The Netherlands
August 12-18

There are also pages about Amsterdam, a Ship Museum,
 the Royal Palace, and Delft's Porcelain Factory. We were busy.

We entered The Netherlands from the north across the Afsluitdijk, a 30km dike across the mouth of the Zuider Zee. The North See on one side and a couple hundred square miles of now-fresh-water lake on the other (and about 20 ft lower). This huge engineering feat, completed in 1952, is awe inspiring. There's a 4-lane highway across the top with a restaurant / gift shop / monument in the middle where the dam was closed.


Zuider Zee to the left, North Sea to the right.


The commemoration of the laying of the last block is the strangest statue
you'd ever want to see. Consider how the noses of many bronze statues
are bright with wear from people rubbing them for luck.

We don't usually do theme parks or living villages but Zaanse Schans drew us in for some reason. Maybe because it is free (but the books forget to mention the 7€ parking). Anyway, it has lots of traditional buildings moved from other places in The Netherlands and the people aren't in character. Some are actually private houses which aren't open or only open a few days each month during the summer.

Except for the gift shops, each building costs a euro or two to tour. There's plenty of gift shops. More blue and white windmills in one place than is decent. A small cheesery that wasn't cheesing that day. Plenty of Japanese tourists to gawk at. Nice gardens. Sheep. And a grinding mill in one of the 4 windmills that was crushing peanuts for oil.


The mill used wind power to drive dual crushing stones. The powder is
heated over a coal fire then put in bags and pounded by drop-hammers
to produce a minute amount of oil. Loud, dirty, and fascinating.

Edam. Great town. A laid-back main street down both sides of a canal. Had a ham and cheese sandwich from a bakery of course. Good 3 buck lunch.


The town hall and library combination.


A 50ft long stretch of the canal has been covered over with an arched brick plaza.
This covers an old disused lock but we can't figure out why.

Driving back from Edam, we spotted a more traditional windmill museum with a working traditional polder (water) windmill. A slideshow explained how the thing works and we could climb very steep steps to see the mechanism at all 3 levels.

Only the top section of the windmills in this area turn to face the wind - they sit on a platform or wooden wheels. Turning is done by hand with heavy ropes attached to block and tackle. The sails are indeed cloth that lays on the wooden lattice. The shaft out the back is the brake. It operates a constricting wooden brake around a large wheel on the horizontal shaft behind the sails.

The horizontal shaft drives a vertical shaft via a wooden spoke gear set. The vertical shaft then drives an Archimedes screw at the bottom to pump water up only 4 feet but easily handles 60 cubic meters per minute. Groups were used in sequence of course and the mill in the background below fed this mill.

Over 100 square miles in the center of Holland was drained by 52 of these windmills built in 1620. There are 11 left and this museum is the only one still operational. Actually they all were being used until 1928 when electric pumps took over. 300 years. Not bad.

Didn't know these things are thatched. The entire octagonal body. That's a lot of thatching.


Underneath.


The previous screw.


Just a giant spinning wheel sitting in the mill.

Busy day. We find three things in a day is plenty. Went back to Heemskerk and had ice cream where we spotted this statue of a night with a clipboard.

Another day we went to Woerden. The old town hall was built in 1610 and is now the municipal museum - with a sign next to the door saying "Quilts". Bob (have camera will travel) proudly presents Terry's favorites from an exhibit of local quilts on the theme "Green Heart of Holland".

Woerden was a Roman enclave 1000 years before the first recorded history of the town. During the middle ages it and neighboring Utrecht had frightful wars that, with various plagues, decimated the area. Finally, in the 1500s things were getting back to being civilized when the Spanish laid siege to the town for almost a year. The 1600s was the French's turn to starve the town in to submission. So in the 1700s a moat and town walls were constructed - by this time The Netherlands was a pretty rich country, remember - spices and all that. Here's a map from 1764.

So in 1787 it's the Prussians who besiege the place. And in 1813, the French again. Finally in about 1900 the inside walls and moat are removed and the town takes it's interesting present-day shape. Oh well, Bob found it fascinating.

