Cousinly Camaraderie

Over the past week or so we've had the pleasure of playing tour guide and host to Frank Cedar of Ottawa, Canada. Frank is a second cousin of Lon's and is the genealogist extraordinaire for the Wojtowicz side of the family. The research he's undertaken has resulted in the discovery of many, many first and second cousins--and friendships with unrelated Wojtowicz's like Wanda in Jaroslaw--in eastern Poland and western Ukraine. In 2016 we traveled to those areas with Frank and he introduced us to many of those wonderful people. In 2019 Frank had hoped to join us on C.A.R.I.B. III as we were cruising the Rhon au Rhin Canal in eastern France, but had to cancel his trip at the last minute. We'd hoped to be able to cruise with him in the Netherlands this year, but the delays we're experiencing with our boat projects have taken cruising out of the equation. Frank has traveled widely, but had never made it to the Netherlands, so as his plane ticket to the Netherlands was booked, we thought to spend some time playing tour guide for him.

After our "Amble in Amsterdam" on the day of Frank's arrival, we spent the next few days based in the city of Haarlem, which is less than 20 miles west of Amsterdam. 

We had only a brief opportunity to visit with our Haarlem friends
before they left on their holiday and left us in charge of their home.
Here Lon visits with Joost, Rosa, and Suze.

We were also left in charge of their elderly cat James. He was 
quite a talker, but we couldn't always be sure what he wanted. 
Must have been the Dutch accent . . . 

Haarlem is in the center of the Netherlands' flower growing district. It has a vibrant central city, laid out in a maze of cobblestoned streets and medieval architecture, but is much smaller and more laid back than Amsterdam. We've been to Haarlem several times over the years and never seem to tire of it. 

We spent a couple of hours Tuesday morning (5/3) at the 
Teylers Museum, an art, natural history, and science museum
established in 1778 after a bequest by Pieter Teyler. It was the first
museum in the Netherlands.

These green alleyways are quintessential
Haarlem

Lon and Frank stopped to talk to a resident who was
grooming her appreciative cat outside her home

Frank took several hours one day to pay a visit to the Keukenhof Gardens, one of the world's largest flower gardens. It is typically open from late March to mid-May and contains amazing beds of flowers from the spring-flowering bulbs for which the Netherlands is so famous. It's located near the small town of Lisse, which is just a little to the south of Haarlem. Lon and I had visited Keukenhof a couple of decades earlier, so we gave it a pass this year and spent our day strolling in Haarlem.

A commercial barge making the turn to pass through one of
the many moveable bridges in Haarlem. The windmill in the 
background is the Molen de Adriaan, a 2002 rebuild of a 1779
windmill that burned down in 1932.

Bicycles are everywhere, and they needed to be 
adapted to carry a family's small children

We were in Haarlem for an important Dutch holiday on May 5, Bevrijdingsdag, or Liberation Day. It celebrates the day the Germans surrendered to the Canadian army in the Netherlands. Although it's a national holiday that's celebrated annually, it's a public holiday (meaning everyone gets the day off) only every five years. The annual celebrations in the larger towns typically take the form of free music festivals. The day before, May 4, is Remembrance Day, when wreathes are laid at memorials to commemorate the dead, and the entire country observes 2 minutes of silence at 8 p.m. (We were in a bar/restaurant that evening. The proprietors turned on the television coverage of the ceremonies in Amsterdam, stopped all service at 8 p.m., and the restaurant went quiet; it was quite moving.) 

Flags displayed on homes was a common sight

Haarlem was one of 14 celebration sites in the country on May 5 and held its music festival in a city park just a couple of blocks from where we were staying. After two years where the festivals were cancelled due to Covid, the Dutch were more than ready to get out and celebrate.

The crowd streams toward the park in Haarlem

Lunch by the canal to build our strength before we investigate
the festival

The memorial and historical side of Liberation Day

This was the portion of the park set aside for children's activities. Although crowded, it was
much more sedate than the areas around the music stages in the other area of the park

On Friday, May 6, we boarded a train and headed north toward the town of Heerhugowaart, where we were going to stay for 2 nights in the home of Ebe and Carla De Jong, the parents of our Haarlem friend Yolanda and guests of ours--twice--on C.A.R.I.B. III. On the way, however, we stopped for a few hours in the town of Alkmaar, which is essentially adjacent to Heerhugowaart. The first mentions of Alkmaar are in the 10th century. Its claim to fame nowadays is as the "cheese city." Cheeses have been weighed in Alkmaar since the mid-1300's, and a cheese market first took place in 1622. What draws the tourists in droves on Fridays is the re-creation of the cheese markets. Yes, it was a little nuts with all the people in the center of town, but when one could get away and wander the old streets, it was possible to see what an attractive city it is.

"Say Cheese Say Alkmaar" With these sidewalk
inserts one is directed to the sites on the
 Alkmaar walking tour

Fun Fact: Apologies to residents of Wisconsin, but the people of Alkmaar appear to have been the original "cheese heads." During a Spanish siege of the city in the 1570's, the people of Alkmaar wore "helmets" on their heads as they defended themselves on the city ramparts. The "helmets" were the cheese molds in which cheeses were pressed, hence the citizens were called cheese heads.

Volunteers re-enacting the job of members of the cheese carrier guild. The
color of the hat identified the warehousing company that employed the carrier

Ah, tourism. The crowd was not unexpected, but we didn't hang
around the demonstration for very long

The weighing house, which dates back to around
1390, and was originally a guesthouse that
welcomed poor travelers and sick people

An Alkmaar park. If it's spring, there must be tulips

We had a wonderful time visiting with Carla and Ebe.

Carla and Frank chatting on the back patio

The weather cooperated wonderfully as well, so on Saturday we were able to take a short train ride to the town of Hoorn, a thriving port during the Dutch Golden Age of the late 1500's to late 1600's and a headquarters of the Dutch East India Company. These days Hoorn is still a port, but basically for pleasure boating and tourism, and the water that it abuts is now enclosed and called the Ijsselmeer.

An old sailing boat in Hoorn's harbor

Hoorn's harbor, a defensive tower from 1532 is seen left-center

Lunchtime on a restaurant barge/patio on a Hoorn canal

The restaurant labelled the doors to the toilets
in this way. Everyone needs to decide for themselves
which is the ladies room and which is the gents.

On May 8 Frank returned with us to Maasbracht so that, even if cruising was out of the question, he could have a bit of a liveaboard experience. We were disappointed to find that work on the boat had not progressed much when we were gone. Over these next days we will mix sightseeing with Frank with efforts to move boat projects along.