Originally, Volendam was the location of the harbor of the nearby Edam. Farmers and local fishermen settled there, forming the new community of Volendam, which literally meant something like 'Filled dam'. In the early part of the 20th century it became something of an artists' retreat, with both Picasso and Renoir spending time here. The majority of the population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, which is deeply connected to the village culture. Historically, many missionaries and bishops grew up in Volendam.
Volendam is essentially a fishing town now and it is right on the water which used to be open ocean but because of the location (holland being below sea level) when there were storms or problems in the sea it would cause flooding problems and etc so they built a dam to close it off and now it is basically a huge lake. Many famous people were born in Voldendam and still live there, signers especially.
Volendam is a popular tourist attraction in the Netherlands, well-known for its old fishing boats and the traditional clothing still worn by some residents. The women's costume of Volendam, with its high, pointed bonnet, is one of the most recognizable of the Dutch traditional costumes, and is often featured on tourist postcards and posters (although there are believed to be fewer than 50 women now wearing the costume as part of their daily lives, most of them elderly). There is a regular ferry connection to Marken, a peninsula close by. Visitors can have their pictures taken in traditional Dutch costumes.
We all took a picture in the 'traditional Dutch costumes' and Gyselle and Ian bought a few copies and gave me one..I tried to take a picture of the picture for you so here it is..my sweet hat kept hitting the net above me and I felt like I was posing for a Captain Morgan's ad because I had my right foot propped up on a wood pole with my heavy wooden shoes on.
Gyselle and Ian also bought me this keychain which they say is 'typical dutch' because of what they're wearing, and then they wanted to buy me a pair of wooden shoe slippers (they arent wooden) to remember them by so i got to pick which ones I wanted and I chose the delft blue with a windmill. very cute I must say, although they are a little too big..I got the wrong size!
We walked around Volendam for a bit, its not that big and it was super crowded. I took some pictures there and then we sat down and had something to drink while we waited for our picture to be ready.
After getting our pictures we rode the ferry over to Marken which is basically an island with houses that tons of tourists walk around the streets at taking pictures. Not somewhere I would want to live if I wanted privacy. But it was beautiful. Here are some pics from that..
that is an adorable cat that was walking along the street with us that I really considered bringing home with me. I actually saw a lot of cats in and out of houses here..thought that was interesting. anyway here are more pics from Marken..
After we got back from the ferry ride to Marken we went and ate at McDonalds (yummmm..kidding) and then they brought Lotte and I home before we had practice tonight. Ian took pics today and at the clinic on tuesday so he is going to put all of them on a CD hopefully soon. He is coming to our games saturday evening to take pictures, especially because Wolfi emailed my coach asking for a picture of me in my uniform playing for his website. I am going to have to remember to tell him to let me pick the picture since usually people pick gross action pictures of me that I do not like! ha. Anyway, hopefully I get them soon and can post them on here. Nothing planned for tomorrow just relaxing until our games on Saturday.
Doei!!
-Olivia
OH and here are 2 pics I took before practice today with Lotte and Anja while we waited for our other catcher (Denise) to get there.
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