Through the wonders of the Internet and the Europrez e-mail list we met Ton van Bart his wife Karin, and their children Loes, Lex and Pien in June, 2001. When we were in Utrecht, Ton picked us up at our hotel and took us to his home and then we departed on a wonderful tour of the surrounding area. After the fact, we kicked ourselves for not getting a picture of Ton & Karin and the kids. Especially the kids! Pien will remain with us always. Jim decided that she definitely got more than her share of the Silly Gene!

Ton and his family live in the town of Maarssen which is located about 5 km north, north east of Utrecht. Ton took us for a tour of the surrounding area which is located about 35 km south east of Amsterdam. Many of the homes in the area were built along the numerous canals that permeate the area. The home were built in the 19th Century by the merchant class from Amsterdam for use as weekend and holiday homes. Most are built along one of the canals, like the one pictured at left. The canals themselves were major thoroughfares and those who came to stay traveled by horse-drawn boat from Amsterdam, about 35 km away. Those horse-paths became the roads we drive on today.

In the 17th and 18th Century many commodities that we take for granted today were hard to come by and therefore expensive. One of these was tea. Yes, hard to believe that something so simple was considered a luxury but in the days when bringing tea to Europe involved sailing around the tip of South Africa on a voyage that took from 6 to 8 months tea was expensive and a luxury.

As a result, many of the merchants who had homes in the area along the canals in the Maarssen area built tea houses adjacent to the road or the canal (right) so they could drink their tea in full view of anyone who happened to pass by. And we think that conspicuous consumption is a somewhat new trend associated with “keeping up with the Joneses”.

Ton also took us to visit a historical landmark. A windmill known as “The Watchman” that was used during W.W.II as a signal to indicate to those evading the Germans if it was safe to approach, depending of the position of the blades (arms). If the blades formed a cross (+), it was safe; if the blades formed an X, it was not safe. The windmill was operating when we were there, although only 2 of the “sails” were unfurled, due to the strong wind. The entire lower section of the windmill is covered in thatch.

The area around the windmill was mostly water, lots of small canals with bits of land in-between, which is why everything growing was lush and green. 

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