Our Zeeland Province Vacation

 

Exactly a month ago it was Springtime in Woudrichem (my last post)...and now it's Summer!  Just days before Spring was gone, the entire Netherlands went through a heatwave, while we we on our Monday-Friday vacation in Zeeland Province, NL.  More on that later but it was our first vacation since October 2019.

We needed this!

First, let's get oriented: 

Here's the Netherlands, situated at the North Sea, with Germany to the east and Belgium to the south.

The 2 red pentagons are Gorinchem (right) and Burgh-Haamstede (left), our destination.

See all those fingers/islands?  That's Zeeland Province, a huge tourist hotspot.

Our destination was a total of 117 km (73 mi.) without stopping.

But stop we did, in Brielle (near Spijkenisse), just 65 km from home.

Day 1(a), Monday, June 14:  Brielle, NL (South Holland Province)

We were there to finally meet up with Marjolein, a friendly photo blogger who follows us both.

Finally we saw her face to face and ended up liking her even more than expected.

Don't you love when that happens!

Before eating lunch with her, we visited Brielle's St. Catherine's Church.

[Astrid's collage]

Day 1(b), Monday, June 14:  Burgh-Haamstede, NL (Zeeland Province), our hotel base

That Monday, June 14, was the day after my 76th birthday, where we celebrated the occasion

out on the terrace of our Fletcher Hotel, with a wee visitor joining us.

It was just what the doctor ordered.

And without wasting any time after dinner, we walked from 8:30-9:30 through the dunes

to the North Sea, straight from the hotel, approximately 1 km each way.

We didn't want to wait!

Remember that we were near the longest day of the year, so we had time before the sun was gone.

No sunset, sadly, because of the cloud cover, but it was exactly what we wanted to see.

[Astrid's collage, manipulating the top-left image to make it look darker]

Day 2, Tuesday, June 15:  Zierikzee, Zeeland Province (Schouwen-Duiveland island)

Our destination was the charming little city of Zierikzee, first visited with brother Nelson in 2018.

We had a leisurely day driving a 79-km loop from Burgh-Haamstede south across the Oosterscheldekering storm locks at the Neeltje Jans Delta Works, then across the north shore of the small Noord-Beveland island below us, east to the Zeeland bridge (the longest bridge in the Netherlands at 3.123 miles), whose drawbridge was up!  That took us north to our island, where we walked around Zierikzee and ate lunch before heading back west to our hotel.

[Astrid's collage includes the photo of us that Marjolein took on Monday!]

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped to get close-up pics of Burgh-Haamstede's lighthouse.

The one bottom-right was what we had seen from the dunes the night before.

Day 3, Wednesday, June 16:  Renesse to Bruinisse, Zeeland Province (Schouwen-Duiveland island)

 

As we left for the day, we stopped for these beauties just outside of Burgh-Haamstede.

Because of the heatwave, we weren't surprised they were gone when we returned later.

Our goal for the day was to drive from west to east across the island and back again,

stopping wherever we wanted along the way.

Renesse was the first stop and gave us the unexpected surprise of a gay-welcoming church midweek. When they found out my dad was a pastor and my mom an organist, their 82-year old organist climbed up to the organ and played for us, bringing tears to my eyes.  The Protestant Jacobuskerk is is from 1506.

Astrid took this video, unbeknownst to me at the time.  I'm so glad she did!  

He's playing Psalm 84 from their hymnal.

We ate lunch in Brouwershaven, near it's lovely town hall (top-right),

before ending up in Bruinisse, known for its mussel farms and giant mussel statue.

Astrid is always a good sport.  My Partner in Crime!

[Astrid's collage]

Day 4, Thursday, June 17:  The Beach and Burgh-Haamstede

Our last full day was spent near our home base, with 2+ hours on the beach.

We aren't sun-worshipers, especially since I have skin cancer and need to take care.

But it was important to BE there and experience the sea again.

In the distance you can see the Oosterscheldekering storm locks, which keep the North Sea from reclaiming the Netherlands.  The poles in the water do the same thing, keeping the sand in place against the currents.  

Leave it to the Dutch, who often say that God created the world but they created the Netherlands!

After eating lunch near the beach, we drove into town to check it out.

Its 13th century castle wasn't open but it was good to at least see it...and the church, from 1506.

