Our flight arrived 40 min. early thanks to a strong tail wind. This gave us lots of time so we went over to our hotel to check if maybe we could get our room early. We could. We had to pay extra but it was worth it. We took a nice nap and then caught the train into the central station of Amsterdam. We had no real plan of what we wanted to see and where we wanted to go so we simply wandered around in the rain. Amsterdam is to say the least an interesting city. It is not truly "Holland". It is an international city. We quickly learned what people meant when they said there was a difference between coffee shops and cafes. You go to a cafe for coffee, you go to a coffee shop for 420. We inhaled deeply on the street but didn't go in. We also wanted to explore some of the old churches so we searched out the Oude Kerk. In doing so you end up in the window shopping district. Its a sad world when those of the female gender are displayed in that way. Definately nothing attractive or tempting about it.
What more can I say about Amsterdam. I don't think the weather helped or the fact that we were quite tiered.
We got a good night of rest and then picked up our rental car on Wednesday morning. North, over the dijk and into Friesland to Frienakar (please excuse all spelling errors in this post). We found Susan's aunt's place with a little bit of fun since I forgot where I put the hard copy of her address. I knew I had it in the computer on Google Maps but without internet access you can't get to it. Bummer. Somehow I recognized the street name as we searched on the GPS.
Anyway, after finding them we had a very nice day. A number of cousins stopped by and there was enough English to keep us happy.
Thursday was an adventure. We planned to drive to Uithizermeiden and then to Niejverdal. We decided no freeways. The GPS was great. Just tell her what you want and away you go.
I'll have to add the pictures to show you what we experienced when she told us to turn right, the road went up on to the inner dijk. We had to cross a cattle gate and entered the world of sheep. We both thought we were in the land of All Creatures Great And Small. I had no idea there are so many sheep in Friesland or anywhere else. The definately made us drive slow and enjoy ourselves.
We got to Uithizermeiden and enjoyed a little strole around. Not really sure what we were looking for so I suppose we found it. It was more about the drive and the scenery than the destinations. All of it was lovely.
We drove on to Niejverdaal. If you don't know The Netherlands you won't realize that we started off in Friesland then entered Groenigen. After that Drente and Overijsel. Four provinces before 5 pm. And we traveled on deciding to get closser to Pijnacker. So that puts us through a couple more provinces. All in one day.
Today was the best. Beautiful weather and a wonderful time with a wonderful lady. Jopee Vander Koij is gifted with the ability to make you feel very welcome. We enjoyed our time visiting with her and seeing some sights that were part of Mom Koopman's growing up.
We spent much longer with her than I thought we would but it was all good.
Fianally we went to Delft. Delft is everything you expect Holland to be and a whole lot more.
It was so beautiful in every way. We saw two of the churches, enjoyed some of the shops and all of the scenery and had a great dinner. And then back to Schipol to prepare for our flight in the morning. Staying at Citizen M again and enjoying a comfy bed. Much more to follow.
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