Santje: Beemster, beach and Amsterdam

Some details about The Netherlands (Holland... same difference)

If you look at the map of Europe, it is easy to miss Holland, it is not a big country. Its in the 134th place on the list of countries ranked by size (wiki is great).... and has an area of 33,751 km2 (This is just Holland and does not include the special municipalities). New Zealand on the other hand is ranked 75th, and has an area of 268,021 km2. This is 8 times bigger than Holland!!! There are however, living a lot of people in Holland (16.5 million). With a density of 491/km2, in contrast with the density of New Zealand, 16.5/km2. On top of that, it is very very flat. With at least 20% below sea level, and about 60% of the population lives on those places... This is where we lived there as well...

The Beemster is just NW to Purmerend (on the map below, where you see the sign E22). This area was covered by peat around 800 AD, and people started digging it out. However, the nearby river started to swell, and the area soon became a lake, with a connection to the Zuiderzee (which is now the lake in the middle of Holland, however, back then it was connected with the North Sea).

In early 1600's they decided to drain the water out, and this work was completed in 1612. That is 400 years ago, and the time we were near the Beemster there were lots of celebrations. Once the Beemster was drained, a lot of rich people from Amsterdam moved there, and built beautiful big farms (see pictures below). Because of its historical relevance, and because the original structure of the area if still largely intact, the Beemster was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list in 1999. We lived on the Volgerweg, near the Purmerenderweg. The Beemster covers an area of 72 km2.

More about the farm houses etc later, first I wanted to show you a bit more the bigger region. As you can see on the map below, Amsterdam and Purmerend are quite close together, about 20 km. We stayed most of our time in Edam (where the red pin is). And the caravan from my uncle is in Egmond aan Zee which is 40 km west of Purmerend.

There are several stunning farm houses, I had to stop there and take pictures :-)

This one is called the Bijenkorf (Beehive)

These two farm houses are next to each other.

De Lepelaar (Spoonbill).

Behind my mum you can see all the festivities for the 400 year anniversary. And below is one of the many canals.

Back at the beach (Sunday 2-09)

Ruben was already at the beach caravan, helping my uncle break things down, as it was the end of the season, and time to prepare the caravans to be hauled from the beach and brought away for winter storage. Mum and I were both hungry, and really had cravings for good fries!

Luckily, we found a great little 'cafe', and I enjoyed a 'kroket' as well. Every time we went out for lunch, I had a kroket with mustard. Oh yes, deep fried goody-goodness!

Ruben was half way up the dunes

brother-sister love

Ruben had too much energy and wanted to dig a hole

It turned out to be a big hole!

Needed a hand getting out

While you are stuck in the hole, gotta think of what uncles might do.... Ours decided to set the hose on Ruben, and my mum grabbed him some shampoo :-)

Ruben needed help as well

If you look closely, on the left side of the ship, you can see windmills!

Caravans being moved

this shell is called: scheermesje (razor)

A bit more of Amsterdam (Monday 3-09)

We dropped Ruben off at the Central Station in Amsterdam, and turned out this was the last time we would see him, as we were heading off to the National Park (Hoge Veluwe) until Thursday, and Ruben got the news later that day that he would fly out Thursday morning. My mum had to get a tourist visa for Nepal, and we enjoyed lunch at Wagamama.