[Astrid's collage]

Day 5, Friday, June 18:  Willemstad, North Brabant Province

Long before we started our vacation, Astrid already knew we would go home another way

in order to stop and visit Willemstad, once getting off the Zeeland islands.

It has a citadel walk that was perfect for the end of our trip, with a good place for lunch.

Like Gorinchem where we live, it's canons remind you of why they have citadels.

[Astrid's collage]

We arrived home that day at 4:35, in time for our community's patat-truck supper.  HA!

We do know how to make time for what's important!

It's been a while since I've collected weathervanes but after finding the elephant, a first,

I couldn't resist these others from the trip.  I remember it took forever to find cats before.

Then suddenly I find two within a week...and a good fish.  I was a happy camper.

And while out-n-about, in the heat of the day, there were the flowers!

On last Saturday, the day after we returned home, our temps fell back to "normal," 

hovering around 60° F on our balcony ever since.

It's now SUMMER, the way I like it!  (Did I mention I don't do heat well?)

Nicholas in The Netherlands, 2018 Review

After our time in Atlanta for Nicholas' high school graduation (last post), we flew back to Amsterdam, bringing Nicholas back with us as our graduation gift to him.

You may remember that he was here for 2 weeks back in 2015, when he turned 15.  How 3 years can make such a difference is beyond me, but at his age, that's 1/6th of his life.  HA!

So, for those of you who have watched him grow up, here you go:

Our first full day after arriving was Monday Market day.

Astrid began this stay by making a Dutchman out of him, eating herring the Dutch way.

More Dutch you cannot get.  [Even I have not done that!]

To be honest, this time we didn't try to cram everything in, going all over tarnation.

But we DID do something almost every day, even it it was just a citadel walk.

One goal was to find the 27 Memory Bricks that are hidden around Gorinchem since his last trip.

 Nicholas helped us find 25 of the bricks over several days.  

[Astrid and I are still hoping to find the other two.]

On his last Saturday, Astrid and Nicholas climbed the church tower of our nearby Grote Kerk.

I stayed below to capture them once they reached the top.

There were also times of meeting up with friends and family close to home, 

where Nicholas could share in the life we live here.

He said those times were some of his favorites.

We DID go out-n-about, of course, even to Germany,
giving him another country-notch on his belt, like Belgium the last time.

We drove to Monschau, Germany, 218 km southeast of Gorinchem.

OMG!  Half-timbered houses, a castle and a river running through it all.

This was actually a birthday gift to me from Astrid!  Can you see why?!

So many wonderful memories in that idyllic tourist town.

I even collected a few weathervanes while there!

We then drove to Düren for an overnight before driving to Cologne, Germany, the next day.

We wanted Nicholas to see a HUGE European cathedral!

It doesn't get much bigger or better than the Cologne Cathedral...

and it's neighboring promenade along the Rhine river and it's bridge of love padlocks.

A shorter trip to nearby De Haar castle in Utrecht gave Nicholas another castle experience.

We took him last time to the Loevestein castle (from 1368) across the Merwede river from us.

De Haar is from 1892 and hosted many movie actors over time because of the Rothschild family

who funded the rebuilding of the castle that had gone to ruin over the years.

Then it was my 73rd birthday on June 13 and Astrid took us to the Rotterdam shipping port

for a 75-minute cruise of the 3rd largest shipping port behind Shanghai and Singapore.

Guess what!  On your birthday you get the cruise for free.  Lucky me.

Seeing monstrosities like this gives new meaning to the word 'shipping.'

Rotterdam is one of the cities destroyed during WWII

whose rise from the ashes gave new meaning to quirky architecture.  We love it.

We then drove 30 km west to the world's largest lock/storm barrier in nearby Hoek van Holland.

The Maeslantkering is part of the Dutch Delta Works and closes when flooding is a threat.

You know me.  I have to play around.
The top of this hill was our vantage point for seeing the storm barrier.

And because we were so close to the North Sea, we continued on to the beach.

Just had to touch the water...and eat an ice cream!

One last trip was to nearby Wijk bij Duurstede, 53 km from home.

Can't believe we didn't take him last time to the only drive-through windmill in the world!

The castle isn't available for inside viewing apart from event venues.

I bet you can imagine getting married there, right?!  

We even picked up fresh cherries along the way.

It's one of our favorite short-trip visits.

