Day 17, 2017 (Sunday) April 30, 2017 "Brunch", German style

The first full day at Enschede involved some birding (of course) but was centered around driving a few miles to a German Restaurant  (Haar Muhle) that served what they call a "brunch". This was no ordinary brunch as it took 3-4 hours to finish eating. The menu below, even though in German and Dutch, gives you an idea of why.

Note that he time of serving (the buffet) gives
you time to "Take a Walk". That was printed on
the Dutch side of the menu.

This restaurant is on the border between Germany and Netherlands, so the language spoken can be either Dutch or German  and the waitresses were fluent in both.  Renate states that on the border both languages can be spoken but the dialect of either one would be the way you could tell which was the persons first language.

Of course eating each of the foods would be impossible (for most of us) but tasting things you like, or have never tried is a possibility.  We started out with the typical breakfast of eggs, sausage, and some bread (Oh how the Dutch and the Germans like bread.)  There was also the fancy fish and a table full of seafoods, cheeses, and meats of all types and kinds as the German's love to indulge in the meats. Some salads and the many other thing you can interpret from the menu.

Next came the soup course which was a remarkable cauliflower soup that was small piece cut into a broth. Surprisingly tasty.

After a long walk around one of the many trails by the mill and the water falls (Oh I'll show you the mill which was built after the first building in this site in 1617) between the first and second courses (your table is your table for the entire four courses), we returned  for the third course which was hot dishes including fish, a pork side sliced, potatoes, green bean mix,  mushroom sauce, and many vegetables.

The main table for the first course

The seafood  table for the first course.

THE MILL 

The main floor for the mill. Like many mills of this date  (1617)
It had three floors to allow the flow of water to work effectively.

The cogs for the main gear.

Seems impossible that there has been a
mill here for 700 years.

Many people might ask why the flags are all at the same height?
A good question and I don't know the answer as they are all
flying in Germany across the border from the Netherlands.

We ended the day with a short tour to a "man made" (artificial) lake where there was a viewing station. We did see some  birds already seen, but picked up a Little Plover along with Lapwings, Sand Swallows, Crested Grebes and a Yellow Wagtail.

A Wagtail

A black Headed Gull

Lesser Plover 

Rook.Yes that is its name!

Many bike trails in this area and much of Holland.
This is near the Restaurant.

The lake on the right is a place the children could skate from one country
(Germany) to another (Netherlands) again and again as they
skated round the island in the border.

So it was another great day as our trip begins to wind down. Thanks for reading and watching. Tomorrow will be the last day and we will visit a milking parlor, some WW2 troop sites , and possibly a salt Museum depending on the weather. Today was bright and sunny all day , but unseasonably cool for this time of the year . Happy May day!

Day 16, April 29, 2017 Lodging in Enschede, Netherlands

Time to move on!  So we did!  The plan was to visit our friends  (by invitation) at  their mother (and mother in laws') home in Enchede. This is nearer the German border and the Rhine and Ijssel Rivers  (that sounds German) , for four nights to enjoy their hospitality and catch up with these friends we met some four years ago in Utah,  USA.

Renate's mother lives in Enschede and she and Ronald are hosting us for this time to see some of the eastern Holland and experience some birding sites that they are familiar with.

But the journey to get there from Werkhoven was flawless. Three different National highways and we were there in less than 2 hours. Again I praise the Dutch roads. They are terrific.  Renate's mother has lived in this home for about 50 years on the outskirts of Enschede in a very isolated , wooded spot still a few hundred meters from the city center.
It has many trees, a large garden  space surrounding the house, and to our delight,  prolific bird activity.

After setting in we were invited to seek out two fairly close birding observation areas . One was in Germany just across the border  and the other closer to the house than that one.  It would be important to mention at this point that Ronald is a member of at least two bird organizations in both the Netherlands  and Germany. Both of them are active in conservation and nature protection efforts in their life.
So, we moved on to two significant areas of bird life. The first was Ellerwicker Field  that contained a host of birds including the Spectacled Goose,   Marsh Hawk, White necked Warbler and a few Curlews to mention a few.

Ellerwicker Field in Germany over the border.

This Fen holds the only flock of Flamingos in the Netherlands Very unusual.

We traversed the border in this "new Europe" without any border crossing "checkpoints, like we do in the states from state to state.   IT has been about 30 years since passports were required to do that. The sight of the Flamingos brought gasps and "Wow's" from  most of us and it was a great sight to see here in this northern country. Also seen were Shovelers, Teals, Black Headed Gulls, and we heard a sedge sparrow and a Cuckoo although we could not see  them. It  was a terrific afternoon of birding  with terrific guides. (Ron knows his birds and sounds with expertise.)

