Category Archives: Netherlands

Gouda, Delft & Brussels — August 16, 18-19, 2017

On August 16 we drove Paulien’s car to Gouda and Delft.  (Paulien had earlier left the car with us when she returned by train to Amsterdam.)

Gouda is of course  known for its namesake cheese, and to a lesser extent, its seasonal cheese market, regularly held on the medieval Markt square.  Anchoring the square is the 15th-century Town Hall, a Gothic building with red and white shutters.

We also visited the Sint Janskerk, a large Gothic church, known especially for its stained glass windows, for which it has been placed on the UNESCO list of Dutch monuments.

And of course we did some walking through the streets, visiting cheese shops and admiring the boats along the canals.

In Delft we visited the factory where the famous blue and white pottery is made.  Not surprisingly, it is called Delft pottery, or Delft Blue.

 We also did some street walking in Delft, including the vicinity of the expansive Delft Market Square, bounded on one side by the City Hall and on the other by the Nieuwe Kerk, a Protestant Church where William of Orange, leader of a 16th century resistance against Spanish occupationis buried.

After Gouda and Delft, we took Paulien’s car back to The Hague.   Then we took a bus to Brussels, Belgium.

Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union as it hosts a number of principal EU institutions  (the other administrative centres are Luxembourg and Strasbourg).  We spent some time in their large building housing displays explaining the mission and functioning of the European Union.

And we visited The Royal Palace of Brussels, the official palace of the King and Queen of the Belgians in the centre of the nation’s capital. However it is not used as a royal residence, as the king and his family live in the Royal Palace of Laeken on the outskirts of Brussels.

As we traversed the city, we noted in the distance a strange structure.  The Atomium  is a building in Brussels originally constructed for Expo 58, the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair. It stands 102 m (335 ft) tall. Its nine 18 m (60 ft) diameter stainless steel clad spheres are connected so that the whole forms the shape of a unit cell of an iron crystal magnified 165 billion times. It is now a museum.

Tubes of 3 m (10 ft) diameter connect the spheres along the 12 edges of the cube and all eight vertices to the centre. They enclose stairs, escalators and a lift (in the central, vertical tube) to allow access to the five habitable spheres which contain exhibit halls and other public spaces. The top sphere includes a restaurant which has a panoramic view of Brussels. In 2013 CNN named it Europe’s most bizarre building.  Upon approaching the structure we learned of its rather steep admission fee, so we contented ourselves with admiration of its exterior.

Once again we walked the streets, finding the famous Manneken Pis.  Designed by Hiëronymus Duquesnoy the Elder, Manneken Pis has been happily peeing in Brussels for more than 400 years. His name translates to “Little Man Pee” in Marols, a Dutch dialect spoken in Brussels. The little lad is usually naked, but he was inexplicably clothed in academic garb on the day we visited.  Soon after, in a nearby shop, Barb indulged in a Belgian waffle topped with whipped cream and strawberries.

And of course we could not spend time in Brussels without partaking of mussels.

We only scratched the surface of Brussels, but it was time to move on.  Specifically, we took a train back to Amsterdam, where we caught an airline to Kristiansand, Norway, via Oslo.  But our Norway visit is another topic for another post.  See you there?

The Hague — August 14-15 & 17, 2017

On August 14 we took a bus up to The Hague, where Paulien has a home.  We visited two interesting sites in the area.  The first was Madurodam,  a miniature park and tourist attraction in the Scheveningen district.  It is home to a range of 1:25 scale model replicas of famous Dutch landmarks, historical cities and large developments.

The second attraction was the Beach and Pier in the Dutch resort town of Scheveningen near The Hague. Opened in 1959, the Pier is on an expansive beach that is lined with a multitude of open air restaurants, bars, and snack stands.  We couldn’t resist an “all you can eat” offer of spare ribs.  As we walked along the beach at the end of the day toward our car, we stopped and asked a pair of young waitresses about how the many shops could survive the winters.  We were told that ALL of the businesses are crated up and taken away to be stored for the winter, only to be re-erected the following Spring.

