The Country that Stole Land from the Sea

I was going to write something all technical about how amazed I was by the Netherlands and all their canals and dams, but since the details of such things elude me and I always seem to slightly destroy the accuracy of my facts... let's just say I loved the Netherlands.

LOVED them!

It was a completely surprising thing that Lauch and Robbert met online five-ish years ago, somehow struck up a friendship and began a business together. And then, how completely amazing that Robbert and his wife Esther should turn out to be very friendly and nice people and not internet stalker types at all. So nice, in fact, that they let us both stay at their house for the weekend, eat cheese fondue with them and Esther showed me all around the countryside.




I took the photos above and below on Saturday. Esther took me around Amsterdam, to the Van Gogh museum (which is great and poor old Van Gogh had a hard life), and out to this really old village called Volendam.




Esther says Volendam is famous for its eels, but sadly we didn't find any to sample that day. Or maybe not so sadly.

The thing that amazes me about the Netherlands is the connection with the sea and the water. There are canals everywhere - all over Amsterdam, along the highway and one village we saw had a moat right around it. Volendam is on the edge of a big inland lake that used to be the sea. And if you look at the photos, you get the feeling that it IS the sea. Except that this water has been dammed for so long that Robbert says it has become fresh water.

On Sunday we took Thijs, who is five, to pick up his little brother Nils from his Grandma's house. On the way there I learned what "Are we there yet?" sounds like in Dutch. I laughed when Esther told Thijs that when the clock hand turned to a quarter to (she pointed to show him) we would be there. A few seconds later, Thijs said "It's not moving! It's broken!"



We drove with the boys to see the replica of the ship the Batavia. Maybe you've heard the sordid story of the original Batavia - a ship that sailed until there was a mutiny off Western Australia.



Did you notice the orange thing in the photo above? That's a toilet. And if you look down into the hole you notice that there's nothing between your bum and the sea. Maybe this part of the ship should be named the poop deck.

It was a shame to leave the chilled-out Netherlands and come home. Thanks heaps Robbert and Esther for a brilliant weekend. I hope to come back to the Netherlands some time and explore the funky shops in Amsterdam, eat Edam cheese and maybe even some eel.