After what seemed
like a really short flight compared to our other flights, we transferred in
Montreal and Zurich and quickly arrived in Amsterdam. Picking up our car was a bit of a fiasco
since it wasn't at the airport, but we finally got it and then I had to quickly
adjust to driving on Dutch roads. I
guess they're not that different from Canada, but their signage is different,
and the highway lanes work a little bit differently, too. Luckily we rented a GPS, so between the three
of us we figured it out and made it to Hilversum.
The reason we went
to Holland in the first place was to visit my Great Aunt Els. I've visited her a few times before, but we
all know you can never visit Europe too many times! It was absolutely wonderful to see her
again. She thinks her English is getting
worse, and she's slowing down, but I think she's doing great.
After a quick catch
up and lunch (breakfast?), we decided to get right into sightseeing. There was an M.C. Escher exhibition at the
local palace (Paleis Soestdijk) so we decided to go there to check it out. Escher is known for his "never ending
staircase" drawing, but I didn't recognize much else. We weren't allowed to take any pictures at
all inside the palace, and we weren't even allowed to bring our jackets, so I
only have pictures of the outside.
The gardens around
the palace were beautiful, but the weather started to turn so we went inside
and had hot drinks instead.
After that, Ryan and
I were definitely ready to relax. Our
jetlag eventually hit us, so Els made dinner, we looked at maps for our next
few days of excursions, and we went to bed really early. That night, though, the residence was having
their monthly meeting, so the common room outside of our guest room was quite
busy. Els told us to put up some signs
and a folding screen once everyone had left to make sure no one disturbed us,
but we were so exhausted we went right to bed before they all left. Sure enough, just when we got settled, a few
crazy Dutch ladies opened our bedroom door, started LAUGHING, and then put the
screen up for us! We made sure to keep
the door locked after that, but I think Els will be hearing about that for
awhile.
After a much needed
sleep, I dragged Ryan out of bed for breakfast with Els. It was rough at first, but then he remembered
that the Dutch are famous for cheese, so he recovered. Our first destination for the day was
Alkmaar, which is typically where there is a giant cheese market each
week. After barely navigating the small
streets and cyclists, we found a parking spot and didn't dare move again. Luckily it was right next to the town
square! There was no cheese market since
the season had passed, but it was so fun to just wander around the town.
 |
| The statue in the town square. |
The weather wasn't
great for the whole time we were in Holland, but it never once rained on us,
and the sun always came out just in time for us to enjoy lunches on
patios. So after a brief snack at a pub
(I think we had fries and mayo, and probably croquettes), we left Alkmaar and
went to Hoorn.
Hoorn is more known
as a typical Dutch fishing village, with lots of ships and old buildings to
look at. Again, there was nothing in
particular we wanted to see, so we just wandered around the town and snacked
whenever we saw something we liked.
We thought this sign
was hilarious coming from Australia - someone put a spider picture on the
"Local Traffic Only" sign! (I
only just looked that up, but it was funny before too)
Next, on our way to
Marken we decided to stop in Monnickendam Noord since it looked neat. It was pretty typically Dutch, with lots of
ships and little shops. The coolest one
was a shop that sold doll houses and all of the pieces for inside. It was exactly how you imagine they were
before Barbie's Dream House. They even
had electrical wiring for the chandeliers!
And since we still
had a bit of time left in the day, we did eventually get to Marken, which is
actually a little island joined to the main land by a long dyke/bridge. What we didn't know, though, was that there
aren't any cars allowed past the main parking lot of the island, and all
tourists have to pay to park and then walk around. Since we were only planning on staying for
about an hour we were a bit reluctant, but we did it anyway. It wasn't really our thing, though, since it
was very touristy. There was a wooden
shoe making shop, lots of souvenir shops, and a few tour busses on guided
tours. The houses were neat, though,
because they were quintessential fishing village houses.
We explored for
awhile, but the real adventure was when we went to the grocery store! We were making dinner that night, and we had
already picked up some marinated chicken at a shop in Alkmaar, so we just
needed some vegetables to go with it. It
was really strange though, because almost all of the produce was pre-cut and
packaged! You can get any kind of mix
you want, but it's already prepared for you.
Then, the things that we bought by the pound, we actually had to weigh
and tag ourselves. We didn't realize
that, so it caused quite the kafuffle at the checkout.
Just as a funny
conclusion to the day, on the way home we encountered a cow crossing. It was very reminiscent of the sheep crossing
in New Zealand.
That evening after a delicious dinner, Ryan
and I were absolutely exhausted. We
looked through some old slides with Els, and then happily went to bed very
early. This time there was no trouble
with the Dutch ladies!
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