Decaigny Abroad

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Ron & Jude

No trip to the Netherlands would be complete without a windmill sighting. Our research told us the best windmill sightings was in a place called Kinderdijk, near Rotterdam. So we hopped a train to Rotterdam. Rotterdam is the polar opposite of Amsterdam, very few old buildings, no canals and very few bicycles. Because the Blitz of 1940 nearly obliterated the city the architects had a clear palate to work with. The architects ran amok. There are plenty of modern architectural showcases.

To get to Kinderdijk we took a forty minute ride on a water bus. Kinderdijk turned out to be prime windmill sighting. There are 19 18th century windmills at Kinderdijk. They were originally used to contain water levels between the river and the fields. Now they are used to maintain the level of the Dutch treasury. This World Heritage Site is a stop on Viking Cruiselines on the Rhine River Cruises. There are lots of tourists. We walked the dyke photographing the windmills then turned around and headed back to the waterbus stopping briefly at the gift shop. Arriving back in Rotterdam we decided to take a harbour tour. Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and in the top ten in the world. For best viewing we grabbed seats on the open top deck. Twenty minutes of exposure to a very chilly sea breeze drove us indoors. The tour was very informative. Too much sun and sea breeze drove us back to the comforts of cozy Delft.

After another great breakfast at our amazing hotel we hopped a train for a one hour ride to The Netherland’s capital, Amsterdam. We all agreed that the two things we wanted to do in Amsterdam were a canal boat tour and visit the Van Gogh’s Museum. The first part was easy, we walked across the street from the train station, bought our tickets and climbed aboard. Amsterdam is laid out with concentric rings of canals and the best way to see it is by boat. One thing you notice is that all of the houses have beams with hooks on them protruding from their gables.

I thought this might be a carryover from the days when most of the canal side buildings were warehouses. However, we were told that because Dutch staircases are so steep and narrow it is far easier to hoist things up on the outside and pass them through a window opening. Canal traffic is quite busy mostly with various sizes of tour boats. Our boat was involved in a small bumping incident, which is apparently quite common. We noticed that there were no tall buildings in Amsterdam. We found this was due to the soft ground conditions. There are rows upon rows of nice looking older canal homes and very little apparent new construction.

Leaving our boat at the Rijk’s Museum stop we headed in search of the Van Gogh Museum. We were told you had to pass through the tunnel in the Rijk’s Museum. This turned out to be a nice diversion. First there were groups of buskers playing classical music and second was the Rijk’s Museum gift shop. Exiting the tunnel we came to a large open area with crowds milling about. We crossed the area to find that access to the Van Gogh Museum was sold out until early that evening. A little dejected we headed off in search of lunch. Reboarding the canal boat we proceeded through more of the city. Getting off at the City Hall we decided to do some touring on foot. More canals, more old buildings, more crowds and millions of homicidal bicycles. BICYCLES. It’s time we talked about bicycles. The Netherlands is a land of bicycles. What it isn’t is a land of bicycle helmets. If you don’t count over ear headphones as personal protective equipment we have only seen one native wearing a helmet. In Delft the bike is a primary form of transportation but the riders there are quite aware of pedestrians. In Amsterdam you have to be on your toes and keep an eye out in every direction. There are, without any exaggeration, millions of bicycles in Amsterdam. If bicycles in Delft are a heat rash, in Amsterdam they are leprosy. After a delicious designer chocolate we reboarded the tour boat for the last lap. Arriving back in Delft Kelly decided she wanted a shower and a rest so Judy and I went in search of dinner. We discovered a new neighbourhood with about a dozen restaurants surrounding a treed central square. Choosing the Belgian Beer Cafe (that should surprise no one) we settled in for a very nice meal.

Home and to bed.

The combination of a day and a half travel and jet lag laid us all low at a ridiculously early hour. So, we were all awake at another ridiculously early hour. This gave us plenty of time to get ready for the 7 o’clock breakfast start. A bonus of our cute little hotel is the included breakfast which left very little to be desired. Strong, flavourful coffee, eggs, ham, pastries (amazing croissants) and Judy’s favourite, Dutch pancakes.

