Meppel, Ancestral Lands

Days 3 and 4 in Meppel. Train from Haarlem to Amsterdam, change to another train to Zwolle, where we would pick up a car. I’ve mentioned before how wondrous the train system is. The only hiccup came when our direct train to Zwolle insisted that it had come to its terminus before Zwolle. Turns out we had to shift cars, not trains, to complete our journey. Had any of us spoken enough Dutch to follow instructions, none of this would have been an issue. I won’t mention the 30-minute walk from Zwolle station to the car rental site. Yes, I will. It was follow the leader, where the leader was equipped with nothing but a downloaded GPS navigator. And faith. I won’t give the Netherlands an A+ for signage anywhere we’ve been. But we made it to the car. It helps when the e-navigator counts down the minutes to destination. The trip north to Meppel gave me more chance to peruse the landscape. Somewhere between Amsterdam and Meppel we saw another IKEA. And this land of canals everywhere is shockingly flat, like the proverbial pancake, or pannenkoek, as the Dutch would say. As far as the eye can see. And green. Very green. The color. There are also a bazillion windmills, the modern kind, between Zwolle and Meppel. Lisa said it reminded her of Indiana. I told her not to insult the Netherlands that way. And more livestock and other farming. Cows, sheep, and lots and lots of horses and ponies of every size. To me, it seemed odd that such a small country with such limited acreage would devote so much of it to horses. When I asked someone in Meppel about the horses, I was told that equestrian sports (jumping) are popular. I would guess this speaks to affluence. In fact, everything I have seen so far suggests affluence and abundance. Or maybe those are the wrong words. I don’t mean that everyone and everything appears rich. Comfortable may be a better term. I haven’t seen any evidence (where I’ve been, admittedly) of grinding poverty. The cows appear quite contented. Or lazy. Frequently lying about in the green grass. And there are all kinds of them: white cows, brown cows, brown and white cows, white and brown cows, and a few “Oreo” cows (chocolate on either end, white in the middle). I last saw Oreo cows in the UK many years ago. The Netherlands, I have learned, is one of the most densely populated countries (perhaps the most densely populated) in Europe. Yet, Drenthe Province, home of Meppel, is quite rural. Meppel itself is a small city, 30,000-ish people. And tidy. Oh, so tidy. I don’t think I saw a speck of trash until we traversed into Germany and then Venlo. I also didn’t see anyone who appeared to be really down on their luck in the parts of the Netherlands we’ve visited. Later on, I saw two people begging and one lady picking through a trash bin, both in Germany. A hotel employee in Meppel confirmed my theory about income disparity or lack thereof. He said paychecks only show net income, not withholding. Taxes start at 30% and go up progressively to 50%. VAT (sales tax) is built into the prices. Health insurance is “required,” is how he put it, so everyone is covered. The roads are smooth, even out in the countryside. Virtually everyone drives bicycles (like maniacs), some drive motor scooters, most cars are tiny and frankly adorable. I can’t translate the price of gas, Euros and liters. Our hybrid rental went everywhere we drove the entire trip on a single tank of gas, which seemed remarkable to me. I kept wondering if we would run out of gas! By the way, if you’ve heard about the Netherlands being the “low country,” it surely is. When I checked the altitude in my second story hotel room, I found I was 10 feet above sea level. And there are canals everywhere. I didn’t really learn much about my ancestors in Meppel. Everyone I spoke with — at the public library, at the Oud Meppel (Old Meppel) historical society, at the 15th century church (De Grote of Maria Kerk) — responded with “Whoa, that was a long time ago!” when I told them ancestor-2 emigrated in 1655 and I have reason to believe his father and mother remained behind. I did learn that everyone I spoke with was incredibly kind, tried their utmost to be helpful, and shifted seamlessly between Dutch and English, a feat this uneducated American can only admire and envy. I spent a lot of time apologizing for only speaking English. (Why do we do this?) One theory of history percolated forth, however. When ancestor-2 emigrated, he and spouse carried no surname with them. Surnames simply hadn’t been invented yet in this part of the world. The surname once acquired became VanAlstine, or VanAlstyne, or VanAelstyn, or VanAlstijne, or variations thereof. So, how did the name, apparently acquired in America, transfer back? I have found one Dutch record with VanAlstijne, so some transfer apparently occurred. Regardless, I have read that the name means high stone or old stone (oud steen).

Here’s my weird hypothesis.  How could this happen? There are almost no stones in the Netherlands!  But up north in Drenthe there are Hunebed, ancient gravesites assembled by [somehow] stacking massive boulders left there by the glaciers.  (Virtually all the other soil we saw up there was sand.). The Hunebed (there are about 54 of them, they’re numbered) were built about 3000 years ago.  Two, D53 and D54, are quite near Meppel and each other.  Perhaps that is the source of the oud steen?  I’ll probably never know for sure.  But it makes for a really good theory and something to research.

D53 & D54, very close to Meppel

The other thing to know is that the Germans disassembled D53 during WW2 in order to build an airfield.  Flat site with a handy dune next to it to survey the landscape. To do this, they just moved the boulders aside and left them.  After the war, using pre-war photographs as a construction guide, the Dutch dug out the boulders and reassembled the Hunebed exactly as it had been before.  They reassembled some of their prehistory! So much of that had to be done. Virtually every church we saw was damaged, some all but obliterated, during the war.  And then they rebuilt. Here’s what it looks like today ...

D53, rebuilt after WW2

A few more things about Meppel.  The town center is quite dense, and the buildings — commercial and residential — are fairly tightly packed.  The houses are all very similar in style, nearly all red brick with sharply peaked red tile roofs. Virtually impossible to tell how old (or new) they are.  We saw two, count ‘em two, very modern looking houses out in the countryside on the way to visit the Hunebed. Despite their modernity — not brick and with different window styles — they were shaped exactly the same as all the other, traditional houses.  The homogeneity of housing design is surprisingly pleasant, not boring at all. And plants! Everyone seems to have a thing for plants. Windows full of house plants, tiny gardens with glorious heterogeneity of plant content and style. And the streets and sidewalks are all brick and cobblestones, perfectly kept.

My first contact with an old style wooden windmill (molen) was beside the Oud Meppel building. Because our weekend in Meppel coincided with the annual Open Monuments event (2 days), many heritage sites were open and FREE. The mill and the old church were among these sites. The mill has been recently renovated — think timberframe assembled with wooden pegs — and there are plans to begin grinding mustard, once they acquire and install a grinding stone. We were able to climb up to the windmill deck and from inside up into the second floor. There you could look out, up the canal and over the whole town, and see the reverse side of the arms as they came flying (literally) past the open window. On the main level they had little sample jars of mustard from another city, which I was not going to buy. However, when I told the mill-keeper I was a fan of French mustard and had no experience with Dutch mustard, he insisted I take home two little jars (TSA-approved size), gratis. Nice people.

At the conclusion of our trip, Lisa and I agreed that Meppel won the award for most quaint town we visited. Such a lovely little place, good food, friendly people. I hope to do some more research and return one day.