Ann, don't be a Twerp...

May 19 holland home Antwerp

As Tony Kornheiser would say, pardon the interruption.  We hosted our good friends from San Diego for a few days, and things like chasing prairie and black throated blue warblers kind of halted the Netherlands trip, but they are back home on the other coast and after a wonderful visit with them (several Feeders possible), they are back on the other coast.  So we can return to the Netherlands.

As you might recall, we had just docked in Antwerp, and the next morning we headed out for a walking tour of the city.

They (Viking cruises) have a pretty good way of handling the over 150 guests by breaking them into groups of 15 or so, let by (usually) a local guide who holds up the “lollipop” (that little red thing) with your assigned group’s number on it.  Useful for locating the guide as he/she troops off into a crowded city.

Our first stop was at the “Het Steen” (stone castle) the oldest building in Antwerp, parts of which date back to the ninth century.

Our group gathered on an overlook of the River Scheldt near the castle while the guide gave us some history and an overview of what we were looking at.

MFO is prominently attired in her LLB Gore Tex jacket, a must for anybody travelling to anywhere it might rain or have high winds (the Netherlands qualifies for both).  Another relatively pricey item but worth it..   Anyway, a benefit for the Feeder is the color she chose.  I am not the most rapid walker and also easily distracted by such things as menus and restaurants, so quite often I tend to lag behind the group.  That yellow coat is like a beacon for me..

We then hiked over to the “Cathedral of Our Lady” started in 1352 after growing from a small chapel dating from the 9^th to the 12^th century. It features this wonderful Gothic tower as seen from the streets

Inside, there are three (original) Peter Paul Rubens depicting various scenes from the crucifixion of Christ, such as the “The Raising of the Cross”

There it is, right in front of you, finished in 1610 by a Master, and what an awe inspiring work it is, regardless of your religious leanings.  Just amazing.  Our guide expounded for quite a while on the meanings of such things as the color of the Virgin Mary’s clothes, where people were looking and various other symbolic images.  One has to wonder if Peter Paul thought all this out..  most likely.  Another of Ruben’s paintings “the descent from the cross” is also on view

Besides the paintings there is magnificent statuary

Once outside we gathered in front of the City Hall, located on the Market Square, another impressive building

Which features the famous statue “Silvius Brabo”

While the guide was telling us about the City Hall and the statue, I spied "the Rascal"

And sort of sidled over and grabbed the beverage menu (the little red cards on the table).  While it did contain coffee drinks it was mostly given over to…. Wait for it…. Beer!  In Belgium of course, with a (top) section for Cask Ales and a more expansive list of Bieren Fles (bottled beers)

You might be able to see some vaguely familiar names.  We then continued our trek around the city seeing various sights (over here we see an example of ….)  oops!  What’s that?

Look! They posted a menu (and in the 14^th Century, King….) it shows the luncheon fare with starters (voorgerechten)

and main (Hoofdgerechten) courses

“Sir, will that be the grilled brill with Statice and the fried fillet of Seabass, or the sirloin steak with red wine and shallot jam?”  

and dessert for 40€.. with a distant: "and on this spot King James…”  Sir! are you paying attention?  oh excuse me.. where’s that yellow jacket?   On the way back to the ship we passed several shops such as this one

Purveyors of another famous Belgian Product displayed in their window, all fresh

And all this was before LUNCH!!   After lunch there was the optional “delicious Antwerp” a culinary excursion..  that will have to wait for the next course..

DFW(alking!)

No Jousting..

Another course in the devouring of the elephant, i.e. the Netherland trip.  Think it will be a brief course today, we’re having some guests arrive tomorrow, so need to keep cleaning, etc.

The title of our tour was “Tulips and Windmills” and aside from the touristy one on the first day and the few occasional beds we’d seen little of neither.  After finally leaving Amsterdam, our first stop remedied the lack of the windmills.   We stopped at a UNESCO  World Heritage Site called: 

Which is pronounced “Kinder Dike” meaning, Infant or Child’s Dike.  there's a reason for that, but i don't remember exactly.. but it wasn't the "finger in the dike" thing.  Kinderdijk is a group of 19 historic windmills that were used to pump water from the Alblasserwaard to reclaim the land. Without going into details, most people know that the windmills were used primarily for the purpose of pumping water from low to high, as much of the Netherlands is below sea level.

