The Cow Who (Almost) Fell in the Canal

Today was one of those challenging days when you think you're going to die but you know you have to do what you're doing or why did you bother to go travelling in the first place? T suggested we cycle through town and over some traffic laden bridges to the pretty countryside north of Amsterdam - spots we can see from his apartment. As I haven't managed to find a bike to buy T decided he would reconstruct his old racing bike from the 70s which was in pieces in his spare room/bike workshop. (Actually, as Tim happily admits, the whole apartment is a bike workshop). The reconstruction took some time as tyres and tubes had to be found and fitted and a (rather narrow and hard) seat attached. I would just like to say here I have never ridden a boy's racing bike - it is a challenging experience, especially remembering where the brake is. And you have to bend right over so bits of you that you never expected to expose again in public are on full view. And it is impossible to dismount in an emergency as that stupid bar is in the way.

As Tim led the way across busy roads and what seemed to me to be against the lights ("don't worry - this is Amsterdam - people do their own thing here") I decided I hated him. Five minutes later I realised he hated me too and was trying to kill me. So I abandoned following him and walked my bike over pedestrian crossings and looked out for traffic at intersections which none of the other cyclists seemed to be doing. There are lots of dedicated bike lanes but these are as dangerous as the roads as they are also open to motorbikes and strange invalid cars (like narrow Smart Cars) which approach from behind very fast so you have to stay hard right and try not to wobble as they race past. I was so nervous that as soon as I knew I was not allowed to wobble I did, so had frequent brushes with death .

It was such a relief when we reached the countryside and the bike track meandered along beside little waterfilled mini canals - called slootjes apparently. (A sloot is a man-made water ditch) I still managed to come close to disaster when I came down the side of a steep bridge (they are steep both sides to let the boats under) and faced 3 bollards and a sharp left hand turn in the path (unless I wanted to land in the canal ahead). I was so worried about steering between the bollards I forgot where the brake was and found myself heading for the canal. In the end I only skidded into the grass edge and wobbled back onto the path. T of course was way ahead and hadn't noticed. The ride ended in a little village (Holysloot!) where we hired a row boat and sploshed around the little waterways - that was fun. Of course we had to do the traffic thing on the way back again - it was rush hour so was even worse, but at least I knew where the brake was by now and had stopped hating T (but still couldn't bring myself to follow his lead).

another bike on another dyke

Canal walk

Today we did the tourist guide book canal walk, looking at the houses of significance and trying to learn as we went. We did learn that houses along the canal are narrow because taxes used to be levied on the width of the house, that they tilt forwards so that furniture being hoisted up by pullies attached to the roof (that's how furniture is moved in Amsterdam) wouldn't smash into the windows, that the Herensgracht is where all the rich people lived (their houses were wide), including the Gentlemen 17 who ran the VOC (the East Indian Company which built the Batavia and 1500 similar ships in the 17th century). T's publisher occupies the old mayor's house (see pic). There are a lot of people living in canal boats, which are connected to the main electricity supply and apparently the sewerage system, and I thought I could live happily like that. But maybe not in this BRICK house boat!


We took a detour from the canal walk and visited the Begijnhof - a little housing complex originally built in 1346 as a sanctuary for women who lived there and did good works. It still functions in the same way with single women living in the houses. There is a 15th century church there too, called the English Church as it was handed over for the use of English and Scottish presbyterians in 1607 after the Alteration. Although Begijnhof is right in the middle of Amsterdam it is very tranquil.

Dutch architecture

My daughter Rosie was recently talking to me about how much more innovative new housing is in Holland compared with the pseudo tudor/victorian/georgian housing estates in the UK. Today in the Paleiskwartie near the central station in den Bosch I saw what she meant. The Dutch have great respect for their historic buildings, but they don't try and reproduce them.
BTW den Bosch is one of those Dutch cities with two names (there are two of them). It is also called
's Hertegenbosch. Lindsey tells me the 's' is an abbreviationof 'des', the old-fashioned possessive form, meaning 'of the'. The word'Hertog' means 'duke', the plural being 'Hertogen' , and 'bosch' is the old spelling for 'bos', meaning 'a wood' . Originally it was a settlement close to a wood belonging to the Dukes of Brabant.

Correction

T says I am quite wrong about the Dutch being so environmentally friendly. He says they do have plastic bags in supermarkets. The difference is you have to pay for them and I have never seen anyone do that. I found them today, lurking under the counter at the local supermarket.

Food

I am having a real problem with the food in Holland. There is so much of it and it is so delicious - I am having trouble getting into my clothes. I have taken to running nearly every day - but that doesn't seem to be making much difference apart from making the rolls of fat firmer. Lindsey can take a lot of the responsibility for this - she serves up little treats at all hours, all of which are irresistible. For example, yesterday morning she decided I really needed to try a traditional Dutch treat: Bolletje (a kind of dry circle of bread called beschuit) with butter, topped with strawberry paste, strawberries and raspberries then whipped cream, sprinkled with icing sugar. Two each! (The berries are all grown by L and Berend of course.) The night before we had "Scottish kidneys" from L's German recipe book. That is kidneys (cooked with herbs, wine) served on toast and topped with an egg. Even Tim, who says he can't cook (but is wrong), is overfeeding me. Back to my Greytown subsistence diet tomorrow.

Heusden

I've been visiting Lindsey and Berend again in Veen - it is such a luxury to have my darling sister cousin so close. As well as once again eating totally delicious food fresh from their garden, Lindsey and I visited nearby Heusden, a walled town built in the 12th century with its own little harbour. We visited the butcher whose family have been in the same shop for nearly 100 years. There is a photo of him on the wall leading an enormous bull. I have never seen a butcher shop like this one with amazing delicatessan food as well. Lindsey bought duck confit - duck's legs preserved in duck fat (I think - Lindsey will let me know if I'm wrong) which we ate that evening - delicious!

Cycling

An ongoing theme during this holiday has been T's cycling races. He is a serious racer and disappears out the door at least 3 times a week, often returning with flowers - cyclists in Holland receive these if they get a place. He went racing on the day I arrived and came first; he thought I might have brought him luck, as he usually comes second or third, but not first. Yesterday I accompanied him to a race in Utrecht and he won again - by quite an impressive margin (above).

The racing world has its own social life and I am getting to know some of the people involved, especially Els who is married to Kees. She speaks a smattering of English and I speak no Dutch, but we have a good friendship already. I met her at the national time trials last Sunday before we went to Veen - my first experience of racing. No-one spoke English so I learnt to count in Dutch very quickly as the announcer called out the times of the laps. Tim did not do as well as he hoped in those trials, but Kees won, making him the national time trial champion for the over 60s group.

Above: Tim the winner (Kees is 3rd)

Environmentally friendly

Holland seems to care about the environment without getting overexcited about it. In the supermarket there are no plastic bags for your shopping - everyone brings their own bag. And a lot of the parks and road edges have been allowed to go wild so are full of wild flowers.

Not to mention wind power!

Where I am

The island on the far right is KSNM where I am staying. I am on the 19th floor of the large black building (the second floor from the top). Fantastic views all around.

The island is in the IJ sea and originally had warehouses on it, but is now an architectural showpiece - with daily tours.

Batavia

Yesterday we drove to Lilystad to see a replica of the 17th century sailing ship Batavia.
T and I have both been reading Batavia's Graveyard by Mike Dash (T in Dutch, me in English). The Batavia sailed from Amsterdam in 1629 heading for Java but ran aground west of Fremantle in Australia and the survivors were stranded. I am still to find out about the horrors that followed. The replica ship was very impressive - built in 6 months - amazing. The VOC (East India Company) produced 1500 of these ships in one century. Batavia's Graveyard is a fascinating read just for the history of the
VOC and Holland. Mike Dash also wrote Tulipomania.

The Batavia museum which is attached to the ship also has the headquarters of NISA which is the Institute for the Study of Shipwrecks. When they drained a part of the Zuiderzee nearby in the seventies to make new land they uncovered hundreds of wrecked sailing ships, as well as planes from WWII with crew still on board and even a Roman boat, which is now in the NISA building. They took the most interesting ships away and buried the others under polythene and earth to be dug up later. So the land is full of ships' graves
























The Batavia's mast was cut down when the ship ran aground

goldbergs in Amsterdam

Yesterday we returned from Veen in time to meet up with Maryvonne & Eddie at the Cafe Americain in Amsterdam. We caught the train back to T's apartment then went out to dinner at a restaurant on the edge of the sea called Kaap Kot which is apparently a pun meaning it was like Cape Cod but also like a bach by the sea. It is on an artificial island near the Schellingwouderbruggen. Across the water is a whole new suburb built on reclaimed land. Eddie explained to me that it is only electric pumps that keep Holland from disappearing under water in a few days - there are diesel pumps on standby for emergencies.












