Tulips on the Beemster

These tuilps are about 7 minutes from my house. They are stunning in their vividness, particularly the red. The pictures do NOT do it justice. Zo mooi!!
The white strip in front of the tulip rows have the name of the purchaser and a barcode. I think all of the rows were sold already, but if someone knows more about how the tulip business works, please enlighten me.
The farm house is that of the tulip farmer, and not only has a hedge maze, but also a thatched roof!
After the tulip fun, we went to the city center of Purmerend, and enjoyed the unseasonably warm weather by sitting out on the terrace and enjoying the last rays of sun with a beer and a mint tea.

Sailing on the Gouzee

Today we went to check out some sailing/maritime event in the town of Monnickendam, a very cute lake side village.

There were lots of boats out in the harbor, just docked with people sitting all over and enjoying the sun.

 There was a choir singing sea shanties and dressed in sailor outfits, complete with accordian. Honestly, if you didn't notice the clothes, today's scene could have played out anytime over the last 100 years.  I spotted some 'Klompen' (wooden shoes), and there was even a Punch and Judy Show!

We randomly jumped on a boat that was getting ready to leave, called the Albatross.  It was about 30 meters, and was built in 1890. It looked appropriately traditional, although I wonder if a stick of 1890 ship is left after all that time. We sailed across the Gouzee, which is a man made freshwater lake, created by a dike. It was nice to be out on the water, and listen to the snap of the canvas and creak of ropes.

We sailed from Monnickendam to Marken and back. About half way out, Guido tried his hand at the rudder, and ended up helming it all the way back to port, and even helped to parallel parked the ship! The owners were super nice and friendly, and probably do an awesome job for their charters.




We have been talking about taking a sailing class, and we got some info from the captain of this ship about a place to check out. Maybe there will be more sailing stories soon. Today was a completely unplanned adventure and ended up being a nice day outdoors.