Holland - March 19th and 20th 1999

Wednesday March 19th
Today we went to Rotterdam. For the most part, we saw the big city. A modern City in with shopping malls and all. Most of the older part of the town was bombed in WWII. While in the city, mom, Rick and Hans had their herring sandwiches (ewe, gross). We walked to the end of the main road to the harbor. All I wanted to do was sit and absorb the beauty of the old building along the harbor. Then off to see where Hans, Ron Ed and Linda were born. The Birthing house was no loner there but we did find their apartment they lived in. #20 Landman Straat. Mom said this used to be a nice area.
Back to Harlem, we visited with my cousin Fritz. Fritz is 7 years younger than mom so she would go to his house quite often. They were more like brother and sister than nephew and aunt. (19 years age difference from mom to her brother Jan). Fritz grew up in this house. It was over 100 years old. Mom said it sure seemed a lot bigger back then.

Thursday March 20th
We started the day today expecting to see the flower auction. This is where all the growers go to sell their flowers. We got there too late. The auction started at 6:30 and went until all the flowers were purchased by the vendors.

We headed off to Delft where, of course a lot of the pottery is made. I was surprised to learn there is an actual town called Delft. I loved this town. Every part about it seemed to be picture perfect. We toured one of the facilities there and everyone purchased a few pieces. I only bought what I could take home in my suit case. Rick and Glen purchased some larger plates and had them shipped home. After the tour, we stopped at a little roadside diner. Glen said this was one thing on his list to do. "Eat at a roadside diner". Rick coming out of the diner.

On our way out of town, we saw a big beautiful church. Michelle and my mom wanted to see what it was all about so we parked and while they went into the church, the rest of us walked around the market. There were some awesome shops (I love knick knack shops) and an open market. I bought 2 lbs of Dutch licorice but I think it really ended up being about 5 pounds. It cost me only 5 guilders, which I would pay 10 times that here. I also found this real unique store that sold pewter so I bought two pewter shot glasses. The Church, Michelle told us, is where all of the Royalty of the "House of Orange" are buried. Hans and Penny

It was getting late in the day but we wanted to make a couple more stops on our way back to our bungalow. We went to Kinderdijk. This is a stip along a canal that has windmills on both sides. People still live in these windmills too. Legend has it that the area is named because after a flood, a baby and cat were washed up on shore. (Kinder=child). Just me and the horse

Finally, we went to the beach in Scheveningen. They were having a sand sculpture contest. Each sculpture was about half a mile from each other so we only saw a couple of them but they were amazing. It was getting too late to try to see the others. We had dinner at one of the many restaurants that they have along the beach and by the time we got back to our bungalow, it was 11:30 pm. What a long day but oh so fun.