Karen's Travels

Things I Ate in Singapore

2011-02-24T00:37:00.000-08:00

Dim Sum breakfast - rather slimy rice noodle with a pork filling, not sure what it was called
Hainan Chicken Rice - boiled chicken on rice with a chicken broth and a garlic/ginger chili sauce
Chili Crab - see description in the previous post
Fish Noodle Soup - light broth with fish balls - rather bland
Chinese Roasted Duck - duck served with ginger and a dark sweet sauce
Roti Prata - a buttery Indian flat bread served with curry sauce to dip it in
Lassi - an Indian drink made with fermented milk - not bad, but a bit sour and gritty
Sushi and Sashimi - I actually got over my dislike of sushi and really enjoyed the dinner
Thai Green Curry - you all know this one, right?
Thai Green Mango Salad - refreshing crunchy, tart mango with a light spicy dressing
Chimichanga - only because I could, but not very good by American standards
Margarita - definitely better than what I got in France
Dragon Fruit - beautiful red fruit that tastes a bit like kiwi
Snake Fruit - rather bland fruit but the peel looks like snake skin -creepy!
Durian - really obnoxious stinky fruit, one bite only but I swallowed it. Smells like natural gas
Chicken Curry - Malaysian style curry, spicy yellow curry with coconut milk. Yum!
Singapore Sling - celebrating a successful customer visit

Singapore is a food-lover's heaven. The group has been taking us out for lunch every day and sharing their favorite dishes with us. They took us to the grocery store to pick up the unusual fruit to eat in between product tastings. Dinner has been a smorgasbord of tastes. We also visited a cafe that specializes in chocolate pastries. We tasted several versions and they were all good.

For work, we've been cooking fried chicken. So every morning and afternoon we have been tasting about 6 variations of chicken flavors. With all that chicken, our appetites have been spoiled so we couldn't try as many things as we wanted to.

I've also had to watch the amount of spicy food that I'm eating. Since Dutch food tends to be really, really bland, my stomach is not accustomed to the spicy things. That's how we ended up having sushi for dinner. Sushi was the blander option, believe it or not.

I have one more full day in Singapore before flying back to the Netherlands. I'm hoping to enjoy a few more specialties while I'm here as well as soak up a bit more of the warm weather.

Weekend FLight to Singapore

2011-02-23T00:54:00.000-08:00

The glamour of business travel never ends. My boss decided for 2011 that all of us will fly economy class regardless of the company policy that should allow us to fly business class for flights loner than 5 hours. His reasoning is sound – he wants more of us to be able to travel and participate in conferences and trainings around the world. Generally the cost for a business class ticket is on the order of 5-10 times the cost of economy, so it’s really a huge savings.

On the other hand, 12 hours in economy class to Singapore is really not fun. In fact, it’s downright painful. I chose Singapore Airline knowing they have the biggest seats and the best food and service in economy class. But, I still ended up with an entertainment console that wasn’t working properly and a seat that felt like a board. I have to admit that maybe I was a bit resentful about sitting in the back of the plane. I was also irritated that this trip is messing up two weekends of my personal time. So, after 12 hours of watching movies with every 3^rd word cut out, I was fed up. I wasn’t able to sleep at all, which is unlike me. I was tired and cranky.

I left the Netherlands at 10:00 AM Saturday morning and arrived in Singapore at 5:00 AM Sunday local time. I was just relishing the thought of crashing in the hotel for a few hours before doing some sightseeing and shopping. Here’s where I got even more cranky. Of course, you can’t check into a hotel at 5:00 AM. Normally the travel agent books us in the night before for early arrivals, but this time they didn’t. The hotel was extremely good about it and did manage to get me in a room by 10:00, which is still hours earlier than normal check-in time. So I had to sit in the lobby trying to keep my bloodshot eyes open for another 4 hours.

When I finally got into my room, it was fabulous. I set the alarm clock and slept for a few hours. To sleep longer would just prolong the jet-lag issues. Then, I got up and went out to explore. I got some chicken rice for lunch (one of my favorites here) and some Diet Coke to shake off the grogginess.

For my one day of sightseeing, I decided to see the Sands Tower. It’s a new building in Singapore with 3 tall pillars and what looks like a cruise ship balancing between the towers. There’s an infinity swimming pool on the top garden deck, 56 stories above the city and harbor. I paid $20 to get to the top. The view and the cooler breeze were appreciated.

Feeling pretty good about things, I walked over to Boat Quay, a section of the Singapore River with lots of restaurants serving Singaporean specialties like Chili Crab. Chili Crab is my other favorite local dish. Of course, it’s rather expensive, but remember, I flew economy to save $4000, so I can afford to splurge on a nice dinner. Now you may be wondering how fun it is to splurge on a nice dinner by yourself. In the case of chili crab, it’s almost a necessity. It’s a very, very messy dish – a crab cooked in the shell covered with a tomatoey chili sauce. To eat the crab, you have to just dive in with both hands and start cracking shells. The sauce goes flying, drips down your hands, and quickly saturates silverware, napkins, and glass. The finger bowl is your best friend.

