Four days of typical Dutch:1: Overijssel

Muggenbeet, November 6, 2017—

A LITTLE TOUR of northeast Netherlands: small country hotels, modest meals, many coffiestoppen. The landscape, the villages, the architecture are all both beautiful and photogenic, but I will put only a few photos here.

Monday, November 6: Coffee . We left Apeldoorn, where we've been staying with friends, about eleven in the morning, stopping first in Zwartsluis for coffee — in fact for me a delicious ginger tea, thick slices of ginger and a few leasves of mint steeping in a tall glass of hot water. With it, appeltaaert of course, for that's what one does.

•Hotel Zwartewater, De Ulakte 20, Zwartsluis, tel , Netherlands; 📞+31 038-3866444

On then to Giethoorn, a quaint village we saw first in 1974, famous for its thatched-roof cottages whose only access is by small boats on the narrow village canals. Alas, Giethoorn is much changed, and one woman is in trouble as a result: she wrote enthusiastically about it in a Chinese tourist magazine, and nearly all the tourists we saw — admittedly few this time of year — were in fact Chinese, and apparently rich, elaborately dressed and coiffed.

Here we had lunch at a sort of brasserie, open, well lit. Our waiter seemed very sober. He looked Chinese, and apparently spoke Chinese to some of the other diners; but his Dutch seemed fluent, ditto his English. Only when I told him our ham-cheese tostis were particularly good did he break into a smile, promising to relsy the comment to the kitchen.

•Restaurant Grachthof, Binnenpad 54, Giethoorn, Netherlands; 📞 +31 521 361 270

We drove next to Blokzijl, home of a famous restaurant alas closed for the season — Kaatje bij de sluis (Katie by the lock), next to the canal lock, historically imporetrant as Blokzijl was once a port on the Zuider Zee before the poldering that eliminated that (relatively) small stretch of saltwater. We walked about a bit, as it's a picturesque village, and stopped in for coffee at a Spanish bistro, of all things. Friendly and competent: I'd go back.

•Tapas Barca, Bierkade 1, Blokzijl, Netherlands; 📞+31 527 76 91 20

and finally to the night's hotel, isolated in the countryside, open to the magnificent Zwartemeer, and offering traditional Dutch food well prepared and served.

I had a fine onion soup garnished with old Amsterdammer rather than Gruyere (and none the worse for that);

then wild boar tenderloin in a venison stew. Yes, that's a poached pear on the plate; yes, delicious. then moggenbeet, Hotel Geertien. Traditioneel Nederlands dinner.      🍷A glass of red
•Hotel Geertien, Muggenbeet 3, Blokzijl, Netherlands; 📞+31 527 29 12 45