Kinderdijk and Delft–May 1, 2015

Today we arrived in Kinderdijk which is the only place in the Netherlands where they actually have working windmills.  Kinderdijk is 10 feet below sea level and in order to keep the land dry and safe for people to live on they have to pump the water into reservoirs which then eventually empties into the Rhine River where the river is at a lower level than their dikes (dijk). 

This is a map of the area and all the area on the right hand side of the map will drain water from rain right down to Kinderdijk in the area where the guide’s hand is pointing out.  They built 19 windmills in order to pump the water into the reservoir to keep land dry and safe for people to live on. Nowadays, they have big turbines which of course pumps more cubic meters of water in a minute than the windmills do but in the early 1500-1600’s, it all drained by the windmills who had millers living in the windmills with their families. 

This shows the windmills with the canal of water in the dikes and the reservoir is on the other side of this canal.  It really fascinates me how they figured all of this out so many years ago.

This is the modern version of the windmills today!!!  Big turbines pump the water at 100 times the rate of the windmills!

This is a picture of a miller and his family of 13 children.   Unfortunately the mother had a terrible accident when she was trying to save one of her children from being too close to the windmill arm and she ended up being hit by it which killed her at the age of 42; so the miller was left without his wife raising 13 children on his own.  It is amazing how they lived in a windmill with that many children!

This was a living room kitchen of the windmill which was the only warm room in the entire house.  The master bedroom is the back of this room. Can you imagine crowding 13 children into this room every day!

This was the master bed and there was a place for the baby to sleep just above the bottom of the bed and the potty (bathroom) for them was at the foot of the bed. 

This is the wheel that that turns to move the water.  See the staircase in the distance.  You had to walk up these narrow stairs for every level of the windmill.  I wonder how many times their children would fall down the many steps!

This shows the back of the windmill and this is how the miller would turn the top part of the windmill so that it could catch the direction of the wind.  I didn’t even know they could actually turn it at all!

Yes, leave it up to me find someone walking their dog!

From Kinderdjik, we were bussed to Delft and visited the Delft pottery factory where they make the blue and white pottery, all hand-painted. 

This is one of the master painters.  You see the vases in the front part of the picture; they start with the one on the left and after going through the different processes of being in the ovens to the end product after painting.

After visiting the factory, we were then taken on a walking tour of the city of Delft. This piece cost 13,000 Euros.

The market square of Delft.

It was certainly a pretty little town.

Of course, another “Cheese” store!!

We then had the Captain’s Farewell dinner last night having Chateaubrand for supper.  We met another couple over the last few days from the Toronto area and we had supper together last night. It was quite a nice evening.  Today we have another full day of adventures, a walking tour of Edam and Volendam in the morning, a cycling tour of Hoorn this afternoon.  Tonight for supper they are taking us into Oosterkerk for a typical Dutch Dinner with the locals.  As our cruise director would say “chow for now”!

Veere, Netherlands–April 30, 2015

Last  night we had a fantastic six course dinner at Portobello Restaurant.  I couldn’t even begin to tell you what we had as it was all in Italian but we were absolutely stuffed to the gills.  In fact, I couldn’t eat breakfast this morning as I was still full.  Last night in the lounge they had Guess that Tune and artist contest.  We had a group of 6 as a team and you not only had to guess the tune but also got extra points if you got up and danced between the questions.  We paired up with two other couples who were also from Canada (Kingston area).  We thought we had done well but another group of people beat us out by a couple of points but it was all in all  a fun night. 

This morning, we took a bike tour of Veere and surrounding area.  We biked about 10K and the guide took us to a cheese farm along the way.  They certainly make a lot of cheese here!  It is just like going to Niagara area with the wine making; here it is all cheese making.  The cheese is really good though.  We came back for lunch and then we had the afternoon to explore Veere on our own and it was a beautiful, peaceful little town to visit. 

We had a seafood buffet tonight and the ship left right as we were eating dinner and we passed right though a lock shortly after.  We are heading to Kinderjik and Rotterdam and will arrive there tomorrow in the morning sometime. 

Here are a few pictures from today:

Trying to get my helmet on.  These were electric bikes so it was nice to have the option to use the electric part.  I didn’t use it at the start but then tried it and it was quite enjoyable not having to pedal so much!!

Stopped for some information about this little street along the way.  It is not so comfortable riding a bike on the cobblestones though!

We stopped at a cheese farm along the way.

Of course, I always find the dogs………..he is part of the cheese farm family and just wanders around greeting people.

This little calf reminded me of Maverik; loved to give kisses!!!  They had about 7-8 young calves in the farm.  Of course they use the cow’s milk to make the cheese.  This was a very unique barn as it was electronic; it automatically will open the doors to let out the cows if the weather is good; if not, the doors shut and they are not allowed out.  Very high tech!!!

