Ok! I need to get this out or it won't ever happen. Time is flying!
SO..... On my last morning in Haarlem I took a walk with Canada and Andrea (Mexico) around Haarlem and tried the famed Herring - raw fish served with onions and pickles. It's a Dutch delicacy sold at roadstands at all times of the day. Which, unfortunately, is I think why I wasn't a fan. Raw fish at 10 am is not my thing, despite the long line of other breakfasters.
Then Andrea and I packed our bags and said goodbye to our favorite hostel on our way to Zaanze Schans. This is a crazy touristy village with lots of original windmills. It's gorgeous though, and because it was so cold, it wasn't too busy. There was a mustard mill, a cheese factory and a wooden shoe shop, all nestled in a cute leafy village surrounded by canals. Great photo opps! We had all our bags with us because I stupidly assumed this town would have a Bahnhof with lockers and amenities like Amsterdam or a bigger city. But we luckily found a restaurant/hostel that let us store our luggage there! And also had awesome food with a great view the village!
From Zaanse Schans Andreea wen tback to Amsterdam and I went on to Gouda to meet my long-lost family! In March I got in touch with relatives on my mom's mother's side. They still live in the same area that my great grandfather grew up! They invited me to stay for the weekend, well longer actually, because of a misunderstanding (they thought I was flying directly from Canada just to meet them- not sure how though, because my host mom did all the talking in Dutch...) and they offered to tour me around the area!
Rene and Gert are about my parents age and have two sons, Ranier and Sebastian, a bit younger than I am. They all speak varying levels of English but we all got along really well! The very first night they took me to meet Rene's father, who was my great-grandpa's cousin. He has Alzheimer's now, but was very sweet, despite being disapproving when he found out I wasn't Catholic. He also has a family album with photos and info about all the Van Rooyen and connected families. After some of the family moved to Canada it was hard to keep in touch, but I found a quick blurb about my great-grandpa's marriages and daughters and photo of him with my great-grandma and grandma when she would have been about 5 years old! Very cool!
The next morning they showed me around their small town, Oudewater, a town of about 5,000 people, and took my to see my the farm where my great-grandpa grew up. It's still a family farmed, owned by the same family that my great-great-grandparents sold it to. He is used to having strangers come visit apparently and gave me a tour. He even gave me a bag of dirt, "my roots", to take home with me! He had a photo of my great grandparents in the very same house when they came back to visit in the 80's. I never really got to know my great-grandfather, who died before I can remember, so it was very cool to get to see a bit of his life!
Oudewater is a cool town, because they still have an original Witches' scale. It was originally thought that witches didn't weigh anything (in order to fly on a broomstick) and so to prove that someone was a witch, they were weighed on a scale. If they were lighter than the expected weight of their age, they were a witch. A lot people were burned at the square just outside! Oudewater is also famous for their rope, and they have a museum for it. I visited the museum and got to spin my own cord of rope! Very fun museum considering it's subject.
In the afternoon Ranier and I drove to Den Hague. I was hoping to see a lot, and I'm totally ok with sightseeing on my own, but Ranier just wanted to chill out in and enjoy the sun, and I felt it might be rude after he'd driven me all the way there. So we saw the Binnenhof, and then sat in the sunshine at restaurant nearby. It turned out to be a great afternoon! There was a fair going on in preparation for King's Day (like Victoria day, only it's the first time they've actually had a reigning king in a while, so it was a big one this year) and we walked through for a bit before heading to Scheveningen to see the beach!
No idea why, but I was really wanting to visit the North and Baltic Seas this year. I'll be honest, it's just your average beach. Boardwalk restaurants and a big pier, and then a lot of cold, gray water. But it was so cool to be at the ocean again! We grabbed dinner at a restaurant on the boardwalk - when I tried to pronounce something in Dutch, the (German) waiter mistook me for a native German - and then went and saw Noah in theatres. Dutch movie theatres are great for me because they don't dub them, just add subtitles, so it was the first movie I've thoroughly understood since January. Not that I necessarily understood it, that's one odd movie.
The next day was Easter, and unfortunately, the family are non-practicing Catholics, so I got to go to church with them and listen to them heckle the service. All in good-humour, of course, because the kid's choir was pretty awful, but it made me a little homesick, knowing that I was missing out on the traditional Easter celebrations. The afternoon was relaxing with a nice walk through town to see more canals and a family barbeque (they really know how to grill here in Europe: The griller never really sits down. It really is an act of service! The food just keeps coming!). It was a great way to end such a long trip!
