Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Wednesday - Spakenburg is a lovely village about 10 kms down the road. If we were going to ride bikes, it would be an easy jaunt. And, we're getting real good at driving into the village and finding a parking place very near the kiosks. 

Each year we have visited it during their 4 Wednesdays of festivals and today was the first one this year. Its a very traditional, conservative town and on festival days many of the older women dress in traditional Dutch outfits. 

Most of these women are busy using traditional sewing techniques to make things for sale.

There are groups, both men and women who are dressed in their local traditional dress and sing/dance on the temporary stage in the middle of the main square. Its a very large open air market lined with kiosks on both sides of the streets.

Linda was looking for a specific one-piece jumper for her niece, Liz and some Birkenstocks for Melody, another niece. After an initial pass of one row of vendors, we found a table at a cafe where we could watch the parade of people go by. The only problem was it was in the sun and there wasn't a cloud in the sky, but there was a tiny breeze that helped with the mid-70's heat.

Linda wanted a traditional Dutch sandwich with fried egg and ham, but they were out of that. She settled for carpaccio. I wanted a schnitzel but they didn't have that either. There were a couple of women sitting two tables over from us eating some type of meat in a red sauce. I asked what it was - chicken. I ordered that and it was excellent grilled pieces of chicken with mushrooms, onions, pineapple, peppers and slivers of lettuce. With the spicy red sauce, it was a very tasty lunch that went well with my beer.

We walked around the other end of the market and headed back to the car. The day had started with a parade, that we missed. But these folks dressed in what looked to us like "colonial" outfits must have been part of the parade.

Farther down the street, we came upon these guys playing and signing. The one in the white pants was the singer and reminded us of Bruce Witton, a fellow Shanty singer on Anna Maria Island.

Linda never found the jumper but she purchased the Birkenstocks. Their prices are good compared to the States and they have colors like white, silver, neon green, and blue that we never see in the States. She chose a silver pair.

A quick drive back to the house. I read a couple of chapters of "Z", a novel about Zelda Fitzgerald to Linda while she knit and then we watched "Weeds" on Netflix and then a movie we had seen before - "The Women". Kees has recommended some movies, but Netflix does not offer its full library over here.