A Wonderful Weekend in Groningen

September 14. What a great weekend we had! Friday we left Naarden, and took the train into the northern city of Groningen, situated in the province of the same name. This is the home of my email pen pal, Vincent Woudstra, whom we got to meet in person, after about a year of emails across the Atlantic. That evening, after we got settled into the hotel, Vincent, his mother, Annie, and father, Piet, came by and we all got acquainted over a drink. We agreed to meet again in the morning, and decide what sightseeing we would do.

From left to right, Lisette, Piet, Martijn, Vincent, and Annie.

Saturday, bright and early, Vincent retrieved us after breakfast, took us to the Woudstra home, where we had a second breakfast of Annie's delicious pound cake. Then we took off for the windmill museum, "De Wachter." The mill is completely restored, and as it was National Museum Day in the Netherlands, there were more than the usual number of exhibitions and demonstrations going on. Not only were they grinding flour in the mill, which I expected to see, they were also grinding spices such as cloves, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Delicious smells in that place!

Another unexpected function of the mill was to press linseed for oil. Cams and gears converted the horizontal wind power into a vertical motion which alternately lifted and dropped an enormous wooden pestle onto a cloth wrap containing the seeds. Repeated pressing with the heavy shaft resulted in a trickle of oil which ran into a waiting jar.

Inside the mill, handmade wooden gears provide the power to grind flour and spices

Following our tour of the windmill, we went on to the Klompenmuseum, or Wooden Shoe Museum. This was also quite interesting. The history of wooden shoes was explained to us in detail by the volunteer docent, who also showed us a variety of tools used through the years to make clogs. Originally, they were all carved by hand, but then machines were made by the beginning of this century which could produce a pair of shoes from a single model.

Wooden shoes are actually still used quite a bit in the Netherlands, especially by workers in factories, who use them as we would steel toe boots. They also come in quite handy for working in the garden, where they keep the gardener's feet dry and comfortable in the often mushy soil.

That evening we joined Vincent's parents, sister Lisette, and her boyfriend Martijn for a traditional Dutch meal of pancakes for supper. Dutch people eat pancakes any time of day, in a variety of styles. Some toppings included corn and pepperoni(but not on the same pancake).