At Kaap Kot - Maryvonne and Tim

In Veen

in the garden (left) with Vellah, Lindsey and Berend



Returned yesterday from a wonderful two days in Veen with my cousin Lindsey, her partner Berend and daughter Vellah. They live in a beautiful thatched roof house nestled behind a dyke with a meadow on the other side which is on the edge of a river. On our first night, after a delicious meal of white and green asparagus (god, the asparagus is huge here),
Berend took us out in his boat - it was out of this world. They looked after us so well, feeding us with home grown eggs and vegetables, wonderful Dutch cheeses, delicious wines. Lindsey is a genius cook - on the second night we had turkish meat patties with yummy coriander and beyaz peynir sauce on the side (beyaz peynir is a white cheese rather like Greek feta)
cooked on the barbecue which is the centre of their outside table. Berend makes his own wine, but we didn't get to taste that. He is a sculptor, Lindsey is a ceramics restorer. Beautiful Vellah is now a journalist living in Amsterdam. The house has some wonderful pieces of furniture made by Berendt. We had a swim in the river and on our last morning T and I went for a fast bike ride along the dyke and into the Dutch countryside. The granny bike shape felt a lot more familiar than my racing bike at home.

Cows at dusk



Beautiful Vellah















Lovely Lindsey




breakfast Dutch style








bikes on dykes








Berend's table and wine










guest bathroom


Garden with octagonal henhouse

Summertime

Hello from sunny Amsterdam - this is my attempt to keep a Helen Does Holland diary and let you know what I'm up to. I bought a new (small) digital camera in the Singapore airport transit lounge - more expensive than Auckland Duty Free it turned out - so will try and post daily pics.

I am staying in T's apartment on KNSM Island - it was once docklands, but now is an architectural housing showpiece. T's building is a 20 storied black stone tower, very gothic. He's on the 19th floor so the view is pretty spectacular. This work (above) is a sculpture near T's house which has real beehives suspended from underneath the top table.

Yesterday T suggested we buy me an old bike and ride into town, but I thought (wisely it turned out) that trying to learn about right hand/left hand while wobbling through inner Amsterdam might be a bit too much for culture-shocked me. So we took the tram and even on foot I was nearly killed (by cyclists) several times by looking right instead of left. The bikers here are wild - you would imagine people are dying every day but apparently not. Nobody wears a bike helmet of course and people carry their children, dogs and shopping in the same casual way, often chucked in a makeshift box attached to the front or back of the bike. I will begin my biking by practising around the local neighbourhood I think.

Our visit to inner Amsterdam yesterday was great. It is ridiculously pretty and because there was a World Cup match that evening, everything and everyone was orange. T took me to his favourite herring seller and we had pickled herrings eaten the traditional way. Delicious! Also explored book shops, toy shops and walked past lots of tempting sales (I'll go back when I'm by myself - far too boring for T).

The night of my arrival day we ate in a local cafe where, amazingly, people lit up fags during their meals and the table next to us brought their enormous dog in - it looked like a giant mastiff crossed with a lion.

T is off racing today. He won his race the day I arrived. Tomorrow it's national time trials somewhere in Holland - I am going too (might take a book). When it's over we are carrying on to my darling cousin Lindsey's house in Veen, beside the river, where she lives with her 'legal partner' Berendt and restores china and has chickens. Her daughter Vella will be there which is an extra bonus. Lindsey and I were like sisters when we were children, but now see each other only rarely as she has been living outside New Zealand for 30 years.

I am teaching myself Dutch from T's son's golden books including Sloffie Sleepboot and Die Hondenmatroos both of which I read to my children as Scuffy the Tugboat and The Sailor Dog. Well I have to start somewhere - it is embarrassing not speaking any Dutch at all.