After leaving the ship via the gangplank (boing, boing, boing)

We entered the site, and were given an introduction to the area by a very knowledgeable guide

besides the story of the area in general, he explained in much technical detail the actual internal workings of a windmill, and, after listening to him for a bit, MFO whispered “this guy is an engineer!”.   Later in the tour, somebody asked the guide “what did/do you do for a living?”; answer: I am a retired mechanical engineer.   Bingo!  She knows her engineers!  Not sure if that is a positive or negative observation...

Regardless of the mechanical use of the windmill, they are extremely pleasant to look at.

(water, water, everywhere)

One of the mills is opened for part of the tour, and we got to go inside and look at the living quarters, which, as you can imagine were quite cramped.  Once outside again the engineer explained the process of turning the movable “head” to move the sails into the wind.  It doesn’t weather vane by itself; it must be turned by the miller.  To accomplish that there is a windlass that is used, and by putting a chain around radially spaced anchors in the ground, rotating the windlass will move the head. 

Those wooden “wings” or poles are what actually applies the torque to the head and moves it around to face the wind

  

Inside the mill, a horizontal shaft attached to the sails rotates a toothed wheel that gears into a vertical shaft which then drives the scoops down below that move the water. 

One interesting we learned (besides the workings of the thing) was that a windmill was also used to transmit information.  The mills are visible over pretty long distances, and it turns out there was a “code” associated with the placement of the sails when they were stationary.  If the upper sail was to the right of vertical (such as above) it signaled “joy”, like there was a birth, or celebration going on.  If it was past (left) vertical, it was in the “mourning” position for say a death or funeral.  A distinct “X” position meant that the miller was at rest for a while.  Interesting..

After much walking and absorbing of information, we headed back to the boat and cruised some more, passing through some locks.

While this was going on,  high tea served

and yes, watercress sandwiches were served..

And later on a special “cocktail hour” for returning Viking guests. Since our group (Cole Travel) was "returning", we all got invited

Despite the concoction on the right the Cosmos were okay, but eventually I cycled over to a more appropriate drink

Finally we arrived at our next day’s destination, the city of Antwerp.

There was a food experience there which we’ll relate next time.  After cocktail hour, it was time to go below and

DFD

Deftly to Delft

Well, here comes the second bite of the elephant!

Our first “full day” in Amsterdam began with a quick city tour again, greeted by relatives of the cheese makers we saw on the farm, although they were dressed a bit differently

Trying to make us believe they were Spidey and sup..  we also passed a branch of a brewery known to all

As part of the tour, were able to take a little ride on the canals in a glass topped canal boat

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It does give a different perspective of the city when viewed from the canals, and you got to see more of those unique Dutch (or sometimes called Flemish) gables which we would see in almost every city we visited.

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We returned to the Alsvin for a lunch, and then MFO took the (optional) tour to the historical city of Delft (dating from the 11^th Century).  You may recall that Delft is famous for (at least) a couple of things, the birthplace of Johannes Vermeer, and Delftware.  It was also a residence of William of Orange, a rather famous (or infamous depending on your slant) figure.  It was kind of a relief to leave the big city of Amsterdam to see buildings like their City Hall

We again had a walking tour, and it was a very charming city of course laced with tree lined canals

Of course while our guide was explaining the history of the local buildings and talking about trade guilds, pointing out features, the Bottom Feeder would wander a bit and find (more) interesting things like “The Shoals”

A purveyor of (guess what?)

Or looking at intriguing cafes

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And their menus

The translation of which is left to the reader (mostly coffee related)

Although you can probably figure out who this one honors

But despite all these little charming places, sprinkled among them are signs of the intrusion of modern life, providing an interesting juxtaposition

So after a bit of Vermeer (no there!), we visited a little shop that (hand) creates the other famous export of Delft, called De Candelaer.  It is one of the few (three?) studios that still produces hand crafted and painted Delftware.  The owner gave us a short class in porcelain making demonstrating all the steps from powder to hand painted finish

Who was a pretty engaging guy

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He also showed us the only three “authentic” watermarks you should look for if you are in the market for “authentic” stuff actually made in Delft.

His is the top one, with the candle (De Candelaer, get it?) with the candle, the initials of the shop (DC), the initials of the maker (he is SD, the other lady is AR), and their code for time of manufacture. There's your little nugget of knowledge!  

Of course we had to pick up a few pieces to bring home for maybe the FOJ’s (or wives of same... wait for it)

We then bussed back to Amsterdam for dinner aboard

The boat remained in port for the night, and those who wished (and had the stamina) could go ashore for leisure time, starting at nine!.