SO..... On my last morning in Haarlem I took a walk with Canada and Andrea (Mexico) around Haarlem and tried the famed Herring - raw fish served with onions and pickles. It's a Dutch delicacy sold at roadstands at all times of the day. Which, unfortunately, is I think why I wasn't a fan. Raw fish at 10 am is not my thing, despite the long line of other breakfasters.
Then Andrea and I packed our bags and said goodbye to our favorite hostel on our way to Zaanze Schans. This is a crazy touristy village with lots of original windmills. It's gorgeous though, and because it was so cold, it wasn't too busy. There was a mustard mill, a cheese factory and a wooden shoe shop, all nestled in a cute leafy village surrounded by canals. Great photo opps! We had all our bags with us because I stupidly assumed this town would have a Bahnhof with lockers and amenities like Amsterdam or a bigger city. But we luckily found a restaurant/hostel that let us store our luggage there! And also had awesome food with a great view the village!
From Zaanse Schans Andreea wen tback to Amsterdam and I went on to Gouda to meet my long-lost family! In March I got in touch with relatives on my mom's mother's side. They still live in the same area that my great grandfather grew up! They invited me to stay for the weekend, well longer actually, because of a misunderstanding (they thought I was flying directly from Canada just to meet them- not sure how though, because my host mom did all the talking in Dutch...) and they offered to tour me around the area!
Rene and Gert are about my parents age and have two sons, Ranier and Sebastian, a bit younger than I am. They all speak varying levels of English but we all got along really well! The very first night they took me to meet Rene's father, who was my great-grandpa's cousin. He has Alzheimer's now, but was very sweet, despite being disapproving when he found out I wasn't Catholic. He also has a family album with photos and info about all the Van Rooyen and connected families. After some of the family moved to Canada it was hard to keep in touch, but I found a quick blurb about my great-grandpa's marriages and daughters and photo of him with my great-grandma and grandma when she would have been about 5 years old! Very cool!
The next morning they showed me around their small town, Oudewater, a town of about 5,000 people, and took my to see my the farm where my great-grandpa grew up. It's still a family farmed, owned by the same family that my great-great-grandparents sold it to. He is used to having strangers come visit apparently and gave me a tour. He even gave me a bag of dirt, "my roots", to take home with me! He had a photo of my great grandparents in the very same house when they came back to visit in the 80's. I never really got to know my great-grandfather, who died before I can remember, so it was very cool to get to see a bit of his life!
Oudewater is a cool town, because they still have an original Witches' scale. It was originally thought that witches didn't weigh anything (in order to fly on a broomstick) and so to prove that someone was a witch, they were weighed on a scale. If they were lighter than the expected weight of their age, they were a witch. A lot people were burned at the square just outside! Oudewater is also famous for their rope, and they have a museum for it. I visited the museum and got to spin my own cord of rope! Very fun museum considering it's subject.
In the afternoon Ranier and I drove to Den Hague. I was hoping to see a lot, and I'm totally ok with sightseeing on my own, but Ranier just wanted to chill out in and enjoy the sun, and I felt it might be rude after he'd driven me all the way there. So we saw the Binnenhof, and then sat in the sunshine at restaurant nearby. It turned out to be a great afternoon! There was a fair going on in preparation for King's Day (like Victoria day, only it's the first time they've actually had a reigning king in a while, so it was a big one this year) and we walked through for a bit before heading to Scheveningen to see the beach!
No idea why, but I was really wanting to visit the North and Baltic Seas this year. I'll be honest, it's just your average beach. Boardwalk restaurants and a big pier, and then a lot of cold, gray water. But it was so cool to be at the ocean again! We grabbed dinner at a restaurant on the boardwalk - when I tried to pronounce something in Dutch, the (German) waiter mistook me for a native German - and then went and saw Noah in theatres. Dutch movie theatres are great for me because they don't dub them, just add subtitles, so it was the first movie I've thoroughly understood since January. Not that I necessarily understood it, that's one odd movie.
The next day was Easter, and unfortunately, the family are non-practicing Catholics, so I got to go to church with them and listen to them heckle the service. All in good-humour, of course, because the kid's choir was pretty awful, but it made me a little homesick, knowing that I was missing out on the traditional Easter celebrations. The afternoon was relaxing with a nice walk through town to see more canals and a family barbeque (they really know how to grill here in Europe: The griller never really sits down. It really is an act of service! The food just keeps coming!). It was a great way to end such a long trip!