The Pier itself hosts two features that persist year-round.  A huge high tower topped by a crane from which deranged thrill-seekers bungee-jump, plunging to a point just a few meters above the cold sea, and then bouncing back almost to the starting platform.  The tower is also the attachment point of two zip lines that run all the way back to the shore.  The other feature is a gigantic Ferris wheel constructed in 2016 — Europe‘s first Ferris wheel constructed over the sea. The Ferris wheel is over forty meters high and has 36 closed gondolas with air conditioning.  Each gondola offers room for up to six people. Adults pay €9.00 and children under twelve pay €7.00 for a ride that lasts about 20 minutes.

On August 16 we used Paulien’s car and drove up to Delft and Gouda.  I will cover that visit in the next edition of this blog.

On August 17, back in The Hague, Barb and Bill and Colleen ventured out to see a third site.  They visited Binnenhof, a cluster of buildings that houses the meeting place of both houses of the States General of the Netherlands, as well as the Ministry of General Affairs and the office of the Prime Minister of the Netherlands. , and Mauritshuis, an art museum that houses the Royal Cabinet of Paintings which consists of 841 objects, mostly Dutch Golden Age paintings.   Suffering from a severe cold, I stayed back at Paulien’s home.

Amsterdam — August 8-13, 2017

Paulien Wijnvoord, who shepherded us to the appropriate bus so that we could get to her son’s finely appointed and spacious condo in the heart of Amsterdam, met us at Schiphol, the Amsterdam airport. Paulien, who has homes in Bonaire and in The Hague, was house-sitting in Amsterdam while her son was away, and we had been invited to join her. We took full advantage, and saw a lot of the vibrant city. We walked a bunch, and immediately were struck by the ascendancy of the bicycle. They were everywhere! Almost all streets had a bicycle lane, often adjacent to the pedestrian sidewalk. After several near misses we learned to look both ways before crossing a bicycle lane, because they had the right of way. Most sidewalks were cluttered with parked bikes. But what was really mind blowing were the huge – nay, giagantic – bike parking spaces near public attractions and more traditional transportation centers, such as train, bus or ferry centers. Some of these were actually multi-story! We have no idea how an owner could relocate his or her bike after returning.  The other striking, but actually concomitant, feature was the level of fitness of the average person in Amsterdam.  Almost everyone was slim and trim.  Quite a contrast to what we see in America.

We also used extensively the enlightened public transportation system that utilizes electronic cards that can be loaded with a sum and then is appropriately deducted by being held next to sensors as one boards and leaves trams and/or buses.

And we took a ride on a canal boat that was piloted by a congenial and informative fellow from New Zealand who at one point asked if anyone wanted to take the controls for a bit. Barb and Bill each had turns that were undoubtedly extended when he learned of their boating experience.

We visited the Anne Frank Museum, where we avoided the long long lines of would-be ticket buyers by having pre-purchases made by Paulien. The experience was as moving as one would expect, even though the attendees were packed in elbow-to-elbow.

We spent a lot of time in the Rijks Museum, where I think we were all especially impressed by the works of Vermeer and Rembrandt and Van Gogh.  But the best Van Gogh experience was at the Van Gogh Museum itself, dedicated to the artist and his contemporaries.

We took a (daytime) stroll through the Red Light District, where scantily-clad ladies were indeed to be found in doorways and behind large windows.  Many of them were surprisingly good looking.

On the recommendation of the New Zealander, we spent some time in the architecturally spectacular Nemo Science Museum. He gave warning that it was slanted toward youth but we decided to go anyway. We found some interesting displays but eventually fled from the crowded chaos of too many parents and children seeking not only stimulation but also respite from crummy weekend weather. One section of the museum warrants comment. As many readers probably already know, the Dutch are not particularly squeamish about sex. The purpose of the section was to inform teens and pre-teens about social, psychological and physical aspects of sex, and this was done via a large number of frank and detailed illustrated posters. Perhaps the most striking example of the difference between Dutch and American attitudes was the inclusion of a large collection of actual flexible stick figures posed in the (labeled) positions of the Kama Sutra.