This was another “close to home” day for us. Monnickendam is a small town that is only about 10 miles away and made a great day trip.
I found the lintel plates above the doors to be quite interesting. I had no more than taken the above photo when a gentleman poked his head out of the door and started speaking to me. I was half expecting a “how dare you take a picture of my house without permission” kind of exchange, but he said to me”Do you know what that is? It’s the golden hand of God which gives good things!” We ended up having a very interesting conversation and he invited us to see the inside of his home.
He explained that the building dated from about 1500 and that he knew the names of every owner since the 1600s. He had lived here for 35 years. He was particularly proud of his collection of items retrieved from the old well in his back yard. They were broken pieces of dishes and such, which he had been able to piece back together. He said that there were 10 homes in a row on this street from the same time period, but was the only one with a façade from the period. I’m embarrassed to say that after our visit I realized that I had photographed his home, but not him!
There Bontekoes on my mom’s side of the family. I’d never realized that it means “spotted cow”.
The above photo shows where the flood level from 1916 is marked next to the red door.
Lunch of Pannenkoeken at Pannenkoekenhuis "De Witte Swaen" in nearby Broek in Waterland was wonderful. The rain had moved back in so we didn’t wander the town to photograph it.
Sunday was a very unusual day for us, as far as our normal when visiting the Netherlands. We stayed “home”. It was a wonderful day.
Well, home is a relative term since we took a walk through the village of de Rijp. Here are some images from our walk.
The local Reformed Church meets in 3 different buildings in the area. One of them is the old church from 1655, so this building is still in use, but was also open for tourist visiting while we were on our walk.
An internet search for English church services led us to Christ Church Heiloo, a nearby Anglican church which had a service at 5 p.m. so our day was a bit upside down from usual. We heard an inspiring message from Rev. Francis Blight, based on Ephesians 1:15-23 and were blessed by worshiping with this wonderful congregation.
After returning home, we took a ride down the tree-lined bike path to the Beemster cheese facility. Besides a purple Beemster cow, they have a water tube showing how far below NAP we are.
Sunset in de Rijp.
Edam is a lovely little town whose name is more well known than the town. Edam cheese is definitely yummy and well known, but you’d never know it from the size of the cheese “market” in town.
It was raining in the afternoon when we visited Edam. We came prepared with rain resistant jackets.
The Grote Kerk or St. Nicholaaskerk is a favorite place to visit in Edam. It is an active church, but the upkeep of the building required a lot of resources so the interior of the building features an ongoing sale of used books and handcrafted items. There is one lady that makes amazing hand-knit socks and I can’t resist purchasing a pair each time we visit the church.
