The Netherlands

West Terschelling, Den Wadden.

From Khiva to Amsterdam in 5 Days

In a period of five days at the end of our Silk Road journey we have seen remarkable changes in time and space. The change is more than appearance, environment and distance.  Life style, attitude, relations with the western world are only a few of the differences we experienced

Khiva is an intriguing walled city in Uzbekistan. Because it remains unchanged in many ways, it is a good example of what life must have been like on the Silk Road. We spent two nights here, but we fell in love with its many traditional charms. This town is a living museum, deeply rooted in the past.

Sunrise on one of the many minarets.

The wall and buildings are built entirely of adobe. The modern orange pipe brings natural gas to the residents who otherwise live a traditional village life.  The protuberances on the wall are graves. These are for defense. In Islam, it is forbidden to trod on graves.  

It just so happened that a bride and groom were having a photo shoot when we climbed to the top of one of the many towers in Khiva.  Old Khiva is in the background, the couple is wearing traditional dress with a modern twist, but the photographer had up to date photo equipment.

Ashgabat, Turkmenistan is a futuristic white marble city in the desert. It has many white marble buildings, wide boulevards and practically no people. It was quite a shock after falling in love with the hustle and bustle of Khiva. This is the final stop on our tour of the Silk Road.

This is an air conditioned indoor ferris wheel. Considering that temperatures get up to 130 F, air conditioning is a must. All the buildings in Ashgabat have a similar opulent appearance. Notice the lack of families lining up to take their children on this ride.

This is one of the many styles of street lamps in Ashgabat.  Note the white marble apartment building on the left.  All the buildings are covered in white marble. No marble is from Turkmenistan - it's imported from all over the world. I was easily able to stand in the street to take this photo as there is hardly any traffic.

Our final Road Scholar dinner was here at the Palace of Happiness.  This is where couples come to get married, or to get divorced.  Both are a source of happiness.  Although the building is red in this photo, it is white marble.  The white marble city is all lit up with colored lights at night.  I caught it in red, but it changed to a multitude of other colors.

Our flight from Ashgabat to Frankfurt departed at 3:30 am.  Given how exhausted we were, landing in Frankfurt was plenty weird.  The first item on our agenda was to get a decent cup of coffee.  

After three weeks of tea bag tea, or instant coffee, this coffee shop was perfect.

We haven't seen a newspaper in three weeks.  The first New York Times we see has a front page article about the World Nomad Games which took place in Kyrgystan while we were there.  We did not attend, but we were lucky enough to watch two villages play dead goat polo with one another so we understood what the article was about more than we would have had we not been in Central Asia. 

The final stop on this leg of the journey is Amsterdam, where we will stay with Iris' lovely parents, Carolien and Fritz. The first thing I saw when I was going through the airport was a display of bulbs!  We are in bulb country.

The huge ones in front are amaryllis.

The best part of this journey from the past (Khiva) into the odd future (Ashgabat) into the present that we know (the western world), is being welcomed with open arms by our friends from the Netherlands.

Zeeland

With Frits and Carolien at the wheel, we travelled through many small villages in northern Belgium and back into The Netherlands. The southern North Sea coast of The Netherlands is made up of peninsulas, islands and inlets, so there is a lot of coastline.  We headed for Zeeland, which is a peninsular province jutting into the North Sea.  You can see Zeeland on the map below if you find the town of Middelburg.

We spent two nights in Middelburg and took time to explore the lovely town and the neighboring town of Veere.

A small Middelburg home.

We ventured to the town of Veere for dinner and general exploration.

Veere square.

Carolien told us there is a lovely garden behind this wall.  The owners were inconsiderate in not leaving the door ajar for us to peek in.

In case you were wondering, gluten free baked goods are available.

Pre dinner stroll.

The ocean is at my back, and I'm looking across a canal.

Photo by Carolien - Veere cityscape.

Photo by Iris - Veere cityscape.

Beer in the garden before dinner.

A good dinner and good company in Veere.  A good day all around.

King's Day continued

The grown ups found King's Day so stimulating that after enjoying it for a few hours we left town and toured the Dutch countryside.  We meandered through several small villages and eventually found ourselves in the town of Edam.

Carolien and Frits. We had coffee and apple pie at this inn before strolling through town.

Classic Dutch house

Did you ever think that Edam cheese came from a town called Edam?  Well, it does.

There are many flavors of Edam, all of them good.

Throughout the Netherlands, the buildings are historic.  Most have been renovated after the wars to look as they did before the bombings.  The result are these streets full of old homes with rich histories. Since much of the population was celebrating the king's birthday in Amsterdam, we were practically the only people on the streets in Edam.  Considering the revels outside the house in Amsterdam, we all enjoyed the peace and quiet.

European Adventure 2017 - the beginning of the middle

We had a quick but easy journey from Paris to Amsterdam. It continues to surprise me that European countries and cities are so close together.  Iris and her father Frits picked us up at the train station and the fun began.  Keep in mind that this was the first time to meet Iris' family.  We spent an amazing 8 days together and came away feeling like family.

We saw the classics in Amsterdam and its surroundings.

Frits drove us around the country side and yes, the bulb fields are show stoppers.

We walked through the Jordaan neighborhood with Iris' mom Carolien. The canals are as charming as expected.

As charming as the city and it's surrounding are, the delights of King's Day captured our attention.  The city pretty much closes down to celebrate the king's birthday.  Part of the celebration includes wearing orange - I think it has something to do with William of Orange. Frits, Carolien and family started the celebration the night before when Iris' sister arrived with her two children and a bag of nail polish.  We women painted our nails in a variety of colors, but we all had an orange theme.  Then, we went to bed and the party in the street began.  The music went on loud and clear until 1 a.m. There were moments when I thought perhaps I was back in India - the music was that boisterous.

The next morning the real celebration began.

Who knew it is possible to have an all orange breakfast? 

These little king head are like cream puffs dipped in orange frosting.  Pretty tasty.

With breakfast under our belts we hit the streets, wearing our orange.

Taylor, Jamar, Syvart, Iris and Frits ready to celebrate. Frits and Carolien have an orange flag on their balcony as well.

There were many musical groups playing in the streets.  This group were old sailors singing sea chanties.

The streets were crowded with bands, puppet shows, make shift sales people, food stalls, etc., etc.  It was kind of like a giant carnival. No permits are needed, you can sell what you want on the street.  It's a good day to sell all the stuff that you originally planned to take to Good Will.  Someone will buy whatever it is you have.

Here's Iris buying cookies from a neighbor girl.  Her sister Jantein is on the far right, and her niece Niyah is right behind Iris.  Do you like the orange haired guy?

Jantein, Nia and a neighbor boy.

This street party started very early in the morning and continued throughout the afternoon.  It's a wonderful opportunity for neighbors to mingle with each other, exchange their garage sale items, watch spontaneous performances and of course, to celebrate the king's birthday.