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Ihave been traveling to Europe with Andreas for the past four years and Rietberg has become my home from home (ein zweites zuhause). After bicycling in the Netherlands and each year discovering new vistas to capture the imagination, its nice to come „home“ to a familiar place, have the same bed to sleep in for more than a couple of nights and emerse myself into the local tempo. This year our apartment is in the center of the newly „pedestrianized“ down town core that is largely made up of half timbered houses built in, during and after the 30 year war in the mid 1600s. Our building is itself a restored and renovated half timbered house. We have the ground floor suite with a large kitchen/living room opening onto a small enclosed patio garden. Like most houses in Germany this also has no air conditioning so heat management will be a challenge as the house is orientated in a west-east direction. The bedroom faces west and the living room east. At least we are on the ground floor and do not have to deal with over heating under the roof. But I am getting ahead of myself….

When we first arrived back in the home town area we stayed for two nights with Friederika, Andreas‘s next youngest sibling. It was at the peak of the heat wave so we spent those first couple of days very quietly. FIFA kept us all company!.

On Sunday we moved into the apartment and Monday it was off to Andreas‘s childhood home, Lipperode to observe the near final event of the local Schützenfest. This is a multi day festival that replicates itself in all the towns, large and small in this part of Germany. It has its origins in the 14th century when towns and villages needed to recruit local militias to protect the town and inhabitants from marauders.Tradition has it that at one time a man shot an eagle that was attacking a child. Hence the culmination of the long weekend is a ceremonial „Vogelschießen“ (Bird shooting) contest. The „bird“ is a wooden Eagle mounted high on a target board. The contest is highly ritualized and involves turn taking using a rifle mounted on a shooting frame that restricts the scope of movement of the gun. Within the bird itself are special target areas that when shot off triggers cheers and an opportunity for one or more of the brass bands to give a rousing rendition of one of the many lively marching tunes. It’s also an opportunity to run to the beer stand and refill the glasses. This event happens on the last Monday in June in Lipperode. It is preceded by weekend events that include marching bands that wake up the community on the first day, honor ceremonies at the cemetery to commemorate war time losses, street marching with marching bands that move around the village „Picking up“ the current Schützenfest officials and bringing them to the central festivity hall. All of this is accompanied by neighborhood fellowship and beer drinking. A couple of years ago I was able to see one of these parades. The marching band arrived at a house all decked out with garlands and flags indicating the residence of the current Schützenfest king and queen. As soon as the band arrived and finished it song, the band an attending marching squads dissolved into the garden areas and dragged out crates of beer. As the participants awaited their refueling, speeches were offered acknowledging the current King and Queen. On the word from the Company leader the band and marchers were dismissed and the beer was quickly consumed at the Royal front door. In relatively short order the band and marchers quickly reconvened to march to the next „Royal“ household and the process was repeated. Within minutes, the neighbors who were not marching swooped in to clean up bottles and within 20 minutes everything was cleaned up as if nothing had happened. At some time in the afternoons there are full gala parades with smartly dressed men in their uniforms (in Lipperode its a black jacket, white shirt and pants and a black top hat. The hat has a yellow and red band around it and marchers also have a yellow and red sash). The women are dressed in beautiful ball gowns that are purchase new each year. Later in the evenings there are balls (I’ve not been to those as bicycle gear is not de rigueur).

Today was the first day quietly at home, getting groceries, visiting one of Andreas‘s other sisters, Sabina and husband Freddy, and trying to expand my German vocabulary using a multisensory approach… no not wine this time:

Tap water has at least three words: the common one: das Leitungwasser (literally pipe plumbing water); Gänswasser (geesewater, because that is what they drink) and Kranwasser (Crane water, presumably because the faucet looks like a crane)

Just as we were leaving Groningen, we saw the canal bridge open and a beautiful modern version of a traditional flat bottom Dutch sailing boat passed through. It appease to be a “Lemsteraak (Visserman)” design with the distinctive low profile living quarters tucked below the flat foredeck. If any of you are tempted, I found a link to a company that can design a racing version of one of these beautiful vessels: hoekdesign.com. Happy sailing and don’t forget to invite me on the inaugural sail ;).

