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Dancing with the departed

That evening we are treated to a walking tour of the city by author Wim Willemse. He explains that Vollenhove was once a port on the Zuider Zee, a prosperous Hanseatic League city with an important fish industry, and later a peat industry. 600 years later, fleeting fortune, the sea is turned...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on June 24, 2007 from Vollenhove, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Heaven



Soup

Today, Polly and Mia and I stay on the boat. The girls are exhausted, Polly is more resolute than unaffected by her accident, and I am loathe to leave them. The others set out and we sail forth, toward the new town of Zeewolde through a light soup of mist, past bevies of swans and columns of...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on June 24, 2007 from Zeewolde, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Heaven



Dissolution

It is our last day on bicycles. The boat drops us off on a small dock near Almere-Haven, we wade through a throng of kids playing voetbal, and soon find ourselves cycling through exurbations of slowly increasing density. The bike paths are pleasantly bordered by mature treerows, we play hide...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on June 24, 2007 from Almere-Haven, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Heaven



Graffiti

We enter the city. Beautiful graffiti, skateboard parks, large housing complexes, modern architecture…traffic. We reach the docks where we first met the boat and our bike trip is done. We sleep on the boat one last night after a walk along the canals and through the red-light district, after...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on June 24, 2007 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Heaven



sick...walk...sleep

Mia is sick, and from the States we hear that they all caught something here as well. My cousin Peter and my aunt Nell drive us to the airport, we get through the formalities, we walk 37.85 kilometers to the gate (thank god for those moving walkways), and finally board the plane. Mia is asleep...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on June 24, 2007 from Amsterdam, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Heaven



Reunion

It is the morning of our family reunion, a big barbeque out on the lawns of a formal mansion that my cousin Peter operates as a conference center and event locale. He is both exceedingly professional and impressively low-key, my cousin, and he has flawlessly arranged both our stay here in...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on June 24, 2007 from Doorn, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Heaven



Things

Polly’s purple lump is moving south, descending towards her left eye, and I harbor ignorant concerns about what happens when they collide. We head north to Giethoorn, tourist mecca. The day is hot and sunny, and I will end the day with the sunburn I never got in the Sahara. At Jonen we...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on June 24, 2007 from Vollenhove, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Heaven



Medieval Interlude

Stalling for time I suspect, and also eager to escape an impending downpour, we visit the castle at Muiden. Former home of another treacherously assassinated nobleman, it is now filled with displays (this is how they poured hot burning oil on the heads of invaders…) and medieval video games...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on June 24, 2007 from Muiden, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Heaven



Rock Mobster

The kids are tired, Polly's purple lump has swallowed her eye (oh my!) and today the Tucson clan stays on the boat. The clouds are back to help us with that sunburn, and we set out this morning for Sint Jansklooster (Saint John’s Parish), Zwartsluis (Black Locks, for the locks on the Black...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on June 24, 2007 from Zwartsluis, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Heaven



Kiss

We found my brother’s family in some souvenir shop, (matte, very wide landscape postcards: irresistible), followed the three glasses of wine of just an hour ago with a couple of beers on the main square, and after dinner on the boat got a walking tour of the city from Bram. I couldn’t get...

permalink written by  roel krabbendam on June 24, 2007 from Kampen, Netherlands
from the travel blog: Heaven



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