Little Ones of Netherlands

“Traveling is about finding those things you never knew you were looking for.” –unknown

*I love seeing these little ones being transported the “Holland Way”.*

And then, there’s these little ones heading out – children are children all over the world. It makes me realize that all people are pretty much the same – just getting through life the best way possible!

*Irresistible baby goats we encountered on one of our bike rides. So very sweet* ❤️

GOATS‼️‼️‼️ *A few of my followers will get this age old “joke”.*

*At one of the museums in Amsterdam*…
*Maybe a budding artist in the making?*

*I tried to imagine all the little ones that may live here, in the heart of Amsterdam!*

*I liked this frieze that I spotted in Amsterdam. “Advertising” a yarn shop, maybe?*

*Sooo, Brittany spotted this guy along the road as we were biking.”Look, a crawfish!” she exclaimed.*

We all pulled over to check him out. While Murph was taking the photo, the crawfish reared up in defense. Yikes! That worked well for him – we retreated immediately and went on our way – as did he.😂

*Biking back into Hoorn we spotted the tiniest ever baby Koot!*

*It was seriously tiny – it could barely swim through the duckweed! So incredibly sweet* ❤️

A bit of Amsterdam

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry and narrow-mindedness. – Mark Twain

*The Rijksmuseum is a “must” visit while in Amsterdam.*

*This is one of the many paintings by Dutch masters – the Milk Maid by Johannes Vermeer.*

*I particularly like this one because it’s a Vermeer painting of his neighborhood in Delft.*

*Fascinating to watch the restoration of The Night Watch by Rembrandt.*

*Of course we also went to the Van Gogh museum.*

*Countless jaunts on trams like this one.*

*The plight of Jewish people is much more evident and “talked about” here. An education for all of us to never forget!*

*In 1975 marijana was legalized* *in Amsterdam* – *this was the 1st shop to sell pot. If you’re looking for one in Amsterdam they are called “coffee shops”.*

*And then there’s this beautiful young lady…*

…with an extremely sad story. We toured the home where she and seven other people hid from the Nazis for two years before they were discovered. One of the people who helped hide the family found Anne’s diary hidden in the wall. The only person to survive the concentration camps of the eight people was her father. After the war he was given her diary and soon after, The Diary of Anne Frank, was published in dozens of languages for all to read – heart wrenching.

*Found this charming café for dinner one night.*

*This is a traditional dish called Stamppot – mashed veg & potatoes – mine was with veg “meatballs”. How did I like it? Glad I tried it but once was enough.* ☺️

*Ventured into the Red Light District but, chose to go during the day to avoid most of the “traffic”.*

*Went for a lovely boat tour on the canal and the Amstel River.*

*Brittany looking so cute amongst these unusual sculptures* 👀

See these steps leading down to the water where a triangle pink stone juts into the canal? This is part of the so-called Homo-monument—a memorial to homosexuals who lost their lives in WWII, and a commemoration of all *those persecuted for their sexuality. The pink triangle design reclaims the symbol that the Nazis used to mark homosexuals.*

*Vondelpark is Amsterdam*’s *playground. A nice place to get away from it all.*

*It’s an expansive park with many paths and water features for everyone to enjoy.*

Food Friendly Holland

“When someone asks what my dream job is. Literally nothing. Who dreams of having a job? My only passion is to travel and eat good food.” – anonymous

*Lunch in Amsterdam – Brittany’s cheese & caramelized onion wrap and a yummy treat to share.*

*Amazingly good risotto – spinach & mushroom* *in Weesp.*

*Typical breakfast choices in the Netherlands.*

*Generally hot breakfast is not offered but while in Gouda, Murph had eggs.*

*Edible waffle cups – very good in Hoorn.*

Vastly Weesp (pronounced Vāsp)

“To Live will be an awfully big adventure.” – Peter Pan

*Right next door there was a lovely restaurant along the canal.*

*Brittany excited to have cheese fondue!*

*Many people ask me if it’s difficult to find vegetarian options in Europe.We ate here twice so I was able to try both of the veg dishes and they were memorable! Oh, and Brittany liked her fondue too*😋

*One of several draw bridges in town over the Smal Weesp Canal.*

*We headed out on bikes one morning. A bit rainy but we pressed on and the day improved.*

*Path was notably narrow so Brittany had to take a pic.*

*…almost passed it! “Maria on the tree”*

*We woke up to a rainy morning and had planned to bike. Instead we hopped a train to Haarlem. Public transportation in this country is absolutely amazing!*

*16th century church on the main square in Haarlem.*

*Their organ has over 5,000 pipes – impressive.*

*This bird was thought to be a pelican back in the day* but *we thought it looked more like an eagle! We also wondered how/where the creator had ever seen or heard of a pelican in the Netherlands!* 🤷🏾‍♀️

After touring the church, we walked out to a totally sunny day! So, we took Brittany to our favorite fry shop – yup, they pretty much only have fries! The owner suggested we top them with “jazz sauce”. Very good, top secret recipe 😉

*Once back to Weesp we visited the local ice cream shop.*

*The tradition here is to top the ice cream with whipped cream – sooo good – glad they don’t do this at home*‼️

Bloomin’ Holland

“The earth belongs to anyone who stops for a moment, gazes and goes on his way.” – Colette

Howdy from Gouda

(Makes more sense if you pronounce Gouda in Dutch as Howda)

“If traveling was free, you’d never see me again.” – Ken Poirot

*Our big splurge was staying at this fancy dancy hotel in Gouda.*

*But, more notable is the history of the building and this huge painting.*

*We never dreamed that the painting was A) an original painting B) that it*’s *over 400 years old and C) that those were the actual plans for the orphanage.*

…*Brittany’s room was in a loft up a steep flight of stairs.*

*We rented bikes in town and headed out.*

*Couldn’t resist posting this little cutie that we biked past.*

*We pedaled two hours to Kinderdijk to see 19 historic windmills – all built in the mid 1700’s.*

*Looking pretty good after close to 300 years, I’d say!*

Full disclosure – I took these videos when we visited a village called Zaanse Schans.

