Exploring My Roots

Friday April 8, 2011

This weekend, I took a train up to Leeuwarden, the capital city of Friesland. The purpose of this trip was to spend the weekend with a distant relative in order to find out more about my mother’s side of the family (Plantinga, and yes I am related to the Plantinga’s at Calvin). The train ride was 2 hours or so, which I spent listening to the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack (which has just passed Kung Fu Panda as my number 1 all-time favorite animated movie). After arriving at the station, Renze (my grandfather’s cousin, the distant relative) found me and we left Leeuwarden for Harlingen, which is where my grandfather lived for most of his childhood. We found the house that he lived in (Kanaalweg #80) and we walked around the city for a while. We found the old Dutch Reformed Church, which Renze and I think was where my family went to church, back in the day (I still have to ask my grandfather, Oenze, for confirmation on that). We asked a lady standing nearby for information about the church, and it turns out she was the caretaker of the church, so she unlocked it and let us explore inside.

Later, we went back to Leeuwarden, to find where my grandfather lived during World War II (#8 Veulenstraat). We also spent the rest of the afternoon walking around downtown Leeuwarden, where Renze told me stories about the ghettos, World War II, but more importantly, to me, stories about my family. I won’t bore you with the whole family tree, or every story he told me, but I will tell you a couple interesting one’s. One of the earliest photographs of  a member of our family is of Kornelis (pronounced Korn-ay-lis) Plantinga, my great-great-great-grandfather. Kornelis could neither read nor write, but was incredibly strong. He apparently was upset that the church didn’t ask him to take the offering. This was because, back in the day, the offering was collected in pouches at the end of long poles (6-8 feet long or so). Kornelis wanted to collect the offering because he noticed that those who collected the offering didn’t have the strength to hold the stick up for a long time, whereas he was able to do it with one hand. No problem.

Another story I found particularly interesting was that my grandfather’s uncle, Kees (pronounced Case), was very much involved with the Dutch Resistance. He housed Resistance members, and ended up getting caught. He was shipped off to a concentration camp, from which he escape twice, before being moved to another concentration camp, which he also escaped from. He continued to help the Resistance. Apparently, somewhere in Israel there is a tree planted in gratitude to Kees and his actions during the War.

Saturday April 9, 2011

The main features of this day were tennis, Dokkum, and Burdaard. I played tennis for the first time this Saturday, and apparently I picked it up really fast. It was beautiful weather, and I really like tennis, so I hope to continue it at Calvin. That afternoon, we went to Dokkum, where my grandfather was born. It turns out that the house has been turned into a sporting goods store. Very odd. Burdaard is perhaps the most important stop of the weekend; it is the village my family is from. We visited the building Kornelis lived in/had his grocery store. Then, we walked down the street to the building that used to be Plantinga’s Bakery, owned and run and lived in by Oenze Plantinga, my great-great-grandfather. Across the street from the bakery is the church that my family went to, all those generations ago. We spent the rest of the day touring the countryside, visiting little towns here and there, including a small fishing village that lost almost every man in the village to a devastating storm. We returned to Renze’s house, which is amazing by the way, where we watched Independence Day before going to bed.

Sunday April 10, 2011

The day before, Ria, Renze’s housemate, who is one of the kindest ladies I have ever met, had a great idea: Go to church in Burdaart. I thought this was a fantastic idea, as it ties me back to the very beginning, using a string that has been of utmost important to my family through all generations: our Christian faith. Although I couldn’t understand most of the service, it was still a wonderful experience. However, there was no doubt to when the sermon started: as in most churches I have attended (in North America), the sermon can be easy distinguished from the rest of the service by the distribution of candies, most often peppermints, and, if you are Dutch, most probably KING peppermints. I thought that was pretty funny how that tradition carry on through time, and across the ocean.

