I thought I was busy yesterday, but I was mistaken. I was going nonstop from 9am to 8pm today and my mind is spinning. The Super Saver bus tour I took is actually a combo of two shorter tours. I have to say I liked the morning bit better, but if I would have skipped the afternoon bit, I would have missed Delft, which would have been a bummer.
Made it to the meeting point on time and sat on the bottom half of a double decker tour bus. This was the Dutch countryside tour. And countryside it was.
Not very clear, but not bad for being taken out of a bus window whilst speeding down a highway. This is a fairly typical farmhouse. There are canals and streams everywhere. Most of the Netherlands is below sea level and made up of drained lakes. So, there is a lot of water...
Picturesque, isn't it? By the time we got to Marken, the winds had whipped up into a frenzy. Marken was an island and a little fishing village of green wooden houses that used to be on stilts. Now that the dikes prevent flooding, the bottom of the houses have been walled in with bricks to build a new first floor.
There is now the tourist attraction of a wooden shoe factory in the town. Not as much a factory as a workshop with a large gift shop attached. Still, it was interesting watching Bart make clogs (wooden shoes).
Most of the work these days is done on sort of lathe machines, one for the exterior of the shoe, the other for the interior (you can see that one behind Bart - the green machine). He's doing the only part still done by hand, which is trimming the front and back of the clog to get the bit off that it grasped by the machine when it carves.
The shoes are hung to dry and there are tons of them hanging over the workshop. They are still worn in the Netherlands by farmers and gardeners as they are sturdy and waterproof They're either plain or painted with a traditional pattern..
NOT like these, which are obviously decorated gaudily for the tourist trade.
These are fairly traditionally decorated (usually not white with blue paint, but red and black paint on plain wood, but with this pattern) and is another use that the Dutch have for their clogs...planters.
After we wandered about the village for a few more minutes, we took a ferry across to Volderdam, another fishing village.
Here we went to a "cheese factory" which again, was a cheese shop where they made some of the cheese there. There was a cheese making demonstration.
This lovely young lady taught us about how cheese is made, but there was no actual cheese *making*. We then went upstairs to the shop where there were samples and lots of helpful cheese selling ladies. Of course I bought cheese. I got goat cheese, one smoked and one not smoked. I'm not opening them so I can bring them home with me.
Lunchtime I sat with two ladies from Maryland in a seafood place where we all had yummy fried fish sandwiches. Giant slab of fish that was too big to fit on the bread.
We then walked to the bus, and tried not to get blown away. The wind was getting worse. We were on our way to Zaanse Shans, the windmill village outside of Amsterdam. There were once thousands of windmills dotting the Dutch countryside, now there are about 800. Most are thatched, and were used for many things, not just pumping water. Pump stations are used for pumping water today, which explains the demise of the traditional windmill.
This is a thatched windmills on the side of the road that dates from the 17th century. I believe this one did pump water.
We soon got to our destination and I could not wait to start snapping photos
First things first...had to pester someone to take my photo so that I would actually have proof that I was there...or a way to remember where I had traveled when I am old and forgetful.
The windmills in Zaanse Shans are performing functions other than pumping water. There is one grinding grain, one making peanut oil, one grinding pigments for paints...and the green one there is a sawmill. You can go into some of the windmills and climb about. I choose to visit the peanut oil mill.
This is one of the wheels grinding the poor lil peanuts up to make the oil.
I climbed up a rickety set of narrow steps that were so narrow I think they counted as a ladder. On the upper level, you can see the wooden gears that drive the grinders. I then went outside.
Where I had to fight to keep from being blown off the platform. Sheesh, no wonder the Dutch learned quickly to harness this energy. I couldn't take this for very long...good thing it only cost me 3 Euro.
Despite the crazy wind...still loving the windmills and had a great time.
Ok last one...for now. We clambered back on the bus and headed back to central Amsterdam to switch buses for the second half of the day.
We were now headed to Delft and the Hague. Being the pottery fool that I am, I was really looking forward to visiting a real Delft pottery factory. I actually ended up back on the same bus with a new guide, but same driver. And we were off to Delft! Guess what we saw along the road...
Ha! I fibbed! More windmills. It is seriously very cool to just see these as you drive along the highways. If you look to the left of this one, you will see the modern descendant of these 17th century workhorses...there is a modern electricity generating windmill. I didn't see as many here as I did last year in Austria and Hungary, but they were still there.
Delft was a bit longer of a trip, but we got there and headed down a narrow brick road alongside a canal to find one of the two remaining pottery factories in Delft producing hand painted pottery, De Delftse Pauw.
The tour itself held very few surprises for me as they make pottery pretty much the same as the pottery I used to work for in Virginia. They do use an electric kiln and do a bisque kiln (rather than a gas kiln and a single fire process), but it is still hand painted white clay. It's a lot more expensive, but the detail is much greater as well.
Some of the painters work in the studio, but they also have others that do piecework at home. They do both blue and multi-colored delftware. I got a little ceramic "wooden" shoe painted with a blue windmill. They also do jewelry, so I got earrings and a necklace too (shocked, aincha?).
I couldn't quite afford this memento of the upcoming inauguration of the new King:
We then headed to the Delft town center, where there is usually a street market. As we were there a bit late, most stalls had closed down already. Stuff was blowing around like crazy...trash and papers were everywhere.
On one end of the square was the Delft Town Hall.
Apparently, this is a popular location for weddings and couples come from miles around to be married there. The sun was not well placed for me to get a good photo of the front...but it's very ornate and brightly painted. At the other end of the square is the local church.
There was some sort of tour bus traffic jam and we stood waiting in the wind for our bus for about 15 minutes. Luckily, I had managed to find a vendor selling candy that was still at the market and was happily munching some lovely Dutch black licorice candy...people after my own heart, they love the black licorice!
Finally got on the bus and got outta Delft to head to the Hague. We did the bus tour thing and looked a the government offices as well as drove past the Queen's working palace. She was in as evidenced by the orange flag flying.
I didn't get any photos as the sun was shining directly at the bus windows...from behind the buildings. I did get a half decent photo of the International Court of Justice
Little burned out...but it was such an impressive building.
Last stop of the day was not something I would have chosen to do otherwise (if it wasn't part of the tour package. Madurodam is a miniature village the depicts the best bits of The Netherlands.
There you go...miniaturized Netherlands. Want to know more...visit the Madurodam website. I got bored quickly, but was happy they had a restroom. I ended up exiting early and sitting in the ticketing area waiting for the group. Oh, I did take this photo:
The mythological Hans Brinker about to stick his finger in the hole in the dike. This is a the entrance to the park.
We finally got back in the bus, had the hour drive back, I hopped back on the tram and got back to the apartment. Ate a dinner of cheese and tomatoes at around 9pm and need sleep.
Tomorrow, King Tut?
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