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  • Jiggity Jig.

    Jiggity Jig.

    To market,
    To market,
    To buy a fat pig.
    Home again,
    Home again,
    Jiggity jig.

    We are home again, after a long travel day. We gained 6 time zones, making it a 30 hour day for us, so we pushed and stayed awake long enough to go to bed at a regular time, and we both had a great night’s sleep.

    The day started in Haarlem, where we took an Uber to Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. We did not pack lightly for this trip, and decided we’d had enough of lugging our luggage around city streets and finding places for it on trains and buses, etc. Our Uber driver was friendly and engaging, which I’d have to say is different than our recent experiences at home, where they are always talking to someone else on their phone, etc.

    A Study in Contrasts

    We arrived at the airport about 3.5 hours before our flight, not because we love spending time in airports, but because we had to check bags, and wanted to be extra sure that we would have plenty of time for that + security + ???. On the left, you can see the British Airways desk, where there are half a dozen agents and no line. We, on the other hand, were in the Aer Lingus line (right image), where there were 50+ customers waiting and zero agents. they are supposed to open the desk 3 hours before a flight, and we just imagined that there would be more flights coming and going, but perhaps not. In any case, 2 agents arrived about 2.5 hours before our flight, and the line moved just fine at that point. We were glad to be pretty close to the front of the line, though.

    To get us in the mood for our (brief) visit to Ireland, we ate lunch at the Murphy’s Irish Pub in Schiphol Airport. The first leg of our trip took us from Amsterdam to Dublin. They boarded from both ends of the plane, so we got to walk out on the tarmac, and up the “airstairs” to the rear entrance to the plane, and I was able to get these much-closer-than-usual photos of our plane.

    We had a couple hours of layover in Dublin, and when flying to the U.S. from there, they have it set up so that you can go through customs at the departing airport, and then fly in to a domestic gate, and go to normal baggage claim, and head out directly from there. So that’s what we did, and that all went without a hitch. The lines were long, but they kept moving.

    Our flight, which left a few minutes late, arrived a little early. Turns out our bags made the flight as well, so there was a happy reunion in Boston, and then we took an Uber home, and got in around 7:30, ending an uneventful but long day of travel.

  • Amsterdam, Day 2

    Amsterdam, Day 2

    The big plan for today was to go visit the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. We took the train from Haarlem to Amsterdam, once again, and then took a tram from Amsterdam Centraal to Museumplein, where there are a number of museums, including the Van Gogh.

    We had tickets to enter at 10:15, but were a little early, so we walked around a bit. It’s a beautiful park where all the museums are

    and there was also an exhibit of flags of the 63 countries that criminalize same-sex relationships, or gender expression. The hope is that this collection shrinks over time.

    At the appointed time, we entered the museum

    And rented the audio tour, and we took about 2.5 hours to walk through the whole museum, and hear some of the stories of Vincent van Gogh’s life, paintings, and influences. We also learned about his brother, Theo, who was his benefactor and supporter for his entire career, and who died only six months after Vincent, at age 33. We also learned a little about Jo, who was Theo’s wife, and the driving force behind ensuring that Vincent’s artwork would be known. I didn’t take any photos of the artwork, because I am sure there are better representations easily findable on the web.

    After the museum, we walked in the direction of Anne Frank’s house, including a brief incursion into Vondelpark.

    We did not plan in advance enough to be able to tour the house, but we passed by.

    We kept walking in the direction of Amsterdam Centraal, and found a cute little restaurant that served traditional Dutch meals, so we shared a Hutspot met Gehaktball (enhanced mashed potatoes and large meatball). We also went past the Royal Palace, a gorgeous building build in the 17th century, and marveled at the fancy light posts.

    We had a nice, easy train ride back home, and then headed out for dinner at a local restaurant in Haarlem a bit later. After dinner, we walked past the Corrie Ten Boom house, just to see it, since we didn’t get tickets to tour it earlier.

    And that about does it for our vacation! Tomorrow is essentially a long travel day. We have an Uber scheduled in the morning to bring us to the airport, and then two flights later, we should be back in Boston!

  • Amsterdam

    Amsterdam

    We started our second-to-last day having breakfast with the Candells, and then we headed to Amsterdam via the InterCity train, which takes about 15 minutes. From the central train station, we got on a local metro to take us close to the Heineken brewery. It was a somewhat drizzly day, and we had a scheduled tour of the brewery at 1:30. So, we walked around a bit, past a “cheese bar”

    and found an Irish pub where we had lunch, and then headed to the brewery for our tour.

    Apparently, this original brewery building has been essentially a museum and tourist attraction since 1988ish, when the city of Amsterdam told Heineken that they would have to move as they were causing too much traffic with the trucks going in and out of the brewery. At that time, they built a huge new facility in Zoeterwoude. We learned that like Budweiser, Heineken still uses horses as brand ambassadors in their marketing.

