Travels

Things started to get busy at this point…..well, relatively busy.  Our friends from San Diego, Allen and Julie have arrived in Amsterdam to spend part of their Euro-Vacation with us and soon we will all drive to a Belgium town named Bruges to meet up with other SD friends Layne, Jenny and Jodie.  (Europe will never be the same).

We met the Shumates at Schipol and drove back to the apartment while sharing news from both sides of the planet.  They both felt that despite their travel fatigue it would be best to stay up until normal local bedtime.  Ok…so then it’s was time to party?!

We all jumped on the tram and headed to Leidseplein for food and drink.  The combination of a good dinner, a couple of excellent beers and the after-effects of the long trip from San Diego soon took its toll and we returned to the apt. and all turned in for the night.

Our bikes in the bike garage

After breakfast the next morning Allen and Julie rented a couple of city bikes, BJ and I walked up to the garage and retrieved

BJ

our bikes and we all met up for a ride.  We took the fietspad (bike path) along the Overland Preserve and had a lovely ride (sans autos) out through the forest and along the canals.  At one point Julie veered from the pavement onto a dirt trail shouting in her best ‘Dutch’; “Offen Roaden!” and we all followed grinning and joking.  Our ride took us to Sloten where we made a right and rode along the somewhat more urban bike lanes to Vondelpark.

A scenic ride through the park brought us out onto the real city streets where I promptly led us in the wrong direction.  Fortunately, Allen quickly recognized that we had gone wrong and after discussing the situation I conceded the point (you know me…..I’ve always got to be convinced….when will I learn?), we reversed our course.  After only 10 minutes or so we were back on BeethovenStraat and headed home.  All told we’d covered about 13 miles.  Not a bad ride at all.

That, of course, called for celebratory beer, some wine and a great dinner at Haesje Claes, a restaurant on Spuistraat serving primarily Dutch fare.

In the morning Julie felt the worse for her jet-lag so she slept in while Allen, BJ and I once again took the bikes for a tour.  This time our goal was Boerderij Meerzich, a restaurant known for its  panen koeken (pancakes), and located at the far end of the Amsterdam Bos, (Amsterdam Forest).  The Bos is a 2 km by 5 km forest that was planted as a public works project in 1934 (reputedly employing some 20,000 workers) and which lies a mere 6 km or so from the apartment.

A canal along the fietspat

I was looking forward to this as I hadn’t yet sampled Dutch pancakes.  They are more like crepes that traditional American flapjacks in that they’re quite thin and are typically about 12 inches in diameter.  Often topped with fruit, jam or even syrup they are then rolled and eaten like a burrito (by the young) or with a fork by those who wish to avoid sticky fingers.

To make a long story short, the distance was a little more than 11 km to the restaurant and although we’d arrived a few minutes early for opening (we’d read on the website that they opened at 10am), the place appeared to be closed….well there were a few folks drinking coffee.  It turned out that while the restaurant does in fact open at 10, the kitchen doesn’t open until 11.

Rats!

Oh well, we didn’t really want to wait around for an hour so we rode back home and chalked it up to a nice ride through a beautifully forested countryside.  Guess we’ll have to party some more!

Next day – Road Trip!

We made a plan to drive to nearby Zaanse Schans (zan sa  schan sa  (the sch involves a soft glottal known as a ‘smooth-onset’ glottal stop….sort of like a quiet gargle at the back of the throat that doesn’t occur in English.  It’s not at all harsh sounding but is quite difficult for those of us not raised with it.))

Windmill at the edge of town

Zaanse Schans is only a half-hour or so from here and is host to some 35 working windmills built between 1594 and 1700 as well as being, itself, a lovely, quaint village.

We arrived at the town and as per our usual modus operandi we parked the van on the village outskirts and set off on foot.  As we approached the first windmill of the day we notices a beagle in the front-room of a home across the street.  He was clearly surveying his domain.

King of the Beagles

We turned left into the village and seemed to step back in time by a couple of hundred years.  The cobblestone streets were very peaceful.  The homes were all well tended with neat if prolific gardens and all seemed to share a pride of ownership seldom seen in the west.

Main Street

We walked all the way through the village (didn’t take too long), making some note of the decorative ornamentation around doors, windows and cornices.

decorative mouldings

Before the numbered address system was instituted it was this ornamentation which was used to identify homes. (go to the corner with the really ugly gargoyle on the roof, turn right and look for the red door with the mermaid and lance…see you at 7, bring beer!)

The Signal Lady

Having passed through the town we elected to take the ‘ferry’ across the canal in order to tour the windmills.  BJ raised the call signal and sure enough within a couple of minutes we saw the ferry leave the other side headed for our landing.

For the price of 1 Euro each we were carried to the other shore where we continued our walk.  We didn’t take any of the windmill tours that day as we were getting hungry and wanted to save a little time for the next town.

The Ferry (what do you want for a buck?!)

Windmills in Zaanse Schans

Young Love

We got some food, too!

Us again

We stopped for a nice lunch and ate while we watched a group shooting wedding photos in the picturesque little village.  Then it was back to the van and off to see the town of Edam.

The city of Edam dates to before 1230ad.  At that time the citizenry built a dam across the river IJ after which they were able to levy a toll for cross-channel drayage.  This enabled Edam to become a trade and shipbuilding powerhouse.

However, because of the open channel/harbor to the sea there were problems with flooding of the hinterland so in 1544 Emperor Charles V gave orders to close the harbor with lock gates, which were built in the town centre in 1569. This resulted in the harbor silting up and the ship building industry went into a decline by the end of the 17th century.

Later, it was the cheese which more or less saved the city from becoming a footnote.  One local cheese merchant explained to BJ and me that the label ‘Edam’ has more to do with the shape of the cheese that with the taste.  Likewise, he said for ‘Gouda’.  It’s all about the size and shape.

Main Canal in Edam

We carefully maneuvered through narrow alleys until we emerged in the tiny town …. As there was a car park immediately on our right we took advantage thereafter walking into town.

Carrilon Tower, Edam

We didn’t get to see everything, but did check out the late-gothic Carrilon tower which, built in 1561, is all that’s left of “The Church of Our Dear Lady” dating from 1350 and destroyed by lightning-strike and subsequent fire in 1882.  The tower tilts a bit but has been reinforced internally and today still rings its Pieter van den Ghein designed bells every 15 minutes.  The Carrilon is the oldest clockwork tower in The Netherlands.

Really crooked buildings

Beautiful canal views, seriously leaning architecture and an overall calm, peaceful demeanor seemed to be the norm in Edam.  We found later that there is still an open cheese market on Wednesdays in July and August…..maybe next time.

Artsy look at the main canal in Edam

Next post soon: “Bruges”