We escaped from Paris early on Sunday morning, with the goal of beating the traffic. Sadly even early on a Sunday, there is plenty of people on the road, as if the city never goes to sleep. But eventually we made it into the countryside and we cruised through Belgium and into Netherlands to find our accommodation for the next week.
We got a little house right on the canal, in between Utrecht and Amsterdam. It’s a great location as we can easily park the car at the station and take the train to either city. But before hitting the cities, we took the girls to a little village called Zaanse Schans. It is a neighborhood in the Dutch town of Zaandam, near Amsterdam. Historic windmills and distinctive green wooden houses were relocated here to recreate the look of an 18th/19th-century village. The Zaans Museum has regional costumes, model windmills and interactive exhibits on chocolate making. Artisan workshops demonstrate rare handicrafts such as wooden clog carving, barrel making and pewter casting.
At Zaanse Schans we got to see some old windmills, a cheese factory and a clog factory. The windmills were amazing, especially the sawmill, as it is fully functioning and cuts wood still today, all to customer orders. We got to see them in action for one such order. Mish had a lovely chat with one of the older gentlemen working the mill, the engineer really shone through!
After the windmills, we spent a day in Utrecht. It was a beautiful day so we made the most exploring Utrecht, especially the old and new canals. With it being a university town, we could easily imagine the atmosphere on the canals in the summer months, with all the bars and cafes open. We also assume that a few patrons may take the occasional unexpected canal dip… This trip was an easy introduction to the Dutch house styles for the girls. We saw the impressive old Dom Tower (highest church tower in the Netherlands) and church. Whilst the tower was covered in scaffolding, the little garden between the church and university hall was very stunning and peaceful.
This was followed by a few days in Amsterdam hitting the following highlights:
- The Van Gough Museum: looking at a large collection of his work, both paintings and drawings. The girls now have a grasp of Impressionism art and can name a few other artists within the Genre (Harriette’s favourite is Monet). They were both upset to learn that ‘Starry Night’ was not in fact in the Van Gogh museum, but in New York!
- Anne Frank Museum: As the girls are learning about the world wars, we decided to learn more about Anne Frank. It included some hard topics and discussions but the girls were keen to learn more about her history. Her family left Germany when she was only 4, but unfortunately the Nazis eventually invaded the Netherlands and placed the Franks in a difficult position with the Jews being actively persecuted. Hence the decision for them to prepare and then hide in a secret annex, that could only be accessed by a secret bookshelf. They managed to hide there for over 2 years, during which time the people living in the annex (8 people!) could not make a sound during the day, nor ever leave the building! Unfortunately they were eventually discovered, rounded up and shipped to the concentration camps, where Anne died. The only person who survive was her father Otto. Whilst they were hiding, Anne wrote in her diary, and actually rewrote it with the intention of having it published one day. Realising what his daughter had done, and her wish to be an author, Otto Frank decided to publish her diary to make her wish come true.
- Body World (WARNING: graphic images): Robyn found this amazing museum of plasticised cadavers. It was amazing to see the human body peeled away layer by layer to see what lays beneath and how complex our bodies actually are. We saw everything from the nervous system, muscles, bones, digestive, respiratory and reproductive systems. They even just showed the capillaries of specific parts, and it’s mind blowing how much of a network it is! One real eye opener were the smoker’s lungs and how black and tary they are compared to a healthy pair. It was also fantastic to see Robyn in her element passing on some of her knowledge and passion to the girls. While they might have been “grossed” out by some of the displays, they were also amazed and absorbed it all. In the end one of the lessons that we think was driven into us, is that we really need to look after ourselves both physically and mentally, as the museum also linked the two together!
- Red light district: We on purpose did not shy away from the red light district, and we walked through the district with the girls, showing them one of the oldest professions in the world. As one could imagine we had some very interesting and open discussions about the things we saw. This was also interlaced with discussion about drugs due to the Cannabis shops and strong weed smells that wafted through our walk.
We also took the opportunity to catch up with 2 of Robyn’s childhood friends, who moved to the Netherlands. One of the friends live in Meppel, and we had a fantastic relaxing day at their home and exploring Meppel a little bit (before the heavy rain cut the exploration a bit short). It was great to catch up with them as Robyn last saw Karla nearly 20 years ago, and needless to say there was a lot of catching up to do!
With the Nelsons, we got to first explore Haarlem and Mish finally finding 2 things that he was craving for. 1) Raw herring, served in a bun with onions and 2) freshly made stroopwafels with the Carmel still soft. He was a very happy person especially after washing it down with a couple of beers! For lunch we also got to try out some Dutch “bitterballs”, which is a thickened meat stew that is then rolled into balls, breaded and deep fried. It was good tasting, but the girls did not like the “gloppy” texture of the thickened stew inside.
After Haarlem, Robyn’s friends took us to out to experience St Martin’s (Sint Maarten) day. It is named after St. Martin of Tours, a revered European saint who was known for his kindness to strangers. He was also known as a friend of the children and patron of the poor, as apparently he cut his coat in half to give half of it to a poor man in rags, and that very night Martin had a vision of Jesus wearing the half-cloak.
Today’s children to go door to door with home made lanterns hanging off a stick, and sing Sint Maarten songs in exchange for candy. This probably started as a custom from poor children begging for alms during the difficult winter times and over time has become a fun activity for them. Our girls definitely had fun, especially returning to the house with a bag full of chocolates!
Song Lyrics go like this:
Sinte, Sinte Maarten
De koeien hebben staarten
De meisjes hebben rokjes aan
Daar komt Sint Martinus aan
Sunday is a travel day again, this time to Eindhoven.
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