Fred Remembers~Part 6

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

The Heidelberg Schloss tour guide was an older man with a very white beard.  He guided us both inside and outside.  He looked to me like he was in his 80’s, but he may not have been that old.  He told a story that, back during the 1500’s, they were under siege, I think by the French, and they ran out of wine.  One of the men, in all his life, had nothing to drink but wine, so when they ran out of wine, he drank some water.  He died the next day.  I’m not sure what all that means, but anyway, it was an interesting story. We saw the turrets, ledges, and the house where Sigmund Romberg wroteThe Student Prince.  The house was across the Neckar River from the schloss.

The Schloss from the Neckar River

While in Heidelberg, as we had gone through the grounds around the Schloss, I remember this young lady who was with us was English, and there was an archway [gate] in the grounds outside the castle that was dedicated to Queen Elizabeth.  And she wanted to have her picture taken underneath the Elizabethan Arch.  So we did that for her.  I can’t find any picture of her in my archives, so we probably took the picture with her camera.

The Elizabeth Gate – Credit Google Search

From Heidelberg we went up to Cologne [Köln], Germany, and in Cologne we stayed in a hotel.  As I recall, our room was on the second or third floor, and on about the fourth or fifth floor above us, they were still shoveling debris out.  So that hotel we stayed in was actually still semi-damaged from World War II.  I also remember driving around the famous cathedral in Cologne, and buildings all around it were totally demolished, but there was very little damage to the cathedral itself.  I think that was because the U.S. decided to try not to damage the cathedral.

The Cologne Cathedral – credit Google Search and Andre M. Hunseler/MSH

From Germany we went to Holland.  I remember one of the places we stopped was in a little town called Scherpenzeel.  I was really taken aback while we were there – not only there but other places in Holland, just in driving around, we would see many, many women out in front of their house or the place where they worked, actually scrubbing the outsideof their building – to keep it clean!  I don’t think I’ve ever seen that any place else where I’ve lived.  We stayed in a little inn there, which was called the DeWitte Holevoet, and I think, as I recall, we even ate there.

Hotel DeWitte in Scherpenzeel – 1948

From there we went into Amsterdam, and toured around there.  I think we even took a boat on some of the canals in Amsterdam, and went up to the Zuiderzee

Wikipedia states:   The Zuiderzee Works (Dutch: Zuiderzeewerken) is a man-made system of dams and dikes, land reclamation and water drainage work, in total the largest hydraulic engineering project undertaken by the Netherlands during the twentieth century. The project involved the damming of the Zuiderzee, a large, shallow inlet of the North Sea, and the reclamation of land in the newly enclosed water using polders. Its main purposes are to improve flood protection and create additional land for agriculture.

The American Society of Civil Engineers declared these works, together with the Delta Works in the South-West of the Netherlands, as among the Seven Wonders of the Modern World.

One of the bridges that went into the city was Vollendam and was still damaged from World War II.  While there, we learned that Vollendam was known as the place where many people married their first cousin.

I remember seeing many people, especially out in the fields, wearing wooden shoes.  While visiting the city of Delft, we visited a shop where they made wooden shoes. Some of the shoes were painted, probably for tourists.  My parents purchased a pair for me and another pair for my sister, Emily.  I still have mine.

Taken on our 2015 Viking River Cruise – Kinderdijk, Holland

Some place in Holland we took a tour through a cheese factory, and had free samples of Gouda cheese.

Gouda Cheese – credit Google Search and GourmetSleuth

~~~~~~~~~~To Be Continued~~~~~~~~~~

  Link to current day Hotel DeWitte https://www.tripadvisor.com/Hotel_Review-g1602352-d2162180-Reviews-De_Witte_Holevoet-Scherpenzeel_Gelderland_Province.html      

Judy is living in Central Florida with her retired U.S. Air Force husband of 50+ years. Born in Dallas, Texas, she grew up in the Southwestern United States.She met her husband at their church, where he was attending the university in her town. After college and seminary, he entered the Air Force, and their adventures began.They lived in eight of our United States, and spent six years in Europe, where their oldest daughter was born. She was a stay-at-home mom for many years

Tags: A military man remembers, Amsterdam