Golden earring = burial insurance

June 30, 2017 - Katwijk, Netherlands - Tried to get to several communities today just to get some miles under my belt. 

While the maps are great and very detailed, my cartography skills leave a bit to be desired. 

I'm getting better, but I said that yesterday, too.

Left Leiden around 7 a.m. and pedaled east to Wassenaar. Stopped for some coffee and fuel and at the grocery you had to get your own personal scanner. You scan everything you buy at the checkout, then you hand it to the checkout clerk and she tells you your total (photo below). 

It was odd, but genius. Just wait America!  

That handy scanner that will soon be coming to a grocery near you. 

Wound my way around the countryside and made it to the seaside community of Katwijk.

The boardwalk along the sea in Katwijk 

Pedaling through the dunes as I head south from Katwijk to De Hague. 

Stopped at the Katwijk Museum which features displays of a coastal town. There were paintings and photos featuring fishermen with their ships and the families left behind. 

A couple of interesting tidbits:

·        Families of up to a dozen lived in small quarters equivalent to about the size of an entryway in the US. In the corner of the room was a baby's high chair with a rag on it. The docent said the rag was soaked in brandy to keep the baby quiet.  

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·        Fishermen wore a golden earring. This was a sort of burial insurance. If their body washed up on shore then the ring would pay for a decent burial. 

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·         Katwijk was a two-community village made up of fishermen and farmers. 

·         There was an authentic shop of manufactured textile goods. There were different types of undergarments, including a knitted corset, which would be put on in September and then put back in the closet in early May. 

That's an "old-timey" bra in the forefront.

Unique beers in Holland. This one reminded me of Snow White.

My cabin tonight in De Hague. Full day of museums tomorrow including a torture museum and a clinic where they studied people who recently died to see if they weren't really dead.  The clinic has since closed. Shocker.