Hoorn

Hoorn, a charming village.  A very short sentence, but one that best describes this not-so-little 70 thousand people village.  When walking through the narrow cobblestone streets and the bike lanes one might be a little conflicted by the charm of the village and the vast green acres of the countryside.
This was an oceanic cruiser that we past early in the morning.

Our Village tour guide was a cute woman from Hoorn who really knew her history and was  funny. 

Her slightly broken English made her even more enjoyable because I could tell she was really searching the file folders in her brain to find the correct English word.  And like me, if she couldn't find it, she came up with a different word, or figured out a different way to say what she wanted,

On this Village tour Viking arranged for everyone to have the experience, if they chose, to see inside a real contemporary Dutch home and get to know them personally. Our family was so lovable.  This is their home. They had one daughter who was 13 but declined to be home while their parents were hosting strangers, and an eight year old son named Ramon.  His favorite cartoon is Phineas and Ferb, he even had their backpack. 

On my tulip and windmill excursion today I saw sheep and lambs, goats, cows, llamas, and bears, oh my!  No really bears I was just kidding about that one.  Because of all of the waterways and canals, I learned all about they dyke systems and why, even though there is water literally all around, water for drinking is scarce.  The amount of money is costs to maintain the dykes and levees is astronomical and already the residence must pay a yearly fee of $275 US dollars to have drinking water in their homes.  Not all business pay for it, that's why they sell bottled water.  Even after the fee is paid, they pay a separate water bill, just like we do in the US. 
Today was the main reason I came on this trip, to tour the tulip farms and windmill farms.  It was INCREDIBLE!!! 

I really got an education on how the whole tulip industry works.  I won't go into great detail,  but basically, they dig up some clay, lay down mesh fabric, throw down some tulip bulbs and cover them with some more clay.

  After that they put another layer of mesh over that and then another layer of clay.  When the tulips are grown, but not yet flowered, a machine comes along and gently pulls the mesh out of the ground and wraps them into medium bales (they're not called bales, but they kind of look like small round hay bales so that's what I'm calling them).  From there they take them to the factory building where they unwrap the bales on a conveyer belt. 

By conveyer, the individual tulips are placed in bins according to their size, the longer the stem, the more money they will bring at the market.  Once they're separated by color and size the bulb is cut off (kid of like reminds me of the perfectbinder in the back of United Graphics)  they're then wrapped in paper with a tag of the farm and sent to market.    Like traditional farmers they have to rotate their crops, so they will also have to grow onions, potatoes, beet sugar, wheat, and other plants/bushes that may be sold to the nurseries for the consumer to purchase.  When making a different breed of tulip, this process from beginning to end can take seven years.

 

  Being a farmer takes me to a perfect segway about farming....They don't have a lot of sun, but they do have a lot of rain and a lot of wind.  If it's too rainy and they cannot get into the fields to harvest the crops, much of the crops are lost, and if it's too dry the crops don't grow...there are endless possibilities for farmers to have a bad year.....so....many of them are purchasing wind turbines instead of wind mills.

Wind turbines are much more efficient and store electricity that is sold back to the government.  The wind turbine on this property is 250 feet tall and can generate enough energy to sustain a village of 600 houses.   The government is looking into villages being self sustaining and the villages may put this back on the consume to have their own turbine.  They're not sure how it'll all work yet, but eventually it'll be happening.

During the other half of my excursion my phone battery died so I don't have any photos of the old windmills.  I think on Monday I'll be going on another excursion that is about the old traditional windmill so I be bringing my battery back up so it doesn't happen again.  Mostly the old traditional windmills are used to grind wheat into flour.

Transition to wooden shoes.....

Believe it or not there are some people who still wear them AND if you work in an industry where steel-toed shoes are required, you may wear wooden shoes instead.  A lot of farmers wear them, and even the little kids that work on the farm wear them. These belong to the little boy in red in the wind turbine photo.

After dinner we watched a wooden shoe demonstration and learned of the different types of designs they have on wooden shoes. Believe it or not there is a wedding pair of wooden shoes.  OH my how sexy!!  (NOT!)

We're in Arnhem right now and this afternoon we'll be going on a tour of the battlefields and National Liberation Museum.  Should be interesting. 

I love to dance you know, and the night before last we had a piano player and may people danced.  It was fun, and even Craig danced.  Even though he admits that he's gong to have to learn a few things (yes, that's true)  he still tried!!!  One of the songs was a jitterbug or swing dance song.  He didn't know how to do either so I was trying to teach him the basic jitterbug step as we went along.  The song was way too fast for teaching, so it didn't quite work as well as I wanted but it really took me back to my mom jitterbugging with me in the living room of our house in the country out on Western Ave  before we had any furniture in it. 
Tonight I see we're having some "contemporary" music.  I'd still bet $100 bucks that their "contemporary" and mine are not congruent!!!  I bet I won't be busting any moves to the likes of  Katy Perry or Lady Gaga again tonight!!!

I will leave you with a nice gesture. On the sidewalk is a tile with a lady bug. When I asked the tour guide why they were there she said that there was a time when people had stopped remembering to be nice to one another so they put the tiles around town in random places to serve as a reminder. Since everyone walks they see them and now remember to be be nice, offer hospitality to your neighbor, and take care of those that need it. 

We castoff at 1:00 am for Dordrecht....wherever the heck that is. 

Remember to be nice, pay it forward, and take care of those that need it!

Love you bunches and bunches, and oodles a gobs!!
Mom/Cyn