Tag Archives: Amsterdam

Random Memories of Germany

13 Dec

WIESBADEN – PART 4

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

On our first trip to Holland, we took in the Keukenhof Gardens and their magnificent flowers – mostly tulips, but others as well.  I saw my first Amaryllis there – and couldn’t believe how tall those flower were!

Judy by an exhibit of Amaryllis – 1968

And the different varieties and colors of the tulips were amazing!  For some reason, I really liked the ones that were nearly black – such as Ace of Spades, and Black Beauty.  Wow! 

Ace of Spades

Black Beauty

Because it was April, many of the flowers that grew outside (rather than in the hothouses) and the trees were not in full bloom yet.

But the landscape of the gardens was still beautiful.

We stopped in Leiden at the Treslong Experimental Gardens.  Beautiful.

Treslong Experimental Gardens

Our last visit there was during the girls Spring Break from school in April, and it was cold and wet in Holland.  We almost didn’t go to Keukenhof, but were eventually glad we went, as it was actually warmer within the Gardens.  I guess all the trees provided some protection from the weather!

Later, my Mother came to visit us in Wiesbaden, and we took her to Holland.  Her visit was in May, and Keukenhof Gardens was in full bloom.

Mother (left in the red suit) in the Gardens

Much to our surprise, we learned that many Dutch people had to eat the tulip bulbs to live in 1944-1945 at the tail end of the war.  From a website from The Laidback Gardener:  Most bulbs such as hyacinths and daffodils are toxic to humans, but tulip bulbs are edible if they are carefully prepared.

And from the AmsterdamTulip Museum:  The situation in Amsterdam had grown hopeless, and in December a freeze started that would last for several months. Starvation became extremely common, and many perished. It was here, for the first time, that Tulip bulbs were eaten, along several other agricultural products not typically considered edible (such as sugar beets). 

Growers, unable to export their bulbs, began to sell them as food and market the high starch content. Doctors even began to provide recipes on how to prepare bulbs

After learning all this, we were amazed to see the fields and fields of tulips growing.  It was quite heart-warming to see how the tulip “industry” survived.

Fields of Tulips, picture taken from inside the windmill

One of our favorite places to visit in Holland was den Haag (The Hague).  And in den Haag is Madurodam.  A VERY favorite!!  From the Netherlands website:  

Madurodam provides a perfect combination of an amusement park, historical heritage and world-class nature.  With more than 5,500 miniature trees and 55,000 flower bed plants blossoming all season, the park is known for its scenic beauty.  We spent many hours going through this delightful park with its miniatures, built 1:25 scale.  Amazing!  It was a favorite of our daughters, as well.  We took my Mother there during one of her visits.  We can’t remember whether or not we ever took Fred’s parents there.  

Miniature Cathedral

Miniature Schipol Airport

Miniature windmills and canals

We stayed in a B&B on that trip with the girls.  We always enjoyed doing that on our jaunts around Europe.  The family was lovely, and the accommodations were wonderful!  I had made some chocolate chip cookies for our trip, and we shared them with the family.  I just remember telling them to come visit us in Heidelberg.  But their reply was that, thanks, but no thanks.  They would “stay” in Holland.  There was still a bit of animosity toward Germany from World War 2.

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

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 .

  Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing. Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.

After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins as well as a great-grandson. She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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Fred Remembers~Part 6

30 Sep

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 Zuiderzee Works in the Netherlands turned the dangerous Zuiderzee, a shallow inlet of the North Sea, into the tame IJsselmeer, and created 1650 km² of land. Credit Google Search.

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      

 

 

 

JUDYJudy 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
 
Judy has always been involved with music, both playing the piano and singing.
Always interested in exercise, she was an aerobic dancing instructor, as well as a piano teacher for many years, and continues to faithfully exercise at home.
 
After moving to Central Florida, she served as a church secretary for nearly nine years.Her main hobby at this point in time is scanning pictures and 35mm slides into the computer. She also enjoys scrapbooking.
 
She and her husband have two married daughters and four grandchildren, including grandtwins.
She and her husband enjoy the Disney parks as often as possible.

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The Cruise of a Lifetime~Part 1

31 Jan

SUNDAY MEMORIES

Judy Wills

JUDY

 

 

PART 1 – GETTING THERE

We had been investigating a Viking River Cruise in Europe for a while, but decided they were just too expensive. However, Fred was able to find a really….REALLY….good deal, and we snatched it up. We were scheduled for November 5 – November 20, 2015.

Our flight was scheduled for departure on Thursday, November 5, at 4:20 p.m., but it was delayed until 5:06 p.m. with mechanical problems. We finally boarded the plane hoping to leave soon. The plane started to back out but the pilot said the engines were doing the same thing they were doing before, so he took it back to the terminal. Fred checked with the Delta people, and they said our connection in Detroit would wait for us.

We were delayed again when we entered the plane and then deplaned a third time.   Fred then checked with the international Delta people and they got us on a Lufthansa leaving for Frankfurt, Germany at about 8:20 p.m. – about 20 minutes from then! That was four hours after we were originally scheduled to leave. They said our flight from Detroit would NOT have waited that long for us. We had been given some really bad information. We were also quite glad we had carried all our luggage with us!

After arriving in Frankfurt on Friday morning, we boarded another Lufthansa to Amsterdam. We finally arrived in Amsterdam about 2:30 p.m. Fortunately, the Viking people were there picking up other late-arriving guests. They thought we had decided to cancel, and just not come. We took a Viking bus to the ship, the Viking Gefjon (pronounced gef’- ee-on) and found our state room, number 325.

 

These ships are called “long ships” for a good reason!

 

After a late lunch buffet in the Aquavit Lounge Terrace,

 

we rested some, then tried to email but had no success with that. They had a computer station, but the laptops were “International” versions, with some of the keys rearranged, and with international symbols that we weren’t accustomed to. It was a bit nerve-wracking to try to type any kind of message!

11

 

We had no time to take in anything in Amsterdam, much to our regret. However, we have been to Amsterdam many times during our times living in Germany, so we didn’t feel too cheated.

The Chef’s Dinner was in the restaurant. There is only one restaurant on board, and all meals are eaten there, and together. Most tables are set for six people, with a few large enough for eight or 10. Our table mates that evening were from Tucson, Arizona, and from Pennsylvania. There was no assigned seating, and we were able to meet quite a few of our fellow shipmates during the cruise. After we had ordered our meal, Fred left the ship and quickly went to a corner store to get some items we couldn’t carry on the airplane.

We went to bed early, as it had been a long day.

Oh and by the way, as I was getting off the last flight in Amsterdam, overloaded with bags, overbalanced and fell getting off the airplane and into the jetway. So far, no lingering effects from that.

 

 

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