Amsterdam

ATuesday, May 11 we headed to Amsterdam, Holland to see Ana (Micah’s sister) sing on choir tour with Hesston European Chorale. We arrived in the airport in the Netherlands at about 5:30 and took a train to downtown Amsterdam to find dinner. Following a crowd of people onto what seemed like the only way across a canal; we boarded a ferry and went along for the ride. The ferry was loaded with 50 bikes, 10 mopeds and 5 foot-passengers. Once across we started walking into the neighborhood of small houses soon to be very confused on where downtown Amsterdam was located. Micah after looking at the map, asked a Dutch teenager where we where and we had cross the wrong canal and we walking north away from downtown. Oops! So after walking back to the ferry, across the canal, through the train station, we arrived in downtown Amsterdam to find more bikes than people, rubbish piles almost as tall as Lucy (later we found out there was a strike) and almost no traffic noise because of all the public transportation! We then found dinner at a delicious pancake house and had some savory Dutch pancakes. Micah had a lamb scharma pancake and Lucy had a goat and feta cheese pancake. Yummy! Next, we found the bus to Aalsmeer, a nearby town, were our gracious hosts, the Maarsens live. As we were tooling along on the bus, we weren’t seeing our stop on the display screen, Micah asked the driver and he said the bus doesn’t go to the stop and we would have to take another bus to get to it. So we hopped off, feeling pretty bad because we were going to be late for Marye to pick us up. But walking to the next stop, we heard our names being called and there was Marye. We had hopped off at just the right spot! That was a good ending to a day with a lot of walking!


Instead of parking garages for cars they are for bikes!


Rubbish Strike at work!



What a back yard!



One of the many canals!

On Wednesday we were treated to a lovely Dutch breakfast after waking up. We had good seedy bread and sweet bread, homemade jam, and amazing cheese. After breakfast, Marye took us to the airport to meet the choir. As we were driving to the airport we saw their plane landing! Upon finding their Amsterdam contact person, we were warmly greeted by Drew Nussbaum, the brother of one of Lucy's college housemates. It was a nice surprise to see him since he is living near Amsterdam! Once they emerged, we were glad to see their tired but safe faces! It was so good to see Ana in Europe! From the airport we headed to the hiding place of Anne Frank during World War II. It was quite an experience to walk through the building after having read about it throughout our school years. It gave us a really different understanding of the space where they hid for 23 months. After the museum we found lunch with Ana at a little sandwich shop and then headed to Zaanse Schaans Open Air Museum with the group. It is a museum the depicts life in the Netherlands in the late 19^th century. We saw wooden shoes and cheese being made as well as traditional wind mills at work. We only had a brief time there but we managed to squeeze in another dose of Dutch pancakes on Micah’s mothers demand and Ana’s benefit. From there we headed into Haarlem another town outside Amsterdam where the Hesston Choir sang the next day and was picked up by host families. Marye picked up Ana, the two of us and another choir member. Marye dropped the three Louckses off at Jo Groeneveld’s for dinner. Jo and her late husband Dick hosted Micah’s dad for a year in the 70s. The Groenevelds own green houses which Randall worked in. They have been passed onto one of their sons now. We enjoyed a delicious traditional Dutch dinner with both Jo and Arie (one of Jo’s sons). We had soup, chicken, potatoes, and many different vegetables. We were all quite full at the end and had learned some new stories about Randall that he would have kept to himself. After dinner we headed to see the place where Randall lived and worked where we met Gert, Jo’s older son, who now owns the green houses. The green houses have changed and upgraded many time since then, but it was still good to see the kind of work that Randall did. After leaving the green houses, Arie and Jo drove us around Aalsmeer before taking us back to the Maarsen’s.

Cheese being made!

Wooden shoes being made!

The shoes didn't quite fit...

Windmills.

Ana, Arie, Jo and Micah in Jo's house.

One of Gert's greenhouses.

Gert showing them the ropes.

Micah sad that he can't work in green house.

After another delicious breakfast, Marye took all of us to Haarlem to meet the choir bus. From there we went into Amsterdam. The plan for the choir on Thursday was to go to a museum and then head back to Haarlem to practice, but we decided to skip the museum and explore the city a bit. We went to a flower street market and looked around. Then we attempted to go to Singelkerk, a hidden church at one point with the largest Mennonite congregation. It was closed due to Ascension Day, a national holiday. So sadly we were only able to see the outside, but Marye told us it gives us a reason to go back. Afterwards we wandered around and eventually had lunch in a café. After walking around a bit more, we caught a train into Haarlem. On our walk to the Mennonite church where Ana was singing, we saw the bus pass. It is amazing how much quicker public transportation is in Holland! We left at 1:15 and got to Haarlem at 1:30. They left at 12:30 and got to Haarlem at 1:30! For us, the afternoon was filled with hearing the choir practice and watching their performance. We were impressed by the choir’s ability to perform the day after they arrived in Europe after a day filled with activity. They did a magnificent job! After the performance, the choir headed up to the North Sea, but we had had enough of the cold weather, so we went back to the Maarsen’s. We enjoyed spending the evening with them and then had a once in a lifetime opportunity. Arie the evening before offered to take us onto the floor of the world’s largest flower auction while he delivered his flowers. He picked us up after he had cut and arranged his flowers for delivery at about 10 p.m. and we headed to see his green houses before heading to the auction hall. The building for a long time was the largest building under one roof. Even though that is no longer the case, it is still a huge building! We were told it is about 2 miles long by 1.5 miles wide. Each day flowers from all over the world are delivered and the next morning auctioned off to company buyers worldwide. 48 million flowers and plant per day go through the auction hall. After his trailer was unloaded, he took us around to see different parts of the floor and lots of the flowers. Many of the flowers looked fake because they were so beautiful and perfect. It was an experience that we will not soon forget!

Street Flower Market

Outside Singelkerk.

Hesston College European Chorale.

ANA! (in the back)

Arie's flowers waiting to be unloaded at the auction.

Gert's flowers at the auction.

Friday morning was another early morning. We headed back to the auction hall for a visitors tour to see the buying side of the auction. The hall was a lot more alive in the morning and people were zooming all over the place on scooters pulling carts of flowers. It looked like an organized mess. The morning meant a lot more since we had been behind the scenes with Arie the night before. After finishing the tour we caught a couple buses to Keukenhof, the world’s largest bulb flower garden displaying the beautiful flowers of Holland. We spent the next hours walking around, taking pictures, and enjoying the beautiful flowers and colors. It was then time to catch a bus back to the airport and fly back to Belfast. We arrived back in the evening and were picked up with a warm welcome by Sharon, Thomas and Jillian. It was a nice welcome home!

A view of some of the flowers either waiting to be sold or already sold.

One of the auction rooms. This one actually showed flowers still. Some only show a picture and people just buy from the name of the grower.

Among the flowers.

Beautiful.

Lovely.

Our first holiday was a nice combination of relaxation, spending time with people, touristy venues and flowers! It was so nice to have such a warm welcome by the Maarsens and Groenevelds as well as the Hesston Choir. We enjoyed our time in Holland, but are glad to be back with the community in Belfast!

Sorry about the quality of the video. We were in the wrong spot for the trio so there is some handing off of the camera and it had to be really compressed to be iploaded. But the trio and choir sounds AMAZING!