6 September 2015 - Andijk and Enkhuizen

Happy Australian Fathers' Day to Karl, my adventurous travelling partner and clever husband and Dad to our kids, my lovely supportive Dad, Malcolm (Grandad) and my ever cheery father in law, Dirk (Opa).  The Dutch celebrated their Fathers' Day in June so no commercial flavour to the day!  There were other flavours though in the form of Dutch food!

Whitie the Flemish Giant Rabbit - saved from being Christmas dinner by girls who just couldn't eat him!

Annika and I tootled off on the bikes to our supermarket not that we needed much but poor Tim has a wicked sore throat and he felt like some orange juice.  Our local store has a DIY orange juice squeezer which was just the ticket!  (Not that orange juice is the best way to have vitamin C but it helps psychologically!)

We managed a couple of Skype calls this morning as well as a Fathers' Day breakfast of bacon and eggs, so the day started well.

At our local Jumbo

Peanut butter must be big here!

Couldn't resist a BIG CHEESE for 9 Euro in Aldi!

Why Annika didn't want to carry the toilet paper on her bike, I'll never know!

 It was time to explore this little country a bit more and so we headed north feeling glad of quietish Sunday traffic until we get used to the general road layouts and roundabouts.  First stop was an unsuccessful search for some gumboots for Luke but being Holland and being Sunday, not everything was open.  Then it was off to Andijk.

Andijk, where my father in law grew up.  This is the Reformed Church there.  He once fixed the church roof!

Andijk, meaning "at the dike" is aptly named of course because it is at the base of a dike!  It is somewhere I have heard about for years from Karl's family and it was great to finally walk down the quiet Sunday streets and along the top of the dike.  Karl's father grew up in Andijk alongside his 2 sisters and 8 brothers in a tiny house on a small holding of land.  His father did some mixed farming and the family all helped out. The body of water is Lake Ijssel (Ijsselmeer) so the town has played an important role in providing water to the region.  The soil is fertile and it is a big horticultural area.

Although Andijk was established in 17th century when a small church was built there, it was 1812 before it was granted city rights. The test polder  (reclaimed area of land) knwon as the Pilot Polder Andijk was built in 1926, reclaiming more land from the Zuiderzee.  It obviously worked well as it is now a residential area!  Further polders were subsequently developed.

On the dike - Andijk

The Ijsselmeer far as far as the eye could see.  So windy!

Typical style with semi thatched roof.  Neat and tidy.

More thatch

Very quaint along Dijkweg

Karl lived in this village for 6 months or so with the Van der Schaaf family.  We called by just on spec and found Anneke there!  Sandra, her sister and other family members also dropped by.  It was lovely to meet them briefly and we will spend more time with them next week.  They have fond memories of the time when Karl lived there.  We pushed on the Enkhuizen with vague plans to meet Karl's sister, Diane who is also travelling in Holland.

A typical house,  Opa's childhood home with his 2 sisters and 10 brothers, 110 Dijkweg, Andijk

Although we missed Diane, we had plenty to see in Enkhuizen which is where Karl's mother grew up.  It is a really pretty harbour town which received its city rights in 1355! It was very lovely walking around the historic streets that Karl's mum would have walked as a girl, lived through WWII there and met Dirk from the neighbouring village of Andijk somewhere in the general vicinity - and the rest is history...

Enkhuizen Station and all the bikes!

Old boats in Enkhuizen Harbour

Tranquil harbour

Lovely old buildings - love the little old red bricks

Drommedaris in background Enkhuizen

Wandering through the streets of historic Enkhuizen charmed by the lovely old 16th and 17th century buildings

I love the undrawn curtains and view into everyone's life - it is reciprocal: they look at us, while we look at them!

The Three Herrings Restaurant - 3 Herrings are the symbol for Enkhuizen

The Drommedaris - an old city gate from1540 - Enkhuizen was a vulnerable spot being right on the North Sea.

Historic buildings wherever you turn!

The pride of Enkhuizen is the Drommedaris, an old gate which stands proudly on the harbour side.  Enkhuizen was one of the most important harbours on the North Sea in 17th century but due mostly to the silting up of the harbour, Amsterdam subsequently took its trade.  The Drommedaris was added to in 1649 to become the form it is today although it did sustain some damage during the WWII.

Ice creams for 1.15 Euros with waffle cone

The streets are narrow, some so narrow that literally only a bike can be parked in them!  We heard the Drommedaris and also the old church clock chime every quarter of an hour as they have, no doubt, done for centuries.  The old buildings are on slight to more than slight angles and have a typical Dutch charm about them.  Everything was neat and clean as is the Dutch tradition.

One of these places would do me!

There's the proof: 1540 written over doorway!

A hand stand is always necessary in front of such a historic building!

Brick-filled windows give us a clue of what the houses might have looked like a few centuries ago when glass was expensive.

Brick roads, brick drains, brick houses

A brief moment when there was no breeze gave us a chance to catch the canal as a mirror.

The first doctor in Enkhuizen as a grand place!

Driving from Enkhuizen to Lelyland - 30 kms across the Ijsselmeer on the Markerwaardijk!  They are really gutsy with the land reclamation!

Dinner, was of course, an echt Nederlands meal: Rookworst, rode kool and appel, appelmoes, witlof and potatoes and followed by Speculaas and stroop waffel and vla!  Happy Fathers' Day, Karl!

Spot is called Dribbel here!