And I suppose it has to go someplace on any accounting of a trip to Amsterdam, so it might as well be here.  One of the things that the city is known for is the famous “Red Light District”.  They are very open about it, and the tour books always have a little map and description of the famous windows and such.   Well, although that would have been interesting to see (just so you said you did) the closest the Feeder got was on a city tour when the guide pointed out (about ten in the morning), that those awnings “over there” would be occupied later in the day.  To be honest (as I always am), I would have liked to see them, but the only way would have been to go out at night and I have crossed the line of convenience versus curiosity.  Oh, well, I guess I know what they look like.

So we remained on board after being
DFD

Another elephant bite to follow, although we may have to take larger chomps to finish

Tulip time.... at last

There is an (alleged) proverb that goes something like: “How do you eat an elephant?  One bite at a time”, or maybe that old saw: “a journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step”.  Well that sort of applies to blogging.  “The story of a trip begins with the first posting” so now that we're safely home with clean clothes, mail (both snail and e) resolved, and a reliable internet connection, I can at last begin to share our experiences in Holland, or more correctly the Netherlands.

I would rather have been closer to “real time” but time and travel, (minding the three priorities) and a pitiful connection on the Viking Ship Alsvin made it almost impossible.  I did try a few facebook pictures here and there.  Maybe you connected folk saw some of those.

Anyway, our journey began from Dulles with a ride on a big blue bird, (unfortunately an Airbus) from KLM Airlines.

I think I mentioned on Facebook that it was the easiest trip through the airport we've ever had, brief pause at security, and relatively little walking and our gate was even right at the entrance to the proper terminal.  Another pleasant surprise was that even though the pilot reported that we would have to be re-routed for weather in the area, we taxied past several other parked aircraft and took off.

Our recent spate of international travel has taught us to always purchase the “upgraded economy” seat option which gives you a little more knee room, and I have never regretted buying the Bose noise cancelling headphones.  Unlike the airline we flew over to Wales, KLM provided a very nice classical music channel as part of the in flight entertainment suite.  With the headphones in place, screaming kids and cabin noise are geately reduced, allowing some modicum of peace.  

After a while, they came around with food service, preceded by drinks.  I was surprised to see that my request for Scotch brought forth maybe a pint sized bottle and a portion was poured from that rather than plunking down a plastic "mini".

Didn't pour as much as I might have wished, but it did serve to wet the whistle.  “Dinner” was then served, as usual a miracle of modern packaging

smakelijk!

Consisting of a little plastic dish of salad (“Greek”), Dessert (some kind of custardy thing), entrée (beef like material with rice), a little box (middle left) which contained some (Wisconsin(!) Cheese and crackers) a little bottle of water, a package of (plastic) tools, a passed roll, and a small bottle of wine.  Fine.  Well, to consume this repast, you have to:  a) pick up the little dish of choice; b) somehow strip the cellophane off the top (teeth worked best); c) unwrap the tools; and d) enjoy.  Well, after you repeated this process for all the little boxes, you are left with an unwieldy mountain of trash, which has the penchant to fall off the tray and disappear under the seat someplace.

Anyway, we finally landed in Amsterdam, and proceeded to more than make up the lack of walking at Dulles, finally gathering the group at the “big red and white cube” in the Arrival Hall, and did the customs stuff, and FINALLY on a bus (er, excuse me a coach) and headed out for a tour of Amsterdam.  We passed many interesting buildings leading out of Schiphol airport.

Our first stop on the way to the city was at a little farm where they produced a couple of products that we all associate with the Netherlands. 

The “farmer” did a little demo of wooden shoe and cheese making,

I'm sure he does this many times a day and week and had his patter down pretty well.. And, as we were to learn over and over, the little tour ended in the….. gift shop!

Which wasn’t bad, because it did give you an opportunity to purchase stuff without going out of your way.

We bid adieu to the cheese makers

And made a little stop to see the first of many

Then into the city proper seeing many examples of the distinctive Dutch architecture

One last stop before heading to the boat was at the

We were fortunate enough to get “tour” treatment, as we didn’t have to join the many who were waiting (for up to an hour and a half)

Pictures were not allowed inside, but of course cell phones were brandished quite often keeping the guards busy reminding people of the many posted signs.  Of course the “rules” didn’t apply to them.

It was a wonderful exhibit, we got to see many paintings I’ve never seen before.  What an amazing volume the man turned out in relatively few years.   Anyway, by the time we left the museum after being up for nearly twenty four hours, we were ready to head for our “home” for the next nine days

The “Alsvin”.   After a short nap, we struggled to get

DFD

To be continued…