An Adventure in the Historic Triangle

We started bright and early today for a day trip to three towns north of Amsterdam. First we took a train to Hoorn. There we boarded an old fashioned steam train for an hour and a quarter. The train took us to Medemblik where we boarded a boat for an hour and a half trip to Enkhuizen. The boat was on a huge lake separated from the north sea by a dike.

Having now seen actual dikes in Holland, I don't understand how that boy stuck his finger in one to save his town from a flood. Needless to say, this kind of dike is not what I imagined as a kid.

The scenery was beautiful. Very flat with lots of sheep, cows, ponies and wind mills. We saw a couple of old fashioned ones but most lots of the new kind, We past fields and fields of tulips. Unfortunately, they had all been harvested so all we saw were the remnant leaves. It must have been gorgeous a couple of weeks ago.

The boat ride was lovely. It was clean, decorated nicely, comfortable and big enough that you didn't feel like you were crowded. We had sandwiches on it for lunch which were surprisingly good.

Enkhuizen is a living history museum. In the 70s they moved about a hundred different buildings to form a reenactment of a Dutch fishing village. It was not a bit cheesy. They had a few people to explain things but you didn't have to feel uncomfortable talking to an adult pretending to be back in history. There were animals, shops, some demonstrations, etc. There were a few cafes and shops that sold souvenirs but it was all tasteful and definitely not a Disney World or Colonial Williamsburg. Everything here seems to done comfortably and unpretensiously. The people are friendly but not overly so,

We took a regular train back to Amsterdam and then a trolley/tram to our hotel. Walked to dinner at a tiny Italian restaurant and are now glad to be relaxing in the hotel.

We leave Amsterdam tomorrow for Zeeland on the North Sea. We'll rent a car to drive there and are considering stops at The Hague, Delft, and a huge tulip park. I'll miss Amsterdam but I feel like we have seen most all of it. I feel so lucky to have this adventure!