The Trip that was: October 3, 2010, 2017, 2018, 2019

 2010

Maudurodam! The only place you can tour the entire country of the Netherlands in an hour or two! It's the country in miniature, all the major landmarks are in 1:25 scale. 

Silly bird, it's a train station, not an airport!

It's Golden Earring in concert!! Radar Love, any one??

It's a nightmare photo, isn't it?? The fish are real. Promise. 

Suicide mouse!!  All these miniature places make  for funny photos. 

Scheveningen-- the Dutch seaside resort.  And if you can pronounce it, you're doing better than I am!! I've been told that during the war, the Nazi's would ask people to pronounce the word Scheveningen.  Non- native speakers  don't pronounce it correctly.  They could weed out anyone the Dutch resistance was hiding.  Click the link  to hear someone Scheveningen. 

That evening, we had another fantastic dinner on the beach at Katwijk. This time at Strandpaviljoen Westerkim .

2017

We stayed in Vierhouten, where Dutchboy's sister has a caravan.  We were treated to an overnight stay at a hotel, rather than in their caravan! Lovely little place. 

Kasteel Ruurlo.  Part of Museum More, one of my favorite museums ever!!  This part of the Museum collection focuses on the evolution of the work of Carel Willink.  Willink described his work as imaginary realism. In later life, he began a relationship with his muse, Mathilde de Doelder, who was 38 years younger.  

Mathilde.

The dress from the painting,  by designer Fong Leng. 

Ortus (New Birth) by sculptor Miriam Knibbeler.

Zutphen.

2018

October 3 is a special day to be in Leiden! It's Leiden's Ontzet! Ontzet celebrates the two days in October that ended the Siege of Leiden, 1573-1574,  by the Spanish.  There's a big carnival, a huge market, a parade through the streets of Leiden, everyone eats hutspot (potatoes, carrots and onions mashed together) and smoked sausage called rookworst. The night of Three October, just before midnight, there's a huge fireworks display. 

Images from the Ontzet parade.

Leiden is a college town, so they also have weird things that students do during Leiden Ontzet.  One of those things is canal jumping (fierljeppen or slootje springen in Dutch!). 

There's much more of  this

Than this!!

A sample of the Ontzet fireworks.  The music they choose is always interesting..

2019

After returning to Amstelveen from Bakkeveen, we awoke to find the windshield in our rental Audi had cracked! Not the best way to start a day.

Dutchboy said the crack wouldn't get worse, so we might as well go ahead with our plans to go to Muiden   Remember Muiderslot?? It's in Muiden! The surrounding area is worth exploring-- on a beautiful day. But it's best explored when you're not worrying about the cracked windshield on a rental car when you had declined the rental agency's insurance! (PS. The car thing turned out all right.  We had to pay a deductible, but our Mastercard insurance paid the rest. Tip: Check your credit card agreement to see if your rental car is insured. You usually are!)