Trip to Europe - a Week in The Netherlands

This is one of a series of blog entries about my trip to Europe in August.

This post is revision 0.7, latest edit done on 11/23/2006. I'm done editing this thing. It's time to move on. I think I'll do a post about the party next.

Getting Around:
Automobiles - rented and borrowed, plus rides with helpful relatives, bicycles (more about this later) and walking. Lots of walking.

Sleeping:
We stayed at the Landgoed Ruigheroed. This is a Dutch-style resort with camping and cabins that you can rent by-the-week. My sister rented a large 5-bedroom cabin that had plenty of space for four adults and three teenagers. The resort has tennis courts, a large pond, a café, and a small general store. A walking/bicyling path runs just outside of the grounds through a wooded area. It was all very nice except maybe for the weakness of the wireless Internet signal, an inadequate Internet café and somewhat arbitrary restrictions on automobiles.


Our cabin, "De Kranenburgh"

Places Visited:


The Locks at Eefde (Sluis Eefde)


View of the Canal in Eefde (Twentekanaal)

Lochem: One of my aunts took us to a great bistro for lunch. I’m not absolutely sure but I think it was de Babbelaer. Some of us sampled the local beer (yumm, yumm). Later in the week my brother and I had an excellent dinner in a fabulous Italian/Mediterranean restaurant, the Cleopatra. We began outside at a sidewalk table and moved inside when it started to rain. I will always remember Lochem for our late night arrival and the church whose lit-up steeple proved to be an excellent landmark to help people find us when we didn’t know where we were. "We’re in front of this old church with a high steeple that has a gold clock, all lit up."

Zutphen: My nephews wanted to go shopping for wooden shoes so we went to Zutphen one day. It was Monday and the shops were closed so we had lunch while we waited for them to open. My brother, who had been informed by our helpful Dutch relatives that he will be forever branded as a style-challenged tourist in his neon-white North American athletic shoes, also shopped for shoes. Don bought some really cool black leather shoes, not quite as eye-catching as wooden shoes would be back in Canada, but he and I did blend in with the European locals more easily. That is, until we met up with our other brother, John, in Germany the next week. John would never think of abandoning his rural Ontario blue jeans, denim jacket and assorted baseball caps, no matter how stylishly his siblings think they are dressed.

Nijmegan: We went to the Nationaal Bevrijdingsmuseum 1944-1945, a museum that commemorates the liberation of The Netherlands during WWII. Exhibits focus on the impact of the occupation on the Dutch, Operation Market Garden, the Hongerwinter and then the Liberation. There is also a memorial to the solders who died in The Netherlands.


Nijmegan: The National Liberation Museum


Robin Hood the Tank and my brother. Check out those cool shoes!

Arnhem: The Openluchtmuseum is huge, and fascinating. If you go, plan on a minimum of three hours.


Admission to The Openluchtmuseum in Arnhem


Openluchtmuseum Map

Adventures and Observations:
Midnight in Lochem. I think I said in a previous post that Lochem train station is in the middle of nowhere. Actually, I found out the very next day that it’s within a few hundred metres of the home of one of my aunts. I wonder what she would have said if a jet lagged niece and nephew from Canada had knocked on her door in the wee hours of the night?

You never forget how to ride a bicycle. Yeah, right. Yet another myth that I can personally take credit for debunking. Hurt my foot. Ouch. Don snapped this picture before I fell off. I am pleased to say that there are no embarrassing snapshots of me lying on the ground tangled up with the bicycle.

You never forget how to drive a standard. Despite my sister’s incredulity and fortunately for my cousin’s car, this saying happens to be true. Really. However, it was a bit uncomfortable to work the clutch with a sprained ankle. Dr. Me researched hurt foot on the Internet after getting back to Canada and decided we only had a "Type 1" sprained ankle, barely worth mentioning except the damn thing still hurt six weeks later. My willing and able brother happily took over driving duties the next day. We puzzled out the road signage and had great fun zooming around roundabouts and up and down the tree-lined roads in my cousin's Renault.

My Canadian nephews sample Dutch delicacies: Too bad I don’t have pictures. Their expressions (accompanied by oral sound effects) while tasting pickled and raw herring were as amazing as any facial contortion a teenager can make.

My Mom and Dad Married in Almen in 1951: We visit Almen Julianaschool, Kerk van Almen, and De Hoofdige Boer. I am going to create a separate post (someday...) covering our visit to Almen and to the farms where my parents grew up. Stay tuned...


An older picture of de kerk van Almen

Wooden Shoes. Still a Practical Option. My nephews were impressed and even more determined to buy some.










Have Renault, will travel. Before venturing into larger cities and onto freeways Don and I headed for places smaller and quieter. We stopped in Ruurlo to get a map at the VVV and went on to Winterswijk. [more to write here...]

An Accidental Visit To Germany. We are barreling along the freeway near Nijmegan when I suddenly realize we're fast approaching a location coinciding with a thick purple line on my map. Panic sets in. Hey, Don! Did you bring your passport? But there's nothing at the border other than a large sign in the freeway median. We proceed.

Navigating Through Arnhem and Why Two Pairs of Eyeglasses are One Pair Too Many. Don and I disregarded the we got lost warnings from my sister and her husband and decided to drive straight through the middle of Arnhem instead of taking the freeway around. Everything was fine until we got to the area near the train station. Chaos ensued. I frantically switched between reading the map (which requiring putting on my reading glasses) and responding to Don's requests to please read all 57 of those signs at the upcoming roundabout (which required replacing my reading glasses with my night vision glasses). By the time I swapped glasses Don was already in the roundabout and making a wild guess at which exit to take. After about 15 minutes of putting on and taking off glasses I gave up on the map and just scanned for signs. We saw a lot of Arnhem.

What do the Dutch really think of Germany? They ask us, as we tell them about our plans to visit the Rhine valley and the Bavarian Alps, "Why would anyone want to go there?" Well, they do like the autobahn. That's because you can drive across the country really fast to get to the other side.

Dutch culture