After our day in Assen, we spent the night in Oosterwolde, a small town nearby. The Hotel Zon was a nice hotel and they had a very good restaurant on site, too! Great food, but the wine we ordered was only mediocre. You can’t win them all, I guess.
Oosterwolde photos
Sunday morning, October 25th, dawned bright and cheerful, and we headed to Leeuwarden on our way to Franeker and the Eise Eisinga Museum. Leeuwarden was quiet—not a lot of people out and about. It was here that I saw the most crooked church I’ve ever seen! It leans so far to the left that it rivals Pisa. In fact, it was leaning so far during the building of it, that they abandoned it. Then it was on to Het Princessehof Ceramic Museum. After coffee in the museum café, we headed on to Franeker.
Leeuwarden photos
In Franeker, we walked around this lovely town to the home of Eise Eisinga , a wool carder who built an accurate, working planetarium in his canalside home between 1774 and 1781. It was fascinating to see it—an elaborate and beautiful model of our solar system. Unfortunately, they didn’t allow photos inside, so you’ll have to settle for my photos of the Franeker City Hall, and the surrounding streets.
Franeker photos
Leaving Franeker, we headed back to Amstelveen. This meant traveling across the Afsluitdijk. Something I both anticipated and dreaded! Anticipated because, hey, nothing is more dutch than this enormous dijk. Dreaded because, hey, it’s a DIJK. Holding back a lot of WATER. I get creeped out on bridges over tiny rivers! Luckily, it was nothing as bad as I feared. In fact, it was so beautiful, I forgot to worry about it at all. We even walked a bit along the Wadden Sea, where the wind blew away all worries and fears. It was gorgeous.
Afsluitdijk photos.
Leaving the dijk and the sea behind we arrived in Edam, just as the sun was setting. It was here I fell in love again. Friesland held no magic for me. Groningen had no heart. But here, in Edam, there was a pulse, an air of antiquity, a feeling of home. I would move to this place. I wanted to soak it all in and become part of its history. Why, yes, I do have a flair for melodrama. But after all this time and distance, I can still feel the way I felt on those streets. Perhaps it was the time of day, seeing the city in the gloaming , perhaps it was the stillness and peace of a Sunday evening. Whatever it was, for that one evening, Edam was magical.
Edam photos.
