Zaanse Schans

The forecast for today called for rain, so we planned to do something outdoors! What’s next, bicycling in the rain?

Okay, maybe we aren’t as adventuresome as this sounds. Zaanse Schans is a large outdoor venue with molens and other buildings from the area, but it also has a lot of places to duck into while it rains. One of those places is the Zaans Museum, which tells the history of the area. The only photo that I took in the museum was of an old sewing machine. I was amazed to learn that it was used for not only making, but repairing the sacks which were used (and reused) for transporting grains and such. We would throw away a sack that was damaged, but not these Dutch folks – they fixed them!

Zaanse Schans is a very popular tourist area with lots of tour buses and such. We figured that with the rain it would be light on crowds, but no! This may be the busiest we’ve seen, but it is still great fun. Here is Linda inside the cheese shop and some other photos of the area.

And yes, it did rain, but it made the flowers look great!

The only museum that we visited is the Weavers House. This is new since our last visit in 2015. Weaving sailcloth was an industry that was done in homes in this area. This home was moved to the venue from about 7 km away. It had been the home of 2 families who used 5 looms to weave cloth for sailing ship sails. The volunteers claimed me as a new volunteer because of my understanding of weaving.

Our day actually started in the rain, with a visit to the nearby Beemster Cheese factory for their outlet store. The cheese is wonderful, and I love their sense of humor – purple cows!

The end of the day was quite different – the rain stopped and there was sunshine. The sheep were out in the meadow and we rode the bicycles to the nearby grocery store after we discovered that we were out of coffee (gasp!).

Friesland and Friends You’ve Never Met Before

Part of our adventures in the Netherlands is to visit the places where our family history has roots. A couple of these are in Friesland, one of the two northern provinces in the Netherlands.

Wjelsryp (Friesian spelling) or Welsrijp (Dutch spelling) is the little village where Rose Dykstra Buss hailed from. This is Linda’s great-grandmother. It’s a tiny place, and so typical of this part of the country – flat, green, and a small collection of houses and farms. No wonder Michigan and Iowa looked good to the folks who emigrated to the U.S.

After Wjelsryp, we ventured southeast to the corner where Friesland, Drenthe and Groningen provinces come together. Oostewolde is the town where a “friend” from Ravelry resides. Gjeani is a weaver and Louet loom dealer. Her family runs a dairy farm in this town. We had a wonderful afternoon visit. It’s great to make new friends from people that you only know from the internet. Here’s a photo of Gjeani and I in her studio, as well as a couple of other photos of the farm.

I also received this wonderful book that is only available in the Netherlands. I’ve been drooling over the wonderful projects and photographs!

Next in our day was a stop at Ezinge, where my great-great-grandfather was born. We really don’t know anymore about Hendrik Reinekes de Vries other than this. The town is a terp village that is apparently quite significant for the knowledge which it has provided to historians. In the 1920s the peat diggers started discovering interesting items, which led to a large archeological dig which revealed lots of interesting things about the history of people in this area. Terp villages were built upon the raised earth mounds (terps) which were created to provide dry land above the level of the marshes and tidal flows. You can see the mound in the photos of the church and tower.

Wiegers is a name in my family tree, so likely a distant relative.

I don’t know why this chicken was hanging around the church, but I found the coloring to be fascinating.

The day ended with a hot air balloon almost landing on top of us as we neared the farm.

Gefeliciteerd met je Verjaardag

It was my birthday on Tuesday so "gefeliciteerd met je verjaardag" to me! Celebrating it in the Netherlands is probably the best birthday present that I can imagine. The agenda for the day was two of our favorite places out "in the country" - The Nederland Openlucht Museum, and the Kroller-Müller Museum.

Lots of places we have visited have been much busier than we've seen on previous trips, but we've learned that there are advantages to being here during "high season" - like exhibits that we've never seen previously because they don't open everything during slower times of the year. This exhibit was new to us. It showed how the small Dutch transport firm of Van Gend & Loos grew to become the DHL that is known around the world.

The whole point of the Open Air Museum is to bring together historic buildings from around the country into one place where they can tell the Dutch story. Even if you aren't into that, it's just a pretty place - and they have poffertjes!

These things are much harder to ride than they look!

The big thing for me at the museum was to visit the weavers. I met a young man who was winding a 80cm x 50m warp on a warping mill and learned about the designs they were creating. In addition to some very old looms, they were using a version of the same loom which I have. Great fun!

The Kroller-Müller Museum has two main attractions for us. The first is the collection of artworks by Vincent Van Gogh. It was a little different this time from previous visits. Many of our favorite works were not on display, but the comparison of Vincent's work to his inspirations, and those inspired by him, meant that there were also some works that we had not seen before. I think his sketches may be some of my favorite images.

I think Linda's "Still Life with Pears" belongs in the collection as well. These were the pears that Linda purchased at the driveway produce stand in the Tiel area.

The other reason we like this place is that it is set in the Hoge Veluwe National Park, where they have great bicycling paths and free bicycles. You just pick out a bike, ride it where you want. Park it while you stop at the visitor center or museum, then find a new one when you come out.

What you probably can't make out is the look of terror on Linda's face because she's coming down hill on a bike with coaster brakes. Okay, not really terror, but she much prefers hand brakes ;-).

We stumbled across De Langenberg Pannenkoekenhuis for dinner, which was followed by dessert of Appeltaart met Slagroom (yum!).

On the way home we spotted something we've never seen in the Netherlands - hot air balloons!