During my adventure trip to Netherlands popularly also known as Holland…yea bit confusing, earlier I was also considering both as two separate countries. Country is beautiful, large agricultural lands and cycle lovers all over. As you go towards country side it will mesmerize you with its incredible green beauty. My friends Nagu was busy with his work and Patricia was yet to reach, had full day with me to explore on my own. As I never took those customized one day tours, thought why not to do that and explore the planned way. During my trip met one more explorer, I am terrible with names…:(, she was also doing the same as me to see how Dutch people host a tour.
One of our stop made me stunned with a beautiful small villages, farmers, beautiful gardens, it all seems like you are in a fairy land , villages like Marken, Volendam and Eda give old Holland a edge and experience for lifetime. It still hold back it’s indigenous crafts, cultural fabric intact for our new generations. Will be sharing my experience in continue posts about my discovery.
Clog: a farmer shoe, you will find small wooden shoes in all the souvenir shops. We have visited one of the craftsmen’s place where they produce these shoes on daily bases. As per my local dutch friends, Clog’s are their heritage and in rural areas farmers, gardeners are still using them to protect from dust and water. In every dutch house one will find these beautiful hand crafted shoes.
They are made out of soft wood, they give them shape when the wood is wet so that it will be carved easily, after carving they will keep them for drying which will take around two to three days. Earlier they were made completely by hand, in 1900 machine were introduce during the industrialization to make the process fast. But it still have many stages where hands are involved. For regular use they leave them as it is, later people also started painting on them. Many a times you will find them as a piece of art in dutch gardens.
Some of the above images taken of Clog at craftsman’s place.
In fact, clogs have even been certified by the European Union as safety shoes as they can withstand sharp and heavy objects and concentrated acids.(http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/visiting/about-amsterdam/history-and-society/clogs)
As wooden shoes were used to fuel the fireplace once they were worn-out, it proved difficult for historians to precisely date the origins of clogs. Nevertheless, they estimate that the first clogs appeared at least 850 years ago and the oldest wooden shoe known was found in the Nieuwendijk in Amsterdam. This clog dates from around the year 1230 and is made of alder wood. The shoes were made in a variety of shapes and sizes depending on who would wear them. Some had rounded edges while others had pointed toes to help fishermen pull their nets in.(http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/visiting/about-amsterdam/history-and-society/clogs)
We will discover Holland more in coming blogs, would love to hear from you 🙂
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