Our next stop was just east of Groningen in Westerbroek. The most striking thing about this area was the amount of ship building going on. Just down the road from our hotel we could see a huge transporter ship being built. Again with Google help it turns out that we were on a historically significant European maritime hub. The Winschoterdiep Canal stretches from Groningen, through Westerbroek to Hoogezand. It was initially built to transport peat in the 16th century. Interestingly the ship yards in the area are working together under the umbrella of The Green Maritime Coalition to pioneer zero-emission commercial shipping. It would take me too long right now to dive into the realities of this, but once again I am struck by the profound innovative spirit of Netherlanders. We missed it this year, but hopefully we will give ourselves a little more time for this area next year and visit the living museum “Historische Scheepswerf Wolthuis” in Sappemeer. Volunteers apparently demonstrate forging and woodworking associated with the traditional Dutch iron hulls.

Our hotel for the next two nights was the elegant Vand der Valk…with air conditioning! The weather was starting to warm up and having a cool place to chill was really appreciated.

The following day we took a short bicycle ride to Hortus Botanicus (botanical gardens in Haren). Its centerpiece is its Chinese garden, which is one of the few Ming Dynasty Chinese gardens built outside of china using Chinese materials and designed by Chinese garden designers. To my great surprise one of the others is in Montreal which we visited last year.

I spent most of the time sketching a delightfully small bridge over a Lilly pond. An enormous carp kept distracting me as it appeared to be trying to “walk” or eat its way across the Lilly pads – bizarre! Andreas managed to get some superb photos of these Lilly pads and I’m looking forward to trying to capture them in watercolor when I get back to AZ and have access to a full palate of colours and proper watercolor paper.

Towards the end of the afternoon we enjoyed a glass of fresh ginger tea looking over another pond of lilies. A pair of coots kept us entertained with their nest building antics. We assumed that the female stayed on the nest arranging the materials her partner brought her from the pond. At one time he wrestled mightily to pull up a prized leaf. In the process the stalk became rather chewed up and slimy looking. He paddled it proudly back to his mate. Initially she seemed quite pleased until the slimy stuff ended up all over her feathers. She managed to trim the slimy stalk off and discard it and then spent the next 5-10 minutes preening and cleaning up. The male disappeared… What a joy it is to be able to suspend reality and emerse ourselves in the realities of a couple of coots…. OK I’m waiting for your comebacks on that one.

The next two days we made a leisurely trip to Leer, Germany, overnighting at the border town of Bad Nieuweschans. It is on this section that we saw the full effects of the storm from a couple of days before. It looked as though a strange tornado had ripped through the area. Selective trees were downed but neighboring ones appeared untouched. Some industrious folks had been out clearing the roads and bicycle paths except for one:

As we approached Leer, I once again started feeling a little anxious about cycling on city streets looking for our accommodation. I needn’t have worried. The route was pretty straight forward. We stopped for lunch before figuring out exactly where our accommodation would be for the night. We spotted an unusual lunch place that also sold hand made shoes from Portugal, the Schuhcafé. The tasty table d’hôte featured an open faced toasted sandwich with goat cheese, chorizo walnuts and a lavender-honey dressing with oregano and balsamic vinegar. Finding gastronomic treasures like this is one of the joys of meandering. We stayed there for quite a while and I was able to sketch the upper part of the very impressive town hall building that was just infront of a very informal maritime museum.

One of the things that I learned that day was that England is not the tea capital of the world, not China or India either. It’s here in Leer. They have a tea ritual that involves rock sugar at the bottom of the cup, hot black East Frisian tea is poured over the sugar causing it to crack and then heavy cream is poured on top to create a cloudy layer. It sounds a lot like how we made Irish coffee in England! Unfortunately the museum was closed the day we arrived. Another item on the list for next year.

Making funny signs seems to be popular in this part of Europe. Leer had a couple that are worth keeping.

The last surprise was our accommodation. It was stunning and would be a fantastic place for a multi day stay. Charming, well equipped, with a view onto the Ems.

That’s all for now. We are back in our home base town of Rietberg. We’ve just moved into the apartment that will be home for a the next month.

Leaving Harlingen was pretty easy. We found the dyke bicycle path quickly and could enjoy more of the Waddenzee. Somehow Waddenzee sounds so much more romantic than mudflats! Every 6 hours tidal action reveals the shallow mudflats. Needless to say the bird life continues to be amazing. In addition to birds, sheep and public art dot the landscape.

