Saturday May 9 2015 - Today we head out of the station heading north. We took the train to Hoorn. It is a bitterly cold day. We have chosen a day to be indoors as much as possible. We got off the train and headed to the main square. After a couple of false starts, we found a Saturday market with a lot of good looking vegetables a lot of meat and pastries. We were too cold to stop and enjoy any of the foods (you know it was cold!). We found the main square, called the Roote Stoon because the guillotines were here. There was a good museum in the town, but it did not open until 1 and we did not want to wait. We went into the Waag station restaurant on the square. There is a controversial statue in the square of a West Indies Company Official. He was very mean. There are people who feel he should no longer be represented. We wandered around the city, to the harbor that once led to the open seas. Oh, the first person to round the tip of South America was from the Hoorn. He named it Cape Hoorn after Hoorn. The town was charming but we were cold enough and headed back to the train.

Our next stop was Enkhuizen. This train station was right on the harbor. Very scenic. We walked around the harbor to the Zuider Zee Museum. This museum was huge! There was an indoor area where they had the boats inside, about ten big boats each with a long write up on what it did and how it did it. This whole museum was set up to depict the cultures of the area before the dike was built that destroyed their livelihood and the way of life as they knew it. They had been mainly fishing villages and supply transfer islands. They had processed the fish and transferred it on into the harbors. Many of the areas were isolated islands with their own dress and customs but became part of the mainland and the sea became a freshwater lake. There was a lot of information…too much for us and it was difficult to skim all the information to glean what was important to us.

The outdoor area was several blocks long. They had taken actual buildings from the different areas and set up replica villages, again to depict the culture. They said what each building had been and then had a display in the building which had nothing to do with what the building was used for. I felt it was a little disjointed. It is a great idea and it just needs to be refined a little. It is still so fresh in everyone’s minds, they all want to say what is important to them, but to a casual observer like me, it was too much. For example, they would identify whose house it had been by date and time and name etc…too much information. It was a great hands-on for kids. They had games in the square, clothes to put on, rope making demonstrations, kids could make boats out of wooden shoes. There was a working wind mill. One island cut the reeds and wove baskets and mats. There were people weaving and the reeds were growing out next to the ferry dock. It was interesting but it was also cold. We took the ferry back to the train station and headed home. Once at the main station, we took tram #4 up to Leidseplein for dinner. We found a good Thai restaurant on the street just behind the Bull Dog. Wayne wanted to wander the neighborhood, but I was cold. I left to wait in the store by Museumplein where we catch the tram for home. We ended up getting a chocolate tart and ice cream and more croissants for breakfast.