After church, we had a great lunch, and then went to the pond on the edge of Renze’s property. There, we prepared Snoopy, Renze’s small sailboat. I spent the afternoon learning how to sail, which was really fun. After a few hours of that we had tea, and Renze and I played volleyball. He is really quite good; he puts many of the people I play with at Calvin to shame, especially since he needs a hip replacement. Interesting fact: Renze started a volleyball team at his school (college I think) that went on to win the championship that same year. Turns out Renze also visited Calvin during his college years, where he played volleyball with some of the students at the time. Amazing how many connections there are…we just have to find them.

In all, this weekend was by far my favorite weekend here in the Netherlands. I visited and met family, I learned some new sports, I learned about my past, and I learned more about myself. In all this weekend can be described in one word: gezellig.

IN OTHER NEWS: Kung Fu Panda 2 will have to be amazing to beat out How to Train Your Dragon.

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Episode 1: Oosterbeek and Arnhem

Wednesday March 23, 2011

So, technically we don’t have Spring Break here at the VU. But, as it turns out, we still had a good 6 days off after our physics exam Monday. After I took the terrible test that mournful Monday morning, I biked back with Jacob and we talked about what we were going to do. As it turns out, neither of us were going to Spain (as 6 others did). I was planning on taking a day or two to go see Oosterbeek and Arnhem, for two main reasons: A: the largest Airborne operation of all time happened in the Netherlands (Operation Market Garden), leading to the one of the worst Allied losses in the entire War in the Battle of Arnhem, and B: my Great Great Grandfather Oenze was killed by the Nazis in Oosterbeek after the Allied retreat from Arnhem, so I wanted to visit to pay my respects. Jacob, on the other hand, didn’t really have a plan, but when I told him my thoughts, he told me about when he lived in the Netherlands with his family during his dad’s sabbatical a few years ago, and how he had family friends in Wageningen, a town near Oosterbeek,  that we could stay with for the week. So my two day solo trip became a week-long trip with Jacob. We spent Monday afternoon planning the trip and dumpster diving, and that evening Sarah joined us to watch the 1977 film A Bridge Too Far, with starring Sean Connery and Michael Caine. In all the movie was long and slow in parts, but was an historically accurate representation of the Battle of Arnhem. If you don’t know about Operation Market Garden, or other parts of World War II, you should really read up it.

During the trip: As we were leaving the train station, I saw an old lady with a cane climbing the stairs. I thought to myself, “I really hope she doesn’t fall.” That’s when it happened. Everything seemed to go in slow motion, as I watched the lady slip from view. Then my face nearly hit the cement. I had managed to trip up the stairs and fall on our stash of food, squishing it. Oh, Irony….

We arrived in Wageningen late afternoon on Tuesday, and met Jacob’s friends, Bart and Margreet, an older couple who lived on the other side of Jacob’s duplex. Bart is an awesome guy: he’s funny, very knowledgeable about many things, including computers and history, and he built his own kit car. His kit car was really cool: it was a small green car with an engine from an “Ugly Duckling” Citroen. Turns out you can only build a kit car 1/3 at a time, due to government regulations, so it took him 6 years to complete (3 years possible minimum if I understood the regulations correctly) His wife doesn’t speak English nearly as well, but was incredibly nice and a great cook. We stayed in their garage, where they had the kit car but also a guest room. Bart also had two matching mountain bikes that we used for our trip. I can’t tell you how awesome mechanical advantage is. My omafiets is fixed gear, but the mountain bikes had like 18 gears, which was AWESOME! We had a great Indonesian dinner with Bart, and then we biked around Wageningen, trying out the new bikes and exploring the town.

