De Dijk Bijk

Wide awake at 4am again this morning. Can’t quite seem to shake this jet lag thing yet.  At 4am, the sky was already beginning to lighten.  The days here are very long this time of year because of the northern latitude. Come to think of it, this is the longest day of the year.  It’s all downhill from here.

I think this is the narrowest bed I have ever slept in, with the only exception being the one night I slept in a bunk on a submarine a few decades ago.  The bed wasn’t uncomfortable, it just was a little difficult balancing the blanket and keeping it from falling off one side or the other.

Gerrit and Helms have really done a nice job fixing this place up for visitors.  This is a small room that once was the butcher shop in the front of the building, tastefully decorated with some of the tools of the trade, including meat hooks.  I didn’t think to take pictures before we had our stuff all over the place and had pulled the bedding back, so I lifted some of these pictures off their web site.  Credit where credit is due.

We gathered in the kitchen at 7:30 for a breakfast feast put on by Helmi, with several different kinds of bread, meats and cheeses, boiled eggs, and fruit--quite a spread.  We enjoyed it with the back door wide open, enjoying the cool morning breezes coming in.  It was a delightful lingering time and I probably ate too much.

Helmi and Gerrit had already rolled the bikes out of the barn when we completed breakfast.  We had inquired earlier about renting some bikes and they said we could just use theirs, but only if we were OK with two of us using a tandem.  “They’re not new,” they told us and we were fine with that.  They were indeed not new, but they were in good riding condition and soon we were riding along the road towards the first sloping path that led to the top of the dyke.

Riding bikes on the dyke is a real bucket-list experience and we enjoyed every minute of it.  Something about having IJsselmeer (Lake IJssel) on one side and the Dutch homes and patchwork of farms on the other side that makes it super special.  Many of the homes along the dyke have fantastic little gardens and are very neat and tidy.  Probably where the term “Dutch clean” comes from.  Quite a feast for the eyes.  Maybe it’s partly because this was also a place where my ancestors lived and worked and rode their bikes that added to the experience.

We rode first to the lighthouse a couple miles south where my great grandfather, Nanne Vriend, was raised.  His dad owned the farm right near the lighthouse where he raised 11 children.  We we took some pictures of the farm (I think this is the one), and the lighthouse.  I also have been told that this lighthouse was used as a German check point during the Nazi occupation.

Just around the corner from the BnB is a cemetery where several relatives are buried, including my dad’s brother, who died of an appendicitis when he was 9 years old.  We found his grave and saw that time has not been kind to the marker.  The image on the left was taken by Dad in the 1950’s, and I took the picture on the right this morning.  It is now very difficult to read.

We rode to the Reformed church in town where my dad attended and had a short conversation with the gardener.  He has been around long enough to know all the names we talked about.  In these small towns, everyone seems to know everyone.

We rode further along the dyke to another church, the oldest building in Andijk.  Built in 1667, it is more than 100 years older than the Declaration of Independence.  My ancestors attended this church.  It is no longer a church, but now a restaurant, and I’m told the meals will set you back at least 50 Euros a plate and up.  Kind of a shame, but at least the building is being preserved and is being used.

We rode into town to a grocery store and picked up a few items to make a lunch as there really aren’t a lot of restaurants in this area.  We’ve already had the pizza, which was better than the pizza we had in Amsterdam, but only because the bar was set so low.  Then it was back to our hosts to return the bikes, settle up financially, and be on our way.  The room charge was only 150 Euros for the four of us, a real bargain considering it included a great breakfast and the use of three bikes for a few hours.  Thanks, Gerrit and Helmi, for a wonderful time!

We talked to Gerrit a little bit about the other side of the house, where my dad actually lived.  It would have been cool to see that, however he said that the inside has been completely changed.  Essentially gutted and redone, it is completely different, including adding floors to the inside of the cavernous attic, so there is essentially nothing left.  This side, however, still maintains much of the original layout although it has been extensively updated.

By “original layout”, I mean what was in existence in early to mid 1900’s when my family lived there.  Gerrit told us that this house was mostly a barn when it was built, with a large area for hay storage in the middle, and cattle roaming in and out.  The original owner had a couple small spaces where they lived and slept, and Gerrit showed us two tiny rooms, one now a bathroom and the other a pantry closet, that used to be a couple of bunk rooms for sleeping.  At some point in its existence it was divided in half and used as a two-family home, and the cows were evicted and had to stay somewhere else.

I’m sure this house has seen many modifications in the 200+ years of its existence.  It was built in 1804.

It was a mile walk back to the bus stop in Andijk, then a 15-minute bus ride back to Enkhuizen, where we picked up the train back towards Sloterdijk Station.  In Enkhuizen, we were helped by a super friendly guy when some of our credit cards wouldn’t work in the ticket kiosk.  He helped us purchase tickets all the way to Zaandijk Zaanse Schans, where there is a collection of windmills and a Dutch Village-type area.  This area is known for chocolate and cheese and separating tourists from their money.  A 15-minute walk from the train station brings you to the Zaan River, with the cluster of windmills.  All along the way you can smell chocolate, and very strongly at times.  You just want to lift your nose and follow the scent.

This area is a lot more tourist-ey than where we’ve been before and was mobbed with people taking selfies and buying cheese.  Quaint, Dutch-looking and all that but I much preferred the bucolic area around Andijk to this.  We took the train back to the hotel in Amsterdam where the bike tour will begin tomorrow.

We walked into a business district to find something to eat and ended up having lamb wraps at a middle-eastern restaurant.  Nine Euros for the both of us and the wraps were very good.  The ethnic influence is very strong here.  There’s probably at least a couple of these kinds of restaurants on every block, all serving the same thing.

Tomorrow we will take off on our electric bikes on the first leg of our bike tour. 

By the way, the title is a mashup of Dutch and English and an English word spelled in a Dutch way.  De Dijk Bijk, or The Dike Bike was my attempt at a clever title.  The Dutch word for bike is actually fiets, but that didn’t rhyme well so I spelled the English word bike as if it were a Dutch word.