Altena

Myra and Paul had planned a day for us to see Heusden: a classic Dutch fortified harbour settlement and we went on a scenic tour of the countryside to get there. Myra, having gone to Heusden a week or so prior to meet with her sister, had staked out the good places and even collected some maps and brochures for us as “pre-reading” in the car. I practiced using the Google Translate app while starting to try to pick up de Nederlandse. Along the drive we saw a ‘mini camping’ spot along the dyke of the river Maas (Bokhoven), and stopped to meet a very friendly horse who ran down to meet me on the roadside at Hedikhuizen. We also drove past these super interesting housing precincts that had been styled as if they were modern castles - very creative suburban design. When arriving at Heusden we strolled by the marina and came upon a windmill that was turning. It was being managed by a local historical preservation group and Paul and Myra sweet talked us into being able to climb up the mill to have a look at how it functioned inside…it wasn’t even that windy and the whole body of the mill was already swaying under the pressure of the sail (the blade without the canvas over it). It was very impressive and Paul talked us through how it would be used to grind the flour/grain if it was all moving inside too. After carefully slinking down the ladder again - it felt steeper going down - we walked around the beautiful old town, through the vismarkt (fish market) & “vis bank” which had cool history and had now been modernised into terrace cafe/restaurants, galleries and shops. We had the most delicious cakes (the first time I realised appeltaart was a huge thing in Holland, and how good at cake they are) and coffee…oh the koffie 🤤! It was the first really good coffee we’d had in weeks and Vikum made sure to learn which menu item to order next time. We enjoyed walking the rest of Heusden, the classic 17th century Dutch architecture, the fortified towers around the village, and a lovely bright art gallery devoted to tulips & floral abstracts. It was also a hot day so V and I started to tire, the heat plus 2 weeks of travel meant we fell asleep in the car on the way home. We arrived home, hazily and Myra kindly included some of our washing into her loads so we were off the hook, with time to rest until Tom was due home in the evening. Tom and his flatmate Nout arrived home after driving 8hrs from their holiday in France, in time to eat dinner with us and tell us about their time in Chologne which looked really cool. The area around Grenoble looks like it has awesome destinations…
It was so nice to see Tom after 6 years and catch up over the following week, including seeing him start his own business and all the excitement he has for the opportunities ahead of him. But really it felt like nothing much had changed, we still laugh at the same things.

From here the plan was to spend Paul’s birthday in Eindhoven until Monday, head to Amsterdam to stay at Tom’s house there from Tue-Thu, and then come back to Eindhoven for the weekend following and see where we’d go from there.Read more