Wednesday – Opa’s old stomping grounds

Wednesday morning we got a much later start than we had intended but we headed off in our rental cars for a day of seeing where Opa grew up. We drove to Waddinxveen where Len’s grandfather was from. We stopped for a coffee and to do a bit of shopping. The weather decided to spit at us again. Opa found people to talk to about the town. Next, we drove to Boskoop where Opa was born and lived as a child. I was busy taking pictures and scribbling down as much as I could of what Opa was remembering. We saw the house he lived in and where his Dad’s shop was. There was a newborn baby crying in that house now. Life goes on. I hope I can read and transcribe all of my notes and scribbles and that they make sense with the photos we took! We walked all through the town and had ice cream in what Opa remembers as a bar for the down-and-outers. On our way out of town, we asked for directions and stopped at the cemetery. We found his mother’s grave.
We decided to return to Waddinxveen and find his father’s grave. On the way we saw several of the places where Opa worked as a teen-ager. At one place, the farm was now a couple of family homes and the people came out and talked to Opa and showed him around some. He mentioned the tile floor that the family had just laid in the kitchen then and the woman proudly showed him a section of it she had saved in her garden when she re-did the kitchen! It brought back many memories for him! We also found another farm where he worked (with the help of a very friendly young woman on a bike). It is now owned by some very obviously wealthy people judging by the car we saw in the barn! No one appeared to be home so we snooped about some. In the back were chickens, roosters, and peacocks. Opa really wanted to talk to someone and as we pulled out, a woman came out of the house to see what we were up to. He talked to her for awhile and then we hit the road again. We stopped a couple of times to get directions to the cemetery in Waddinxveen and then found his Dad’s grave, his step-mother’s grave, and some other relatives as well. Opa found a tombstone that he liked what it said and had us take a photo of it. :-)
Next we drove to the North Sea to find a beach. We parked on the road again and put our money in and got our ticket just like we were old pros. We took a short walk to the beach and took turns holding towels around each other so we could change into our suits if we wanted to. We walked along the beach, wrote in the sand, and Linz and Michael went swimming. The weather was perfect and we had a wonderful evening.

When we left, we were all sick of the peanut butter and cheese sandwiches that we had been eating all day so we opted to find a Pannekoeken Haas. (Pancake House). We drove and drove but couldn’t find one. We stopped at a gas station to ask but they just pointed us to the McDonalds down the road. As we were getting ready to pull out of the gas station, a man came up to the car and asked us if we needed help. We told him what we were looking for. He began to tell us how to get there but it was complicated. He looked at his watch and said that he would just take us there himself and that we should follow him. He was dressed in a suit and had a large fancy vehicle. We followed him for a long way right up to the entrance of a Pannekoeken House. He waved good-bye to us and drove off. We all had to go to the bathroom and were ready for some food. When we got to the door of the restaurant they informed us that they had closed 30 minutes earlier and we could not be served nor could we use the restrooms. We ended up at the McDonalds next door after all of that! We made many wrong turns on the way home and had to stop for directions (which were only sometimes helpful) several times. We did not get back to our cottage until mid-night and by then we were all tired and cranky!