A pretty little town

We shall be seeing our Dutch friends soon, and this made me think of a time six years ago when we visited them in the Netherlands:

We arrived in the Netherlands quite early on Saturday morning, and there were our dear friends waiting for us! Into the car and our holiday began. They took us north to the pretty little town of Volendam, originally a fishing village but now it is a real tourist attraction; we arrived quite early and were able to look round at the charming and attractive cottages and the array of different boats drawn up at the quay without being overwhelmed with other people doing the same thing!

Originally the harbour served the nearby city of Edam, famous for cheese and it is situated on the River IJ. The shops we popped into were full of souvenirs, including cheese. We resisted buying any there – we live near Cheddar the home of Cheddar cheese and we that some of these touristy cheeses don’t really taste of very much!

There was a little canal which ran behind the main harbour side, with pretty little bridges crossing it. The houses are most attractive, with brighy coloured shutters, planters and troughs filled with flowers and small shrubs. The water was full of elegant and graceful yachts, smaller boats of all sorts, and there were some wonderful old craft moored along the quay

Apparently some residents wear traditional costume, but we didn’t see any, except for this old gentleman…. we did however see some traditional clothes… and I may post later a picture of what we saw!