17NOV2024 - Volendam

Today Samuel(redacted), Miriam(redacted), Max (redacted) and I visited Volendam - a touristy town north of Amsterdam. While on the bus I realised that Volendam was adjacent to a town named Edam - and yes, it was indeed the birthplace of Edam cheese!

The day started off with Christchurch - the church that Samuel and Miriam attended. It was a thanksgiving service, and we focused on giving thanks to God for the things we had and on how we could be giving back to others. It was also a Christening service and there was also a lovely announcement of a newly engaged couple. After the service we stuck around for some cakes and tea, and I got to meet some of Samuel and Miriam's friends, notably Levi(redacted) and Rachel(redacted). We went to another cafe afterwards for some hangs, and the weather was bad. When the weather lifted and rain cleared, we left the cafe and ran into a Sinter Klaas (St Nicholas) parade:

So we did not actually make a start towards Volendam until the early afternoon, and we decided we would probably have to visit Edam another time.

Leaving Amsterdam, we began to drive swiftly through the flat countryside, which mostly consisted what looked like of grass fields, tidy canals, and quaint farmhouses. The grey afternoon threw light on the marshy-looking countryside to give a very similar scene to those rendered by artists displayed in the Rijksmuseum, except we could not see any windmills yet. With the Dutch rebuilding and recommissioning more windmills, hopefully we can have the beautiful structures adorning the Dutch countryside more in the future. It is just so iconic!

Volendam was a cute, cute town. Its tidy brick roads and winding streets through narrowly nestled, brightly lit shophouses exuded a cosy villagey air despite the dismally grey sky. The shophouses in the Netherlands were usually very well arranged and attractive; I wonder does it have something to do with the old building fronts that always were very well kept - surely it was that the facade complemented the wide glass panes to stand out more than normal shops elsewhere.

There was my first Oliebollen stand in Volendam. Samuel and Miriam had been talking up the Oliebollens which only appear around Christmas time. It really did look very good, even though it looks conceptually just like a doughnut with no hole. But hey, spaghetti is not tagliatelle.

There were many touristy trades, including little cheese museum/shops, souvenir shops, peppernoten shops, stroopwafel shops, ice cream shops, clothes stores, poffertjes stands, and even some stands selling mulled wine.

We went to a seafood restaurant/bar for lunch and the fish there was really, really good. There were also very many interesting collections hung on the walls to give it an old fishing village pub feel, with harpoons, navy models, pictures and old sign boards and tin cans. Max was endlessly fascinated by the busy scene.

We went for a walk afterwards and read a bit about land reclamation of Volendam - in 1357 Volendam was actually the harbour of Edam. A shorter canal was then dug out later on, with a separate harbour, to access the Zuiderzee, a large and shallow inlet of the North Sea. The original harbour was dammed and its land reclaimed, which turned into 'Vollendam' or 'filled dam'.

The land reclamation of the Dutch is really an amazing feat and pride of the people. According to Wikipedia 65% of the Netherlands would be underwater in high tide were it not for the dikes, dunes and pumps used by the country to keep the water out! There are also proposed plans to reclaim land, but also opposition to it with the argument that shuffling and delaying fixing core issues of urbanisation onto reclaimed land will result in the endless cycle of reclaiming land, which could lead to undesired consequences.

As daylight receded, crowds began to materialise onto the marina, to watch as the Sinter Klaas parade floated over from across the IJmeer to Volendam. It was the second time we ran into the parade unplanned! Although technically we did not stick around to see them arrive. Lots of kids were dressed up in sinter klaasy fancy clothes.

We had some poffertjes and oliebollen, oh, soo good. Also, Volendam was a mere 20 minutes speedy bus ride away!