Finding interesting places to stop for a bite is another joyful adventure. On this day we found a place tucked in behind the massive dyke workings. Andreas tried what turns out to be a local dish: “Groningen mosterdsoep” – Mustard soup. It is a rich soup with a roux base. The aromatics are sweet leeks, onions and garlic. Heavy cream or crème fraîche gives it its silky feel. It is garnished with Smokey bacon. The mustard is stone ground coarse unsweetened Dutch mustard. A bit heavy for me, but I would like to try making it this coming winter time back home in AZ. I opted for their vegan vegetable (zucchini) soup with coconut milk. It was tasty but for my taste I would have added a little more coconut milk to increase the silky feel. Next door to this charming restaurant, which was clearly on the locals’ bicycle route, a mother/daughter (I’m guessing) team was painting the upstairs windows. It very much reminded me of my teenage years when, for a few years, I loved to get out the ladder and paint windows. I remember being delighted by transforming the tired, chipping paint with a bright new coat with crisp lines against the windows.

None the less, once we were checked in and acknowledged the stylized OysterCatcher art on the bedroom wall, we went in search of something for supper. Bistro chairs on the sidewalk with small groups of people enjoying the evening was a clue that we might have found our refreshment for the evening. Sure enough, Pizza and a bottle of Primitivo (a traditional wine from the Puglia region at the “heel” of Italy and the forerunner of the Zinfandel of California) did the trick. Andreas is a wealth of information regarding wines and over the past four years my palate has become more sensitized to the nuances of wines. I’m still very far from being able to recognize wines by their taste, but I enjoy exploring the aroma and taste notes as they change from first opening the bottle to draining the last drop. Primitivo was no exception. We also had a charming waiter from Italy who was excited to tell us that he had cruised around many of the coastal US areas.

The next morning we headed south east towards Groningen. My version of how we should get there took us on a bit of a detour, but fortunately our discussions about where we were were overheard by someone in their garden She popped her head over the bush fence and helped us get back on the more scenic canal bike route. The detour turned out to be not a complete waste of time. The little town of Eastrum was preparing for a weekend Western event. Big posters of saloons and western scenes dotted the Main Street.

As we turned inland, the vegetation and architecture changed. The canals were lined with Burdock, and some of the farmhouses took on truely mansionesque proportions.

Another interesting construction detail that I have noticed over the past few years is the combined use of thatch and clay tiles. Thatch is often used over the main section of the barn for its insulation qualities. Also the source material is very much locally available. It requires more maintenance and doesn’t last as long (25-40 years). The clay tiles are used over living areas as they last for decades (50-100 years).

The barn (Rump) is huge to accommodate all the livestock of the farm when North Sea storms blow in. It also houses all the animal feed. Thanks to Google, I learned about a particularly intriguing part of the barn architecture, the Uilenbord (Owl board). It’s the decorative triangular structure on the ridge of the roof that provides protection from wind and rain for owls that hunt mice and other small animals that are associated with farm life.

The house in the picture above epitomizes all of these features. In older structures of this type that I saw, the barn would be at least 2-3 times longer than the house. Later in the day I saw permutations where the neck disappeared and the house became a solid 2-3 story affair with a grandiose entrance. It seemed as though the sleeping cow‘s head has grown to engulf the neck. Perhaps these places have evolved into „business retreats“ for team building exercises??? Despite on going reduction in interest in local farming, this area seems to be maintaining its local feel and there appears to be great pride in maintaining and restoring these magnificent iconic structures. I sincerely hope bigAgro does not come in and destroy this superb ecosystem.

By early afternoon we were getting close to our next overnight stop. We were anxious to get out of the sun for a while and enjoy a coffee and lunch. Stopping spots were thin on the ground this day but we did eventually find a charming bakery that sold lunch treats along with loaves.

We rested up at this bakery for almost 2 hours. They had a small sitting area outside with an umbrella for shade. It was delightful to see the local dynamic that probably plays out daily. I couldn’t understand any of the Dutch but I did pick out a parting sound that was made between people who know each other well…. Sort of a sung ooh hoo not unlike the British “Cheerio” again with the help of Google AI I think what I heard was “Ajoos, tot snel” where Ajoos is two syllables, the first ah is lower pitched that’s the second “yoos” and it is said in a playful way.

