Oudewater and Munster

Well, we wrapped up our stay with my Dutch relatives on Wed morning. I guess I haven't told you about the rest of that visit. On the night of the second day (after the visit to the farms and the windmills) we went out to a fantastic dinner on the banks of the Rhine, where we watched the boats go by. Gert and Trees' son Ed came to dinner as well as to the windmills with us. He helped translate, and made communication generally easier on everyone. We really appreciated it. Actually, the whole family was very helpful with translating. Everyday one of the two brothers (Ed and Rene) were around to help us out. They were great tour guides and also great fun.
The day after the sight seeing tour and the dinner on the river Adrian and I went for a 50 km bike ride with Rene and his wife Irma. We went to Gouda and saw all kinds of cheese :) actually, no joke, the main street of Gouda is lined with cheese. There are hundreds of yellow cheese wheels hanging from lines over the shoppers wandering along below. Besides cheese Gouda has a very beautiful and famous town hall, with a clock that puts on a little show of dancing wooden people every hour. We also went to a beautiful church, with the biggest and most ornate stained glass windows I have ever seen. There were about 50 windows, all with names describing the bible scene they depicted. There was even a small window with Dutch family crests on it. I found the Van Rooyen crest, and took a forbidden photo of it.
From Gouda we kept on the Schroonhoven, the silver city. This is the only place in Holland where people can learn to be silver smiths... and also the most affordable place to buy beautiful silver jewelery. We wandered around admiring the beautiful sculptures, scissors, baby toys, antique rings and Rolex watches (made of gold, with diamonds around the face, yours for only 27,000 euros).
The bike ride to these towns was the best part of the trip (although the destinations were great too). We saw all kinds of animals and fantastically beautiful country side. We saw a few groups of baby swans, hares, all shapes and sizes of cows, sheep, horses and goats and more birds then I can count.
It was tiring, but wonderful.
When we got home dinner was waiting for us (at rene's house), and we ate with the family. It was a great day.
Yesterday we left Oudewater around 2:30, after going to the rope museum (the main industry in Oudewater for many years... and actually a really interesting museum) and going to the weigh house where supposed witches were weighed to see if they were guilty of practicing the dark arts. People blamed everything on witch craft. If it hailed, or a cow died, or a child got sick, it was blamed on witch craft. Around 50,000 people (men, women and children) were killed during the witch hunts. Oudewater was considered an honest town, so they were given the right to award certificates of "normal weight" to those accused of witch craft. Witches were supposed to be very light, because heavy people would break the broom stick.
Adrian, Rene and I all got weighted on the giant scales, and were given our certificates. It was really fun, the woman who runs the museum would cross examine us as we were being weighed, and ask us if we like walking in the woods, or ever use herbs in our cooking. Fun way to spend the morning.
Gert and Trees drove us back to Amsterdam (so generous!) where we got the train to Musnter... we thought. First we got there and were told our train had been bumped up, and would now leave in 5 min. So we ran to the platform... and it didn't come. An announcement was made in Dutch, and everyone else on our platform moved off. We followed, and asked a man if he was taking our train. He said yes, so on we got, none the wiser. It WAS the right train, for about 3 stops. Then were were supposed to get off and transfer, but no one had ever told us that. So, we went 1/2 hour in the wrong direction, and ended up missing our connection to Rhine, and then to Munster. We finally did make it, 3 hours late. We got going just fine, once we figured out our route, but then our train to Munster was canceled, because some students here were protesting Nuclear Waste, which I guess the trains transport. They had tied themselves to the tracks, so everything going in that direction was diverted.
So, we are here. Ben had a wonderful dinner and wine ready for us when we finally got in, it was exactly what we needed.
Today we went on a little walking tour of Munster with Ben and Vivian. We saw some beautiful cathedrals, and saw the city. Adrian found another dream guitar, so we will see how that pans out.
Munster is about the size of Halifax. It's a university town, so there are tonnes of students, thus, lots of protests. We saw one today, about tuition. The students were pissed that tuition is 500 euro/semester. I have no sympathy.
Right now Adrian and Ben are playing backgammon, and I'm about to go take a nap.
Love to All
Emma