We ended the day withy a light snack after the birding and then a very nutritious dinner of Mexican tortillas , done Dutch style. (lots of veggies and a little meat, ) withy a dessert of berries, sherbet and toppings to top off the day.

l in all a very delightful introduction to life in a Dutch family's home in the quiet, rural part of Netherlands.  Tomorrow more birding and a "taste" of how the Dutch enjoy a "Sunday Brunch" (my term for a 4 hour dinner).  (I found out it is also the Dutch term...BRUNCH") We shall see what that is all about . I know it will be a great culinary experience.  See you tomorrow.

A Black Cap in the field

The meadow with the geese

Waking to see the Flamingos

The flamingos at the pond  and many other birds

The pond with the flamingos

Ruth and Renate together at last!

Renate's Mum's home in Enchede

Our home for four days. A delightful and comfortable place.

Ranunculus in the yard.

Currant bushes are prolific here and they are both red and blue.

Day 15, April 28, 2017. The Forest, Fresh Fish and Final Day in Werkhoven

It was mostly a day of exploring and trying to determine why the well touted Capital One credit card we had, would not work in any device except the grocery store. Any thoughts out there?  We tried five gas stations, (at the pump) the ATM machine twice (2 different times) and tried to get a "cash out" on to the  grocery bill, but could not,  even though they said it was something they did at the store. I think its the card!  Ruth was able to change the pin code thinking that might be the problem. No dice! We did finally find an "pay inside" gas station that allowed us to "fill up" and pay in the station. At last we can still travel, but are getting down to the last few 10's in cash.  It's a mystery why the outside "pay at the pump" stations will not accept either the Capital One or the Visa.? As one guy said who tried to help us..."Its certainly NOT that we don't want your USA money".

But , we kept going today in an exploratory mood and headed for a large, spread out National Forest that runs the top of an old glacial ridge just about where Utrecht is located and runs from west to east for the most part. It s called the Utrechtes Nat. Park and is filled with trees and a few hills that are seldom seen in most of the Netherlands.

Ruth captured these goslings with their mom.

Ruth cannot stop taking the photos of these foals.

We chased the rain clouds about the time we got "under way"
in the morning. A steady , fine, mostly... rain.

We took many of the national highways with the label "n" and looked for places to pull off and search for whatever was there. Some birds were found,   and the surprise for us was running into the Broekhuizen Estate. a huge historic piece of property that has a 1/2 mile long entrance lined with what I believe are Beech trees that must be hundreds of years old.

The Broekhuizen Estate near Leersum
Note the huge trees lining the entry.

It was first occupied by Tyman of Zuylen in 1408  It has had many occupants some of  whom remodeled, added on, and after a fire in 1906 it was rebuilt  upon past plans.
But we sat in the benches near the entrance about where Ruth's photo was taken and counted the bird life  that was quite active, there were tits, woodpeckers, thrush, black capped , to name a few that we saw.
We continued along some of the roads and when we did find that gas station that took our credit card (Thank you Marie!) I turned the opposite direction we were headed, and ended up in the middle of a town that had one way streets due to construction.  I did find the way out using "sense of direction". The rest of the afternoon we took photos of buildings , horses, lambs, ducks and ducklings, and the clouds.  All in all it was a quite relaxing day. Ruth settled for dinner at home with what we had in the house and I opted  to try the temporary fish stand that was set up in the nearby town (2 miles) of Odijk.  I finally selected  a fillet of fresh fish  and I cannot remember its name. Fresh and fresh fried in a light batter, it was just what the" doctor ordered" for me.
Tomorrow we head to Enschede and a visit for three days with our friends whom we met in USA, who will host us for those nights. They are avid bird watchers and I believe we will do some of that as well as share good times.

A few more days left.

A beautiful clematis in Rhenen yesterday.

You name it , I think it runs by batteries or rubber bands.

A typical row of apartment houses.across the street 

in front would be one side parking only and enough room 

for one car to pass.

The entrance to the Broekhuizen  Estate

The entry to our drive is a beautiful row of trees (Poplar) 

The driveway is about 1/2 way up to the left.

800 cows live across the street.

Sjeorge keeps the place in tip top shape.

Carola and one of their 4 sons keep working at getting

this old silo ready for occupancy. Silo on left.

This is the family we are renting from.

The town windmill was moving today.I think the 

"keeper" had a holiday yesterday.

Day 14, April 17, 2017 , Relatives, King's Day (birthday) and infrastructure.

When you visit a country that is new to you,  and can talk with those who live and work there, it behooves us to soak up as much about the country and the people that we can,. So I think this is my blog , more than any other, that will attempt to do that.

The owner of our residence here in mid Netherlands, is a trouble shooter for a large company and has been "overseas" many years of his life. But, he also has had to learn about what living in the rural country is all about , and believe me it takes a lot of comprehension..