Plan for the day was to explore the city of Delft. Because it was Thursday, market day, the town square was full of merchants setting up their stalls. We wandered the streets and there was a picturesque scene around every corner, I mean every corner. This is one beautiful town. We wandered until 10 o’clock when the Oude Kerk (Old Church) opened. Construction was started in the early 1200s and as it was only built when money was available so it took 400 years to complete. The first thing you notice on entering is how plain and austere the interior is in comparison to many of the bling encrusted churches we’ve seen elsewhere. The Old Church is noteworthy as the final resting place of local boy Johannes Vanmeer (the painter). When he died he was living in near-poverty so to save money they buried him standing up. Later, when the locals realized how important he was they dug him up and reburied him properly.

We headed back to look through the market and settled in to a local coffee shop for some delicious caffeinated drinks. We spent some time in an amazing cheese shop which sold 31 different varieties of Gouda cheese. The two clerks in Hans Brinker outfits were very humorous and flirtatious with the girls. The next stop was a canal boat tour. The guide and captain was a young lady who was about to graduate in engineering from. Things we learned about Delft: properties were taxed by the amount and size of their front windows so if you were a show off you had plenty of windows, if you didn’t like paying taxes you put your windows on the back of the house. There were ropes along some canals sides, they are not there to assist drunks who fall into the canal but to give cats that have fallen in a way out. Engineering graduates’ bikes are thrown in the canal to symbolize they will be getting a well-paid job and can afford a car. The bikes that are fished out of the canal are resold to help finance student housing. We lunched at a restaurant that was highly recommended by Lonely Planet, all very healthy. The next stop was the Royal Delft Blue Factory. Because of its worldwide renown it was very crowded so we decided to skip the factory tour and just take in the opulent gift shop. After Judy and Kelly bought a few items they had them shipped home. We stopped in their cafe on the way out to sample their own brand of beer, Delft Brew. The final stop for the day was the new church, new being a relative term as it was begun in 1365. This was another austere Dutch Protestant Church, the one exception being the tomb of William of Orange. Dinner was in a nice restaurant just off the Market Square. Fighting sleep the whole time we managed to stay awake past 9 p.m.

Because we had so anticipated this vacation all our preparations were done early leaving us nothing to do on the morning of our departure but fuss and fidget until it was time to drive to the airport. After 2 meals, 3 movies & a couple of catnaps we arrived at Amsterdam’s Schiphol airport. We hopped a quick train to our first base, Delft. We checked into quite possibly the cutest hotel in the Netherlands, the Hotel de Emauspoort. We were given the Vermeer Suite which turned out to be a vaulted suite with a loft bedroom overlooking a canal and the Nieuwe Kirk (New Church). Putting our bags down we went for a quick walk around the Market Square and sampled our first Dutch beer. Having checked out a few of the shops we selected a sidewalk cafe and had a quick dinner. We had resolved to beat jet lag by staying up as long as we could but we soon succumbed to bed’s siren call.

After a beautiful breakfast buffet we jumped on the hop-on, hop-off bus. As Hamburg has no Medieval town square we decided the bus tour was the best way to get oriented. After a complete tour we hopped off and explored a bit on foot.

The lowlight of the bus tour was the drive through the Reeperbahn, a more sorrowful and tawdry looking place would be hard to imagine. It makes Main & Hasting look like the Vegas strip. The highlight was the amazing harbour – Europe’s largest with miles of brick warehouses and canals. Hamburg has approximately 1400 bridges, more than Venice and Amsterdam combined. We hopped a harbour tour, lounging on the open top deck with a cold one in our hands, we cruised passed the immense Blohm and Voss shipyards where ships such as the Bismarck were built.

We returned to the dock passing the new Elbphilharmonie, a multi million dollar, state of the art, concert hall.

Disembarking, Liz had read about the Elbe pedestrian tunnel, which was located close by. Descending into the depths we walked the tunnel and, for the first time in days, felt cool.

