Gouda and the Kinderdijk Ride

On Monday - the last day of a wonderful four day holiday weekend - our four travelers (Pam, Tony, Laura, and I) woke up bright and early to catch the train from Utrecht to Gouda. The bike rental shop in the Gouda train station served as our starting and ending location for a 62 km (38 mi), one day bike ride into the Dutch countryside and through the village of Kinderdijk. Pam and Tony, who had been training for this day, are seen below negotiating one of the many bridges on the ride.

As an aside, because I know you're wondering: yes, Gouda is indeed the home of the famous cheese. Just don't pronounce it Goo-da in front of a Dutch person or they will laugh at you - it's actually pronounced How-da.

The ride featured much of the usual Dutch scenery: long green grass as far as the eye can see, canals everywhere, islands of farmland filled with animals, and trees cut in bizarre ways. The lambs were a treat for Laura yet again, and we also saw many nesting coots and swans.

During our ride, we took two ferries across the Lek River, which were fun (and surprisingly efficient). Here I am with my bike on one of the ferry rides.

Throughout the ride we were treated to the sight of windmills - I believe more than 30 overall - but the main event was the 19 of them situated in a 2 km stretch near the Dutch village of Kinderdijk. This area contains more windmills than any other place in the world, was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1997, and is absolutely magnificent. The windmills - or molen - are from the 18th century and were used for keeping water out of the polders until as recently as 1950. Although not in use today, they're well-maintained and can still be operated.

The end of our ride took us through another extended area of farm land, where we saw a farmer shearing an entire flock of sheep (and the resulting enormous pile of wool). Laura was particularly excited when we came upon a herd of Highland cows because she saw a lot of them last week in their home country of Scotland (Scotland stories coming next week). These are the only ones we have seen here in The Netherlands.

A bike ride in the Kinderdijk area is a must do activity in The Netherlands and we thoroughly enjoyed it. After riding 61 km, though, we were all beat, sore in the rear, and glad to trade our bikes for a train ride from Gouda back to Delft.

Posted by Matt

Utrecht

On Saturday evening and all day Sunday, Pam, Tony, Laura, and I trekked all over Utrecht. Laura and I went to Utrecht back in the fall and it quickly became one of our favorite cities in the Netherlands because of its quirky museums and unique canals. This time, Utrecht was bathed in warm sunshine and abundant greenery, so we liked it even more.


The four of us visited many of Utrecht's most notable sights, like the Rietveld Schroderhuis and the Dick Bruna Huis, but we also spent a lot of time just walking around. We greatly enjoyed the weather in Utrecht's parks, such as Wilhelminapark. Below you see some pictures of Pam and Tony from the park running alongside the Stadsbuiten Gracht (a canal).



The best part of Utrecht, of course, is the Oudegracht, the two level canal that runs through the city center. Along this canal there are shops and cafes on the street and within the canal itself one can find shops, restaurants, and even residences. In the residential areas, we saw people playing games and barbecuing, in addition to many mother ducks with their flocks of newborn ducklings in tow. Below you see Laura on the lower level of one such area of the Oudegracht that was colored with springtime flower droppings from the trees.


The Oudegracht is also an irresistible place to stop for a beer, and who are we to argue with that?

More pictures can be found here.

Posted by Matt

Step inside a Piet Mondian Painting...

Step inside a Piet Mondrian painting and enter the Rietveld Schroder House, a house built entirely in the "De Stijl" style or neoplasticism. Artists of this movement aimed to simplify everything to vertical and horizontal lines and used only primary colors along with white, black, and grey. The house provides a large contrast with the traditional style Dutch canal homes with which it shares a wall.

The house was designed by Gerritt Rietveld and Truus Schroder. The owner of the house, Truus Schroder, is considered one of the architects because the house is a collaboration between the two - his artistic style and her functional designs. It was built in 1924 and was lived in by Ms. Schroder until her death in 1985.


The house was architecturally and artistically amazing. The furniture inside was even designed by the architects and follows in the De Stijl style. The house was designed with walls that could be removed during the day to allow for a more social, open atmosphere in the house. So at night there are 3 bedrooms and an office, but during the day the walls all slide back (much like a temporary classroom) and a large living space is created. I wish I could show you more pictures of the interior of the house, but it is protected by copyright and we were not allowed to take photos. A small clip of the house is available here.

This house is a world heritage site, considered "a masterpiece of human creative ability" and "an important and unique icon of western architectural history" by UNESCO. There are 7 UNESCO sites in the Netherlands (only 6 on the mainland - the 7th is in Curacao) and we hope to visit them all during our stay here. In comparison, the United States only has 20 sites.

Different Art

Everyone loves a Van Gogh. A Monet will always leave you breathless. The Mona Lisa inspires every art lover. The Venus de Milo will forever be a masterpiece.

But sometimes you want something different.

The Aboriginal Art Museum in Utrecht was a wonderful break from usual art museum proceeding from ancient classics through realism, touching off in impressionism with a finish in modernism. If you ever yourself southeast of Amsterdam, take a trip to see the paintings inspired by land.