Later in the blog I will relate about our visit with more of Ruth's family in a town near the Neder Rijn  River.

Back to the land and some of its idiosyncrasies.  I asked many questions of Sjoerd , our host, today. He was willing to respond in his good English which was adequate. If we were looking for a word, he didn't mind my inserting one  to see of it fit. He was quick, however with vocabulary.
I started to inquire about the sewage removal and found about ten feet away was a pump that controlled many of the surrounding farms and pumped it into the nearby town (1/2 mile distant across the grassy field), where a sanitary facility took care of it. This was a common approach . Because of the level land the pumps were a necessity. Gray water (runoff)  is allowed to reach a series of ditches  that slowly makes its way to the sea by a series of kanals and ditches even from this distance  some 80 miles from the Ocean.
With the land in this area so level, then, with 7 meters of clay underneath, how is the water kept from flooding in times of wet?  They have used for centuries a system of undulating surfaces  so the water does not settle in one place, but is moved over the subtle hummocks  little by little in times of severe water  .here is more to that but that is the general idea.
Roads are another issue. The main roads are maintained by the government agencies nearby, BUT the side roads on your property are your and your neighbor's responsibility, and that means cooperation and a collective monetary effort,  so that together the side roads can be maintained. AND I must say they are in great shape.  The side roads in most of Holland use small gravel with a slurry like mixture that settles into the gravel making it quite hard . After three years or so, it needs to be reapplied.  His part (as he own one long road of about 400 yards or so costs him about $3,000.00 every time it is redone.

The cow farm across the street has 800 cows owned by one family. The out buildings are huge and many. It is a huge industry.  We saw many of these especially in Noord Holland. There is a series of buildings I will attempt to photograph tomorrow to add to the photos for you.

Grass is grown as silage for the cows  and although I did see some hay bales , it is not the preferred crop.  Much fruit is raised in the Netherlands, and here Sjoern has some plums, apples, and pears and some personal use berry bushes, (Gooseberry, currants, and red raspberry). Renate assured us that Ruth would find her 'Fugi' apples here and she did.

There is an owl (Barn) owl in the adjacent part of the building (the barn or 'schuur' ) but we did not see it tonight.

Looking toward the town where the sewer crosses the fields from the pump in the yard

The two peaks on the center horizon were all that remained
of a 400 foot long barn and stable that was torn down .
The silo will be converted to another Apartment.

The main house was also a large barn that housed much of the
feed for the animals. There is another smaller barn behind it.
Much remodeling wasdone to get this completed.

The guesthouse is 1/2 of a barn. The door is open to it.
In it there is a Barn Owl we have been trying to see, but not yet!.

Visiting the relatives . This time we went east  to visit another cousin of Ruth's who lives in Rhenen which is a "stone's throw" from the Neder Rijn (Lower Rhine)  River.  Of course today , as we knew, was "King's Day" or the Kings birthday (50 years old ) and all the towns were celebrating with parades, and festivals of all kinds. Fortunately the route to the house to visit, was not closed off but in returning we did have to detour some to get back on the road.

But we found the house after 5 turns on the small narrow streets, so that was good .

The celebration of flags and the traditional Orange banner

The Imminkhuizens in Rhenen
Albert, Gerritt, Bip, Gerson
Marinus and wife (Rinus) Ruth, Jim

The Imminkhuizen house in Rhenen. This is a 2 family house  and
Ruth's family lives in the left side of the residence.
Living room and kitchen down, All bedrooms up.

The time spent with these folks was very hospitable and informative. Ruth compared notes , and made sure she knew each of them and shared her photos with them that she had brought along.. The men in the family have traditionally been "Chauffeurs", and until recently that has been a good occupation,. Now they are more locally employed  and previously travelled all over Europe with their  clients. Gea, the wife of Albert offered us the traditional pastries served on the King's Brthday and of course coffee. ( I had to try all three.)They drink a lot of coffee  (and beer) in the Netherlands.
The visit was filled with laughter and good exchanges in spite of the semi-language barrier. Both daughter's in law are teachers and teach in the pre-school programs in the community. The boys continue the father 's tradition as chauffeurs. or as it is called here "Lorry drivers".  It was a good time on this special day of celebration in Holland.
Tomorrow is an "off" day so we will do some local sightseeing and visit a forested section of the nearby countryside. Thanks for reading and   drop aline if you are enjoying the blogs at crazy4birds2@gmail.com
Thanks --Jim

Dinnie, Ruth and Gert (Gerritt) 

Day 13, April 26, 2017 A day to ourselves "Let's take a drive".