So very peaceful ☺️

*The photographer getting some closeups of the locals.*

*We had to take a ferry to cross the river to get back and forth to Kinderdijk.*

*When we first saw this bathtub* *in the middle of our bedroom we exclaimed, “ what are we going to do with that in our ‘family’ room?”*

*Well, I have to tell you, it really came in handy for doing our laundry!*

*This market building in the center of the town square had a quaint show that we watched several times.*

Fun stuff!

Like Hoorn, Gouda has a community run aviary and here’s Brittany working on her communication skills 😉

*Beautiful town but time to hit the road again. Taking the train to Weesp – stay tuned!*

Home in Hoorn

“And this is what the traveler discovers: In this great and endlessly fascinating world of ours, everywhere can be home.” – Meredith Moraine

*Hoorn is a very pretty town with a picturesque harbor.*

*We walked this path sooo many times on our way to and from the train station.*

*We’re actually standing on the fietspad (cycle path) here – the bikes ride through this short “tunnel” back and forth from town.*

*We happened upon this community run aviary and stopped every time to marvel at the large variety of birds there.*

*Also, along this path we spotted this quaint duck apartment* *in the middle of the river.*

*I found* *this sculpture to be very touching – dated 1945 – I think it was in memory of the millions of people who perished in concentration camps during the holocaust.*

*This is a modern memorial to people, sometimes children, who have died more recently*. *Each butterfly had a name and date engraved on it.*

*Ok, after arriving at our hotel, we headed to dinner. Found a great place, food was good (foodies will see pics later*) *but this is what impressed me! The door indicating the ladies room.*

*I knew you’d ask – so here’s the men’s door.*

*We rented bikes near the train station and headed out to explore the area.*

*This was an interesting monument- or memorial – don’t ask me,* *it’s all in Dutch!*

*Sometimes we shared the path with sheep – fun stuff!*

*There was a 10 day Kermis (carnival) going on in the center of town.*

*Ya know how it works, you play a game to win a stuffed animal or stuffed avocado…*

…*or you can even win a giant pink penis – wait! What now!*?!

*We got over the shock of that sight by getting ice cream, topped with the richest whipped cream ever and served in an edible waffle cup. Delicious!!!*

*Less graphic ladies room sign* *at our B & B.*

*Well? Maybe only a little less graphic*.

*Just chillin’ on a bridge over a canal.*

*One night we hopped a bus from Hoorn to Edam for dinner.*

*I wanted to include this pic because 10 years ago we stayed here with John and Belinda and have wonderful memories of that trip* ❤️

*A note to my lovely followers – some of you have told me you’ve been having technical difficulty commenting on my posts. I want you to know how much I love hearing from you, please know you can always email or text me!

Alkmaar, again?

“When you choose to collect experiences rather than things, you never run out of storage space.” – Joshua Becker

My veteran follows will recognize this as the “prison” that we stayed in two years ago – Since Brittany decided to travel with us for a couple of weeks in the Netherlands, we decided to return to this unique hotel with her.

*Alkmaar is a very pretty town with plenty of canals to enjoy.*

*“Of course Brittany if you’re going to the Netherlands, you’ll want to bike!” It didn’t take long for us to find a windmill or a kitty when we set out on our first explore!*

*This kitty looks a lot like her kitty at home – Nic*o – *Oh! And by the way, she’s a childless (I prefer childfree) cat lady!!!* 😉

*We biked through sand dunes and I was impressed with the herringbone path that we rode on.*

*Oh and the sand dunes were pretty impressive, too!*

*I also loved the heather that decorated the dunes.*

*Success! We made it to the North Sea and it was lovely.*

*Any Whovian will recognize this as a Dalek – for everyone else, it’s a trash bin.*

Alkmaar’s biggest building isn’t the church or the Town Hall, but the richly decorated Weigh House, used since the 16th century for weighing cheese. The right to weigh, sell, and tax cheese is what put Alkmaar on the map in the Middle Ages, and it’s still what the town is celebrated for today.

“*Think about the udder importance of cheese to this culture—wheying the fact that it has long kept the Dutch economy moo-ing.” –* Rick Steves

*These tiny pancakes are called poffertjes – fascinating to watch the process of making them and delicious to eat!* 😋

*and Brittany and I ordered “butter chicken”*. *The difference was that mine dish was made with roasted cauliflower instead of chicken. Everyone enjoyed their dishes!*

*We biked amongst the polders – reclaimed land.*

And spotted unique birds – like this Eurasian Oyster Catcher. Fun fact: it does NOT eat oysters 🤷🏾‍♀️

Parting glance of Utrecht

“Traveling in the company of those we love is home in motion.” – Leigh Hunt

*Dinner on the canal at the end of a long travel day and still looking adorable* (*er, I mean capable & confident*)❣️

*Walking along the river I spotted this grey heron posing for all that pass* *by.*

*In the Netherlands they have attached these can/bottle holders for people to collect and turn in for deposit money. So much kinder than having people dig through the trash.* ❤️

Day One – Utrecht

“Afoot and light-hearted I take to the open road, healthy, free and the world before me, the long brown path before me leading wherever I choose.” – Walt Whitman