Some of the homes we passed by; this one was unique as it had a tractor under a car port!

About 10 minutes before this picture was taken, it had started to rain with a huge black cloud coming over and within  minutes it had moved on and we had bright blue sky again although it is still very cool and windy – it is only about 10 degrees.

This town had little statues all over the place.  I find the children….

Brian finds the ladies……

The homes have lovely little manicured lawns.  The residents seem to have a lot of pride in how nice their town looks. 

Of course, everything in the Netherlands and Holland has water and canals everywhere!

So we had another great day and now looking forward to what tomorrow brings.  We are certainly having a great time but the time is certainly flying by quickly!

Bruges, Belgium–April 29, 2015

Here we are only three days in and we are already starting to say “are we eating again”!!!  It is so hard to resist all the food, yet hate the feeling of feeling so full all the time!  This morning I had oatmeal, egg and coffee as we are eating in the Portobello Restaurant tonight, so I want to go there feeling hungry tonight!!  After breakfast, we boarded the bus for Bruges which is a small medieval town in Belgium about 1 1/2 hours away.  The bus coaches are really quite comfortable and we always try to get in the less crowded bus if we can, so we wait until most people have boarded the bus and then go the bus that is not as crowded.

We like to sit in the back of the bus just so we are away from anyone who may have colds although on this trip so far we have seen no one who isn’t feeling well.  Brian does get frustrated waiting for all the “older folks” to get off the bus though – some are quite slow to say the least!!  I keep reminding him that we are “older” now too and he has to be patient!

Bruges is surrounded by a moat with four entry points each with its own tower.

One of the many canals around Bruges.

Cobblestone streets with horse and buggy.  You have to keep your eye out as they don’t stop for you – they will run right into you!

It is so amazing to see the old buildings with water completely surrounding them. 

This is Church of Our Lady – we had to take a picture of this since we have one in Guelph where David and Jenn were married and Levi was Baptized!

This is the church steeple from afar.

The market square where we ended our tour and had free time to spend on our own.  It was such a lovely town. 

I found a lovely Tea Shop that sold all different kinds of teapots, mugs, cups and saucers!

Our guide told us that this is the most world-renown Belgium chocolates so of course I had to go and buy some.  We had a small taste and it was heavenly!! We are bringing some home for everyone to try. 

Our guide, Mark, also told us that we had to buy “Belgium Fries” – in fact he told us that it was the Belgium people that invented the “fries” and not the “French”, so we now have to call them Belgium Fries and not French Fries!! He also said that fries should be eaten with  Mayonnaise and not Ketchup!!  We just ate them plain with salt – they were delicious and I even shared some with a fellow passenger who asked us not to tell his wife!

These “tree-houses” have just been erected in these trees as “modern art”. Our guide said he is not impressed with the “new art”. In the field below were dying daffodils which would have been really pretty if we had been able to see them in bloom.

Of course, we always come across animals and I can’t resist taking their pictures.  We were able to get quite close to these ducks and they didn’t move.  I was wondering if the mom is sitting on eggs.  They obviously are not spooked by tourists as there were hundreds of people walking around this area. 

At the moment, we are now sailing towards Veere,Netherlands and I am drinking the wine that is stocked in our room and Brian is having a beer.  The weather is definitely on the cool side but at least it is not raining, so for that we are thankful!  Tomorrow for our excursion we have chosen a bike tour, so hopefully the weather is not too cold.

Amsterdam–Zaanse Schans–April 28, 2015

Zaanse Schans is one of the highlights of the Netherlands in the province of North Holland.  We have actually been to this place when we were in Amsterdam before but it was nice to go back there again. It has windmills – one that is still in working order just for visitors to see how they worked.  Of course windmills are no longer used in the Netherlands as keeping control of their water is all done mechanically now.  We passed many fields of tulips today but the bus did not stop for us to get pictures as it was quite cool and raining at times; so wasn’t the best day but knowing that the highlight of our trip is visiting Keukenhof Gardens on Sunday, I will get plenty of pictures of the tulips and keeping my fingers crossed that it doesn’t rain that day.  There were several stores there and a nice bar where we stopped for coffee and home-made apple pie.

In the afternoon we arrived back to the ship and the ship left on our way to Antwerp and Bruges tomorrow. It was nice just to relax today and have a nice dinner tonight.  We are both still a bit jet-lagged so it is early to bed tonight and looking forward to new adventures tomorrow.  Here are a few pictures from today. 

A picture of our cabin

Our balcony that has a completely retractable upper window so you can keep the window up if it is a bit chilly.  This is something new that Scenic Tours has added to their ships.

