Belemmeringen, Kaas en Corrie Tien Boom in Nederland!

WOW!! We had so much fun staying at the Clara Maria! http://www.claramaria.nl/?lang=en  It's a charming cheese farm and clog factory southwest of Amsterdam that was just the perfect place for our family to stay and enjoy the delights of Holland. On this trip, it was my mom, dad, my husband, me and our 2 younger boys...our older son and daughter stayed in Germany because of football and homecoming events *grin*.  Anyway, upward and onward...

The countryside was beautiful and I absolutely have a thing for windmills....there's just something so peaceful about them. I especially like to watch them when the sun is coming up or going down and the rays are shining through the blades...spectacular! Out at the farm, we unpacked and traipsed around the grounds just looking our fill & taking in the scenery. The boys had a blast running all over the grounds playing 'farmers golf' with wooden clogs on poles for clubs and big rubber balls. Later they visited the cows and drilled the young man working there for every drop of knowledge they could drain out of him! :)  We all played with the baby calves/goats and on the huge bales of hay...I don't think I've ever seen bales that big in my life!

The house was old and charming and the owner was friendly and entertaining. One very special thing was that he invited us into his personal area where we sat and talked with him about the area and different things. He told us all sorts of stuff that we found funny and useful. For me, I find it is a time such as this that makes a trip worthwhile more than anything else.

...strangers meeting, sharing and appreciating each other. This gentleman owed us nothing but took his time to tell us stories of his life, of his land and of his house. What a privilege that he would share that with us!!

When it was time to eat, we ventured out and found ourselves in Amsterdam. OH! I forgot to mention that we were driving an 2004 Suburban in downtown Amsterdam!!!! Yeh, an oh so wrong move! *YIKES* There were bicycles EVERYWHERE! We were afraid we were going to hit someone because our car was SOOOO BIGGGG and the roads were sooooo smallllll and bicycles were e-v-e-r-y-w-h-e-r-e!!! The more we tried to get back out of the city, the more we seemed to get deeper in it...like a spider's web of bicycles! lololol  Not to mention the one way streets! Man, it was tight and harrowing to say the least, but my man, being the excellent superhero of driving that he is, got us out of their without hitting anything or anybody!!! He soo rocked (and still does! ;-P)

We finally ended up back in Amstelveen at a restaurant called the Silversant http://www.silversant.nl/

and had a delicious dinner in a very friendly atmosphere. A nice place to relax after the 'squeeze' in  Amsterdam! lol After dinner, we headed back to the farm to tuck in for the night. The guest portion of the house is upstairs and consists of about 5 or 6 rooms, a commons area and a bathroom. The commons area was rich in old memorbilia--pictures, books, miscellaneous objects/antiques. Speaking of antiques, the bed in our room was what they called a 'dating bed'. It was like two twin beds fused together with the middle still having the rails. I'm not sure how correct my understanding is of this, but I think a partition went into the middle of the bed and the man and woman could lay there, one on each side separated by the partition and get to know each other but maintain propriety. Well, there was no partition that night for us, but the center railing slots were still there & that made it rather uncomfortable! lol
But, as I'm an optimist, it was worth the experience of saying that I've slept in an antique 'dating bed'! 8-))))  

The day couldn't have started out better...the breakfast table was spread with several types of cheeses, fruits, breads, eggs...on and on...it was delicious and we absolutely enjoyed it! We tried all the cheeses, which I might add, if I thought I loved cheese before, I was in heaven now!! I wasn't crazy about the nutty cheese, but as for the spicy, the butter, the tomato/basil and the garlic cheese---BRING IT ON!!!

Having such a keen interest in the cheese, we made our way out to the cheese area of the farm where Chace and Gunnar got all gussied up and jumped right in and made their own cheese!! WAY TO GO BOYS! A really neat experience for them! After that, we all went to the clog factory and had a tour there. We saw how and where the clogs were made and loads of different types of clogs. They were all so pretty!


Right after lunch, it was time to drive to Haarlem. It was fairly close, so the ride was short. We quickly found the Ten Boom House and we were thrilled to realize that an English tour would be starting soon. For those that aren't familiar with Corrie Ten Boom, she and her family hid Jews and others from the Nazis. She, and her family eventually did end up in a concentration camp where her sister died, but she was released and continued to help people in need. Always, she gave praise to Jesus. She truly was an example of hope, kindness and love...a light in the darkness. There are books in the library and movies out about her life. Their house, with the watch repair shop in front, there in Haarlem is now a museum and definitely worth the visit!
Our guide through the museum was very passionate and brought the Ten Boom family alive through her retelling of events that took place so long ago.

We learned about the Ten Boom's themselves, the people that they helped, the signals that were used and the constant fear of discovery.  One of the really interesting parts was being able to go into Corrie's bedroom and see the hiding place in the wall where she hid Jews. The cover wall has been removed now so that you can see inside the hiding place. It was so small. It was awful to think people had to hide there, but also wonderful to know that they could, and did. It was a very moving experience.

After touring the house part, we went into the watch shop and it is currently still a watch/jewelry business. My dad bought my mom several different pieces and a lovely watch--to have a watch from the Ten Boom's Watch Shop...Wow! Outside on the street, the boys were being entertained by a street performer...he was quite good and full of himself--cheeky fellow! ;-)    We made it out and into Grote Markt and rambled around thru the various wares...I love doing that! Gorgeous view of the church there too! Lovely day spent with my parents!
Meanwhile, we head back to the farm and get ready for tomorrow...we're going to see horses be milked out at the Riga Ranch!!

On Sunday of our trip, we headed out to Riga Ranch. The owner/host out at Clara Maria recommended Riga Ranch and his daughter runs it so he knew we would really have a good time! At Riga Ranch, they milk horses! That's right, HORSES, I know, right, it took me a moment to wrap my head around it too!! We'd never seen or heard of that, so this was a real treat for us. Their foals remain with them for six weeks and after that they only nurse at night. Then the horses are milkes four times a day and the foal nurses only at night. This way, the mare continues to produce milk for up to 8 full months! Anyway, the horses at the Riga Ranch are mostly Haflingers and they originated in zuid-Tirol (place of Hafling), Bavaria and Austria.

When we got there we walked into a huge barn area where tons of gorgeous horses were happily entertaining a ba-zillion people! We eagerly threw ourlselves into the fray and wandered from horse to horse! Lovely coats, assessing eyes, twitching ears and flaring nostrils....then, the little beauty was moving right in on my and trying to eat his shirt!!!! She moved fast that one, he didn't even know her name! lololol  We all loved the horses...and as you can see, the boys really loved them. The more they fed the horses, Gunnar's shirt slowly changed from white to brown....eeeeewwwww!!! lololololol

After pulling all the straw from my sweater, we meandered on over to the big barn/warehouse area that was the store. Wow, it was alot bigger than it looked and really cute inside too. There were kosmetics (for face and body) with horse milk, liquor and chocolate made with horse milk...just a vast assortment of products made from horse milk----who'd a thunk it, eh? lol  Ah, well...we perused and oooh'd and ahhhh'd, bought a few things and of course, Chace had to have his picture made with the pretty owner! *grin*

Once we left there, we drove around the area and saw some of the prettiest little houses I'd seen....just b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l!!! A very delightful trip to be sure! :)