Realizing our harbour tour had not included any of the canals or warehouse district we went in search of one that did. Winding up down by the concert hall, we managed to catch the last cruise of the day.

I would probably have enjoyed this wonderful cruise more if the combination of the mystery German tablets, copious beer and strength sapping heat and sun hadn’t reduced me to a sweating, sniffling lump.

Dinner at a repurposed fire boat topped off a busy day.

After a nice breakfast and a long discussion with our host about the state of the world (we did a lot more listening than discussing) we were off to the train station. Arriving in Berlin where we were set to change trains we discovered our train had been cancelled. Scrambling through the enormous 4 level maize that is Berlin’s Hauptbahnhof (main train station) we found the DB office where a nice young lady rescheduled us on a train to Hamburg. Arriving in Hamburg we went to the front of the taxi line and asked for a taxi for four to our hotel. The driver looked at our piece of paper with the address on it, looked at us, looked at the paper again, then pointed across the street and said, “blue building”. Thanking him, we somewhat embarrassingly slunk across the street and checked in. After whetting our parched whistles Judy and I went in search of a drugstore where a nice young Muslim pharmacist, with little English, gave me a carton of pills. After dinner we relaxed while Liz and Dana went exploring. Sorry, no photos of today.

With the exception of 1 1/2 rainy drizzly days the weather has been consistent sunshine. In Poznan it is becoming positively scorching. By mid after noon it was 33 degrees. That little scratch at the back of my throat had turned into a full-on raging cold. With Judy’s backpack full of Kleenex we started out to explore the city. Poznan’s coat of arms is 2 goats butting heads. We found out that at noon the clock on the city hall sends out 2 mechanical goats that buck heads. This is quite the event as by 11:30 the crowd was enormous. As pre billed, at the strike of noon the 2 goats trotted out and butted heads several times.

Wandering the city, following the old city walls, passing a palace and a church or two, the combination of the heat (33 degrees) and my growing cold sapped most of my energy. Leaving Dana & Liz with the assignment of finding a good place for dinner we returned to our apartment to rest up. Meeting up with the Johnston’s later they lead us to a small local restaurant down an alley from the main square. It was charming and authentic. Liz & Dana ordered the plate for two. I obviously don’t understand Polish math as this plate would have fed six.

After a nice breakfast in our hotel we taxied to the train station where we boarded another train to our last Polish city, Poznan. Having driven through what looked like another modern city we arrived at our apartment. After a little confusion we climbed the four flights of stairs to our accommodations. Once we were settled in we asked the cute girl in the cafe how we could find the city square. She pointed, “Two minutes that way”. Another large old town square with plenty of cafes and restaurants. As it was getting fairly warm we quenched our thirst at an outdoor cafe. Having snooped around we sat down for dinner and a little relaxation.

We stayed at another Gotyk Hotel in Toruń, not related to the Gotyk House in Gdańsk expect for their vintage. This hotel was made by joining and renovating four fourteenth century townhouses and is very nicely appointed. Unfortunately each night we had to make the decision whether to listen to the rowdy Euro Cup revellers or close our windows and boil in the un-air conditioned room. That notwithstanding, it was a very nice hotel. Toruń’s old town is fairly compact and is ideal for strolling and looking at the sights. We began at the Leaning Tower then followed the old defensive wall running parallel to the Vistula River.

We eventually wound our way down to the ruins of the Teutonic Knights’ castle. The Teutonic Knights were a German order who, for their actions in the third crusade were granted lordship over a large portion of Northern Poland by the Pope. They were apparently terrible landlords as in 1454 the Poles, in true torches and pitchfork fashion, threw them out. The ruins of their castle proved to be an excellent source of bricks for the rest of the town.

We continued our stroll back through the old market square with more Gothic churches and interesting buildings.

We dined at one of the innumerable outdoor restaurants where our waitress appeared to be having a very bad day. When we paid our bill we left her a long stemmed flower from the conveniently located stall across the street.