Windmills at Zaanse Schans

Zaanse Schans is also where they make all the wooden shoes

As usual in Europe, people can take their dogs into restaurants, bars and cafes!!  We were greeted at the table by Nina whose owners were sitting at the next table. 

We missed our friends from Australia when here as we all enjoyed coffee and apple pie together the last time we were here.  Cheers Roseleigh and Richard!!  We miss you!

When we arrived back in our room, we had a towel swan waiting on the bed!  These are just a few things we bought today including things for our grandkids of course!!!

This was the main meal for supper tonight – this was coated cod with lentils and potatoes.  I took the fish option tonight as I was not keen on Roast of Lamb!! 

Scenic Riverboat Tour–Amsterdam

We arrived safe and sound to Amsterdam on Sunday morning after a 7 hour flight from Toronto.  We had about an hour delay in Toronto as they announced there was a “technical” problem with the plane that had to be corrected before we could take off. Don’t you just hate it when they make announcements like that – gives you an uneasy feeling.  A technician or maintenance person from KLM kept going back and forth to the cockpit and then they made an announcement that in order to fix the problem, the plane would essentially have to be shut off completely! So we all had to open the blinds on the windows so when the power went out, we would have light in the cabin.  It feels rather weird to be sitting on a plane with it completely shut down.  After a 5 minute wait, they powered it all up again and apparently that fixed the problem and we did make it safely to Amsterdam – so that was a good thing.  We upgraded again this time and went Business Class and they certainly do treat you well and we had “flat beds” so at least we could try to get a few hours sleep before landing. 

  

They give you a nice drink when you sit down and a goody-bag of socks and toiletries and noise-reducing headphones plus larger TVs and of course the meals were quite good although we didn’t eat the breakfast as we only had supper 3 hours before. 

We arrive in Amsterdam at 7:00 a.m. and catch the train to Amsterdam Central; the train station is right in the airport, so it was nice and easy to travel that way instead of getting a cab.  Took us 15 minutes to arrive at Amsterdam Central and then a short walk to our hotel which was right next door.  Unfortunately, the hotel was packed due to King’s day celebration on the Monday; so we were told we couldn’t get our room until 3:00 p.m.   We were hoping to catch a couple of hours sleep if we could have got our room so that went out the window pretty fast.  We had made arrangements to meet a friend at 1:30, so we hung out at the hotel until Joan met up with us.  We wandered around Amsterdam with Joan and then went out for lunch. 

The young couple sitting beside us were from Turkey and were very interesting to talk to.  They spoke English very well. 

Joan walked us back to the hotel and we said our goodbyes and then we were able to get our room and catch a couple hours sleep.  We slept until 8:00 p.m. and then wandered around Amsterdam for the rest of the evening.  Of course, there was a lot of partying going on in preparation for King’s Day.  King’s day is a very popular day where everyone celebrates in Amsterdam and all the roads are closed as they party. We didn’t partake in that celebration on the Monday as the Scenic Tour Bus picked us up Monday morning to take us to the ship. 

Brian in front of the ship.

Janet trying out the bike!!

We had a welcoming supper and our ship stayed in Amsterdam as we have an excursion to Zannse Schans on Tuesday morning.  So far so good!!!

April 12, 2015–Levi’s Baptism

Levi was baptized last Sunday at the Church of our Lady and he was such a good little boy!  He wore the same Christening outfit that David was Christened in over 30 years ago. It is events like this that make me realize how fast life has flown by.  I remember when I first had David and someone told me to cherish every moment as they grow up so fast.  That comment has always stayed with me and I certainly did cherish all the moments with my family. Now I am cherishing every moment with my three grandchildren and two grown children and their respective spouses.  Brian and I feel truly blessed to have such a great family unit. 

David and Jenn just wanted immediate family members to attend the Christening and we had a small get together at Jenn’s parent’s home to celebrate Levi’s Baptism.  It was an absolutely gorgeous spring day to celebrate such a wonderful event. We all had a wonderful day together. 

David, Jenn and Levi with Tom (Jenn’s brother) and Breanne. Tom and Breanne are Levi’s Godparents!

Sleeping just before his Baptism!

Other than a little jump, he didn’t mind the Holy water at all!

Proud family!

Parents and Godparents!

Other news……Brian and I have booked a last minute vacation for the last week in April and we were fortunate enough to find a cancellation on a Scenic Tours Riverboat Cruise leaving and ending in Amsterdam going through Belgium and Holland and the highlight of our trip will be to see the Keukenhof Gardens where we will see the millions of tulips in bloom!  This trip has been on our bucket-list and we were very fortunate that our travel agent was able to find this last minute cancellation for us.  We leave April 25th and will return May 4 – we will be away for a week.  Here are a couple of picture of Keukenhof Gardens and I am so looking forward to visiting here.  I will try to keep up my blog while we are away; so please return every day to see what we have been up to.