Saturday was our last full day in the Harlingen area, and we decided that we would take a ferry to one of the Frisian Islands that are part of the Netherlands. We chose Vleiland, pronounced "Frieland", since it is one of the smaller islands and easily walkable in the port and the village. The trip over was interesting and took about one and a half hours. The crowds were enormous, boarding to go over, and the ferry was quite full. Most had tons of luggage and were planning on staying for some days, since it was a holiday weekend. There were kids, dogs, moms, dads, grandmas and grandpas... What a crowd. The little town was cute, but we covered it in about an hour. Everyone there gets around by bicycle...they were everywhere and the bike paths are prevalent. If we were to go there again, we would hone our biking skills and venture further out on the trails.
We returned to Harlingen on the 5 p.m. ferry and actually wished that we could have left on an earlier ferry. Not that much to do or see to take an entire day. Fortunately, it was a nice day and not too cold and we did a lot of walking about and enjoying the fresh sea air.
Sunday morning we said goodbye to Harlingen, and were a little sad to do so. We will make it a regular stop on any European adventures!! We love the little place and the Hotel Zeezicht.
Our first stop on our way to Koln (Cologne, Germany) was the Kroller-Muller Museum near the Apeldoorn area, which hLearn More
ouses the largest collection of Van Gogh work outside the museum in Amsterdam. It's located in the woods on a very large and beautiful property that used to be a hunting preserve for a wealthy family. We enjoyed the Van Gogh works and some of those by other artists.
The "park" is extensive and diverse and was donated to the Netherlands. It is another bicycle haven and provides 1,500 bicycles for the use of visitors at no cost. There are miles of bike paths and is, indeed, a lovely place to visit even if one isn't interested in the museum. We saw a little fox crossing in front of our car and rather casually sniffing along in the grass and bushes for something that he was on the trail after.
Another humorous thing was a warning sign that said "Wildrooster." We were fairly certain that it was not warning us about crazed farm fowl and found out later that it means "cattle guard." Hilarious for a time.
The rain began as we left the property and continued heavily all the way to Koln. We checked into the Hyatt Hotel, and our room has a view of the Rhine River and the Koln Cathedral across the river. Tomorrow morning, if the weather is nice as is forecast, we will walk across the bridge and visit the old town and the cathedral. It should be a wonderful experience!!!
A few miscellaneous comments....we have continued to see swans everywhere in canals, fields, in lakes. They are so graceful and lovely and it's amazing to see them in the wild.
We find it interesting to have to stop on the highway to wait for a drawbridge to rise and allow a boat through as it travels a canal. This happens on small and large highways.
And as we returned to Germany, the tulip fields of the Netherlands were replaced by the bright yellow rapeseed fields.
Until tomorrow......
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