Europe 2014: Dordrecht.

Today's distance: 16km (10 Miles)
You are probably thinking, "What, only 10 miles!. They must have gone soft". Maybe, but we did that just walking around Dordrecht today. We left our Bike Friday's in the storage room.. We picked the best day weather wise to do this exploration, with bright blue skies outside when we left the B&B. Unfortunately it was not the best day of the week to do this since most museums, art shops and other tourist sites are all apparently closed on Mondays. A shame since we wanted to visit some of the places my mother had recommended. My grandfather has some of his paintings in the Dordt's Museum.

Boring warning!...Most of the pics and narrative today about Dordrecht is probably only of interest to my family, so we won't be hurt if our other friends out there decide to skip todays blog..

Started off the day with a delicious Dutch breakfast compliments of Lucienne who left a tray outside our door. We did enjoy walking around the old part of the city on a relatively early Monday morning. Went past the old harbor and eyed all the different boats there. All sizes, types and ages. Most with sturdy steel hulls to tackle the tough waterways around Holland and the North Sea.

We passed the little museum that had more of the history of Dordrecht during WWII (1940-1945). It too was unfortunately closed the day. My mother wrote a wonderful little book about her experiences growing up around Dordrecht, especially during that war when she was a little girl. Holland was occupied early on by the Germans until the US and Canadian soldiers liberated the country in 1945. Some very fierce fighting took place in Holland, especially near the city of Arnhem that was featured in the movie: "A bridge too far".
We visited the "Grote Kerk" (Big Church) which too was closed on Monday. It was one of my mother's recommendations to climb the tower to the top. We decided to come back tomorrow when it opened at 10am on our way out on our route to Den Haag (The Hague). It is supposed to have the same Dutch Bible that we have in our home in N. Carolina

We hiked across town to where my mother lived most her life and I was born. We saw lots of kids out on their bicycles today and wondered whether it was a holiday or the school year had not started yet. We were told later that this part of Holland had the latest school start date. The north and east of the country had already started. It is one of those things that is strictly regulated by the government to make sure that the whole country is not shut down by everyone going on vacation at the same time. And..... the Dutch like most other Europeans absolutely love taking their vacations! No "Staycations" allowed! It is one of the big differences culturally with the US.

Had no difficulty finding my mother's old house on the Christiaan de Wetstraat, right across from an elementary school. We could see the owner peeking outside the window through the curtains wondering what the heck we were doing out there on this tiny street taking some pictures. I decided to ring the door bell and find out more about the house. A pleasant young lady answer the door and briefly gave us more of the history. I told her I was born in the room upstairs, behind those blue curtains 58 years ago. She seemed surprised by that. My grandfather, the painter, had a fancy shed in the backyard for his "attelier" where he did his art work. She told me that the shed was removed by the previous owner to make more playroom for their kids. The house was also now for sale..

Walked further to visit where my father was born and lived through the war before moving to the old part of the city on the Wijstraat. Stopped to buy a couple "gevulde koeken" (large filled almond cookies; also on my "must eat" list) in a neighborhood bakery and sat on a bench in the Wermestein park to enjoy them and watch some of the little kids playing around.

We ended the day buying a bottle of nice red wine, Dutch cheese and heading back to our wonderful B&B apartment to relax. We met Wout, Lucienne's partner who showed us around their music workshop. Really fascinating!

Ok, I exceeded the quota of words allowed on the blog for today so I will sign off and leave you with some pics (sorry, no videos today)....

Our obligatory food shot of the day... Breakfast!

View down the harbor towards the Big Church

The Old Port

These are the signs for bicyclists. The top white ones direct you to the nearby towns. The middle one indicates the number of next node on a special bicycle only map. The bottom one indicates that this is part of one of the Dutch national bicycle routes.. Who needs a GPS!!

Linda on the other side of the Old Port

View down one of the harbor channels and an old draw bridge

House across the draw bridge. Built in 1658

Old steam boat built in 1893

Linda and Pieter Boele

Traditional Dutch sailboat. Those are retractable keels on the side for shallow waters.

WWII museum. Closed for the day

The Grote Kerk in the distance

Some of the older row house leaned more over the street. Mainly to make it easier to haul heavy stuff via rope and tackle to the top floor. Also so that they could dump waste water onto the street and not splash the front door.

The Grote Kerk and unusual clear blue Dutch skies.

We were apparently trespassing on construction work trying to get around the Grote Kerk. Note all the bricks that have to be laid...

...by hand of course. You know that job will never be taken by a machine.

City Hall, where my parents were married.

Cornelis De Witt statue. A Dutch politician and mayor of Dordrecht in 1650.

Another neat old row house building

Another view.. Built in 1608.

There are many canals behind these row homes.

Walter at his grandparents home where he was also born in the upstairs room with blue curtains...

An pic of the same house many years earlier (not taken with an IPhone). Walt is the one in the Peewee Herman outfit leaning against the window ledge. Walt's mother is the 2nd on the left. My aunt & uncle are at each end. Oma & Opa in the middle with sisters, brother, and cousin.