The next morning, we left early for Arnhem and Oosterbeek. We strapped our backpacks on our bicycles, and started biking, but within 2 minutes, we were pulled over by cops. Long story short, there were signs we didn’t see and the cops liked to take their turns talking and exerting their authority. After we fled arrest, we reached the first stop on our trip: Doorwerth Castle, a small castle along the Rhine. The castle was pretty interesting, but to be honest, I was more intrigued with this really cool motorcycle with sidecar that was parked out front. From the castle, we could see the visor dam across the Rhine, our next checkpoint. Across this section of the Rhine was a dam that could be raised and lowered depending on the river level, with the movement resembling that of a motorcycle helmet’s visor. In order to get a good view of the structure, we had to get onto the island in the middle of the Rhine first, but there was a gate. The gate was nearly impenetrable: it was an incredible 3 feet high and completely unlocked. However, we felt even more uneasy when we found out that if we wanted to go across, we would have to use the yellow intercom and speak with the Harbor Chief.  Both Jacob and I were concerned about speaking with the Harbor Chief. First of all, he had a sweet title. Second of all, the building he was in resembled an airport control tower, and I kept having that scene from Saving Private Ryan flash through my head (you know, the one where Vin Diesel gets sniped from the tower). Anyway, disregarding all natural instincts, I pressed the button for the intercom. The Harbor Chief (or so we assumed) answered the intercom, and after a short discourse, said we could cross over the lock and explore the island, given that we promised to stay on the paved paths. We agreed, and crossed onto the island. The visors were very cool to see up close, so I was glad the Harbor Chief allowed us safe passage.

We left the island, heading towards Oosterbeek, which we new was close from the distinctive railway bridge across the Rhine. This bridge was destroyed during the Battle of Arnhem. Other than recognizing the spot my Great Great Grandfather had been killed, the main thing we wanted to do on the trip was to see a bunch of World War II stuff. Oosterbeek is home to the Airborne Museum Oosterbeek, an awesome museum which is the only battlefield museum in the Netherlands (lifelike battlefield reconstruction). The museum also has the largest amount of Operation Market Garden militaria. This museum was by far the best museum I have ever been to in my entire life; I would go again in a heartbeat. I really can’t express how AWESOME the museum was!! In Germany, I had really wished to see a lot more World War II stuff, but nothing I saw there compares to this museum. Let me take you through a quick walkthrough: first there was a room filled with uniforms, badges, helmets, and other clothing type articles from both Allied and German soldiers. Included in these badges were some authentic 101st American Airborne badges (I’m not sure how many of you reading this are Band of Brothers fans, but I am a die-hard fan). Then there was a bunch of paratrooper gear in the next room, including a pilot’s uniform and all the navigation gear, as well as communication radios, supply-drop canisters, and ammunition canisters. The next two rooms were my favorites, as they contained glass cases filled with weapons. The first room had an MG42, MG34, Lugers, MP40, MP43, KBAR, some Smith and Wesson revolvers, and a Colt 1911, among a bunch of other Allied rifles, such as the Lee-Einfeld. The second room had some more weapons, such as the Thompson submachine gun for the Allies, and the FG42 for the Germans. Also in this room were mortars, grenades, flamethrowers, RPGs, daggers, knives, bayonets, smoke grenades, and other explosives. There are pictures below of the weapons, as I have only mentioned some of the weapons they had there. If you are familiar with COD Zombies, then you should recognize a lot of these weapons. The next floor wasn’t less interesting, as it was less items from the war, but more about how the War was portrayed in the news sources, and some testimonials The next floor was really cool. There were a couple rooms that had been reconstructed to look like the rooms of the hotel that the British Airborne had used as a base for Operation Market Garden. The next room contained some artifacts from the Dutch Resistance, as well as a bunch of decayed militaria from archaeological digs in the area.

The final floor was the gem of the museum: a recently completed, 900 sq. m. battlefield replication. Basically they had a giant series of rooms that had been retrofitted to resemble the Battle of Arnhem, including a crashed glider, some trenches, a building to building firefight with rubble, destroyed cars, bullet-riddled doors, artillery units, tanks, and jeeps. Complemented by dim lighting, movies projected on the walls, artificial muzzle flashes, and realistic sound effects, the representation was absolutely phenomenal. If you are ever in the Netherlands and are interested in the War, definitely go to this museum. Like I said, if I get the chance, I am going back for sure. SOOOOOOOO AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Hungry for more World War II, we biked to the Arnhem War Museum. We got to the museum shortly after 4 oclock, and the museum closed at 5. However, they wouldn’t let us in, which was really disappointing. Luckily, there was a bunch stuff outside the museum, such as tank treads, plane engines, heavy guns, beach-blocking railroad ties (those metal things on the beach at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan), and some empty bombshells.

