Day 4 – Castle, Haarlem and More Tulips…and an Awkward Bit of New Information

In Netherlands today is Kings Day which is a national holiday. So we wore our oranges (and I wore a golden color since I didn’t have an orange shirt without any words on it from past travels such as Los Angeles Inmate which I got as a joke).

We started the morning in Utrecht and made our way to the nearby Castle of Muid. Well, I needed to get some wifi to activate my travel IAmsterdam card and much to my sisters demise we headed to McDonalds because they always have wifi for free. That is what I do when I travel, search for the free wifi spots. Well, this McDonalds wifi didn’t work for us so we finally got the cards activated. But I did get to eat at McDonalds which my sisters rolled their eyes at. My mom was fine with it.

Since it was a national holiday the castle was empty. We pretty much had the place to ourselves except for a few other people. One of the employees said it was usually busier, so we were lucky.

We toured the old castle and listened to the stories through the years. It is always interesting listening to stories from old, especially in different cultures.

Apparently, one tidbit which caused my head to spin was that centuries ago in the castle they had toilets throughout the castle along the walls where the waste would fall into the moat. But that was the interesting thing. They had these places in great rooms so people could relieve themselves without leaving the conversations because they didn’t have doors.

No privacy. They just did it a everyone could watch. Back then privacy was looked down on because it was a untrustworthy trait if you needed privacy. You could be going off somewhere helping the enemies.

So, lesson learned. If you close the door next time you relieve yourself, count yourself lucky that your family or friends count you trustworthy. I definitely will not be looking forward to this trend returning in the future.

We walked through the towers and over the walls and basked in the splendor of the majestic castle. It was a breezy, cool day, but it fit the setting. I don’t know why, but when I think of castles and that history, I always picture cloudy, cold days. So today fit.

We left the castle and headed west to the town of Haarlem. We took a tour of one of their windmills and learned how it worked. It is amazing that they still use the windmills for technological reasons. I thought they still had them for merely historical or the look of them.

We walked through the city and came to a festival which I presume to be for Kings Day. It had food trucks, music, amusement rides and portable urinals…out in the open.

Yes, that is right. You can walk right past a group of guys relieving themselves under the blue sky. It was something I never expected to see. But given what I learned in the castle about privacy, I’m just thankful my hotel rooms have doors now.

We enjoyed some crepes for lunch and then headed south toward our hotel for the night. But we didn’t go to the hotel. We toured some tulip and flower farms in the region. I wouldn’t say we were trespassing, but we parked our car on the side of the road and walked through their fields without permission.

I thought we got caught when a strange mini camouflaged truck pulled up to the farm and watched us for a few minutes. Only for them to get out and do the same thing.

There is something remarkable about these farms. Truly a sight to see.

We left the various farms and headed to our hotel. We checked in and then left for supper. Once again, we had some difficulty in finding a restaurant. One restaurant told us they were too busy to serve us as there were empty tables. The hotel told us they had just closed. The receptionist told us of a restaurant she assured was open, but it wasn’t.

So we got a pizza and took it back to our room.

Tomorrow we will take back our rental car and then head into the city of Amsterdam for 2 days. 2 days of museums, boat rides, pancakes and cookies. And lots of walking.

Thanks for coming along with us on this trip. Until tomorrow.

Peace

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