Leaving, but Reminders for When We Come Back…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Brielle is an interesting little place and whist driving around we spot an amazing looking sailing ship moored in a canal, signboards suggest it’s a local attraction.

The rain had eased a little but I wasn’t up to the challenge of  a walk over wet grass on crutches so I just rolled down the car window for a not quite so good photo, whilst Himself and the kids went to investigate.

Apparently there are possibilites to visit this properly but it’s closed at the moment (National Public Holiday, most things are closed today).

There’s another interesting building close by too, so I’m posting these photos as a reminder to come back here and look into the activities here next summer.

We take a further look around Brielle before heading back towards the Westland  via another ferry crossing of the Maas River.

Now that it’s early afternoon the ferry is far busier and sadly the weather hasn’t improved any… but still, I have enjoyed a very welcome break from  long days sitting at home and we have discovered ice-cream to die for so the weather doesn’t dampen our spirits at all.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Throwing in a Sweetener to get Motivated… and LOVING IT!!!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

A question for Parents: What spurs your child on to eat their vegetables or meals when you want them to?

Ok, hunger… let’s take that one for granted.

But take two fussy eaters like ours (what did a Foodie like me ever do so badly, to deserve kids who think that a piece of tomato might kill them? or that trying a piece of pineapple or mango is an ordeal akin to torture?)

To be fair, Kiwi Daughter is getting more adventurous and she tried a piece of gherkin whilst we were here (but the grimacing faces she pulled whilst eating such a tiny morsel  probably did make any other  diners who might have been looking our way think that we were feeding her poison)

Getting back to the question… most kids will  co-operate (more than usual at least) if they think that a treat in any form sugary might be on offer afterwards.

In our case the treat that was the object of our children’s desire was in a big cabinet on the end of the long counter, located where you simply couldn’t miss it after your first step inside the door. Strategic… definitely strategic.

Little Mr. was even adamant that he could just this time, even forgo lunch completely and simply skip straight to dessert . Nice try kid, but we have done that one once in your lifetime already
http://kiwidutch.wordpress.com/2009/10/24/ben-and-jerrys-jamacian-me-crazy/
  and it wasa once in a lifetime occasion so forget any repeats before you reach adulthood.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

So… what is the massive kid motivator on this occasion?  …Ice-cream! an entire cabinet of ice-cream:  the flavours on offer are: Vanilla, Chocolate, Strawberry, Stroopwafel, Apple-Pear, Apple-Cinnamon, Pomegranate, Strawberry-Yoghurt, Stratiatella,  Orange, Catalana, Ferero Rochee, Caramel,  Raspberry,  Cassis (blackcurrant) Royaal, White chocolate, Lemon, Forest Fruits and Bounty.

After closer inspection of what’s on offer, even the adults in the Kiwidutch family are by now highly motivated to do some taste testing. I mean, you can’t give a café a full and complete review without a taste test can you? (sigh) someone gotta do it… life is tough sometimes…   …NOT!

We get two flavours each. Ooooohhhhh,  wow, Wow, WOW!  THIS is ice-cream! what brilliant flavours. it’s gorgeous!

I  go take photos, I ask the smiling lady behind the counter where does she get this amazing  ice-cream from? She grins “I make it myself”  she says.

The Oooohhhhh’s go up a notch… “…wow, all of them?”  I ask.  ”Yes, all of them“. Wow, I am seriously impressed. This ice-cream is seriously impressive. I could keep it a secret, but for the local readers around me… I’m sharing my discovery of a brilliant treasure.  It  truly deserves the advertising.

Even if family Kiwidutch don’t end up walking around the walls of the fortress of Brielle, we will be making a return trip back just for the ice-cream.

Maybe we should hire a refrigerated truck to come here in?  (ok, only joking on that one, but I did  find myself wishing we could somehow fit a freezer into our car so that we could take some home). Methinks any guests who come to stay with family Kiwidutch in the future are going to be forced to see the sights of  Brielle. We need an excuse. Guests are the perfect excuse, right?

Kiwidutch can heartily recommend that Chez André in Brielle should feature as a definite detour if you are passing close by… heck it’s worth a detour even if you aren’t!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The only photo I got of what we ate was mine…  I couldn’t get the rest of the family to stop eating theirs!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Feeling at Home at Chez André…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Now if you look carefully in the lower centre of the top map photo in yesterday’s post and in the bottom left corner of the second map photo, you will see a name : ‘Chez André ‘.

We were driving around Brielle, looking around from the comfort of the car in between cloudbursts of rain, and for a café or restaurant that was open and had parking close by so that I didn’t have to walk far.