I loved the bold designs made of thick lines and dots in earth tone colors. The exhibit changes 4 times a year, so every visit holds a new look at the art, the artists, and their relationship to the land and culture. The exhibit we saw featured the nomadic lifestyle and contrasted the Aboriginal art and artists with a Belgium nomadic artist and his works.

National Museum van Speelkok tot Pierement

...or the National Museum from Chimes to Barrel Organs.

It is a wonderful museum that concentrates on mechanical music machines - they have over 600 of them on display. The collection ranges from tiny jewelry music boxes to huge fairground barrel organs.

The museum finishes with a children's room, where they can explore how the machines make music. With your ticket the front desk hands you a music card strip for every child. This music card strip allows you to punch holes in it and play a medley in the music box. After seeing the activity in action, I just had to participate. Armed with my "I'm an elementary school teacher" line, I marched up to the front desk to request two strips for Matt and me. The amused front desk attendant kindly handed over two strips with chuckle.

And off we went...

First we marked the notes on our cards using song templates, like "Teletubbies", "Flintstones", "Bonnie over the Sea", and what I think was the Dutch national anthem. I chose "Flintstones".

Next, we punched a hole for each note we just marked.


And then, we stuck our music card into the player.


And whalaa! Music!

Matt, unsatisfied with the assortment of children's songs, decided to compose a tune himself. Fortunately for you, the camera was on hand to capture his music box debut performance.

A Home for Miffy

Miffy, the star of over 30 children's books, is a simple white rabbit created by Dick Bruna. The books have been translated in over 40 languages, making Dick Bruna the second most read children's author (behind Roald Dahl).

Bruna's hometown, Utrecht, has created the Dick Bruna Huis as a home for Miffy and other works. He was a graphic artist that designed book covers for other authors, most notably the Black Bear and Simenon's Maigret series, and posters for various organizations and businesses. Dick Bruna's work is distinguished by simple lines and bright colors. He takes the three-dimensional world and turns it into a flat page. His straightforward and simple work turns basic shapes and primary colors into icons.

The museum was wonderfully put together, with works hanging at two heights - one for adults and one for children. It was was truly a multimedia experience; you could listen to his books, watch movies of him creating his books, admire his art, use the computer to learn about his life and art, and, of course, play in a child's size Miffy house.

Best of all, Inge got a new bell starring Miffy and her bicycle!

Kasteel de Haar

Since first setting foot on European soil, one of my major travel goals has been to tour a medieval castle. To that end, the main attraction for our trip to Utrecht (pronounced "oo-trect") was Kasteel de Haar (Castle de Haar). It is located just outside of Utrecht in the village of Haarzuilens.

Just getting to the castle was an adventure. We had to change buses outside of Utrecht, and when the driver told us we had arrived, we couldn't see the castle. So we took it on faith that the castle was actually nearby and started walking.

Into the Abyss?

Nearly every trip in the Netherlands involves passing by cows or sheep, and this one was no exception. But as usual, they weren't particularly interested in us.

Moo.

We eventually arrived at the castle, which looked exactly like a textbook fairy tale castle - except for an enormous network of scaffolding being used in decade-long renovations. (This modern day eye sore is hidden in all of our pictures.)

Kasteel de Haar through the tree tops.

Tours of Kasteel de Haar are only Dutch-spoken, but we signed up anyway because they said the tour guide would give us a written English summary of what he would say. Well, lucky us... they ran out of English summaries, so we spent an hour watching the tour guide point wildly at the castle interior and the tour group respond excitedly, all the while having no idea what he was saying. Along the way, though, there were a number of English language "blurbs" that we could read. We slowly realized this wasn't exactly a "knight in shining armor" castle.

It turns out that while the original castle was built in the 14th century, it spent much of its life wasting away. It was largely in ruins at the end of the 19th century, when its owner married into wealth and decided to "remodel." A lot of the structure seen today was built at that time.











Although my quest to tour a real medieval castle (read: a castle without electricity, running water, and cable TV) is still incomplete, Kasteel de Haar was still a treat. Its interior was beautiful and the castle itself was very picturesque.

Unordinary Utrecht

Utrecht, the fourth largest city in the Netherlands, is 26 miles southeast of Amsterdam. It is the historical religious center of the Netherlands and today is home of the largest University in the country.

There wasn't a Renaissance masterpiece in sight. No Impressionist master to be found. Not even a noteworthy collection of Flemish primitives.

But the city of Utrecht had marvels of its own kind. The sites on this weekend's journey provided a nice break from the headliner sites of other more touristy towns. We even abstained from pancakes for the weekend and dined on an Indian feast instead.

The highlights of this weekend's travel were:

• A Flower Market
• A Viking Ship
• Dick Bruna House
• Kasteel de Haar
• A Roman Bath and a Turkish Bath
• Aboriginal Art Museum
• Musical Instrument Museum
• A Tour of the Reitveld-Schroder House

We'll post more details and pictures over the next few days.