The Netherlands

March 2 – Friday – We need to be on the road on time, hopefully we have light traffic for our drive back to Cork Airport. After a light breakfast and packing the car, we are on the road by 9:30. Even driving in the rain all day we actually get to Kinsale by 1:45, redo the luggage a bit for our flight, off to the Great Southern next to the airport for lunch, turn the car in and get to our gate with time to spare. We leave a little after 5, and with the one hour time difference, we arrive in Amsterdam about 7:45. It takes us a hour to go through customs and immigration though, so we don’t see my cousin Gerrie and Rudolph, who are waiting for us, until 8:45. Hugs all around, a cup of coffee in the airport and on the road. It is a 1 ¼ hour drive to their house in Bolsward so we get there about 10:30. After settling in and chatting for a bit, we head for bed. It’s been a long day traveling, but we’re happy to be here.

March 3 – Saturday – Gerrie sets the table for breakfast, she said it’s nice to do it once in a while, when it’s just the two of them they don’t do it much. After a hearty breakfast, we decide to do a tour of their hometown, it is called Bolsward, or Bolsert in Frysian, and located in the northern Province of Fryslan. Fryslan has it’s own language, which is different than Dutch, in fact, most of the 11 or 12 Provinces of The Netherlands have their own language, sometime it’s even localized to a town such as Hindeloopen, where we will travel this evening, had it’s own language once. But the Frysian language is the only one, other than Dutch, that is taught in school.

Bolsward is a beautiful town, very old, some of the architecture dates to the 1500’s. The town hall, which is considered one of the three finest town halls in the Netherlands, is dated Anno 1614, and is simply gorgeous. Of course there is a lot of water around, canals and such, and lots of fishing. Rudolph shows us where the houses of his youth and his relatives are, then takes us to the grocery store which he used to be part owner. It is called “Jumbo Kooistra”, Kooistra being his surname. Everyone there knows him by name. We pick up a couple things, and while looking in the liquor section, I see there is a Single Malt Whiskey that is made in town! It is called FryskHynder and I asked if they had a small bottle I could buy. It only comes in fifths, so I pass, but the salesman told us we could go through the distillery, it is just down the road, so off we go. At the distillery bar I get to try a shot of the whiskey, and it’s pretty good. Has a little bite, but flavorful. I did get a shot glass from here though, but the head distiller says the whiskey is only sold in fifths. They also brew beer here, it’s called US Heit. You can check it out online at www.bierbrouwerij-usheit.nl.

As I said earlier, we then go for a ride to Hindeloopen, a seaside village near Bolsward. We drive past old and new windmills on the way, the new ones are mostly owned by the government, but some are owned by the farmers, and Gerrie thinks they are allowed to sell any excess electricity to the government. We park outside Hindeloopen and walk in, there is a small harbor with working fishing vessels in it. Because Hindeloopen is also quite a tourist town, there are a bunch of sailboats stored here right now. We stop on the dike that keeps the Ijsselmeer out and look around. The Ijsselmeer is formed by the dike keeping out the North Sea (Noordzee), and is now a fresh water lake. After a walk around town, we have dinner at the Restaurant de Drie Harinkjes, and no I forgot to ask what Harinkjes are, but there are three (drie) of them. After dinner we go back to Rudolph and Gerrie’s, have a coffee and retire for the night.

March 4 – Sunday – Amsterdam today! And the easiest way for us to do this is to drive to Zaandam which is about an hour drive, and take a 15 minute train ride in. We spend a wonderful day in Amsterdam, the weather cooperates again, cool but no rain even though it was foggy on the drive in, and we walk around for a while. Coming across a self-serve with krokets, I figure I better have one, it’s been 35 years since my last one, it is kind of hard to describe, fried with a liquid meat filling. After enjoying that, we walk the shopping street, and arrive at the square where there are performers trying to make a buck. Mostly they dress up and want money for you to get your picture taken with them. One guy was dressed like Jim Carry in the “Mask”, one a Roman Centurion, there was a bagpiper, and horse carriages for rides. We wandered over to the New Café (Nieuwe Kafe) for lunch, some really good pea soup for me, sandwiches for the rest. Back out in the city, we saw some very old architecture, and quite a variety of it also, Amsterdam being a melting pot of cultures over the years.

Not having time to do it all, naturally, we thought we would like to take the canal boat ride and get a good all around view. This took about an hour, and was really worthwhile. They helped explain some of the buildings you were looking at, and some of the history of the city. I think you could spend months in Amsterdam and not see it all, much less just one day, but it was a nice overview anyway. On the way back to the train, we just had to stop and get Lisa some frites (French fries) which the Dutch sell in a paper cone with mayonnaise on top.

On the trip home we stop on the dike at the monument, it is closed so we can’t get up there, but we get a few pictures before the cold wind drives us back to the car. After we get home, we call out for Chinese takeout and have a nice dinner, for desert Rudolph offers me a shot of Berenberg which is a liquor that is also made in Fryslan. Not bad, it’s like a lightly spiced whiskey. It’s been a long day again, and we have to be up early so we go to bed about 10.

March 5 – Monday – We are up at 5:30, the Schipol Taxi that will take us to the airport is due at 6:10. We say our goodbyes all around and climb in through the heavy rain for the ride to the airport. The traffic jam starts 20 kilometers out of Amsterdam! The ride that was an 1 ¼ hours on Friday, is now a 2 ½ hour trip in, but we make it to the gate with time to spare. Even the weather cooperates and the sun comes out for a while. But on landing in Cork, we are greeted with rain and gale force winds. I grab a taxi to take us home and we arrive there very tired but happy. It was a great weekend with Gerrie and Rudolph, we met 2 of their daughters also, and we really enjoyed ourselves. The rest of the day is now taken up with grocery shopping and laundry. We both are tired at night so we retire about 10.