In Oostzaan...

A special day on Wednesday. Jaap and Gerda invited me to go with them to Jaap's cousin Piet's home in Oostzaan, out of Amsterdam. I caught the train to Heemstede. Jaap and Gerda picked me up at the station and we drove north, skirting around Amsterdam and into an area of small, often green-painted wooden houses, surrounded by many sloots or canals. The road was very narrow and negotiating the oncoming traffic required a patience and dexterity that would leave a ChCh driver for dead! Gradually the houses thinned out and we came in sight of Piet's home at the very end of the road. Piet had farmed here - mostly cows - transporting his animals around the watery farm in the flat-bottomed boat that we went out in.

All the comforts were supplied...

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We had another passenger who stayed at the prow the whole trip - peed there too...

We were observed...

And we observed...

What the photos don't show is that the signs of industry intrude on the not very distant horizon. What was once only farming and wet land is now under population pressure. However there is a large polder - where the windmill, which would have been used to drain the polder, is sited - that is reserved in its 'natural' state for recreation.   

It was a special insight into a unique, and passing, way of life. We had coffee with 82-year old Piet afterwards with lots of conversation, mostly in Dutch, and said our farewells.

Apparently I have an invitation to return to Oostzaan whenever I am back in Holland! I felt very privileged.