Our first stop was in the seaport town of Sneek (sounds like Snake), where Kate's great grandfather Dirk Canrinus was born in 1858. We weren't really expecting much, but Sneek is a great town! One of the main drags parallels the biggest canal.
The old town area is full of ancient buildings, many dating to the 1600's and some even dating back to the 1300's.
St. Martin's Church
City HallThe town was quite lively on this Saturday afternoon. Lots of people, lots of bikes, lots of hanging out in cafes.
And for you "Pulp Fiction" fans, it's true what John Travolta says. The Dutch really do eat french fries with gobs of mayonnaise.
We happened upon the town's only shop that makes and sells drabbelkoeken, a concoction of flour and sugar fried on a grill with dribbled butter. The baker said she's the fourth generation of her family to produce drabbbelkeoken at this site, where she also lives. I like them quite a bit. I feel they're well worth having diabetes.
We got to talking with the baker about Kate's ancestors and relatives, and she offered to look it up in her phone book to see if there were any likely relatives in Sneek.
It turned out there are a world record FOUR Canrinuses listed in the town's phone lisitings.
Walking around town was interrupted now and then by one of the facts of life in Dutch living: the draw bridge.
Finally we made our way out of Sneek to complete the day's journey, but we expect to return to track down those relatives.
We reached our hotel in Edam (like the cheese) at about 6. It was a pleasant surprise, because it's defiinitely a budget hotel -- costs about the same as a total dump where we stayed last year in Times Square -- but it's beautiful. Here's the scene immediately outside our room.
And here's our next door neighbor.
After we got settled we had a nice dinner in our hotel's restaurant.
And now to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment