The Netherlands

We had a long day’s drive from our little marina to the Netherlands. We could have split the day and stayed somewhere along the way, but we had a dinner date we did not want to miss.

On our route we drove past places that would have been great for sightseeing; Lubeck, Hamburg, Bremen and so on. There is just no way to see all of Germany in one or two visits, it’s so vast. We’ll just have to make a plan to return.

On this travel day we set our sights on Groningen, a university town in north Holland. It is here we met up with Dulcinea Moran and her husband, Paddy. We have known Dulcinea since she was in middle school, a classmate of Zoe’s and later, college roommates. It was at Western that Dulcinea met Paddy. Together they have recently moved to Groningen where she will work to attain her Masters of Fine Arts degree at the Frank Mohr Institute. Paddy has recently found employment at a start-up company and they are both very excited about the opportunity to live, work and study in the Netherlands. We are very happy for them and It was great to spend time with them in their new town.

Since we would only be in Groningen for one night, we decided to stay at a shipyard that was close to town, and, as luck would have it, a half a block away from IKEA! We needed a few things, but as you know, there is no such thing as a quick trip to IKEA, so we planned to have some breakfast there before beginning the long jaunt through the store. For the first time, we got only those few items we needed and nothing more. We are learning Bijou is not a Tardis and that our space is limited.

Our destination, Amsterdam, was just over an hour away, so we decided to take the long way ’round and go north, over the Afsluitdijk, a 32-kilometer long causeway connecting north Holland with the Friesland province. This way, we could also stop in to have lunch in Edam before continuing a bit further south to our campground in Amsterdam. The Afsluitdijk is just under 24 feet above sea level, which is practically a mountain in the Netherlands. As such, we didn’t get much in the way of a sea view, but it was a great driving route anyway.

We found a great place to park and decided to walk into town rather than take our bikes. We found a place to enjoy a cheesy lunch (when in Edam…) and then explored the town. With lots of canals, flowers and beautiful homes, there was a lot that grabbed our attention. One thing in particular, though, was a surprise find for us – our first Stolperstein.

A Stolperstein, which literally means “stumbling stone” is a concrete block just under 4 inches square, with a brass plate attached. The information etched onto the brass plate commemorates an individual who fell victim to Nazi persecution. These blocks are installed in the pavement at the last place freely chosen by the individual, most often their home, but sometimes their school or place of work. The project was started by the German artist Gunter Demnig in 1992. As of December 2019, 75,000 Stolpersteine have been laid in multiple countries across Europe making it the world’s largest memorial.

We owe a big shout out and thanks to blog reader Carol who told us about the Stolpersteine project. She and her husband Mike traveled around Europe in their motorhome for a couple of years before returning to the UK. During their travels they made a point to search out Stolpersteine in the areas they visited. Some they sought out, others they simply stumbled across, as we did in Edam. They kept a gallery of all that they found, you can see it here. We’ve enjoyed learning about this project and plan to keep our eyes open for more as we travel.

We made the trip from Edam to our campsite in Amsterdam in a massive downpour, but by the time we got checked in and settled, the sun was out. Our campsite was in north Amsterdam, so to get to the city proper on our bikes we had to take a ferry. It was about a ten minute bike ride to the ferry, which took about five minutes to get us to the Central Station. That little ferry was the only place in Amsterdam we were required to wear a mask.

On our first day in town we signed up for a FreeDam Walking Tour. For two hours we walked all over learning the history and fun facts about the city. The Dutch are famous for being very tolerant people, but something our guide said really stuck with me. Sometimes that attitude works against them, and they become tolerant of the intolerant. That, apparently, is what happened when the Nazis invaded. As our guide described it, the Dutch said, well, they are going to win anyway, so why should we fight? I’m sure there was more to it than that, but he made a good point, I thought.

Along with the laid-back attitude in Amsterdam comes Coffee Houses, where marijuana is sold openly, although it is still actually against the law. People smoke everywhere. Personally, I really don’t care who smokes or does not smoke pot, but I surely wish it smelled better.

We enjoyed our walking tour and learned a lot about the city. One thing that was really shocking to both of us was the amount of trash just laying about. This is not something we have seen much of in Europe, in fact, we are constantly talking about how clean all the cities are. This was especially so in even the little villages we walked through on the Camino, they were spotless! I have always equated cleanliness with civic pride, and sadly, we didn’t see much of that in Amsterdam. When I mentioned it to our walking guide, he blamed it on the tourists, but I can assure you it is not entirely a tourist issue. First, it was trashy outside of the touristy areas and second, there were not that many tourists around, at least compared to normal times. It was really jarring. The canals, though, were fairly debris free.

We talked over and over about which museums to visit, would we go to the Anne Frank house, and so on. Even though we have been in lots of big cities, we are trying to follow the COVID rules of social distancing and wearing masks. It’s been our experience that these precautions are really only followed in France and Germany but rarely elsewhere. In the Netherlands, you would not have known we are in the midst of a pandemic and it all got a little too free-wheeling for my comfort. So we decided to skip the museums and instead of visiting the Anne Frank house where she and her family hid from the Nazis, we would instead visit the neighborhood where they lived freely, and there we found the Stolpersteine placed in their honor. The home is still a private residence, but the Stolpersteine are easily seen on the sidewalk in front. Across the street was a small neighborhood park where we found a statue of Anne Frank. We found it to be quite moving.

We spent the majority of our time in the city on our bikes, where we rode through the parks and neighborhoods. We would find a place to park and lock them up, which wasn’t always easy, and then walk around. We visited the outdoor market, took a boat ride along the beautiful canals and enjoyed lots of good food. We really did enjoy Amsterdam, but we were looking forward to getting out into the country.

First, though, we wanted more cheesy goodness, so a stop in Gouda was on the route. We had specifically planned to arrive there on a Friday so that we could attend the cheese market. That didn’t work out so well because we soon found out the cheese market was actually on Thursday. Oh well. After a yummy lunch, we decided to leave Gouda and move on to our next stop. We had reservations at a little campsite near Oud-Alblas and contacted them to see if we could arrive a day early, which they said was fine. Our purpose for being at this place was twofold: one, it was out in the beautiful countryside and two, it was near the famous windmills of Kinderdijk. We had been keeping our eye on the weather and saw that our only chance for a sunny visit to Kinderdijk was the same day we were in Gouda, and that’s why we packed up and left.

Once we had arrived at our campsite (more on that in a sec…) we hopped on our bikes and took off for the windmills. These windmills, 19 in all, were built in 1740 to drain the water from the polder where Kinderdijk sat at the confluence of the Lek and Noord rivers. These days they are the largest concentration of old windmills, a UNESCO Heritage Site and one of the most visited places in all of the Netherlands. Our visit was sunny and sans tour buses, which made it all the more enjoyable.

About our campsite… as we were driving toward it we could see a beautiful windmill in the distance. We had no idea that once we parked up, it would be literally right outside our front windshield! This was not a water mill, but a flour mill, which was then sold in the little baking shop attached to the windmill.

When we don’t close our front shades overnight, the drop-down bed basically serves as our privacy curtain, but the fabric is not a blackout material. The problem with that is when the sun rises it gets very, very bright. On our first morning there I awoke to a loud, “womp! womp! womp!” and huge shadows casting darkness inside Bijou. It looked like a giant pterodactyl was flying by our window. But no, it was just the giant rotating windmill blades and the miller, doing his milling thang.

As usual, we have tons of photos to share, so here are a few more.

NEXT UP: Bruges and Beyond!