And like the Memory Bricks in Gorinchem, Nicholas helped us find the windmill tiles in the road.

They must be new since our last time because it was our first time seeing them. 

That was our last outing before taking Nicholas back to Amsterdam on June 17.

Two delightful weeks of just BEING together before he goes off to Oregon in the fall.

Nicholas Joseph Grannan.  Class of  2018.

We're still pinching ourselves because we feel so lucky to be his g'mas!

The Longest Tram Line in the World: Belgium

This is still the "last trick" of 2014, going backwards in time from our 4-day trip to Belgium at the end of November.  In the last post I showed our stop in Veere, NL, on our way home, December 1.

Today's post is what we did Sunday, November 30, celebrating our 7th year of meeting on the internet, via our Shutterchance photography blog.  Has it really been 7 years?!

One of Astrid's co-workers told her about the tram line the full length of Belgium's coastline.  And since we were staying in Ostend, around midway on the coast, we both got very excited about spending a day on the tram, getting on and off wherever we wished.

The Coastal Tram, as it's called, is 42 miles long with 70 stops, making it the longest in the world.

Since we started in Ostend, we first went south to De Panne, near the French border,

and then back all the way north to Knokke-Heist, near the Dutch border,

then back south to Ostend, making the full trip up-n-down in one day.
(image from Wiki)

And it cost only €5 each for that entire day!

We started at the Marie-Joséplein tram stop in Ostend around 10:15 a.m. that Sunday,

just a 5-minute walk from our hotel, on a very foggy day.

Disclaimer:  some of the following images may be hampered because of the fog or moving tram!

I knew we'd see the North Sea, of course, but had no clue about anything else.

The architecture was just astounding along the entire coast, and still building.

Astrid says the English and the Germans in particular come to vacation here.

I grabbed whatever churches I could get along the way...

...as well as these 5 water towers.

The Dutch aren't the only ones who build these magnificent water structures!

We figured we'd have a hot-chocolate break in De Panne at the southern-most stop,
which we did, right on the coast.  That's a Belgium waffle, yes.  We're not dumb.

Little did we know that at that exact time, the 19th Panne Beach Endurance international bike race
was happening!  Talk about serendipity!  It was our biggest surprise of the day.

So, both before and after lunch, we were spectators of the 1000 plus participants,

at the starting line of their 52 km endurance ride.

A real beach race over one distance, a struggle against nature and against yourself.

Are you ready for the race of your life?  We were all waiting.

Finally, they started coming, gaining speed to climb the ramp...

...over which they would then hit the quagmire of loose sand before riding the beach.

While many sailed through with flying colors, many others didn't.

Once they saw the water, I bet they thought they were home free, almost before they started!

But of course, they still had miles to go!

Here's where I was standing most of the time, seeing mishaps and all.
You can actually see Astrid at the end on the right, crouched down in the crowd (red coat).

 Back in the tram again, heading north to Knokke, we enjoyed the Ostend sights as we passed by.
We had already seen many of them on foot the previous two days (a later post).

It would have been fun to get off at many of the tram stops, of course.
But the purpose of the day was to get off at the "bottom" and the "top" only,
and just look at everything else while passing by.

Speaking of which, we did see all kinds of fun things (besides sand dunes, of course).

You could spend much longer than a day on this tram to see everything.
And yes, that's a windmill (bottom-left) and my one weathervane of the day (upper-right)!

All along the way we had looked to see where we might stop for our anniversary dinner.
At the end of the line in Knokke, we switched trams and started back down the coast.

We had picked the Blankenberge Pier once we passed it going north!

The present Blankenberge Pier was built in 1933, crossing 350 meters into the North Sea.
(The original pier built in 1894 was destroyed by the Germans during WWI.)
The pier is now a leisure complex with several catering businesses, an auditorium and exhibition space.

And that's where we chose to eat our anniversary meal.  How exotic!

Besides choosing the local Blankenberge beer,
we noticed they had spaghetti carbonara on the menu.
Have you ever seen it served with a raw egg like that?
Hands down, it was the best carbonara either one of us had ever eaten.
And the pork dish suited it well (we always share, remember).

By then the daylight was "setting," with the fog ever-present as we left.

What a way to end the day, get back on the tram and go home.
Look at Astrid's sheepish grin.  We had the time of our lives.

It really doesn't get much better than this, Folks.