A funny story...

This is a pretty good story! We brought umbrellas with us to Europe but Brent's umbrella broke and when it started to rain in Amsterdam we ducked into a store and bought a new umbrella for him. As we stepped outside and Brent opened his umbrella, Ken and I watched and gasped in horror. Even knowing about Amsterdam's liberal sexual atmosphere, we were unprepared for this! Unfortunately Brent saw our shocked looks and he said, "What? What' s wrong?" We told him briefly what the XXX symbol stood for and then of course, he didn't want to carry it. We tried to find another store that sold umbrellas. We finally found one that had just plain black umbrellas much to our relief. I was standing in line to buy it when I noticed that XXX logo was printed on a lot of other merchandise too so I decided to take a chance and ask the cashier what it meant. She proudly replied, " It's our city's symbol and it means;

Merciful, Heroic and Determined!"

Well, the laugh was on us but we still can't think of what to do with this umbrella except use it as a white elephant gift!

In my last post, I showed pictures of a bakery that belonged to an Overgaauw ancestor. In the town of Zuidland, there was a shop where a local artisan sold her wares. She had made this plate showing my ancestor's bakery and home. When I saw it I just wanted it so bad but the store was closed. We made a special effort to go back to the store during the middle of the week but the store was still closed. I went to the bakery next door and asked the owner if she knew when the shop would open. She said, "Well, the artist comes in on different days so I don't know. But I could call her if you want." So, she calls the artist and the artist said she wasn't coming in till tomorrow and suggested I come back. I told her that we were leaving and this was my only chance to get it. So she told the bakery to just open up her store and sell it to me. The bakery owner goes to the back of the store and comes back with a key. She opens the store but can't figure out how to work the artist's cash register so she just took my euros and said, "I'll give it to her." Can you imagine that ever happening here???

Netherlands---4

ON TO AMSTERDAM

This was the strangest site; a multi-level parking structure for bikes! There are bikes everywhere in Holland and all ages ride them. It seems especially odd to see men in suits and elderly people on bikes. They ride with one hand on the handlebars and the other holding an umbrella when it rains. We visited a national park and there were racks and racks of bikes to use for free. I felt that the Dutch people are far more socially conscious of global warming and actually are doing things to help slow it. We are having lunch in a little outdoor cafe right over a canal. It was delicious food and we enjoyed hanging around till the rain stopped.

Rijksmuseum held many paintings of the Dutch masters such as my personal favorite, Vermeer.
If you ever go to Holland, make sure you ride the boats in the canals. Its not only an efficient way to visit the city but the old bridges and architecture and house boats are so quaint.

Netherlands---3

This group of pictures are from a town called Zuidland which is located in South Holland. This is where many of my father's ancestors came from. My ancestors owned a bakery there in the early 1800's. I am holding a cookie mold that was once used in the bakery. The cookie mold is now owned by a descendant, Dick Overgaauw.
The bakery building is still standing as seen here. The buildings in Holland are very old. Some of them were built in the 1600-1700's and oft times the house will have the year it was built incorporated in the masonry work on the face of the house. Today when someone buys a house, they are not permitted to make structural changes to the exterior though most people gut the interior to bring it up to date. The interior of the bakery is being worked on at this time. The house to the right is where the Luijmes family once lived.
This mill was once owned by one of my Luijmes ancestors. Across the street is a dijke. If one was to stand on the deck of this mill, you could see the ocean only a few hundred feet away!
This is Dick and Agaath Overgaauw. He researched and published a book on the Overgaauw family. I got so much genealogical information from him and believe it or not, I first met him over the internet. It was fun to meet them. They were very kind and gracious hosts and best of all, they gave us the grand tour and historical background of our family in Zuidland.
This bike shop used to be a store owned by our family. It was strange as we walked around Zuidland to see family names on store front businesses. There are still a number of descendants living in that area.