    We got to see their first international award,

    and a series of different bottles they used over the decades,

    and the brewhouse where the beer used to be brewed.

    We had a quick lesson in beer tasting after a weird “ride” that had us in a variety of rooms with videos projected all around. Kinda gimmicky, in my opinion. We then got to walk through a gallery of advertising media, both printed and video, and a showcase of signed sports jerseys (soccer, mainly) from teams they sponsor. There were even goofy games to play.

    After all that, we made it to the “Best ‘Dam Bar” (get it?) and were given a full pour of their flagship brew. Exit through the gift shop, of course. We got a personalized bottle of Heineken to bring home. Susan bought the extra feature on our tickets of going to the rooftop,

    where there is another bar, the Heineken Studio, serving some test recipes that they are working on,

    and up there, we also got some good views of the city,

    and saw some evidence of someone creative being a bit bored while sitting up there next to the plants.

    Our only other scheduled activity for the day was a canal tour, which started at 5:00, so we had some time to walk around the city a bit before that. The tour departed across from the famous Rijksmuseum, which we did not go into, but even from the outside it was super impressive.

    The tour took 90 minutes and brought us all around the city (if I were clever, I would have brought my GPS to track where it went!), and the guide (Lon) gave us an overview of the history and culture of Amsterdam. It was well worth it.

    After the tour, we walked back to the Amsterdam Centraal train station, by lots of little shops

    by the Old Church and through a bit of the red light district, though it was too early for anyone to be out on display. A nice dinner at Loetje’s and then we got on the train back to Haarlem to end the day.

  • Haarlem

    Haarlem

    We left Enkhuizen today,

    and boarded a train for Haarlem. Everything went smoothly, and we were able to drop off our bags at our AirBnB shortly after we arrived, where we also met a very cute and friendly cat.

    We went into the Great Church of Saint Bavo, which was pretty amazing, especially considering it was built starting in the 14th century.

    It had (at least) three organs, and some beautiful stained glass windows

    After walking around the church, we found lunch at the Grand Café Brinkmann, where we were able to sit outside and watch the goings on in the area. Susan and I then visited a knitting shop, after which we were able to check into the AirBnB, and from there we headed over to the Molen De Adriaan

    which is a functioning, traditional windmill. In fact, it’s a reproduction of the historic mill that had been there for centuries before burning down in 1932. It was 70 years before it was rebuilt, so it’s quite new today. They gave a great tour, informing us all about the various uses for mills in the Netherlands, and how they work.

    We were able to climb up to the platform level where the miller would turn the mill as needed to face into the wind, and adjust or repair the wings. There were great views of the city from up there

    There was a helpful sign to remind us that while it is safer to go down the stairs facing them, it would be faster and more fun to go down facing forwards

  • Makkum

    Makkum

    Our day began in Makkum, and we rode past some farmland (par for the course),

    and under a railroad,

    to a windmill (also par for the course!) by the shore of a lake.

    A short while later, we came to a small river that we crossed by ferry!

    The ferry was operated “as needed” as opposed to on a schedule. When we arrived, we could see Parke and Sarah on the opposite shore, and the ferry came for us straightaway. If you look at the track carefully, you can see a little S-shaped curve at that point.

    We made it to a lovely town, Workum, and ate our packed lunch in the company of a very vocal jackdaw

    After lunch, we rode on to Hindeloopen, a very scenic coastal town, and we went to the First Frisian Ice Skating Museum which had an amazing collection of old skates, and uniforms of famous skaters, etc.

    And then we made our way back to Enkhuizen, with Matt at the helm (for part of the way)

    where this whole thing started (well, the sailing and biking part anyway).

    Tonight is our last night on board, tomorrow we will have our final breakfast on the boat, and then we must be packed and off the boat by 9:30. But we still have a few days to explore Amsterdam ahead of us.

  • Harlingen

    Harlingen

    Today we headed out from Harlingen and biked to Franiker, which besides being a cute town, hosts the oldest working planetarium, built between 1774 and 1781 by Eise Eisinga

    as a hobby. He was university educated, but worked as a wool carder by day. Both the museum and the planetarium were amazing.

    From there, we headed towards the town of Kimswerd, down a lovely bike path (fietspad)

    with a suspension bridge!

    We came to the famous statue of Grutte Pier (Great Peter),

    outside the Sint-Laurentiuskerk church, built in the 11th century.

    We had our lunch on a bench outside the church, then we rode on to the Afsluitdijk museum, right on the dike that separates the IJsselmeer from the Wadden Sea. It was interesting to read and see about the Netherlands’ history with water management. We had some awesome views from the roof.