It’s  public holiday, and almost all of the towns businesses are closed for the day so we start to think that we aren’t going to find anywhere, but by chance “Chez André”  is open and due to the foul weather, there are parking places aplenty right outside the door.

This looks like a really cosy place to take shelter in and have something nice and warm for lunch.

Himself orders ” Toast Champignons” which consists of  toast with fried mushrooms, onions, bacon, egg and cheese…

Since I’m allergic to mushrooms, Himself rarely buys them to cook at home for himself, so it’s nice that he can order them when we are out sometimes.

Little Mr.  says a pouty “no” to  everything on the menu and dithers until Himself  just orders him a “Tostie” (toasted cheese sandwich), he then moans that he doesn’t want it while it’s being prepared and proceeds  to inhale it once it arrives.  (kid, we know you better than you know yourself).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

The photo was taken reluctantly because he wants to eat  right now!  Check out the little fingers waiting to pounce back onto it (eek, if I had only seen at the time how grubby his fingernails were!  ugh!)

Kiwi Daughter opts for “kroketten”  (meat croquettes) an item that’s  probably in the top three of  national Dutch take-a-way favourites…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I fancy a hamburger and go for the “Hamburger Hawaii”, with salad, pineapple, and there’s a portion of fries to share…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

All good solid Café fare.

We have fun with Kiwi Daughter as she ventures to try a sliver of pickled gherkin from my plate and  screws up her face  in an excessively  melodramatic fashion  as the sweet/sour taste hits home.

She gives it thumbs down .

(I can’t wait until my kids” taste buds  grow up!) but has earned herself dessert by at least giving it a go.

It’s cheap here too… amazingly for The Netherlands;

Himself’s  mushrooms were Euro 7.50,  my burger was Euro 8.95,  the two kroketten with bread were Euro 5.95 and with drinks and the rest of the meal it came to around Euro 25,- for the four of us.

Wow. I’m rather impressed actually. The meal was fine, the kids are having fun, the service was friendly (never take that for granted in the Netherlands!)

…and there is even a very nice surprise in store after we have finished our warm food, but that’s for you to find out about tomorrow…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Brielle, You’re a Star!

Ok, what made me pick out Brielle as a place to visit rather than any other little Dutch town?

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Well, I thought it would be nice to scout out a place that we could explore on foot maybe next summer that would be close enough to home to do as a day trip but still have something special to see.

The something special in Brielle’s case is that this town is also a star fortress and I’ve taken some photos in Google maps to show you how the town looks from above.

I am always in total awe of the engineers of centuries past who managed to put together such amazing defensive patterns,  so geometrically precise on such a large scale and all without “technology”as we enjoy it today and without the power of flight to look down on their handiwork.

I think that their skill, ability and insight was amazing and probably since architects today are used to having  technology do much of the number crunching, I think  that building one of these from scratch these days without these aids might be a  task beyond any on the profession today.

The symmetry is amazing… lets take a look…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

tunning or what? This is just the view from the car! Roll on restored mobility, I’m really looking forward to walking the whole way around this next Summer!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Check out the thickness of the walls at the entrance gate…

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Chalking up the Experience of the “Kalknacht”….

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Brielle is a town on the island of Voorn-Putten  and wiki tells me that it’s name comes from the  Celtic word “brogilo” (meaning “closed area” or “hunting grounds”).

In 1306 Brielle received city rights and was for many years the  seat of the Count of Voorne, until this fiefdom was added to Holland in 1371.

Brielle also had its own harbour and traded with the countries around the Baltic Sea.

During the Eight Years’ War between the Dutch and the Spanish, the Watergeuzen (Protestant rebels) captured Birelle on April 1, 1572  and this event marked a turning point in the conflict as many towns in The Netherlands  turned their support  to William of Orange against the Spanish Duke Fernando Álvarez de Toledo, the 3rd Duke of Alba.

The Capture of Brielle is still celebreated each year on 1st April, and on the 31st March the evening before, the city quite literally ‘marks’ the event by defacing buildings and windows with chalk.

This is called the “kalknacht” ( the Chalk Night)

Another interesting fact that I learned from wiki was that in August 1585, Brielle was one of the four Dutch towns that come into English possession by the Treaty of Nonsuch when  Queen Elizabeth I, received it as security of payment for 5000 soldiers used by the Dutch in their struggle against the Spanish.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

In 1617, these cities were returned to the Netherlands.

It’s become a Brielle custom to have a kalknacht party, and festivities  involve carrying around your own crate of beer around the streets, drinking as you went.

In decades past the actual “chalking” of the town was fairly innocent and most of the sayings and images could easily be removed,  so although it was illegal, the local police tended to turn a blind eye or just dish out friendly warnings and the odd small fine.

