Trends Traveler

Imagine this! You, your best friend, beautiful September weather and travels through Europe! This is how I recently spent my time and I am excited to share some of my experiences with you.

We landed in Amsterdam, Holland, picked up our rental car and headed to the beautiful city center. The first thing we saw when we emerged from the parking garage were what seemed to be thousands of bicycles parked along the canal’s edge! Everyone either rode a bike or walked in the city! We took a canal boat tour through part of the 1200 km of canals that wind throughout the city and saw architecture exactly as I imagined; just as I’ve seen in photos and on calendars all my life. The buildings all butted up against each other, but were very distinct from one building to the next. They were several stories tall, with a huge beam protruding near the apex of each building. Apparently the stairs inside are so narrow and switch back, that to get furniture into the upper stories requires a hoist from the outside, hence the beams. Some of the buildings were so narrow, we wondered how they could even be furnished.

We stopped in one of many cheese shops, which sported numerous wheels of cheese. I was in “cheese heaven”, with Gouda cheese everywhere I looked. I munched on a fresh baked baguette with thick slices of Gouda as we walked down narrow, cobblestone streets (which I thought they were alley’s, at first). And I can say that anything you may have heard about the “open-ness” of Amsterdam is probably true. I’ll let your imagination go with that.

We spent several days in Friesland, which is a province in northern Holland. I had always pictured Holland as very small and very crowded. But that’s not how it felt as we drove open roads through pastures filled with dairy cattle, sheep and those beautiful Friesland horses. Canals crisscross the country, and you can travel by boat to any village, town or city just as easily as by car. We stopped many times for open draw-bridges, which allowed all sizes of watercraft to pass through. Many of the homes still sported thatched roofs, and farmsteads were built with the barns attached to the homes (odd to picture, I know, but practical in inclement weather). Many of the farmers still wear the wooden clogs that are so reminiscent of the “old days”. I had expected to see lots of windmills, but we only saw the occasional mill. Many seem to have been replaced by modern wind-machines.

We stayed with my cousin in the small village of Oldeberkoop, with a 1000 year old church at its center. When I asked her how large her town was, she just laughed at me and said she lived in a “village,” not a “town.” There are only about 1200 people living in Oldeberkoop, and the village leaders want to keep it small, not allowing any new construction in the village.

The overall lifestyle is so very relaxed. I never saw drive-thru windows, never saw people eating in their cars, saw very few people walking through the streets talking on their cell-phones. People don’t eat at their desks, go home to their families at a reasonable hour and have supper together. Most businesses close on Sundays. I drank the best coffee I’ve ever had, experienced a sense of “old things” as I never had, and met some of the most friendly and open people I’ve ever known. Every place we visited was clean. It was truly the trip of a lifetime, an experience of a different way of life.