We spent a nice three nights in Weesp. On Friday, Michael and Annemieke picked us up from the boat after lunch and drove us to Bloemendaal. This is a small town near the coast. The significance is that both Michael and Annemike grew up there and the three of us went to school nearby and in fact that's how we know each other.
But Bloemendaal has a special meaning for us as it is where 'Thijsse's Hof' is. This is a 'natural garden', which was donated to my great grandfather by the municipality of Bloemendaal at the occasion of his 60th birthday (90 years ago!) in recognition of his work as a 'naturalist', someone who brought the love of nature as well as nature conservation to the people of the country in those days. His life motto was "Onbekommerd" ('un-worried" would probably be the best translation) and our boat is named after that! So we went to see Thijsse's Hof and we also went to the cemetery where he (my great grandfather, Jac. P. Thijsse is buried as well as his son (my grandfather), J. Th. Thijsse.
In Thijsse's Hof, there is a small exhibition, including Jac. P.'s desk, the many books he wrote and a diary he started when he was 18, in 1884.
Here are some pictures:
After our visit to Bloemendaal, we had dinner at Michael and Annemieke's house. They gave us 10 of Jac. P. Thijsse's 'albums', which Michael's mother had kept. These are relatively rare, especially the first editions. What a wonderful gift!
When we got back to the boat, this was the view of the Weesp bridge:
Yesterday (Saturday), we first did some shopping in Weesp and then visited the Weesp museum. It is always interesting to visit a museum in a small town and learn about its history. There were people in the Weesp area in the iron age (300BC), but it started to grow in the 1700's as they made the beer and the gin for the vessels of the VOC. The clean water available from the river Vecht in those days gave the gin and beer a very high quality which meant that it kept well during the long voyage to the East Indies. When the VOC declined in the late 1700's, there was a short period where porcelain production kept Weesp on the map, but that succumbed to competition. There are also several old fortifications (built before 1700 of course).
Later there was the Van Houten chocolate / cacao factory, but that too has disappeared and what once was an industrial town, now seems to be a place where people working in Amsterdam live. But still a nice and interesting place!
Later during the day, Hoyte and Carien came for drinks, it was good to see them too!
Today was a day of extremes: we motored up the Vecht for an hour, then on the Amsterdam - Rijn canal between big tanker barges and river cruisers for passengers and then through shallow and narrow canals to Woerden where we are now and will celebrate 'Koningsdag', the King's birthday tomorrow.
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