This kept the good natured cat-and-mouse game throughout the night between the chalkers and the police an easy going affair,  but upon further reading a whole host of (Dutch language) articles it’s clear that those days are long gone.

Some articles suggest that that decline came when outsiders crashed this annual Brielle party, but however it happened, it  what first started out as just the use of  chalk (or lime) was slowly replaced by various other mediums, including paint.

This started to have a detrimental effect as revellers left marks on cars, windows and businesses during the night  that were difficult and costly to remove and often caused considerable damage.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

It  changed the chalking tradition into free-for-all vandalism (clearly there are just  a militant few troublemakers taking it to the worst extremes) but the police understandably, have had to crack down on the ritual.

It still takes place, party and all, but these days it’s illegal  between the hours of  18:00  on the 31st of March and 08:00 on the 1st of April to have any chalk, paint, spray, brushes or other possible equipment  for chalking in your possession.

News reports I have read tell me that the chalking hasn’t actually stopped at all, but that now fines are officially handed out if people are caught and last year three people who have been repeatedly fined earned in earlier kalknacht events found themselves with criminal record for continuing.

(The articles didn’t say what what materials two of them were “chalking” with, but the third used orange paint).

Here’s a look around the historic town of Brielle.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brielle

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Finding Our Way to Brielle, … (Just Don’t ask Google Maps if you are in a Hurry).

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

As my regular readers know, I haven’t been getting out and about much this year .

The  combination of double staircases at home,  limited walking ability on crutches, stupid levels of pain, work, regular physiotherapy, hospital, Specialist appointments etc as I recover from my accident have made the logistics of getting out and about just too difficult.

Way back on June 13th we  had a public holiday long weekend in The Netherlands called “Pinksterdag“.

To be more accurate, Pinksterdag is actually two public  holiday’s in one weekend: one on the Sunday  called “1e Pinksterdag‘ (1st Pinksterdag =Pentecost Sunday) and one on the Monday called “2e Pinksterdag” (2nd Pinksterdag =Pentecost Monday).

Here in the Netherlands March and April  this year turned on unseasonably warm weather for some five to six weeks and Himself even found himself opting for shorts some days.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Sadly it wasn’t to last and “normal transmission of usual Dutch weather (i.e. rain) was resumed” by May and rain it did, for pretty much until the last week of September,  when all of a sudden the temperatures climbed high, the sun shone and we were delighted with an  unexpected week of  brilliant summer-like weather, all rather strange since Autumn had already started.

(Mother Nature is clearly very confused at the moment).

By 2e Pinksterdag   it was raining (shock: again!) and I was getting cabin fever at home, sick of the sight of the same four walls of home, work or medical facilities and not having been out of the house for over a month.

As expected on a  rainy long weekend the kids were also restless so Himself suggested a short drive somewhere… all of us.

I had been doing some research on possible castles to visit when I am mobile again and one place of interest that I wanted to follow up on was a little place called “Brielle”,  just a short drive away from The Hague.

We figured that rain or no rain it would be good to take a look around and see if it would be worth a future Summer visit when the sun was shining and we could all do some serious walking and exploring.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

Wanting to demonstrate where Brielle was in relation to The Hague, I pulled up Google Maps and put in The Hague to Brielle in the Route Planner.

This is a prime example where computers demonstrate their stupidity and complete lack of rationality.

The route planned takes me  via the scenic route and Schiedam, but as a local I already know a far more direct way, straight down through the Westland, so I typed in Maassluis and expected the programme to know that there is a ferry at this point of the River Maas, ready to take me to Rozenburg on the other side.

I hit “directions‘ and the computer produced a result that  made me add the word “seriously” to the word “stupid‘, because it then first directed us to Maasluis and then still  took us back the long way though Schiedam.

Human Beings ’1″v’s Computer “0″,  I will leave it to your own higher intelligence to look at the map and see the logic of taking the Maasluis/Rozenburg ferry.

So… without further ado, let’s go for a virtual car ride… and you even get to see the secret ferry that even the all seeing Google doesn’t know exists.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

I had to laugh when I saw the receipt, “Connexxion” is a big bus company in Dutch public transport. In a country were there are no shortage of waterways, taking a ferry really is like taking the bus… and here, even a bus company can provide the ride!

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

.. just in case you forget how close to the massive Port of Rotterdam we are, the Maas  is a very busy stretch of water.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

.. and soon we are threading our way though the Havens (harbours) and docks, where the business of import and export is done on an industrial scale.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

(photograph © Kiwidutch)

All of a sudden we come to what is almost a rural enclave… after several minutes of fields, we round a corner and find ourselves entering Brielle.

(photograph © Kiwidutch)