Volendam here we come!

Volendam is another typical town in the Netherlands. This quaint town has about 22,000 inhabitants. It's totally spruced up for the tourists. Each house is well maintained, freshly painted, flower pots behind the windows. Front steps swept daily, windows sparkling cleaned weekly.... We Dutch know how to clean!! And this we don't just do for tourists... we do it for our neighbors, so nobody can say a bad thing about us!! People live so close and next to each other, that social control is big. So we keep it clean!!

Volendam is also well known for its great singers, almost any family has a famous singer in it, not that there are many families in Volendam and most of them are related... ;-) Religious as well...

Fun to visit, so we did. See here some pictures of the gorgeous day we had... which in the Netherlands you are totally THANKFUL for, since this doesn't happen too often!!

The famous wooden shoes are sold in every size and color everywhere.



Het Vis Meisje, a typical Dutch Farmer Girl. Jasmine was (again) not too happy to pose... we have a history together on this.



The first thing we did, as typical Dutch do, is having a 'kopje koffie met appeltaart' a coffee with Dutch Apple pie... of course the naughty birds loved us for it....



Delfts blauw everywhere...



See how neat the streets are...



Justin & Juliet hugging a pole... not so typical Dutch, but funny anyway ;-)



So typical Dutch; blond hair and blue eyes!



Jillian even blonder than her brother Justin.



Another typical Dutch thing to do is... eating some raw pickled herring with raw onions... hmm not MY thing! But the rest of our group seems to enjoy it!



The beautiful harbor of Volendam.





We have seen enough and take a short ferry ride to Markendam, another cute town. Dirk & Martijn enjoying a beer... how typical! LOL



Juliet & Jasmine playing a hand, clap and sing game... that I used to do as well when I was their age. Although I did it in Dutch, they do it in English.



Volendam was fun to visit, back to our roots for a day or 2 is never bad. Good for the girls!!
Tomorrow more typical Dutch scenes from Markendam, you will love it!

Holland = Fun!! ..........(when the sun shines)
Mireille xx