We ended our day in the town of Zuidhorn – yes another small town with open pedestrian areas, traditional architecture, cobbled streets…

I was pretty tired that night and was looking forward to a good night’s sleep…. Not to be the case. The area experienced a massive lightening event that went on for hours accompanied by very high winds. The Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute recorded over 188,000 strikes across the Netherlands with the area east of Groningen experiencing the worst of the storm. When we got up the next morning I was really wanting to stay put another night as I felt I needed to catch up with some rest. The trip was so full of new experiences I think my body just needed a break from all the excitement. Unfortunately there was no room in the Inn but we did manage to secure a room for a couple of nights to the east of Groningen. We had been anxious about cycling through a major Dutch city as our experience seeing the crowded bicycle lanes in Amsterdam really terrified us. We shouldn’t have been so frightened. There was a wonderful bicycle highway right into the downtown area. Maybe the storm had kept the bicyclists away. We did not know at that time how much damage was to the east so we thought that this was a typical Saturday morning in Groningen. I must admit we fell in love with the youthful vibe of the city. We found a lovely cafe with trees giving shade by one of the major canals and enjoyed watching the city come to life, complete with a modest Gay Pride parade complete with pink tractor. There were plenty of party boats floating the canal. Some clearly local football clubs with guys swilling beer at 10:30am, others more refined more fitting to a bachelorette group sipping Aperols and munching bitterballlen. The funniest thing of all was seeing two fisherman float by reclining in what appeared to be inflatable sofas. The “sofas” were kitted out with a fish finder and other fishing accoutrements. Propulsion was self made by virtue of fluorescent green flippers

Well that’s all for now… the next episode will cover our arrival back into Germany

After a week in Bergen, we saddled the horses and headed north through the dunes to Den Helder, the northern most tip of North Holland. From there we took the car ferry across to Texel. It was an exhilarating ride, a strong NW wind and gusty squalls the whole way. Fortunately there were places to stop and warm up. For the last few miles, as we looked seaward, a narrow strip of sandbank extended far out parallel to the land. The sun glinted off it turning it into a golden ghost hovering above a grey sea and heavy sky.

Getting onto the ferry was „a breeze“ and as the ship left port the sun started to poke through the clouds. 30 minutes later we were cycling in the sun through fields of chamomile and poppies.

That night we stayed in a delightful place (The Island Life near De Koog) complete with a private sauna. What a welcome indulgence! the following morning breakfast was served outside in a gazebo like structure complete with heaters. There we met fellow travelers from Belgium and The Netherlands. It was a congenial way to start our exploration of Texel. We opted for the East coast route facing the Waddenzee (.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wadden_Sea). This is a shallow tidal body of water that in some places dries up at low tide. It’s a birders‘ paradise. This time the wind was behind us and bicycling was joyful. We even experienced the „Fata Morgana (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fata_Morgana_(mirage)) phenomenon“. The more eastern islands floated above the horizon.

We continued our exploration to the norther most tip of Texel to catch the ferry to Flieland.

The Texel to Flieland ferry experience was an adventure. It started by having to push our bikes along a narrow raised boardwalk, down a steep slope and onto the boat. About 25-30 bikes and people safely managed the transition. On the otherside it was unworldly! The ferry beached itself on a massive sandbank where seals had gathered for the entertainment. Here we manhandled the biked over the bows of the ferry onto the sand. From there we pushed the biked through thick sand to the waiting sand bus. It reminded me of the glacier buses in Canada. With the help of the bus crew all the bikes were hauled up the steps to the bus and then the people squeezed in.

From there it was about a 15-20 minute ride to the Posthuys (https://posthuysvlieland.nl/) where we stayed over night. A squadron of cormorants flew in formation along side our bus route, seemingly enjoying putting on a show of amazing flight skills. They skimmed the wave tops close to the sand and it made me wonder whether there are some special conditions a foot or so above the water that these birds use to fly effortlessly (or so it seemed) over the waves.

By the time we reached the Posthuys, the cafeteria was closed. Fortunately we had brought some sandwiches and cheese from our delightful breakfast that morning and Andreas had packed hot toddy makings. We finished the exciting, memorable day with a beach walk as the sun set.

The following morning after fish on toast breakfast we followed the bicycle path through wonderful dunes packed with grasses and flowers. As we approached the Eastern end of the island we started to encounter a few holiday houses, a glamping site and a large hotel with a very convenient Strandpavilijoen (beach cafe). We arrived just in time as the heavens opened.

Our ferry back to the mainland left from the charming small village of Oost Vlieland. Here we tested out just how strong the sea breeze was. It was able to push me along the waterfront easily at 12 km/hr!

For three whole days we cycled the dykes facing either the North Sea or the Waddenzee. Miles upon miles of protected waterfront that clearly is a Mecca for both resident and migratory birds and seals. What a treasure! The hospitality, awe inspiring shore line and dyke management and bicycle paths leaves an enduring impression. We are hoping to come back to this area next year and spend more time soaking in this wonderful countryside. Yes the double-entendre was intended😉

Our day was not quite over. Another ferry( this time a car ferry) took us back to the fishing town of Harlingen where we enjoyed a canal side loft apartment for the night.