legally licensed prostitutes stand in windows framed with red lights to show what they have to offer. We laughed, were shocked and even felt embarassed sometimes by the sight and behaviour of these women in the windows. Mostly we were quite entertained as this kind of thing is so unacceptable and foreign to us. After a busy and kinda weird mixture
Sloten
Unesco World Heritage Site of adventures we went back to the apartment exhausted and fell into bed.
Tues - March 15, 2011
We were not in any hurry to get moving on this morning, so we got out of the apartment not until about 11:00 am.
We had passed a houseboat museum several times on our walks, and so we decided to take a look. Quick little tour of just one of 2500 houseboats that are moored in the canals of Amsterdam. Interesting former working boats that have been turned into homes. These houseboats are stationary in the canals and people live in them year round. Some are flat on the top and have green lawns and lawn furniture for enjoying the sun in the summer.After leaving the houseboat tour we found a canal tour we wanted to go on. We spent the next 75 minutes floating through the canals of Amsterdam and learning more about the canals and the different areas along the canals. Our next stop in exploring Amsterdam was the Heineken Beer Experience. Rene's all time favorite beer is Heineken so he was very excited about this tour. We spent the next 3 hours learning about Heineken beer and
playing the different games in this tour. It was a very impressive experience that involved all of our senses. We experienced the sights, sounds, and smells of the brewery. We touched the different ingredients that are used to make the brew and Rene's favorite sensation......taste!!!! We all got to have 2 glasses of ice cold Heineken beer.
By the time our Heineken experience was over it was 5:00pm and we all decided we were toured out. Rene had earlier in the day decided it was "Dutch Day" and we were only allowed to eat traditional Dutch foods, so for dinner we went to the grocery store and bought several dutch things to eat.Dinner was "lekker" (Dutch for yummy) and we spent the rest of the evening reading, working and playing on the computer and for Rene and I, repacking as we were leaving the next morning for Rome Italy.
So there is our first week in Holland. Lots of family visiting. Brand new family meetings for me and for Rene,
some new and some reaquainting with relatives. More to come as we meet with more of Rene's family and some of my family in the next month. It has
Stick your finger in the Dike
I'm pretty sure we're going to hold back the north sea!!! been so interesting to learn and see where our roots are.
And so we remain......
In the Grip of Grace
Rene and Crystal.
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Jenny Poultney
non-member comment
living life
wow you two are really living life to the full .... amazing and inspirational - thank you fr sending me your travel blogs - when do you get back to Canada