Ruth had in mind getting to visit the Cheese making shops, especially the ones around Volendam. This is in Noord Holland and north of Amsterdam on the way to both of the man made dikes that hold back the waters of the North Sea. We did traverse one of those and for your reading, (as the entire procedure of building dikes , pumping water out, maintaining water levels and building soil is a very complicated process, too long to tell accurately here,)   SO... I recommend this web site  (below) for a reasonable complete description of the water problem including, but not limited to the great storms that killed thousands, to the election of the all important "Water Boards in the Netherlands". At one time there were 2,700 of them, and today less than 30, but they are very important to the country. I would put the tax rates in this article, but you know the problem,... it's too complicated and too diverse to condense it.
THE SITE...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flood_control_in_the_Netherlands


Today ,weather wise it turned out to be another one of those cloudy---sunny---rainy-- sunny, etc, days. On again, off again. Generally it was a fine day.

Oh, back to the Cheese shops...Ruth wanted to visit the one(s) near Volendam  and that is where we headed, Renate had given us some suggestions about birding areas up that way if we had the time and energy to do that.(We were not able to do so, but thanks Renate,) and we'll read on...
So,... determining how to drive that route, we set out around 10:00. heading north...  again, with very good roads. We did a 1/2 circle around Amsterdam,  (They are called 'Rings' here) and headed up a National Road  toward Volendam. The cheese shop (Elida Hoeve) was one of three operated in this area by the same man. He has expanded the company now to having shops in other Netherlands cities, and ships cheese all around the world.
We found the shop quickly as it was just on the side road we turned down.  They are owned by  a man who uses his name  on many products. He is Henri Willig and still is active in the business. We were shown the process of wooden shoe making by machinery and the entire process until the shoes can be customized in colors, names, emblems, etc., when finished. There were many racks of shoes already to sell.

The Alida Hoeve cheese shop near Volendam.

The demonstration room which held a French group right after we finished.

Uula posed for us after telling about cheese aging.
The younger cheese (1 Yr.) on the left
The older chees (2Yr.) on the right

 One fascinating and informative piece of information for me was that there is a great difference in the aging of cheeses. In the USA there is seldom many cheeses that are "old"cheeses. Most being sold as "young" cheese , just a few weeks old at best. I did learn and tasted the difference in the cheeses , not so much in the favors, but in the aging.

It should be noted that along this route to the cheese factory, we saw some terrific ponds and wetlands that were hosting many birds  if onlt there were places to pull off to see them. We did some of that but not enough for us.


After the cheese visit, we headed north further to travel around the Markermeer (the dam closest to Amsterdam ) which is 18 miles in length. There was a safety spot (sea harbor) built on it about 1/2 way and we stopped there to get some photos and observe the wildlife if any. But we were surprised as there was a restaurant and so we indulged in a noontime snack at "Check Point Charlies" restaurant. For me it was coffee, tomato soup (Mexican style)  and fries (a huge plate of fries) and for Ruth a ham and mushroom omelet. ("Even  better than yesterday".) she said.

Looking for a birding spot on the mainland was a journey in frustration. We found it  along the Oosvaardersdijk, but then had to back track a distance to catch the freeway back to Werkhoven.

So, along the way there were many fields being worked , some huge tulip beds where the flower heads were being cut by machine (to save the bulbs) many flocks of birds, and the largest herds of milk cows I have ever seen. Of course this is cheese and dairy products country, and these herds showed that industry. Some of the herds numbered in the hundreds  and there were many of those. Can you imagine the time it would take to milk all those cows twice a day????? Consider that the Netherlands has 1.39 million cows (not cattle)  versus the state of Michigan with about 400,000 head of milking cows.

Again I cannot help but comment on the wonderful job this country has done on its road system. We drove almost 200 Km today and I never once (even over bridges) felt a bump that did more than make a very soft "rump" as we crossed a bridge.  It is wonderful. And I mean ALL roads, Even the country lanes that are macadam are very smooth.

Tomorrow we visit Ruth's family, again,  and this time in Rhenen a town about an hour away from us. More on that tomorrow.  Here are a few more photos to illustrate the tone of the day.

The Stad Amsterdam in sail. Maybe you
saw the reaneactment  trip of the HMS Beatle?
This was the ship that did it for TV and PBS
It took eight months. How long did Darwin take?

There are some tulips tat are being de-headed now for bulb use, (Most value is in the bulbs) 

A klompen used for the groom on his wedding day.
It has been hand carved.

It says it all, but also there is a tower for bungy jumping nearby.

The demo area at the cheese and klompen factory.

Hey, you can have your tennis shoes made as Dutch sport shoes.

Enter the cheese shop.

The Markerwaarddijk

Same dijk with  the other view 

The Stad Amsterdam in Port. It is 285 feet long.

We are surrounded (next door) by goats , sheep and horses.

These sheep are "buds"

Finally those klompen can come in all sizes.
You have heard of the Dutch Giants?