And I thought my seafaring days were over

Amsterdam - Day Three

This is actually about yesterday in real time, but I decided to do the two days separately so today’s wouldn’t be so long.

This is another of those days when I’ve run out of superlatives to describe it. It began early with a buffet breakfast at the hotel. Then I met Arnie, my driver at 10:00 to go to the Ziderzee Museum. He had just gotten a brand new Mercedes limousine and it was stylin’ !! We took the expressway part of the way and then back roads the rest of the way.

The countryside started out as all dairy cattle and horse farms. Beautiful landscaping and the farms were all well kept. Arnie told me when he was very young his father told him that black cows gave white milk and brown ones gave chocolate milk. He believed him until he was about four.

Gradually the farms changed to vegetables and flowers. Tulip season is well past, but the flower farms, and the vegetable farms were beautiful. The cabbages were enormous; about twice the size of the ones we get at HEB. And the prettiest flower wasn’t a flower at all, but an onion. It had a long stem with a purple ball on the end of it. There were fields and fields of it.

Arriving at the Museum there was a surprise. We had to take a ferry to the actual museum site, about a 20 minute ride. The route was lined with ancient fishing and sailing boats now used for charter trips with tourists.

The museum is absolutely unique. A replica of a small fishing village of 100 years ago it has all kinds of active adventures for children and adults...much like Williamsburg. There was a working windmill showing how they pumped the water out of the polders before mechanization. There was a steam laundry with working washing machines (the worlds first Maytag?) and steam cleaners. Huge drums made out of wood and steel were filled with clothes and steam from the coal fired furnace was forced through them. Everything was run by pulleys and belt cranks, even the huge clothes mangle. Outside they had a hand wash tub for children to see what it was like in the old days.

There were many hands on activities for the children; rolling steel hoops, balancing spindles, jump rope, lawn bowling, and all kinds of board games. The one I liked most though was the rope making. The rope maker had the children take long strands of sizel over the backs of several chairs and then spin the weaving loom. At the end of it was a man making all kinds of rope products. I watched him weave a loop at the end of a monkey fist. He was amazing. Making monkey fists is a lost art. I commented I wish I had enough room to take one of his hawsers home. He and Arnie had a laughing conversation in Dutch and the knot maker handed me the wrapped bitter end he had just cut from the rope he was working on. Now I could take one of his ropes home!

Following the museum tour (about a mile of walking...slow but sure on the cobblestones and hills) we went to the charming city of Edam, after which the cheese is named. We at lunch at the outdoor cafe of a three star hotel right on a canal and across from the town hall. After lunch we “strolled” around town (about another quarter mile) before heading home.

I was exhausted, but it was worth every step. After a nap and a grilled cod dinner I crashed.

As I said in yesterday’s ‘non-post,’ if you’d like to see the rest of the pictures, click here.