    And then we headed to the boat, newly docked in Makkum, after another long (30+ mile) day of cycling!

  • Terschelling

    Terschelling

    Today we made a bike tour of the island of Terschelling. We left after breakfast, around 9:00, with Susan looking super cute in her biking gear,

    and made our way around most of the island. Our first stop was the Berry Barn

    There is an interesting history of how cranberries ended up on the island. We didn’t stay there long, but we did come back to it later in the day. After that, we made our way across the island to the North Sea, and dipped our toes in the water. The wind was pretty fierce over there, and the waves were big and choppy.

    There were people there getting ready to take advantage of the wind, with various wind-driven apparatus, and we dipped our toes (or calves) in. It was surprisingly warm!

    We then rode along beautiful dunes, and through forests, and made our way to a very curious museum filled with stuff that washed ashore and that was collected by beachcombers. It was an astounding collection.

    After the museum, we headed to the southern coast, and rode along the dike for a stretch

    then headed back to the Berry Barn for a quick break, then back to the boat before it departed at 4:00.
    We sailed back to the mainland, and landed at Harlingen after an amazing vegetarian dinner on board. We were able to walk around the pretty little town for a bit


    before heading in for the night

  • Hoist the Mainsail!

    Hoist the Mainsail!

    This morning we set sail for Terschelling! The pre-breakfast coffee line was long today…

    After breakfast, the crew guided us through the process of raising and setting all the sails, and we are under wind power towards our next destination. While the boat is a flat bottom boat, and we have only 1.6m of draft, the channel we have available to us is pretty shallow, less than 1.6m at low tide, so the navigation is challenging enough without having to tack. We go when the tide is rising, so that the current flowing in from the North Sea also helps push us along.

    We spent the morning and the early part of the afternoon under sail as long as we could, but then we furled the sails and made it the rest of the way under engine power.

    The chef fed us a big lunch, and the crew expertly docked the boat in West Terschelling. We were able to spend the rest of the afternoon exploring the town, and hiking up to the top of the hill and back down to the Brandaris Lighthouse in the center of town. We ended up having a light dinner with the Candells, then walked back to the boat, just as a light rain was starting.

    Tomorrow we will explore more of the island by bike. It is expected to be windy again!

  • Texel

    Texel

    We got ambitious today!

    We are moored at the island of Texel, and had our usual breakfast, then headed out on our bikes.

    We rode into a nearby town, Den Burg, where there is an open market on Monday mornings

    From the market, we rode on to a local chocolate shop, where they make fancy chocolates

    Our next target was the Eierland Lighthouse, which has some interesting history from the WWII era. It was a long ride, and we decided to take the less scenic route, just up the middle of the island on regular roads. We had a good strong wind (but not as strong as the day before) in our faces, which made it pretty challenging. We ended up needed a bio break en route, and found a cute family dairy farm that doubled as a minor tourist attraction with an ice cream shop that satisfied all our immediate needs.

    After a short break there, we headed on to the lighthouse.

    When we got there, we had to buy tickets, but were then allowed to climb the 120ish steps

    At the top, we were able to see the old control room and get a great view of the surrounding area

    At the beach, there were people riding carts around the sand, that were being pulled by kites — very cool!

    We then had a long ride back to the boat, but the first section was on a bike path through the dunes of Texel, which was amazing, and so much more enjoyable than the ride up the roads against the wind

    Tomorrow is a sailing day, and we (well, the crew) will get the boat from Texel to Terschelling, and we get a day off from biking.

  • Our First Cycling Day!

    Our First Cycling Day!

    Today we started on the real work of this vacation — cycling! We had a small breakfast on the boat, and were able to pack a sandwich for lunch. We had our bike orientation, and Susan was given an e-Bike, and I got a “traditional” bike. We headed out from Enkuisen and mostly followed along the coastline.

    It was a very windy day today, and we were fighting it most of the way, with occasional breaks provided by trees. We got lovely views of the water,

    and saw lots of people taking advantage of the wind by kite boarding, and other wind/board sports.

    We saw our boat, motoring to our meeting point

    We got to the destination town, Medemblik, by around noon, and were able to watch our crew very impressively “park” the boat.

    After that, we rode down the main street of the town, and found a restaurant for lunch. After lunch, came the obligatory ice cream, then we took a brief look at the local castle, where Matt and Susan showed off their balancing skills

    before heading back to the boat.

    The rest of the day was a pretty relaxed affair, for us anyway, but we got to see the crew navigate through a lock,

    and a center-pivot swing bridge, which was pretty nifty. We were served dinner as the boat was nearing the island of Texel, where we will be for the next two nights.