Florian's home, now lived in by his daughter . . .

. . . as he lives in a home they built in the extensive garden.

The reason for the new house was the fact that he was

an avid collector and trader in far eastern items and needed a suitable house to display them.

Meet Frieke, a friend of Loes for 61 years, here at the table in their garden. 

I first met Frieke when she came over to Loweswater in 2021 for a short holiday.

The table was furnished with a delightful lunch soon afterwards, then we went out sight seeing in the afternoon.

Welcome to Buren, an old walled town with the local river De Korne acting as a protective moat.

Now a modern bridge leads you across into the town.

A must for visitors is to have their photo taken with William of Orange (and his family).

The particular reason the statue is here is that William married Anna van Buren in around 1557.

This one even had a year round Christmas Decorations display.

Buren had a large number of delightful, small specialist shops including . . .

One of the grand buildings of the town advertises itself as the Military Police Museum.

It can be found on the edge of town next to the defensive wall and moat.

The day concluded with a meal with Frieke and Floriaan in 'De Buren Beusichem' restaurant before driving back to Haarlem.

	- - - o o o - - - Next morning, as we were "self catering" in Haarlem, we needed to visit the shops, if only to buy something for our breakfasts. It was beautiful weather as we walked along the canal side and over to the shopping centre, still quiet at this time early hour.

Off to Zaandam . . .

One of the first tricks you have to learn about town driving in Holland is the roundabouts.

Okay, you made it this far so you've mastered driving on the wrong side of the road and even doing the roundabouts anticlockwise.

Now on entering and especially on leaving you have to give way to any cars already on the roundabout, any bikes on the outer red bike lane

and then pedestrians on the outer grey pavement, which forms a third tier of the 'roundabout' circle.

Pedestrians are easy as they don't move to fast . . . but just watch out for those bikes . . . they take no prisoners !

- - - o o o - - -

Suitably provisioned, we headed out to Loes's brother Eddie at Zaandam.

This was the weekend of the "Dam to Dam" sponsored walk and run where participants walk, or later run

from Amsterdam to Zaandam (hence the name).

The event is similar in nature to out Great North Run, but with 90,000 people on a shorter course, spread over two days.

We got there early and the walkers gradually increased in number as the afternoon went on.

The blue and red tee shirts were linked with the walk's major charities.

Eddie fancied walking part of the route across the causeway into the town centre so we followed the stream of people.

I held back to take a few photos, only to find the barriers down on the causeway and Eddie and Loes on the other side.

The bridge was lifting, to let a sailing cruiser through into the harbour area.

Once the bridge closed again, the walkers who were also delayed began to stream across the bridge . . .

. . . and on through town towards the finish.

In the evening the runners had their turn, reaching us as the light began to fade.

Disco music from the lady in the Disco Ball encouraged the runners on their way over the causeways.

Interestingly the promoters had commissioned a water spray feature

not to keep the competitors cool but to project light images onto it and so add atmosphere to the event.

[ It appears back to front . . . because it was designed to be read from the other side.]

Many of the competitors also had their own personal light displays.

Eddie's daughter Karin was taking part in the 10km event . . .	as was her partner, but sadly no picture of Martijn as he came through earlier.

There's the full effect of the water-spray advert seen from the correct side . . .

Zien . . . translates as :  " We'll see you in the after party in the Dam to Dam Park "

Sadly not for us . . . we have to get back.

	- - - o o o - - -     Click here or on the picture above for a short video. [ Right click and open to view in new window ] [ or left click to view directly , then backspace from Youtube to return here ]