Ruth and the sunset at the island of Dhiffushi, Maldives.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Kuwait City, Kuwait on March 31st.

Tuesday, July 27, 2021

Wandering around Harlingen, Netherlands

Harlingen is a small coastal city (pop 16,000) with a lot of canals and waterways within the city itself. It also has a big port that hosts the ferries that go to the West Frisian Islands, and is where several world class tall ships races have taken place.

We found a big free parking lot outside of town, and walked in.

There is a big beach right opposite where we parked. It was starting out to be a nice day and there were a few people enjoying the beach.

Harlingen has a lot of monuments.

The beach.

We walked out this plastic waterbreak.

A lighthouse boat.

We sat and watched the boats for a while.

The ferry is leaving for the islands.

I thought about going, but the €170 fee for Max kind got rid of that thought!

Lots of people on board.

There they go...

Harlingen, Netherlands.

This is where we were...

You can zoom in or out to get a better view.

Nice mural.

Harlingen.

The train and the lighthouse.

Tall ships.

Water everywhere.

And boats everywhere.

The bank!

Canals and flowers.

In the 1970's.

Same photo today.

There is always a big church around.

A funny house!

It sure is skinny!

Dutch homes.

Notice the big old American car?

1974 (?) Thunderbird.
I went over to look at it and it had an Edmonton, Alberta dealer emblem on it!

More water, and more boats.

We knew that Netherlands is well known for bicycles and canals and boats, but I don't think we realized just how much it's part of the culture here.

Typical Dutch homes in Harlingen.

These places are in the oldest part of town and date to the 1600's.

Tower.

We love looking at the old buildings.
So much character!

Look at how this place leans!

The harbormaster building.

We really enjoyed walking around Harlingen. We did about 5 kms in the morning and then another 3 kms or so after lunch.

Heading out of Harlingen, we had to stop for this duck family to cross the road.

We found a little parking lot out in the countryside beside the dyke for Max.
GPS 53.240906, 5.491356

Photo taken from the top of the dyke.
Max is nicely tucked away!

We went for a walk along the shore after supper.


Standing on top of the dyke.

It rained quite a lot over night with lots of thunder rumbling. So far, nice today, but hazy with a forecast high of 22C. Have to admit that while many people are experiencing temperatures that are too hot, we have been lucky in that regard so far this summer.

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And in Canada...

12 comments:

  1. Stunning photos..looks almost storybook there. It would be interesting to know the cars history😉

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you Kathy! The little city was definitely very picturesque so it is hard not to take great photos.

      Yep, the car must have a story!

      Delete
  2. Can you take the ferry as a passenger out-and-back day trip without Max? We did that from Anacortes WA to Victoria, a great day trip.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we could have done that but to be honest other than the ferry ride, I don't think the scenery would be much different from what we have already been seeing. If it looked like there would have been something quite different there me might have considered it.

      Delete
  3. Do you happen to remember the name of the car dealer? My FIL had the same car, same year, but black with white/cream top. From Edmonton.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No, sorry Shirley we don't remember the car dealer.

      Delete
  4. Hubby guessed it was either a thunderbird or Lincoln. Edmonton, too funny, I grew up just west of Edmonton, after we immigrated from the Netherlands. I lived in Edmonton for 4 years after I met my husband. When I was 2 my parents and I rented a little caravan on the island of Terschelling, I ran straight into the North sea and dad had to run to catch me, lol. Other trips were to Schiermonnokoog.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. From a distance Kevin also thought it was a Lincoln. We thought it was funny to see that the dealer emblem was from Edmonton!

      Sounds like you must have loved the water when you were little. We had read that those islands are very popular summer destinations for the Dutch people. We are glad that we could help bring back some fun childhood memories for you. :-)

      Delete
  5. Hi Kevin and Ruth
    We are Eddy and Hetty from the Netherlands
    We are folowwing tour travels for years

    We are Canadian lovers and for kant years
    We travel for 10 OR more time trough Canada
    Its our heart to be there

    So i see you are in Holland
    You have been to Nice places
    Like Harlingen and Giethoorn

    You are niet in FrieslandGo to the little places like sloten snd more
    Speciale tot MAKKUM
    Yes Nice places like Harlingen and they have a wharf
    The wharf were Pres. Trump bought a big yaght
    Years ago.

    We are living in the South on the bieder by belgium
    In Was van Gent
    They have here a big camperplace dit free on the Canal

    We have been Just 2 weeks ago in Friesland too.
    My roots are in Makkum

    Zaanstad is alsof a very Nice Dutch place.
    Aldo Marken and Volendam
    Dont miss this places

    Pitty we weten Just go away from Friesland with our camper
    Yes here we travel Aldo with a little camper like yours

    Have Nice trio and hope to meet you
    IT would be very Nice

    Have graet day

    Eddy

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi there Eddy and Hetty, thank you so much for taking the time to comment. We are glad that you are enjoying our travels. Sorry that we missed you when you were up here in Friesland, it would have been nice to have met you both and we weren't too far away from Makkum either.

      It is good to hear that you have been to Canada and have traveled much of it. We hope that you can make it back there to see more of Canada. It is a huge country and there is so much to see.

      We are sorry to have missed both Makkum and Sloten, they look very beautiful but it is very difficult to see everything, although we are trying our best to see lots of small places that most people back home have never heard of or seen pictures of. Like Kevin said the other day in his post, we can't see everything but we are doing our best to see as much as we can.

      We aren't going to be going to Marken or Volendam on this trip but we definitely want to go there as Kevin's Dad visited both these places back in 1957 and he has some old pictures of these places that we want to go and see and take new pictures to see how things have changed since then. This will happen when we go up to Amsterdam in one spring in a year or two. When we do that we will most likely see the southern part of the Netherlands too so who knows, maybe we will meet you then. We will keep in mind that there is a big free camper place near you. :-)

      Thank you again for leaving since a nice comment along with suggestions of places to visit. We hope to meet you some time in the future. :-)

      Delete
  6. Replies
    1. We knew it was a Ford Thunderbird, it was the year that Kevin wasn't sure of. :-)

      Delete

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