Then there's Leiden. The Pilgrims who sailed to America in 1620 spent 11 years here after leaving England in 1609 before they set sail for the new world. So much for the tale of sailing from Liverpool or wherever. Never held much stock in the Plymouth Rock myth either. Now about that running out of beer. . .

At the time the area was Protestant and they welcomed all forms of religion except for one rule - Catholics couldn't practice in public. Actually all the Pilgrims might have stayed in Leiden except for overcrowding in the city (it had tripled its size since the Spanish were driven out in 1574) and an argument within their sect about predestination.

Oh, one other fact we found out at the Pilgrim Archive; Leiden had been holding an annual harvest-time Thanksgiving church service since the last Spanish siege ended (1574). So that really wasn't an invention in North America. Of course they ate herring and vegetable stew instead of turkey, cranberry sauce, and green bean casserole.

We got there on market day (not by accident either) and had the softest cheese sandwich this side of velveeta. Finally saw some suspenders but they were all conservative dress braces. Sorry Tony, we're still looking.

Yes, The Netherlands does have seacoast. And even sandy beaches. Fine grey sand, a lovely day, and the Dutch bike for dozens of miles to try to get their pale white bodies tanned. This beach, near Den Haag, is at least 5 miles long.

Den Haag (The Hague) is maddening. Worst town to drive in, period. Only a few streets go anywhere and they're clogged with trams, busses, and bikes. Lights are nonsensically timed; slow with only one direction going at a time. We spent 45 minutes getting into town once because of a traffic light at the end of an expressway. It takes 45 minutes to get to the other side of downtown.


There's no cars in this picture because everyone had a red light.

But the Vredespaleis was neat. The Peace Palace is the home of the International Court of Justice. It's a gift from Andrew Carnegie to house the Permanent Courts of Arbitration set up by a peace conference in 1899.

Broodjes are snacks in the Netherlands and Belgian. Mainly sandwiches but there's hundreds of varieties. Toasted. With or without salad. We saw Italiaan, Italliaanse, and Italiaansche all listed on one menu. Sometimes the ingredients are listed (rarely in English). Such fun.

The slang term for a designated driver in Benelux is "Bob". You may snicker. If you're breathalysed by the police and pass they give you a "Bob" keychain.

As I write this, EuroSport is in the third evening of showing the Northern Ireland Cup snooker championship. A nice change from nothing but 5 channels of soccer since the Tour de France ended.

On the Beer Front

Amsterdam - Beiaards. Nee Maximilaan's Brewpub. An expanding local chain bought the Brewpub near the red light district and now sells the two house beers in other outlets along with a decent range of Belgians.

Amsterdam - Gollem. This is the jewel of all Netherlands beer bars. It's half-hidden down a side street near the Spui but worth searching for. And worth standing in line for if it's after mid-afternoon. 25 people fill the place.

10 beers on tap and almost 200 listed on the chalkboards. They've been there for 30 years and don't do anything but beer. OK, maybe a little cider and a few wines and a substantial cheese plate.

Den Haag - DePaas. A very close second to Gollem for Best Bar in The Netherlands honors. Equally as knowledgeable staff. Equally as ready with a properly chilled bottle. Also only a cheese and sausage plate to satisfy all food hungers. 11 taps. 150 beers on the boards. Table service or order at the bar.

Huge by comparison, it seats a few dozen outside on the sidewalk and on an anchored canal boat. They also have some Jenevers and about 40 Scotches available. Great beer menu (the board is really obsolete). It's on a street named Bierkade; how appropriate.

On our second stop, the waiter told us he was instructed to warn me if I ordered a blonde beer since I had only dark ales the first time. We also met Fred and his wife who owned The Labyrinth until 3 years ago when he foresaw the Euro destroying the market. He might be right since two other good beer bars in Den Haag have since disappeared, leaving only De Pass to carry on the flame.

Beers we had in the Netherlands:


Didn't have a Gulpener but you gotta love the name.

Feedback:

Jason says Hans-Deiter Genscher was the German equivalent of Karl Rove.  He was Helmut Kohl's brain as foreign minister.