Onderdendam to the island of Texel

Wednesday saw us exploring more new areas and meeting more new people - some of whom were family. We had another wonderful Dutch breakfast at the windmill where we stayed on Tuesday night. Inge, a lovely woman who served breakfast, told Dave a bit about life in her small village. One interesting thing she said was that the kids from the village ride their bikes to the high school in Groningen - which is 8 miles one way.

As you know, my post yesterday was extra long so I wasn't done writing until just after 11 am. This was the latest we had "started" our day since arriving here. It was raining, a gentle rain but raining none the less. We were headed to the farm for which Dave had arranged a tour. With the scratching of a quickly drawn map in hand, we headed out. What was crystal clear the night before became muddled. We weren't able to find the farm and so the tour was out.

We headed toward Friesland - a province in Holland that has its own language. People here joke that you need a passport to go there because it seems like a different country. We drove for an hour and saw many news sights. The main crops are potatoes (huge fields of white and purple blooms) and hay. The cows stand in fields of grass up to their knees. There are some grain fields - most of which are still green. (If you remember the grain fields in southern Holland and France were being harvested.) In one town we passed through, we had go wait for a boat that was going through the canal and therefore the bridge was up.

We traveled close to the northern shore (along the North Sea) for much of our trip. Of course you can't see the sea as dikes rim the land. The dikes are covered with sheep. It looks great and is an easy way to keep the grass cut. When we crosses over into Friesland, we went up on top of the dikes. The wind is wild up there! There were a bunch of people flying huge kites on the "beach". I'm sure they were hanging onto them with all they had.

We stopped in the town of Dokkum because we were told we could see very old buildings and homes with straw roofs there. Buildings, yes. Straw roofs, no. However it was a wonderful place to stop. It was market day (maybe every day is market day?). We were able to leisurely stroll through it. We came to a fish stall and there lay smoked eel. Nasty to look at but we wanted to try it. One skinny little eel was $10 (US)! We needed instructions on how to eat it. There we stood, at a table with someone else devouring a fish, looking at our lunch. Dave took the first bite and said it was really good. I took a bite and had to agree. But, I had to eat it with my eyes closed and not think about it. I almost gaged once. I was eating near it's head (still attached) and something stringy was in my mouth. (Amanda will relate to this as she can't eat chicken legs due to "stringy things".)

Next stop was a stall that sold wooden shoes. The vendor was what most would picture as an old Dutchman - wooden shoes and all. We told him we didn't speak Dutch but that didn't fizz on him. Away he went telling us about his love of wooden shoes. If we understood him correctly, he has worn only wooden shoes his whole life. (The longer we're here, the more Dutch we're understanding.)

We wandered through the shops on the narrow streets. Before we got to the market, we went up an old, operational windmill. (One of the things we wanted to do on this trip.) Up 4 flights of stairs so steep they were almost ladders. Not a good thing to do in a dress! The man
looking after things had a long history in the milling business and told us how it all worked.

Back in the car to continue on to Texel. The island were Dave's mom grew up. We made it to the ferry by 6 pm. It was about a 20 minute crossing. The island is very small - 5 miles wide by 20 miles long. We went to Oosterend - the town we were looking for. There weren't any places to stay there so we back-tracked about 5 minutes and found a hotel in De Waal. The guy at the front desk looked up the name "Kooger" in the phone book and gave us 2 addresses. We drove to the first one, which Dave thought was his cousin Anneke, knocked on the door and after a few words there we're hugs all around.

We had coffee with Anneke and some friends. Then we went on a walking tour of the village - about 1,400 people. We've seen many beautiful towns/villages and repeatedly I've said this is the nicest one yet. Unless we see something really super great today, I've found my absolute favorite - Oosterend. The streets are very narrow, twist lazily, and are made of cobblestone. The houses are right "on" the edge of the road. The style of homes is what you think of when you think of an old Dutch home. There are cats running around everywhere. It very peaceful. Hopefully the pictures will give you a taste of what we've experienced.

On our very short walk we visited more of Anneke's family. A sister, two brothers, and her mom (Dave's aunt). That's 4 homes within a 10 minute walk. Everyone was happy to see us. Of course, the phone lines were buzzing after Anneke called her mom to see if we could visit her in the morning. The family knew we were in town. :)

We got back to Anneke's just before 11 pm and it had just become dark. I was awake at 4:30 this morning and it was broad daylight already. Very little darkness here right now.

Here are a few random things you may find interesting:
- people check their cells phones while riding their bikes. In general, they aren't as addicted to their phones as Ameicans are.
- people dress the same way we do. I was expecting clothes to be quite different here - in regards to fashion. In Paris I thought I would see some difference but I didn't. The most fashionably dressed women were in the Loire Valley of France which is unexpected as it's more of a "rural" area. One thing I did see (in all 3 counties) was girls/women in their late teens/early 20's wearing either very short shorts or very short shirts with tights. It looks great if you have the figure for it.
- we learned to trick the gps. Every time we want to go to a new town, we need to enter a street name and house number in order for Flo to be able to give us directions. Since we don't have the number/street, we enter "wilhe" and we always get a street that begins that way. Then use the number 4. It works like a charm. :)
- bike park. People leave their bikes like we'd leave our cars at a "bike park". From there they catch a ride - car or bus.
- American business. It's bothersome to come here and see McDonalds, Pizzza Hut, and other such US places. The one that gets me the most is Aldi. But then I believe it's a European company so it makes sense that it's here.

One thing I learned today - sheep are used to "cut the grass" in the strangest places - in front of businesses.
One new thing I learned today - a straw roof lasts 30 years on a house and 50 years on a windmill.
Most powerful moment of the day - standing on a dike knowing this rather small "hill" keeps the North Sea from covering Holland (which is below sea level).
One pleasurable experience - eating double zout droppies (salted licorice) while driving through Holland.

Hugs and kisses to the grandkids. Today (Thursday) is our last full day. Tomorrow we fly home. Mixed emotions about that.