That's very Dutch
Hallo allemaal!
I write to you this morning from Sarah's back yard. It's a bit of an overcast, cool day, which is fine by me! I am SO sunburned it's not even funny!
So I made it! I'm in Holland, the Netherlands, Nederland. After a flight where I barely got any sleep, I made it to Holland to an ecstatic Sarah, not that I wasn't ecstatic too... After a bit of car trouble, we made it back to Heemskerk. Sarah's house is great, with the windiest steepest stairs ever! I hang on to anything I can when I go up or down!
When we got to Sarah's house her darling Nico was there and his friend Rick. Rick came over for the wedding 2 years ago, so it was nice to see him too. Nico made me a Tortilla Espanola, which I love, then Sarah and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. After a quick trip to the store to pick-up some essential items I needed a nap. Normally I don't like to nap because it makes me not be able to sleep, but I was so tired, I set my timer for an hour and slept like the dead.
After my glorious sleep, we went out to dinner. The restaurant was called Eet Kuken, it was a buffet place, which cooks your food for you right as you order it, there was a meat station and a fish station, and a wok station, and creme brulee for dessert. Oh! and all the beer and wine you can drink (and pop too)
After dinner it was off to bed for this weary traveler. In the morning Sarah and I took a stroll to Assemburg Castle, which is fairly "in the near" It's a cute little castle, probably owned by a duke or someother, but now it's been converted into a hostel. But the real reason to visit is the garden. It's glorious, and had been re-build to look like it did when the castle was a castle. There was a rose garden, and an herb garden, where you can take stuff and leave a donation! There there's the main garden with it's weird statue and the fountain. So beautiful!
After Assemburg Sarah and I went to the grocery store to pick-up some stuff for dinner before our next adventure. While there we ran in to her friend Lori. Lori is also an American living over here. She's originally from Mississippi and speaks Dutch SO well, but with a southern accent, its great! Well we told her we were going to Sanse Schanse (a place where they make wooden shoes) and invited her to come with.
Sanse Schanse was great. They have a wooden shoe big enough to sit in! There is also a demonstration on how to make wooden shoes. The whole process is a lot like making a key. The machines follow a pattern. The guy giving the demonstration was gorgeous, and during the part where he was demonstrating how to hollow out the shoe, he's running the machine with his knee...and a lot of hips. Sarah, Lori and I are sitting in the back row giggling like a bunch of 12 year olds! Saying we'd like the Magic Mike version of how to make a klompen.
After the shoe demonstration Sarah bought me a fresh made stroopwaffle dipped in chocolate. OMG! It was amazing! Some of the over exhibits were cute, but nothing could match the shoe demonstration and the stroopwaffle.
After a barbeque dinner, Nico wanted to watch the World Cup opening ceremony, so Sarah and I went to the beach to take a stroll. It was so beautiful to watch the sun set over the North Sea.
Yesterday we finally made it in to Amsterdam. But before we could go to Amsterdam, we had to go to Alkmaar, to the cheese market. Look it up, it's fun. They lay out these huge wheels of cheese then the men from the cheese guild put the cheese on a cart thing and run with it to the weigh house and then to the cart for whoever has purchased the cheese. The guild members were quite funny yukking it up for the school kids.
Then it was on to Amsterdam. Our first stop was Our Lord in the Attic, a hidden catholic church. There was a time when practicing the catholic faith was illegal, so a wealthy merchant made a hidden church in the upper part of his house. It was amazing, and hot. To think what they were able to build back in the 1600's with the building technology they had then.
After Our Lord in the Attic, we took a walk through the Red Light District. All I can say is WOW. My American brain had a hard time wrapping itself around what I was seeing, between the girls in their windows beckoning the men in, to the shops selling every sexual thing you can imagine, right in the front window, to the ads for the theater with the live sex shows, just WOW.
After that I needed to cleanse my brain, so we went to the Rijksmuseum, which is the big museum in Amsterdam. I saw Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Delft procelain, Yves San Laurent, and so many others it was spectacular.
After our museum trip it was time for dinner. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant, where no one spoke Spanish and the owner was actually Greek! The food was pretty good and the people watching was great too, though it's interesting to see the number of kids walking through the Red Light with their parents! Like 9-year-old kids! Some people.
Then it was time to head back home, but for some reason the train headed back to Heemskerk was not running, so we had to call Nico to come pick us up. He reluctantly did, because you see Holland had it's first game of the World Cup last night, and they were playing Spain, the team that beat them in the championship last time! Well I couldn't stay awake, and went to bed, but there was no doubt that Holland won, the whole town erupted into cheers and yells and fireworks when the game ended. I think I'm still going to cheer for Spain, just no one tell Nico.
Well, that's all for now, I'm off to my next exciting adventure!
Groetjes!
I write to you this morning from Sarah's back yard. It's a bit of an overcast, cool day, which is fine by me! I am SO sunburned it's not even funny!
