Marken and Volendam

We stayed in Marken for an hour or two in order to see the town.  First stop was a wooden shoe factory:

Lots and lots of shoes.  Starting at 30 Euro.

I have never understood why people would go through all the hard work required for presumably uncomfortable wooden shoes.  Luckily, the factory explained why, and let you try them on to find your size:

The shoes are surprisingly comfortable. I guess after hundreds of years of making them you would have to learn how to make them bare able! But why wooden shoes?  A few of the reasons offered are that they are great in rainy/wet conditions, that wood is a great insulator for snowy days, and that you can add attachments to them.  In the museum portion of the factory they had 10 or so shoes with different attachments. They ranged from pegs for running on ice to skates for ice skating.  These ones are for ice running:

From the shoe factory we walked to the harbor.  We passed the fattest sheep ever:

He is strategically placed below a pear tree.

The town is very cozy and quaint. Things are usually slow on Sundays.  A lot of the houses on the first street incorporated animals of gardens.  This one struck me in particular:

As a former owner of rabbits, I spotted the hutch with ease.  After looking closer at the lawn and cage, I realized I was looking at a Dutch lawnmower! The main part of the hutch has a wire grid floor that prevents the rabbits from eating too close to the ground. If you look closely, you'll notice the grass is long where the hutches haven't been yet. Another angle:

So green.

After less than 5 minutes walking we made it to the small harbor:

We had tasty fried-cod bites while we watched ships come and go:

And then we realized the stray dog was much more entertaining.  He wandered from group to group looking for crumbs.  After chasing some birds he tried a sneakier tactic.  Here he is setting up behind his target:

And then slowly he snuck further and further forward until he was part of the group:

"Give me that Cod"

After our snack we walked some more in Marken:

Everything was closed. I imagine because it was Sunday, and because it was raining. After seeing the whole town, we bought tickets for a boat to Volendam.

Here is a picture of the lake's dyke and the town of Marken.  It's weird seeing the road below the waterline. The internet says that 20% of the Netherlands' population lives below sea level.

On the way to Volendam:

In Volendam:

I really like boats. Both harbors had beautiful new and old yachts:

We walked to a flea market in Volendam. We noticed a lot of people on this road had identical Ikea porch settings:

After searching for waffles and settling for coffee, we went back to Marken.  Nastya really wanted to see a lighthouse. While waiting for the ship:

One day I'd like to have this ship.

Or this one.

or this one. Or any one in the Netherlands.

The moment we got back to Marken it started raining cats and dogs.  We weren't able to get bikes and see the lighthouse. Instead, we headed home.

Marken Drive and IJsselmeer

     We were advised by our host to go to Marken instead of Rotterdam.  She gave us a route that included driving along the dike of IJsselmeer, which was extremely pretty.  Lake IJsselmeer is extremely large, and until just now, I thought it was the ocean.  Furthermore, until researching IJburg, I wouldn't of thought that if it were somehow a lake, that it would be man-made- but it is in fact a Dutch creation of sorts.  Here is the overview of our day trip:

And here are the pictures:

little town right up against the dike

It was really windy and there was a regatta on one of the lakes we drove past.

Beautiful farmland with cows and sheep

IJsselmeer and all of the boats.  There were three-masted tall-ships out there. Leftovers from the spice days? 

They were incredibly quiet.

Dike to Marken

 Marken is a small psuedo-island fishing town which was only connected to the mainland in the 1950's. Because of it's fishing roots and isolation, it remains one of the more traditional looking towns in the Netherlands.  It is now a destination for Dutch and foreigners alike. Next post for more details and pictures!

Amsterdam, pt. II

A great part of AirBnB is that the hosts are genuinely interested in helping make sure you have a good trip. Maybe it's because the concept attracts friendly hosts, or maybe it's because the ratings you give actually affect business. Either way, it's a great service to use (this is not shill).

Our host recommended eating breakfast on top of the 7 story Amsterdam library.  We listened and took the tram.  We enjoyed good food and a great view of the oldtown and its harbour:

The inside of the library was really cool too:

There are some cool buildings in Amsterdam. The photos I took ended up too dark. I liked this hotel and the shades each room had:

We took the tram back to IJburg from the central station:

This was the other part of the neighborhood we stayed in:

Back at our flat, we got advice for an awesome trip to take using a car:

Amsterdam, pt. I

     This weekend I went to Amsterdam with Nastya, Anton, and Ryan.  We rented a car; it took 3 hrs to get there. I found an awesome place on AirBnB just East of Oldtown in IJburg (Eye-burg). IJburg is a relatively new island/suburb/community (built in 2013); it is one of the many man-made islands the Dutch have created in Amsterdam and throughout the world (UAE Palm Islands were made by Dutch).  After meeting our host we went to the city.

View from the tram.

     My camera didn't work well this weekend and I was left with a lot of dark and blurry shots.  In Amsterdam we walked around for a couple of hours in order to get lunch and a feel for the city.

The city is a network of narrow streets, like the one above, packed with shops and tourists. All of this is occasionally separated by canals for ships carrying even more tourists.

It is all very pretty.

     My picture of the Dam Square, the original dam that led to present day Amsterdam didn't turn out. Nor did the picture of the Royal Dutch Palace. But, I did get the picture below, which shows the interesting brick architecture one can find within the city:

     After walking around, we decided to rent bikes in order to see even more of the city. This is Ryan's "excited to be photographed at bike shop" pose:

     Bike riding in Amsterdam is quite the thrill.  Between the trams, cars, and hordes of people, I almost wrecked 5 or six times.  Our group got split up a few times more than that number, and we stopped to consult a map almost every 4 blocks.  Despite wrong turns and miss-adventures, it was very fun. I made a quick visual representation of our trip as I remember it:

If you click it may get bigger?

I included little black stars of some of the photo spots for pictures from this post and the next, as well as where we ate breakfast (next post).  Below are pictures from the day:

Rijksmusuem w/ bike path through the middle.

The big park. Incredible landscape architecture. Maybe that will come across later.

Riding partners

Someone lucked out and has a house in the park.

Soccer and Dutch woman who isn't going as fast as it looks.

Add caption.

Wetlands within the park.

Still in the Park.

It seemed like everybody in Amsterdam rides a bikes. The locals were quite non-nonchalant and acted as if it wasn't incredibly hectic and dangerous. How can I assume this? Well, for one, couples would ride through the park and the streets while holding hands. Ryan and Anton gave it a try:

1 millisecond later and we could all see the crash that resulted from the amateur hand hold attempt.

After riding around the town, we asked where a cool place to get a drink would be.  The bike rental clerk drew us a nice map out and we went there.  This was about the same time the sky went overcast and it began to rain.  This is on the way to the place:

This is the place. I had a great Belgian beer and then we continued exploring. Picture:

We walked through tons of squares that looked like this on the way back to the oldtown:

After we found and ate some Pizza, we sat on a canal and hung out.  Anton and I like to play a game where we pick hard words in our mother-tongue and teach them to each other / laugh at how we can't pronounce them.  We also went over basic phrases, slang, and idioms. For example, I got in a situation where I had to explain disingenuous, and it led to other fun language topics (my train of thought, maybe you could of done better: sincere-> genuine-> sarcastic -> patronizing -> disingenuous).

Anton is 100% fluent for all intensive purposes and Nastya is pretty advanced. However, she has a hard time understanding an American or English accent. So, whenever she doesn't hear or understand something, we ask Anthon to say it in Russian. But, all he really needs to do is say it in English with his Russian/Ukrainan accent and then Nastya understands perfectly fine.  Jokingly, this revelation led to Ryan and I speaking in deep "Russian" accents when explaining word and phrases.

On the canal.

We ended up going to an Irish pub for some time before heading home on the tram. It was a long but great day.

Critical Mass

As I was running around doing errands on Friday, I encountered a German version of Critical Mass. In the USA (ABQ and SF) bikers organize a specific day each week or month where they ride a specific route within a city (sometimes to advocate bicycling commuting, or other causes). This particular gathering made it impossible for me to cross the street for 5 minutes!