Mondays in the Netherlands present 2 problems - what is open for business, and what will the weather be. When it comes to touristy things and quilting or knitting shops, Monday is often a day to be closed. The day started sunny, but soon turned dark, windy & rainy. So the morning conversation goes like this: Hmmm... we need stuff for breakfast and we're almost out of koffiemelk so we can't just stay here today. We haven't been to the Open Air Museum yet, it may be less windy if we're farther inland, there's an Albert Heijn along the way in Gouda, I'll bet we can find poffertjes at the museum... we've got a plan, let's go!
So we stop at the local bakery in Zevenhuizen for bread, raisin buns, and breakfast goodies, then head a few kilometers East to the Albert Heijn in Gouda.
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| Right across from the coffee machine we spotted this young shopper taking a break at the play station. |
After arriving at the Nederlands Openluchtmuseum, we head straight for the Zaan area where they've always had a Poffertje stand. Ever since the Poffertje stand wasn't on the square in Haarlem, we've been on a quest to find some. Sure enough - it's there, but no outside seating today because of the cool weather.
The coffee comes first while we wait for
the Poffertjes (they make them up from scratch). Coffee in the
Netherlands always comes with a small cookie.
My Dutch girl with one our favorite
Dutch treats - Poffertjes! Mmmm... little pancakes, sprinkled with
powdered sugar and served hot with a pat of butter!!
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| Poffertjes are made on these special griddles that have small half-round molds to hold the batter. |
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| The Shop Zus & Jet, where you can buy just about anything - like an old-time general store. |
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| A weaving demonstrator. |
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| The modern brewery where they actually brew beer available for purchase. I sampled some Lentebock, and bought a bottle of Dubbel to bring home. |
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| The original brewery from Brabant - they actually used to brew beer here for the museum! |
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| We rode the antique Rotterdam trolly to get back to the main entrance area. |
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This area opened just 2 weeks ago - some buildings from the Jordaan area of Amsterdam that illustrate how poor workers often lived - particularly immigrants. |
Here are a few other shots from around the museum. It's a pretty cool place, and it's especially impressive that 100 years ago there were people who were inspired to save the old buildings of the Netherlands by moving them to this place. Such foresight!
After we returned home, the weather was still nice to go out for a bike ride - a little windy and you needed a jacket and scarf, but not bad. We just did a quick ride down the street where the apartment is located.
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| We loved the goats and lambs in this yard. We'd not seen spotted goats before and the lambs were great fun as they "bounded" from place to place - yep, they really don't walk - they bounce! |
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| Nearby windmills |
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| Ernie riding. |
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| One of the pastures had cows, sheep, goats, and deer! |
Tonight's beer report: Hertog Jan Lentebock. A light, almost sweet, and refreshing beer. 7.2% alcohol content. Not as hoppy as the one that I sampled earlier in the day at the museum brewery. I'm not usually one for blonde beers, but this is delicious! Described on the bottle like this: "In vroegere tuden was Lentebock het laatste bier dat voor de traditionele zomerstop werd gebrouwen. Het kreeg dan ook een hoger alcohol percentage mee, zodat het langer bewaard kon worden. Hertog Jan Lentebock wordt met de grootste zorg gerbrowen en is een typish voorjaarsbier. Goud - tot bronskleurig, romig en fruitig van smaak."
What - you can't read Dutch??? Okay - let's try this again (with a little help from Goggle Translate):
In earlier times Lentebock was the last beer that was brewed in the traditional summer break. It had, therefore, a higher alcohol to it so that it could be stored for longer. Hertog Jan Lentebock is brewed with the greatest care and is a typical for "spring beer". Gold - to bronze, creamy and fruity flavor.
Yep - is lekker!
P.S. - The image at the top is captured from a Cafe Press vendor's listing for a t-shirt.
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