So I made it! I'm in Holland, the Netherlands, Nederland. After a flight where I barely got any sleep, I made it to Holland to an ecstatic Sarah, not that I wasn't ecstatic too... After a bit of car trouble, we made it back to Heemskerk. Sarah's house is great, with the windiest steepest stairs ever! I hang on to anything I can when I go up or down!
When we got to Sarah's house her darling Nico was there and his friend Rick. Rick came over for the wedding 2 years ago, so it was nice to see him too. Nico made me a Tortilla Espanola, which I love, then Sarah and I went for a walk around the neighborhood. After a quick trip to the store to pick-up some essential items I needed a nap. Normally I don't like to nap because it makes me not be able to sleep, but I was so tired, I set my timer for an hour and slept like the dead.
After my glorious sleep, we went out to dinner. The restaurant was called Eet Kuken, it was a buffet place, which cooks your food for you right as you order it, there was a meat station and a fish station, and a wok station, and creme brulee for dessert. Oh! and all the beer and wine you can drink (and pop too)
After dinner it was off to bed for this weary traveler. In the morning Sarah and I took a stroll to Assemburg Castle, which is fairly "in the near" It's a cute little castle, probably owned by a duke or someother, but now it's been converted into a hostel. But the real reason to visit is the garden. It's glorious, and had been re-build to look like it did when the castle was a castle. There was a rose garden, and an herb garden, where you can take stuff and leave a donation! There there's the main garden with it's weird statue and the fountain. So beautiful!
After Assemburg Sarah and I went to the grocery store to pick-up some stuff for dinner before our next adventure. While there we ran in to her friend Lori. Lori is also an American living over here. She's originally from Mississippi and speaks Dutch SO well, but with a southern accent, its great! Well we told her we were going to Sanse Schanse (a place where they make wooden shoes) and invited her to come with.
Sanse Schanse was great. They have a wooden shoe big enough to sit in! There is also a demonstration on how to make wooden shoes. The whole process is a lot like making a key. The machines follow a pattern. The guy giving the demonstration was gorgeous, and during the part where he was demonstrating how to hollow out the shoe, he's running the machine with his knee...and a lot of hips. Sarah, Lori and I are sitting in the back row giggling like a bunch of 12 year olds! Saying we'd like the Magic Mike version of how to make a klompen.
After the shoe demonstration Sarah bought me a fresh made stroopwaffle dipped in chocolate. OMG! It was amazing! Some of the over exhibits were cute, but nothing could match the shoe demonstration and the stroopwaffle.
After a barbeque dinner, Nico wanted to watch the World Cup opening ceremony, so Sarah and I went to the beach to take a stroll. It was so beautiful to watch the sun set over the North Sea.
Yesterday we finally made it in to Amsterdam. But before we could go to Amsterdam, we had to go to Alkmaar, to the cheese market. Look it up, it's fun. They lay out these huge wheels of cheese then the men from the cheese guild put the cheese on a cart thing and run with it to the weigh house and then to the cart for whoever has purchased the cheese. The guild members were quite funny yukking it up for the school kids.
Then it was on to Amsterdam. Our first stop was Our Lord in the Attic, a hidden catholic church. There was a time when practicing the catholic faith was illegal, so a wealthy merchant made a hidden church in the upper part of his house. It was amazing, and hot. To think what they were able to build back in the 1600's with the building technology they had then.
After Our Lord in the Attic, we took a walk through the Red Light District. All I can say is WOW. My American brain had a hard time wrapping itself around what I was seeing, between the girls in their windows beckoning the men in, to the shops selling every sexual thing you can imagine, right in the front window, to the ads for the theater with the live sex shows, just WOW.
After that I needed to cleanse my brain, so we went to the Rijksmuseum, which is the big museum in Amsterdam. I saw Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Delft procelain, Yves San Laurent, and so many others it was spectacular.
After our museum trip it was time for dinner. We ended up at a Mexican restaurant, where no one spoke Spanish and the owner was actually Greek! The food was pretty good and the people watching was great too, though it's interesting to see the number of kids walking through the Red Light with their parents! Like 9-year-old kids! Some people.
Then it was time to head back home, but for some reason the train headed back to Heemskerk was not running, so we had to call Nico to come pick us up. He reluctantly did, because you see Holland had it's first game of the World Cup last night, and they were playing Spain, the team that beat them in the championship last time! Well I couldn't stay awake, and went to bed, but there was no doubt that Holland won, the whole town erupted into cheers and yells and fireworks when the game ended. I think I'm still going to cheer for Spain, just no one tell Nico.
Well, that's all for now, I'm off to my next exciting adventure!
Groetjes!
It's so wonderful having you here!! :)
ReplyDeleteI love having an "excuse" to play tourist; it's always a great reminder of the good things about living over here. I'm so glad to be able to share all of this with you! <3
im totally soaking it up! wish i could see a van gogh... and the north sea. and the shoe making hahah!
ReplyDeletethere once was a time that NOT being a catholic was illegal too... lol. im sure theres more of those - some we dont even know about! :) thats a beautiful inspiring place!