The Trip that was: November 3, 2009

It's very appropriate that we take this trip together today, as it's time to tie up this series of posts.  This trip was one of our "last day" trips with Pa into the Dutch countryside. Pa, Dutchboy, and I would pile into the car and drive over the old roads Pa drove as part of his route as service mechanic for ANWB, and he would tell us stories of things that happened, things he had seen, funny people he had met.  He shared history he knew of the towns we passed or walked through, and we always had coffee and apple tart somewhere. He's not able to take those trips with us now,  but I cherish the the days we spent doing this together.  

On this trip, we went into the municipality of Waterland in the province of North Holland.  A collection of lovely old towns grouped around the Markermeer, this area is definitely worth a wander.

We started at Broek-in-Waterland.  This tiny, picturesque village has the distinction of being "the cleanest village in the Netherlands"! And certainly is beautiful.

Monnickendam. It was founded as an outpost for the Monastery of Marken in 1235, and that is most likely how this town got it's name which translates as Monk's Dam. 

St. Nicholas Kerk, or the Grote Kerk of Monnickendam.

Like most of these old churches in the Netherlands, it has some foundation issues and is a bit crooked.

Memorial of Crashes.  This memorial is a tribute to three different  British RAF flight crews who were shot down near Monnickendam in 1941-1942. 

Speeltoren, houses the oldest hand-played carillions in the Netherlands. 

On the Banks of the Markermeer, Monnickendam has a nice harbor, that used to be very important to town.

This statue in the harbor commemorates eel smoking. It's now a dying industry, but in earlier times Monnickendam used have lots of smokehouses and ell fishing and eel smoking used to be big business.

Ending the day in Hoorn. A few random images.

The Westfries Museum.

The Coat of Arms of Hoorn.

Looking out the window of the Westfries Museum towards the old weigh house.

We ended the afternoon with coffee and apple tart in de Hoofdtoren, looking out at the Ijsselmeer while it rained. 

 Tot Ziens!