Naarden

Today we drove about two hours away to a cool town called Naarden in Holland. It's right outside of Amsterdam, but we were just going for a quick day-trip, so no stop in that city quite yet.

I hadn't dropped the news to Chris until last night as to what we would be doing there. He assumed it was a Christmas market, but it was really an event called "La Table" something or other. It was a fair to showcase things you would put on your table, like china, silver, and decorative items! It was actually held in the town's Gothic church, which was quite beautiful.

Chris was a good sport though and went willingly. It was actually a little disappointing. They had a lot of redundant vendors - LOTS of silver and china, but few furniture vendors, as an example. They had a couple cool things, like a Portuguese vendor selling beautiful plates and wool items, but in the end I didn't buy anything except some Italian-looking furniture tassels that I will use to decorate at Christmas.

Anyway, the event was not worth returning to, but the little town of Naarden was a must-see in our opinions. It is a city that was annihilated by the Spanish in the 1500s. The town then built up a fortress around itself that is in the shape of a star. It is surrounded by water, and the buildings are so beautiful. The town is packed with fun stores - antiques, wine stores, etc. We definitely want to go back when we have time to really look around. The springtime should be nice, because there are lots of walking paths and there were even people out in paddle boats on the water today (even though it was super windy and cold). We took a short walk out to see the outside of the fortified city, but then we needed to get back on the road.