Summer Festivals - Woerden and Hoorn

At the end of the school holidays ,many towns put on a festival. We were in Woerden when we heard the brass band strike put their tune. Lots of people from the community were involved.

Kids with decorated bikes -dressed up as cartoon characters and as in this case Smurfs made a great show .

This  is a replica of a Roman boat which was dug out of the river which flows through the town . Woerden has a rich history going back all that way.

The local shopping street. Most towns in Holland have strip shopping , with cars completely excluded.

 Hoorn has a cheese market - a re-enactment of how things went in by-gone years - once a week during the summer holidays.

 The dealing is done by the men in suits - and confirmed with the slap of hands.

 The market square is well used  and the beautiful Frisian horses really seem to enjoy being part of the action. Hoorn is a really old town - you might be able to see how the walls of some of the buildings lean into the street.

 The local child minding centre had a very cute way of transporting their charges.

Everyone involved in the market did a little dance at the end.

Annemieke and Patrick took us for a discovery tour of Woerden.They discovered almost as much as we did!

Barendrecht and Houten

As part of the heritage lesson all the kids and grandkids descended on Tromp Straat in Barendrecht - the street where Hank grew up. The lady who lives in their house  now came outside to see what the excitement was about!

The favourite swimming place for the young people in Hank's youth was here - the Ouwe Maas. The river is  really a shipping passage - they used to swim across it.

Everyone had a great time playing in the water and skimming rocks. Huge barges passed  while we were there - you might notice one in the background.

This is the weekly market in Houten.The stalls are set up in the town square of lots of towns on different places most days of the week.- so this is quite a common sight. Hank and our friend Ab are sampling the new herring - delicious!





Ab and Willy took us out for chinese -we were really spoiled!

A really good way to go sight seeing is on the bike.The countryside is flat and there are bike paths everywhere.

Houten is in the province Utrecht  where there are lots of castles.There is a real effort being made to renovate the old buildings and turning them into restaurants etc.

A moat around another castle. Makes a pretty picture I thought.

We stopped for an icecream after riding our bikes  about 50 km.- a real achievement for us! No wonder most dutchies look so fit and slim - it was no big deal for our hosts.

Family time in Holland

Willy and Chris hired these cabins (3 next to each other) for the young families. It was a perfect solution to their accommodation and they had a great time together. Jenna celebrated her birthday in a very special way!

We visited the Zaanse Schans -an open air museum based around windmills.

How many children can  fit in a shoe? Depends on it's size I suppose.

A 2hour ferry ride took us to Terschelling - Willy and Chris' favourite holiday place. Bike hire was included in the price of the ticket ,and bikes were chosen for every one of us.

We all headed off for an 18 km round trip. The bike tracks go along the coast and through the country side. It was easy for some and quite a challenge for someof  us  but we all made it and had a great time. 

The ride through the dunes was really pretty. Trees have been planted years ago ,so the scenery is really varied.

Jenna among the bikes (she was uploaded twice by mistake) Most people travel by bike on the island and there are hundreds of very good bikes available. No helmets - but the speed e travelled at was quite safe!