Today, we drove to our next destination, the town of Makkum in Friesland in north-central Holland.
Arjan attempted to take us into the town center at Hoorn, one of the quaint old towns north of Amsterdam, but the roadways were all blocked from the direction we came into town. We kept following the road signs, taking turn after turn, but we ended up in a bus lane with a pop-up triangle blocking the road. It seemed like pedestrian access was given such high priority that there was no place we could drive, so we gave up and went on to Enkhuizen, the next old town on the itinerary.
By then, the sun was coming out, so we walked around Enkhuizen and had lunch on an outdoor terrace. Then we took scenic back roads to the Afsluitdijk that connects North Holland with Friesland and divides the old Zuiderzee into the Waddenzee (salt water) and the Ijsselmeer (fresh water). At the center of the dike, we stopped to climb the observation tower and view the statue of Cornelius Lely, the mastermind of the project.
Once in Friesland, it was a short drive to Makkum (pronounced “muck-em”) and our rental house for the next week. The house, which the owners call “Starvilla 1”, is on a small canal inside a beach resort development complete with entry gate and reception center. The reception center rents boats and bicycles, among other things. The complex is quite large, with many different kinds of houses and a network of canals. Many of the visitors seem to be German, and they probably come here year after year.
Our house has a nice view over its dock towards the Ijsselmeer, and it is a great place to watch the weather coming in. The house itself has three bedrooms and a rather impersonal modern décor. Resort house rentals like this one are obviously very different from vacation rentals like our studio in Scotland. This house has the basic essentials in the way of furniture, and lots of open space in the living room and kitchen, but lots of things seem to be missing, which I imagine a family would bring with them. For example, the kitchen has pots and pans and dinnerware, but no dish soap, dish rack, or spices. In the bathroom, there is a tub, shower, sauna, and towels, but no bath soap. The bedrooms have no surfaces to put anything, and if one bedroom has a closet, it has no dresser, or vice versa.
There are lots of appliances, which we have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to figure out, but the internet works, and so do the TV’s. We still have not been able to get the dishwasher or towel warmer to work, the washing machine runs for hours and hours, and the dryer cycle seems to have no effect.
Our first task upon arrival was to go to the grocery store to buy detergent and paper towels, as well as our breakfast supplies. Thank heavens, there is toilet paper!
We look forward to investigating the restaurants in the area. The first night, we had dinner at It Posthûs, a former post office. It was really good. We sat outside until the mosquitoes got too bad, and then moved inside for dessert. The swallows swoop around and around overhead. If they didn’t, we’d have a lot more mosquitoes to contend with.