On the way, Louisa, our GPS, took us through Muider to avoid traffic on the highway and we had to wait for the bridge over the locks to close and allow us through.
This is the way we discovered this town years ago, by being detoured around traffic.
Back to the transplanted village, it has lots of colorful windmills and a chocolate factory, cheese factory, pewter foundry, and various workshops like a shoemaker. Its there to show you how the people lived in the mid-1800's. It may be like our Williamsburg, Virginia. But, it was raining and we decided to move on. We plan to take Janie and Dan there next week with the hope of sunshine.
We wanted to go somewhere for lunch, so we headed for Volendam. We had been there a few years ago by way of Marken and a boat ride across the bay on a beautiful sunny day. Today, we dodged the rain drops, parked, and headed for the harbor. This town has a broad boardwalk along the water designed for tourists. After looking at two or three restaurants, we settled on one that offered mussels and went inside.
Linda ordered fish and chips and I had almost the same thing but it was kibbling. We think kibbling means "little pieces".
I drank my normal dark "dubbel" beer and Linda had a Campari and soda. Something a little different. Still thinking about Italy.
While we ate, we had a nice view of the harbor and tour boats.
Instead of ordering our coffee at the same place, we moved on toward the carpark stopping to buy some chocolate to have later.
As we walked down one of the streets, we came across this beautiful, and very Dutch front yard. As I've said before, they really love their flowers. Contrasted with those colorful flowers is this trash truck that we watched do his thing. We have this type of container in Soest too. Sometimes, they extend a meter or two underground and therefore, are much larger than they seem.
We headed for Monnickendam to have our coffee. This is another place we had been previously but didn't really explore. We find a lovely cafe that used to be a kerk (church) in the 1850's and was just beautiful inside.
But, since it had stopped raining and the cafe had umbrellas, we drank our coffee and ate our chocolates outside with a view of old fishing vessels that seem to still be in use and a picturesque harbor
As we walked through the town toward the car, we noticed this plaque. We think it states that in 1916 there was a flood and the water rose up to where my hand is.
Farther down the street we discovered another plaque on a side wall that looked Jewish. A young woman and her two children were nearby and heard us talking. She told us that the building had been a synagogue and that a Jew lived there during the war, but was eventually arrested by the Nazis and never seen again. We are learning that this is a common story. These Jews are remembered every May 5th with wreath laying on plaques.
The woman's four year son is learning English in school and wanted to tell Linda his name and show her he could count, at least up to 3. Then, his younger sister wanted to try talking too. Nice family.
We passed a shoe shop where it looked like they make wooden shoes and did other work on shoes.
Then, it was time to get back to the house to have time to rest a little before the piano recital.
Noor noticed we were home and came over for about 1/2 hour and made some art.
The piano recital was at a chapel just around the corner and we walked over with the kids and Liesbeth and the kid's babysitter.
They both played very well. There were 17 performers varying in ages from maybe 9 to 15. Their teacher was really engaged with each of them and the love really showed.
Duco had accidentally fallen against a jagged post on a school field trip earlier in the day. That's the reason for the bandage at the edge of his eye.
Back home, I did an odd thing - watched Wales beat Belgium 3-1 in the European Championships quarter finals. Its the first time Wales has been in this position in a very long time. It was good to root for a winner.
We finally had a very full day.
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