The Other Part of Our Anniversary Weekend

In my last post, I gave you the main and most memorable part of our 2nd anniversary weekend: the glassblowing workshop with Mart Martorell the first weekend of February.

There were two other main parts, however, that were delightful, memorable, and right up our alley. The first was staying at the B&B in Barchem (ca. 1800 inhabitants), 10 km from Mart's workshop!

Astrid enjoys doing the research for our B&Bs when she has the time.
So far, she has been 100% on target, no matter when or where we go.
This B&B, the Kistemaker, is out in the boonies, away from traffic and city life.


After our glassblowing workshop, we took a walk before dinner.


How can you say NO to that!


Because of being in the boonies, our choices were limited for dinner.
We decided on an Italian restaurant in a house...where only 14 could eat in the dining room.
It was Friday night, so we made reservations...in time to make the count.
We loved it. Cozy and good.


We awakened the next morning to a glorious day...in the boonies....


...and to a breakfast to die for.
Did I tell you our hosts are two gay guys? Enough said!
They make their own bread, jams, and...eggs. HA! Chickens, yes.


And a show to distract us while eating....


...all seen from the dining-room table!

As you can imagine, it was very hard to leave. Our only consolation is that when we go back to see Mart again, we know where we can stay!

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

We were then on our way to nearby Zutphen to visit our longtime friends, Wim and Irmgard...and their 3-yr-old son. It was our first time to meet Marius and, yes, play with him. The Legos we brought for him did the kind of trick any photographer loves. Those are the pictures I'll be working on this week...for my next post.

After that wonderful time of playing and catching up, we continued on to Bronkhorst, the unofficially smallest town of the Netherlands with ca. 150 inhabitants.

Half the fun was getting there over the back roads of the countryside.
The first snow of the season had just fallen the week before with more arriving
on Friday while we were at the glassblowing workshop.
It was a winter wonderland.


In fact, after we parked our car outside Bronkhorst,
I was totally taken up by all the wonder as we entered the town.

Talk about a charm!


With its own church!


It's own windmill, from 1844!
(Look how happy Granny Towanda is!)

And, believe it or not, it's own Charles Dickens Museum!


In paying attention to the details, you find out this is a Rijksmonument place/town.
All of it: the museum, the windmill, the houses, the town.
Similar to a UNESCO site, everything has to be maintained in its original style and format.

Mart, the glass blower, was the one who put us onto all of this.
Well worth every minute we were there.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

By the time we were done, at the end of our second day away, we were ready to return home from our grand celebration. As we entered Gorinchem, the sun was starting to set at 6:30 on the windmill 2 blocks from home....

Home Sweet Home.
Zo is het. So is it.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

One last thing: Astrid is the guest blogger at Vision and Verb today, talking about ice skating on the lakes and canals of the Netherlands. I am so proud of her!

First Wedding Anniversary: Part I

We had the time of our lives! So much so, it will take at least 3 parts/posts to get from beginning to end in our two days, 627 km (390 miles), driving through 9 of Holland's 12 provinces.

But first of all, can you believe we've been married one year!

February 5 was the big day and Astrid knew on Christmas Day at Kinderdijk how she wanted us to celebrate. I had asked her if people lived in the windmills at Kinderdijk (like they do elsewhere) and she said YES. That got her wondering if there was such a thing in Holland as a B&B windmill. Lucky for us, the answer is YES. But only two of them. On the spot, and as a surprise for me, Astrid picked one and made reservations for the February 4-5 Friday-Saturday weekend, with Friday off work.

Once she told me the surprise, we started planning the trip. If you look at the map (click to enlarge), you can see the route we took, starting in Gorinchem Friday morning, stopping in Lemmer and Sneek before arriving at our B&B outside Groningen late afternoon. On Saturday we continued to Delfzijl, one of Holland's most northern port cities where we could look across the Eems River and wave to our German friends. Then south through small towns to Rolde where we saw 2 of Holland's ancient Hunebedden burial sites...before heading back home.

In this post we will start with the main surprise of the trip: the windmill Molen Hunsingo B&B in Onderdendam, outside of Groningen. We drove through 6 provinces to get there on a very gray and windy day.

This was our very first view as we drove into the town of Onderdendam (= Under the Dam).
Did you notice the modern version (wind turbine) on the right?


And then, up close and personal: the Molen Hunsingo windmill B&B.
See that middle window under the platform? That was the floor of the BED part of our B&B.


Within minutes we climbed the stairs to the 3rd floor (2nd floor in Holland because the ground floor is, well, the ground floor and the next floor up is the 1st floor). The entire circumference of the windmill on that floor was ours...a complete apartment where we could have easily stayed a week.
With a pull-out sofabed, you could have even visited us!


Since we're early eaters, we reserved a dinner table for 5:30 there at the ground floor restaurant...and then headed outside to get the lay of the land before eating.

Onderdendam is in the municipality of Bedum and is so small you can't even Google for it in English. In Dutch, you can see it here. See the house in the top left-hand corner above? It used to be the prison. And the water you see there is the Winsumerdiep canal. It didn't take us long to see what we wanted to see....


...the nearby Hervormde Kerk from 1840, which can be seen from the windmill....


...and Het Jagertje, the monument to all the boats' women (usually the wives of the boat captains) who helped pull the trading boats through the canals from one city to another. Astrid says in the old days these boats didn't have engines and so were pulled along by women or horses, while the captain steered the boat.


By then it was time for our dinner reservation on the ground floor of the mill.
Some of the above images are also from the next morning when it was lighter outside.
But you get a feel for the charm of this place.

Everyone was so absolutely welcoming and pleased we were spending our first anniversary there with them. After we finished our meal, we ordered two specialty koffies with liquours from the Groningen province. When the maître d' brought us two forks, we immediately knew something was up....


The head chef had made us a special individualized black-forest cake for our celebration.
We felt so honored!
Notice the two liquour glasses, each with a different flavor, and the whipped cream on the side, so that we could both drink each brand.


A well-stocked bar...for specialty koffies!

And because the night was still young, we even had time to play Rummikub up in our apartment before being lulled to sleep by the howling wind swirling around the mill. Astrid found out later we had gale-force 'Level 8' winds (39–46 mph) that entire weekend. We were in heaven.


The next morning we enjoyed the BREAKFAST part of our B&B.
The mill has only two apartments for rent. The one beneath us was rented by a family with two young children...a boy and a girl. As we were finishing breakfast they were arriving to eat. I asked the kids if this was their first night in a windmill, to which they both said YES. En goed geslapen (good sleeping)? YES. :)


One last gift as we left Onderdendam...tulips and wooden shoes.
As Astrid would say, more Dutch you cannot get.

It was now Saturday and we were on our way home but the long way, driving north before heading back south....

[to be continued]