A Dutch Polder Joyride in July

If I told you I had gotten so hungry for weathervanes and asked Astrid for another joyride out in the boonies, you'd believe me, wouldn't you!  Yes, of course.

So, what happens is that Astrid first researches exactly where we might find a good route out in the polder that might serve up some vanes for us.  One never knows for sure, of course, but the likelihood is there.  Her route took us from Drimmelen to Moerdijk.

 Of course, Astrid always picks a good place for lunch...which happened to be Drimmelen.

Drimmelen happens to be a harbor town in the Biesbosch National Park, 27 km from home.

That's where we ate lunch, on the Amer river...and saw the Dutch version of "beached" boats above. 

From lunch we wandered off the main roads into the polder.

What is the polder, you ask!

The polder is the low-lying land reclaimed from the sea or river, protected by dikes.

It's usually below sea level, which is why there are windmills to pump out the water.

I love the polder.  I love how the Dutch USE it for their health and pleasure...

...and sustenance.
It's out in the polder where we always see the farm machinery.

Don't you wonder what THAT one does!

We often also see something unusual, like a windmill without its sails.

There are ca. 991 windmills left in the Netherlands right now, down from 10,000 in its heyday.

This one, I suspect, doesn't count...because it can't be registered if it doesn't work.

Right about now, between Drimmelen and Moerdijk...a distance of 26 km...

we finally began finding weathervanes, our goal for the day.

Some of them, like the fishes and ram horoscope, were clearly custom-made.

In fact, the lady of that house was out in her garden and she is the Pisces part of the duo.

How fun is that!

 We stopped for a total of 13 vanes.  

Was I happy or what!

By the time we got to Moerdijk, we passed the Moerdijkbrug war monument from 1978.

The relief is from Frits van Hall, a Dutch sculptor, who made it for the first bridge in 1936.

The relief consists "of a triumphant figure of women for the north and south of the Netherlands.

She is standing on the waves, in the waves some fish are pictured, in the sky two angels, the sun and a cloud of rain.
The whole is surrounded by the twelve weapons of the respective places..."

Last but not least, we stopped at the cloister of the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus,

that is now apparently a primary school (still trying to find a link).
ADDENDUM:  Astrid found this link in Dutch.  
It essentially was destroyed during WWII and rebuilt in 1948.

All in the course of a Saturday's joyride...and just before it started to rain on our way home!

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.

A Wee Little Walk in Gorinchem, NL

Did I mention that we drove to Münsterland this past weekend in celebration of our 4-year wedding anniversary?  Guess what I'll be working on for the next several days/weeks to come.  HA!

In the meantime, here's a wee-little citadel walk I took a couple Sundays ago when the weather was just spectacular.  I wanted to play around with my camera, for one thing, and just look again at what's at our doorstep.

I pass our little Paardenwater (water horse) pond every time I walk to one of our grocery stores.

The ducks and geese love it--their own little paradise.

You can look back to our Grote Kerk from there, just two blocks from our apartment.

Nearby, after rounding the pond, you can see our fire station on the Linge river.

Do you recognize some of these landmarks by now?

Our water tower from 1886 is now an apartment building.

And that's our Nooit Volmaakt windmill from 1718, a block from our apartment.

The little church is a reformed church across the street from the Paardenwater pond.

Astrid calls it the "black-stocking" church.  :)

But what I really wanted to catch that day was these Eurasian Magpie birds!  Ekster in Dutch.

I see them all the time but they only sit still in the trees for capturing...600-1200 mm away.

If ever I catch one even 100-200 mm away, I'll be in heaven.

They're so beautiful, especially in flight.

The ubiquitous pigeons, of course, you usually can capture up close.

But these, too, are 600-1200 mm away.

As I said, I just want to see what my little camera can do. 

Of course, there are always the views that catch my eye.
"What can I make of that," I'm always thinking.

I love that there's a skate-boarding park nearby...with soccer goals.

 And always the bridges that give us these sweet views along our canal.
Yup, that's the same fire station in the background.

All in a sunny day's wee-little walk in our lovely Gorinchem where we live!

Happy February to everyone.  We're still waiting for winter....

Germany and Luxembourg Border Skirmish

HA!  Well, not exactly a skirmish but we wound back and forth between Germany and Luxembourg so many times, it was hard to keep up with ourselves.

It was the third day of our long weekend to Luxembourg and because our B&B was over the border in Germany, we started out that day in Neuerburg...Germany.  With a population of only 1500, we knew it would whet our appetite for the rest of the day.

What a delightful little town in the Eifel with something for everyone!

We parked right outside the old Gothic parish church of St. Nikolaus, from 1492 (top-left).

Its free-standing tower sits next to it (bottom-left and center)...both not open, sadly.

The Castle Neuerburg (left-center) is the city's symbol, from the 9th century, now a youth hostel.

The look-out tower (top-center) from the 16th century was open for climbing.

Which we did.  And that was our overview!

See what I mean about whetting our appetite!  A nice YouTube here gives more of what we didn't see.

But we didn't need any more than that while on our way to...Vianden, 20 km away.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Vianden, Luxembourg, was our main goal of the day.  At circa 1800 inhabitants, it's not much bigger than Neuerburg but much more well-known.

What is it about European signs!  

Not much different than going from one city or state to another in America, right?

So, another charming town, with lots to see...

...and wonder about.

Victor Hugo, for instance, was a famous French author who stayed in Vianden often between 1862-71.

Oh, yes, and the Our river runs through it.

In the city center is this precious little church of St. Nicholas, from 1256.

It was the first church where I've seen an "ALARM" sign before the altar.

Perhaps that's why they can keep it open all the time?

But it's the Vianden Castle that is its main attraction, as you'll soon see.
It's one of the largest fortified castles west of the Rhine, built in the 11th-14th centuries.
And you can see it from all over town, as well as the Hockelstuerm tower nearby.

Lucky for tourists, there's a chair lift that will take you to the top to see it all better!

Look at that!  It was a perfect day to be there, though hot.
An iced coffee was just what the doctor ordered at the café with a view.

Going down was even better because we could see the castle without obstruction of the chair lift.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

And just like that, we were on the road again!  Still on a mission...

...and always with something for which to stop at a moment's notice.
Talk about older than dirt.

As I recall, this old DDR firetruck was on sale for €1,000.

You'd think a museum would want it, right?

Which reminds me...we're now back in Germany.

And this is Bollendorf, a town of circa 1600 inhabitants.

A river runs through it, of course...the Sauer, with the Bollendorf Castle/hotel at the bend.

Did I mention it was a hot day!

St. Michael's Church, built in the 1830s, stands tall not far from the river banks.

I love that so many of these churches are open during the week at odd hours.

 ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

And at that point we went searching for the Irrel waterfalls where we ate our picnic supper before heading back to our B&B!

I told you I was going backwards!  

Next up...Luxembourg City.