After being in the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam, the country side was a big change. It was a relaxing train ride.
We arrived at the end of line having just missed the ferry to the museum, so we checked out the boats in the harbor awaiting the next one.
Here it is!
A stowaway!
Everywhere you turn, there's an historic building with an interesting story. Here's an intact fire house and boat.
Although I wanted to read every sign on every building, the kids were much more into the rope making:
This sign was on one of the homes. Can you see the wife's profession? That's a new one for me...
One of the houses was staffed by this woman who read Dutch stories. But she did speak a fair amount of English, and had one English picture book she read to the kids. She was very sweet. And the kids enjoyed it despite the look on their faces in this picture!
In the water next to the windmill they had placed this screw for the kids to try. It's harder than it looks!
Next up? Smoked herring. Both kids were willing to try it...and liked it!
The trick was avoiding the (plentiful) bones.
After exploring the Zuiderzee's country fishing village, we headed into the "big city":
This gentleman took us on a boat ride through the canals.
Charlotte and Nicholas could have spend 2 hours fake-milking this goat. As soon as it would empty (water, folks) they would dump the bucket back in the top of the "goat" and keep going. We had to drag them away.
In one of the fancy town houses, we spotted these. We couldn't decide if they were a joke, or actually authentic of what a lady would wear!
I don't think I have another picture to back myself up here, but all over the Netherlands we saw these trees that were trained/trimmed either like this, or to create a flat canopy (rather than vertical like this). I wish we could see them in the spring!
Second only to cow milking? Dutch games. This entire courtyard was setup with games. Fun for kids and grownups alike, as evidenced by Tom in the background setting up a bowling-type game for himself to play!
The cheese shop was almost all fake cheese. Yes, that's Styrofoam covered in yellow plastic. They did have a row or two of real cheese, and a fantastic black and white video teaching about cheese production a century ago. Tom, Charlotte and I watched it. Nicholas stayed outside playing Dutch games.
On to the blacksmith:
He didn't speak English, but Tom kept nodding and saying 'OK' as he spoke, implying that he spoke Dutch (which Nicholas thinks should be called 'Hollish', since where does the word 'Dutch' come from anyway?). So the blacksmith kept coming over to explain things. I'm sure it was fascinating!
We have no idea why these barrels were there to try on...but who can resist?
I wish this blog had sound to capture the kids' laughter on the seesaw!
This man works in the town print shop. He let the kids pick out the letters of their names and make a print to take home. Really made you realize how time consuming (and messy!) publishing was before we went digital.
We had so much fun, we closed the place down without ever setting foot in the inside museum. Then it was back on the train for a night in Amsterdam. We needed a really quick dinner, and found this place, Wok and Walk (how cute is that?!). Whole wheat noodles, brown rice, vegetables. More than I usually expect for quick vacation food. I want one in Budapest!
Goodbye to Amsterdam. We leave in the morning!
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