Calling it a day, we headed into Arnhem in search of our CouchSurfing host, Kathleen, a 56-yr-old speech therapist from Glasgow who had moved to the Netherlands when she married a Dutchman. She was incredibly nice, was a enthusiastic traveler, and in all very hospitable. I snuggled down inside my warm cocoon and passed out from exhaustion from an awesome, awesome day.

TO BE CONTINUED….

IN OTHER NEWS: The Lotus Evora looks super sweet, despite only having a Toyota V6 engine. Check out the video on Youtube here.

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The Mystery of the Fishing Village

Saturday March 12, 2011

We left for our second excursion today, this time to visit the new polders, and three cities within these new polders. I call them new polders, whether or not that is actually there name, because they were created and drained no more than 70 years ago, which is much more recent than those polders created a centuries ago. The three cities we visited were Almere, Lelystad, and Urk.

The main attraction of Almere, for me at least, was the urban architecture, the main feature of which being the establishment of residential buildings atop of the shopping complexes. For example, stores such as Footlocker, HEMA, iCentre, each had their own unique apartment complex built ontop of them. Some apartments were developed in such a way that lawns/green areas were planted ontop of the roofs, as well as walkways and bridges that connected the buildings and spanned the roads below.

Batavia, a fashion outlet town in Lelystad, was home to the National Centre for Maritime History, in addition to many clothing outlet shops. Outside the museum was a giant white head, but more importantly a motor from a B-24 Liberator. Behind the museum is a replica of the Batavia, a ship of the Dutch East India Trading Company. Inside the museum, we watched a very well done film about the creation of the dikes and polders. What was also cool about the film was that the scenes in the meadows or along the beach were accompanied by the blowing of fans. At one point there was a storm, so a light mist was added to the blowing fans for added realism. After the film we found ourselves in a section of the museum that had numerous interactive demos, such as building a bridge, working a lock, creating waves and dams, and even a video game. Also in this section was a fake sunken ship (or submarine) that we could go in and explore. Before we knew it, it was time to go, and it wasn’t until that point that we realized we had spent our entire time at the museum in the kid’s section. Oh well, being a kid is awesome.

Then we went to Urk, a small fishing village on the coast of the IJsselmeer. I really enjoyed Urk, as it was a quaint little fishing town, with a beautiful harbor and lighthouse, and was really quiet compared to big, bustling Amsterdam and the busy highways connecting the two settlements. After a quick bite to eat, we walked around the harbor and through the streets of Urk, enjoying the peaceful atmosphere.

It was then that I heard the most beautiful sound in the world: the loud revving and low, gurgling idle of a perfectly tuned, large engine. The sound came from a garage close to the lighthouse. Beaming both inside and out, I approached the garage, hoping to get a glimpse of the creature inside producing the symphony of valves, shafts, gears, pistons, and plugs, each in perfect harmony with the other. As I approached the open door, a breeze came off the sea, and slowly swung the door shut, so as every step I took seemed to make the door close further. Right as I was about to look into the garage, the door had swung closed, robbing me of seeing what was inside. I was visibly upset and broke down in the street. But, as I walked away, a glimmer of joy returned. I thought about it this way: what if it wasn’t a gorgeous 1970s Corvette, but rather a good sounding leafblower, or boat motor? It’s kinda like magic: not knowing is so much more than knowing, because in knowing, the magic disappears (I think that’s a misquote from The Prestige).

On the drive back, we stopped at the Muiderslot Castle, located just outside Amsterdam. Unfortunately it was closed when we got there, but I still got a couple pictures, and I will probably go back later with the guys and check it out in more detail.

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IN OTHER NEWS: I found out my great-great-grandfather Oenze, who my grandfather Oenze is named after, and where I get my middle name from, was killed (civilian casualty) during the Allied retreat from the Battle of Arnhem. I plan to visit Oosterbeek and Arnhem before I leave, in honor of my family, my great-great-grandfather, and the soldiers who died fighting for our freedom.