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Netherlands and Paris tour 2018 – Part 4

Part 4

Friday, 28 September 2018

Exploring locally – Hilversum museums

Our host took my wife to IKEA. I understand IKEA to be a shop selling furniture and stuff.  Fearing that my wife might come home with a double bed or something that would be guaranteed to not fit into our luggage, I decided to explore a bit of Hilversum by bicycle to calm my nerves down.

Pretty much everyone can ride a bicycle, but doing so whilst obeying rules is a real novel experience. I decided to rather stick to quiet streets and watch what fellow cyclists do. I also ran a quick check on Google on the things you should not do while cycling in the Netherlands. And off I went.

These big bikes are very comfortable, but if Lance Armstrong had to do the Tour de France with such a bicycle he would probably have become a plumber or something on the side to put food on the table.

I am happy to report that things went rather well. One interesting observation is that there is no need to stick to smaller roads. In fact, it is on the smaller roads where you may find yourself sharing the road with cars. On the big roads, on the other hand, you have your own cycle lane.  One must just remember to stay on the lane on the right hand side of the road and to go around a circle anti-clockwise.

My first stop was the Hilversum museum.  There I found a nude art exhibition by Carla van de Puttelaar.  I really only found that out only after I entered.  From there I headed for the Instituut vir Beeld en Geluid.  This is a cultural archive and museum that collects information on the Dutch audio-visual heritage.

I spent quite a few hours there and had great fun!

They have a number of interactive activities where you can be the star in your show, for instance being the driver of a car in a car chase scene in a movie, or reading the news.  Recordings hereof are then sent to your email where it is stored for thirty days.

For my navigation I was reliant on Google Maps, but only on the voice prompts, of course.  I would be looking at a sudden death if I were to look on my phone’s screen while staying out of trouble with the bicycle.  However, picture (or try listening to it in your imagination) the English voice prompts and accent on street names such as Gijsbrecth van Amstel street, Roeitjiesweg, and Burgemeester Gülcherlaan.  I missed quite a number of turnoffs, because I was looking for a street name that sounded like the voice prompts.

 

Saturday, 29 September

Naarden Vesting

The Naarden Fortress city is built in a star format with fortified walls and a moat around it to keep attackers out.  Napoleon’s brother, however, apparently did manage to breach the fortress, but that was a while ago. These days you can go there without running the risk of being held at bay by the locals.  One can do a boat trip around the city in the moat for a small fee.

As with many of these places, being there of course makes it impossible to get a view of the place.  Below is a 3d picture from Google Maps. The colour scheme makes it look a bit strange, but the two variations of dark green are the water masses surrounding the city, providing the required security against breaching.

[Source:  Imagery © 2018 Google, Map data © Google]

This is one of the entrances to the Vesting, viewed from the inside.  Note the ground wall behind the building.

In what used to be the court house (or rather the mayor’s house) a local gave us the historical background. One room appeared to have been the court room. As this visit commemorated our 30^th anniversary, and we were in fact visiting our friend who was then the (nearly qualified) minister who did our marriage sermon, we did a quick refresher of our vows.

From there we paid a brief visit to the 18^th century Kasteel Groeneveld.

That evening we had a braai. Rib eye steak on the bone (which sells for roughly 10 times the price we get this back home), salmon for a starter and lamb and pork sausage home made by our host. A good evening was had by all.

 

Sunday, 30 September

Kinderdijk

Kinderdijk is an area some 70km’s away from Hilversum with 19 working windmills that (along with more modern pumping mechanisms) pump water out from low lying areas.

A rather entertaining presentation is offered, giving a bit of background to the project.   Thereafter we boarded a boat that took us down the river between the mils.

I found these mills as problematic as the Eiffel tower: every few seconds you find a new angle that you think would make a better picture.

[Click on Part 5 below to read further]…