Nerds Who Travel: The Netherlands
Growing up my family had many traditions, each side of the family with their own special foods, holiday celebrations and quirky activities. On my mom’s side of the family, I have a dutch Oma who moved to Canada from Amsterdam when she was thirteen. This meant many sweets as a little kid, hagelslag for breakfast, speculaas, and chocolate letters. All of these traditions hold a special place in my heart, and I proudly wear a necklace with a clog on the end. It goes without saying that I was incredibly excited to see the Netherlands, to meet my family across the ocean, and to understand more about my heritage.
Zack and I left Ghent by train and headed to our connection in Antwerp, Belgium, before taking a train to Amsterdam! The train station brings you right outside of the city centre, so Zack and I eagerly headed into the crowd of tourists to see some sights and find some food. We were immediately lost in a city with every mode of transportation coming at you at once: bikers with no mercy for pedestrians, cars with fearless drivers (they park centimetres from the canals), and even boats that won’t postpone docking right where you might be sitting along the canal. With the heat, the hustle and bustle, and the weight of my bags, walking into the heart of Amsterdam wasn’t quite the glorious moment I had been awaiting.
Lesson #3: No one tells you about the less glorious moments of backpacking. There will be tiring moments that include back pain and sweating…be kind to your travel buddy and take breaks when needed until you make it to your destination!
Despite the less than glamorous morning, Zack and I found amazing sights and enjoyed some ice cream beside a canal before heading into Hoorn where we met my Oma’s cousin, Nico, and his wife, Hennie. No words can do justice to how wonderful our stay was with Nico and Hennie. Upon arrival at the Hoorn train station, Zack and I were greeted with big hugs and we drove to Nico and Hennie’s home. We visited for a while and Nico told us about his many years of work looking into our family history. He has compiled an entire database that goes back centuries and he gave me a booklet with my family history dating back to the 1600's!
[Crazy side note: when I was younger I googled my full name (because of course my 13 year old self was worried about what future employers would see) and I found this strange website. It had a yellow background and my name was listed beside my sisters name, under the names of our parents, with both of my grandparents’ names. It had been a mystery to me for almost a decade as to why this webpage exists. Turns out it was Nico’s website that he had created using his database! You can imagine how after nearly ten years of being a little concerned as to why this page existed I was mind blow to be sitting with the man who created it].
Visiting with Nico and Hennie was one of the best parts of the trip. They made Zack and I feel right at home, they insisted on driving us to the train station each time we went into Amsterdam, and they welcomed us to join for Nico’s birthday celebration. Nico took Zack and I to visit my Oma’s old home on our second day in the Netherlands. It was amazing to see where my grandmother grew up, where my great grandfather worked, and where Nico and Hennie once lived. We celebrated Nico’s birthday on June 10th with the whole family — it was so lovely to meet all of them and to hear them laughing and talking in Dutch as Zack and I smiled and laughed along, all the while having no clue what was really going on. Hennie continued to fill us in by leaning over and whispering to us in English. All in all it was a heartwarming, once-in-a-lifetime experience.
Lesson #4: Connecting with extended family is a incredible way to learn more about your heritage and an awesome way to learn more about the true culture of a different country!
Hoorn Highlights: Meeting the family; taking a tour with Nico and Hennie’s son, Stephen, through the town of Hoorn; watching Nico and Hennie play with their granddaughters, Anook; and scrolling through the family database with Nico to learn about the family’s history (he even had my birth announcement!).
Zack and I decided that we couldn’t possibly leave the Netherlands without biking, so we planned a day “at the beach” in Zandvoort, Haarlem. What I was forgetting is that Zack takes bike rides very seriously. We took a train to Haarlem and walked around the city before renting bikes. The city was beautiful, with many little shops including a loose leaf tea shop had the most amazing teas (Zack had to pull me out of the store). Once we rented our bikes, we began our trip to the beach. The Netherlands has bike lanes everywhere, making biking safe and fun! We decided to take a scenic route and head through some country roads and then hit up Zuid-Kennemerland, a national park, before the beach. We rode through massive fields, saw a working windmill, and even drove past ruins of an old castle! The national park was beautiful, with winding roads that went from tree-lined paths to rocky roads surrounded by sand dunes. We ended up biking for 3 hours before reaching the beach! We grabbed lunch on the boardwalk and then biked the length of the boardwalk before heading back into the main town, taking a more direct route as I insisted on navigating. By the end of the day we were both exhausted, but proud of our 40km ride!
Haarlem Highlights: The Art of...Tea, Herbs & Spices shop, splitting a massive ice cream (we had a coupon!), and seeing the sea open up in front of us after a long day of biking.
Zack and I headed into Amsterdam a couple of times during our stay in the Netherlands. The city was always alive with tourists and locals scattered throughout the centrum. We coordinated meeting up with our friends, Wes and Chris, in Amsterdam and we spent the day walking the many streets of the centrum and indulging in the Amsterdam culture (one too many giggles ensued).
We also happened to be in Amsterdam during one of the largest flee markets in Europe — with over 700 vendors there was everything from clothing to paintings to old cameras.
On our last day, Zack and I took a boat tour through the canals. It was a wonderful way to see the city and learn about the history of Amsterdam. One of the marvels of Amsterdam is the size of the homes, they are all very narrow and tall — turns out, the price of houses was once based on the width, so homes were built as narrow as possible! From the tour, we headed into Vondelpark for a relaxing afternoon. From Amsterdam Zack and I headed to Germany!
Amsterdam Highlights: Visiting the old home of my Oma and her family with Nico and Zack, walking through the winding streets with the boys, and learning about the history of Amsterdam during the boat cruise.
Next Up … Germany !
