A Day in Amersfoort, NL

Even though we don't do it as frequently as when I first arrived here almost 8 years ago (!), Astrid and I still love to make a day's visit to a new place here in the Netherlands.  Amersfoort is a city 60 km. north of where we live in Gorinchem.  It was NOT new for Astrid because it's only 27 km. from where she grew up in Hilversum.

Anyway.  Here's snapshot kind of day with impressions of a delightful city here in the Netherlands.

A fun Google map with my added red dots shows what the highlights were for us:

The Koppelpoort, Muurhuizen, Sint Joriskerk, Our Lady Tower, and Mondriaan's birthplace.

Because Our Lady Tower is the first landmark of the city we saw as we drove in,

and is also seen from almost everywhere we went, let's start there.

At 98 meters high, it's the third tallest Medieval tower in the Netherlands.
It's nickname is Lange Jan = Long John.

It also happens to house inside the exact mid-point spot of the Netherlands.

How fun is that!

Where we first started the day, however, was at the Koppelpoort, a Medieval gate from 1425.

I think this was what Astrid most wanted me to see that day.

The view from inside the city was mostly in the sun when we saw it...

...leaving the outside of the gate in the shadows.

Just a wee walk away, back inside the gate, we stopped in this neighborhood...

to visit the Flehite Museum, using our museum card.

We don't usually stop at the museums, as you know by now,

but we were so glad to see this one...because of the lone WWII bike up in the rafters.

Talk about a photo op!

This is what I wrote on Facebook: 

On 6 October 1944, during WWII, Hitler gave the order to his troops in the Netherlands, 

Denmark, and Italy to take as many bikes as possible from the locals to move around faster.  

He is thereby known as the biggest bike thief in history, explaining why this bike is in the rafters,
so it can't be stolen. 

From the museum we walked along the  street of Muurhuizen = Wall Houses.

These are the houses built from the bricks of the city wall that was demolished in the 15th century.

The houses have become the new "city wall."

Apart from the landmarks, there's so much to see.

As I always say, impressions, impressions, impressions.

Surely every little thing has its own story.

Don't you wish you knew?

You know how some things become "many faces of a thing" for me.

I can't help it.

Astrid gives scale to some of those things, of course.

Did you know that ice-age boulders are found all over the Netherlands (bottom-right)?

Amersfoort's nickname is Keistad = Boulder City.

One last stop of the day was a visit to Mondriaan's birthplace.

You see his colors all throughout the city.  

He's a famous Dutch painter who lived from 1872-1944,
living in Paris from 1919-1938, in London from 1938-1940, and in NYC from 1940-44.

By now it was time to eat our main meal of the day, near St. Joriskerk in city center.

Sadly, even though it was Sunday, the church was closed.

But it didn't matter because we were ready to eat!

And guess what Astrid got as an early birthday (24 August) present!

I'm not a fan of mussels but I sure have fun watching her eat them!

 And there you have it:  Amersfoort in a snapshot kind of day!

Zeeland Province, Netherlands

Ready, get set, GO! And don't forget to put your seatbelt on.

A week ago Saturday, Astrid and I drove 310 km (192 m) roundtrip from home to Zeeland province in the SW corner of The Netherlands. See those brownish fingers in the bottom-left image (click to enlarge)? That's Zeeland with its many islands, much of which is below sea level. Our main goal was to spend time in two cities: first in Goes and then in Middelburg, the capitol of the province. But we also wanted to island-hop by way of the dijks and bridges, all part of the Deltaplan, one of the wonders of the world. Leave it to Dutch engineering. But this is one of the things they're known for: "God created the world but the Dutch created The Netherlands."

Goes was first and gave us one of our biggest treats of the day with its two-for-one main church: the Maria Magdalenakerk. If you Google for images of this church, it will show you two different churches that face each other across the street. On each church is the same name but one is the protestant church and the other is the Roman Catholic. We're sure there is more to the story but for now, these are the two churches from both viewpoints:

On the left, you see the RC church, taken at the corner of the protestant church.
On the right you see the protestant church, taken at the corner of the RC church.

First, the protestant church, with some more views.


And inside the protestant church.


Then across the street to the RC church (in the bottom left image you see both churches again).


And then inside the RC church.

It so happens we were there at just the right time because both churches were preparing for a musical festival. In the protestant church there was a small chamber concert going on, which we could have stopped to listen to for several minutes longer than we did. Both of us were in heaven. In the RC church, a choir was rehearsing. The acoustics in both places were out of this world. When we got home and talked about it later, we made the decision to make sure we find such a church nearby during the holiday season where we can listen to some of the great music of the world in such an environment...maybe Handel's Messiah!

That was Goes. We could have turned around and gone home right then and there! We even got some splendid sun for a few minutes, especially during our late morning koffie and appeltaart, sitting outside where we could see both edifices.

But on to Middelburg we drove, another 27 km further...the capit0l of Zeeland province.

Surely by now you get the picture of why we always visit the churches everywhere we go!
When you see a tower such as this from several vantage points around, you are drawn like a magnet. This is Middelburg's 1568 Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) with its Lange Jan (Long John) tower from the 14th century. Actually, it's an Abbey with 3 churches all connected by the Lange Jan tower.


What we usually do, once we get our bearings, is try to find any door of the church that's open. Usually it's the main entrance but not always. In this case we never got inside because there was a reunion going on for the Snoek family within the courtyards of the Abbey. The outside architecture for us was to die for, and since we had already been inside the churches of Goes, we took advantage of a horse of a different color altogether: the historic costumes (klederdracht)of the Zeeland province within the Abbey courtyards.


Astrid tells me that's gold and red coral...the wealth of the family, worn for the world to see.
These were the welcoming committee for the Snoek relatives from all over the world. And we just happened to get in on some of the action, lucky us.


That's when we found out the church wasn't open, but the Abbey's inner court with herb garden was, so we walked along the inner passages and went inside.


As you see, Astrid was in heaven...and so was I, watching her.

From the church/Abbey, we then headed to the market square for lunch...and this is where my mussels collage from last post comes in. Remember? That restaurant overlooked City Hall:

City Hall in Middelburg just happens to be the main building of Roosevelt Academy, ranked as the top liberal arts college in The Netherlands for the third time in four years since its inception in 2004. Not bad! Remember the collage of the college guys from my last post? Bingo. Their school.

After a great lunch, tummies full, we strolled around a bit more till we headed back to the car to continue our Zeeland island-hopping on our way home. There's always something to grab my attention, of course.

Then it started raining cats and dogs! Astrid was so upset that I didn't really get to see the Neeltje Jans Delta Park at one spot connecting two of the islands. Astrid calls it the 8th Wonder of the World...because it is! But I assured her it was perfectly okay we couldn't see it then because otherwise we'd never get home! And we now have a good excuse for going back.

We did see 3 more water towers this trip as well as a light house, so my collection is growing:

And two more special windmills...from Zeeland province:

See, I told you to put on your seatbelt! I'm such a glutton for these trips.

**********

Change gears now because this Friday Astrid and I will fly back to Atlanta where we will be till the 26th. School has its Fall Break next week, so we're both taking advantage of it. We'll take grandson Nicholas (now 10) to the Cumming Fair, carve pumpkins, celebrate birthdays and enjoy the North Georgia mountains, in the same cabin as last year. We'll also spend time with friends south of the city.

Hooray for vacations and breaks! I'll be keeping my next date with Vision & Verb on the 18th, a week from today, so I won't be absent. Just not in The Netherlands!