Holland's National Glass Museum, Leerdam, NL

Back in early December, one of our friends here where we live gave us tickets to the nearby Leerdam Glass Museum. The expiration date for them was Saturday, December 28, and that's the day we went.

Leerdam is a delightful city of 20K+ people just 16 km northest of us here in Gorinchem.  We've been in or near it many times in my 4 years here but this was the first time for us to visit the Glass Museum.  Leerdam's glass industry is internationally known as Royal Leerdam...also known as Royal Leerdam Crystal.  Leerdam is also known for it's Leerdammer cheese, but that's another story.

So off we went on a gorgeous, sunny, December Saturday!

We parked by the Ter Leede windmill near the Linge River.

What a delightful walk along the inner harbor...

...to the Glassworks building, where the glassblowers give their demonstrations.

BUT...that's not what our tickets were for!  

They were for the Glass Museum, back where we parked our car.

Okay, then.  As you know, we've already seen glassblowers, so we weren't too disappointed.

 We moved our car to the Glass Museum parking lot and got our first taste.

Make that Holland's National Glass Museum.

It's two connected houses with four overlapping bridges to make one continuous gallery.

 You can see it better out back, with the one house on the left...

...and the other on the right.

Now, come inside with us...for an exhibition called "A Sea of Glass."

Many things were from the sea, of course... but there were other things as well.

 I called this the Torture Chamber!

Remember those four bridges between the two houses?  Yup.

9,000 glass objects are on display there, as part of the museum.

And yes, there's a glass shop, with many items for sale.

But we went downstairs to the café and did our thing, per normal, while out-n-about.

That's where they had a fish tank with live jelly fish and a table for interactive, artistic fun. 

Something for everyone.

Totally worth our free tickets!

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On another note altogether, now that one month of a new year is almost under our belts, we've been out-n-about also in January....

...first to our favorite pannenkoeken restaurant out in the polder.

This view is across the street from where we ate.  Sister Ruth calls them "the brethren."

Down the street, in nearby Leerbroek, is a Reformed Church, ca 1500.

The pannenkoek son told us they had a new cock atop the steeple.  Indeed.

And the church chimney hosts a stork's nest.  How's that for reaching out!

In fact, not far away we found a nice stork specimen, out in the polder...

...along with a heron and some more "brethren."

Birds of a feather:  storks, herons and sheep co-existing side-by-side.

I'm sure there's a sermon here somewhere!

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Today we trade in our 4-year-old Granny Towanda for a new car...but that's a story for another day.  Another day, another dollar.  :)