After my meal, it was back to hotel for a proper night’s sleep. I was expected in the office first thing in the morning.

The Tricks of the Food Industry

2011-02-09T11:34:00.000-08:00

I really love my job – I love working with food and knowing the facts behind all the hype. But let me tell you, sometimes I’m embarrassed to be part of the food industry. The latest case of the Nutella advertisement is a good example. I remember seeing the Nutella commercial on TV here in the Netherlands and being a bit upset by it. The ad was encouraging Moms to give their kids Nutella as part of a healthy breakfast. The implication was very clear – Nutella is nutritious! Apparently the same ad was shown in the US and now the company faces a lawsuit for falsely portraying the product as healthy.

The fact is Nutella is really not healthy and serves as a good example of products that pretend to be healthier than they are. How do they do it? Very carefully. If you read the website, they accurately cite research about the advantages of eating breakfast. And Nutella can be eaten for breakfast ergo Nutella is healthy. They also suggest that you spread Nutella on whole wheat bread thus increasing the healthy halo.

If you click on the ingredient listing on the website, they flag several positives about the product in large type just above the list of ingredients. They highlight that the 13 oz. jar contains over 50 hazelnuts. (At 10 servings per jar, that’s 5 nuts per serving). They also say there are no artificial colors and no artificial preservatives. Maybe that’s to soften you up before they tell you that the first ingredient is sugar and the second is palm oil. While there are no artificial colors or preservatives, the product does indeed contain an artificial flavor. So, it’s a blend of sugar and fat with about the same calorie load as butter. But you probably didn’t read that far (Cliff’s Notes anyone?).

The website artfully highlights the positives and glosses over the negatives. Of course, this is simply marketing 101 for a company trying to sell a product. You can’t fault the company for wanting to make a buck. Why should we be surprised? Why should we be outraged?

A lot of industry people point to personal responsibility. You are the only person who controls what goes into your mouth. Only a moron would fail to read the nutritional information. We don’t need a lot of regulation telling companies how that can and can’t sell their products – it would be bad for business.

Here’s the reality check. Just because people should read the label doesn’t give food companies license to lie and deceive. Advertising works, otherwise companies would not spend millions of dollars to market their products. Advertisers know how to make those ads very seductive so we buy the product without fully understanding the negatives. Finally, we are bombarded with these seductive messages so often that it’s just a matter of time before one of them breaks through your defenses. Many people, especially children, are just not sophisticated enough to see through the marketing hype. Many people don’t want to see through the hype –they are happy to convince themselves that Nutella (or whatever product) is healthy.

Fortunately, the US does have laws prohibiting misleading advertising. Even while people have a responsibility to choose an appropriate diet, companies have a responsibility to market their products honestly. The laws and the enforcement, help to keep the marketing in check. They are necessary.

Here’s a tip if you are concerned about eating healthier: don’t focus on the marketing hype. The more it says it’s healthy, the less healthy it’s likely to be. It’s an over simplification of course. But truly, food companies make money on highly processed foods made with inexpensive ingredients (salt, sugar, vegetable oil). Heavy marketing should be a red flag for you to think twice before you buy. The real nutritious food is in the vegetable aisle. Without the big company backing, these foods don’t shout for your attention, but they just quietly wait to be discovered.

Skiing in France with Crazy British People

2011-02-06T08:28:00.000-08:00

This year for our annual ski trip, we once again joined the British ski group that we’ve been with for the last two years. We originally connected with this group through a colleague of mine at work whose father organizes the ski trip. This year had some potential for being truly awkward as my colleague had been let go during the summer and is still unemployed. Fortunately, most people do understand that work is work. This year the group was 19 people strong and there were only a few people that we hadn’t met in previous years.

This particular group tries to do a budget, no-frills trip. That means that we go through low-cost vacation companies out of England. They staff the hotels with young British kids who are paid next to nothing. The kids get to ski, but often they lack the maturity and experience to give good service.. Case in point: One afternoon we watched as the cleaning lady was doing the floor in the common area. She swept the floor and the door mat with a broom (not even lifting the mat or taking it outside for a good shake). Then she proceeded to mop around the mat. She also ran the mop in front of herself, thus walking over the freshly mopped floor. The sticky spots got enough attention that we knew she saw them, but not enough to get them clean. And, she managed to mop the entire floor without once rinsing her mop! I know that I have a problem with being a neat-freak, but come on, that’s just basic and where’s her manager? So, our budget hotel was less than clean. I can deal with that for a week.

Another peculiarity of these vacations is that you get truly authentic British food. Since we were skiing in France, let me tell you, that’s a disappointment. British breakfast is just plain weird. I’m OK with the continental breakfast of bread, cheese and meat, especially when the bread is nice and fresh. With this hotel, they warmed up frozen croissants that would have made a French person revolt. The hot breakfast is typically beans on toast. The next day they jazzed it up a bit and served beans on toast with a side of scrambled egg. I’m not OK with beans for breakfast. When we had bacon or sausage, I was also a bit challenged. British eat Canadian style bacon, not the regular strips of bacon like we’re used to. And don’t even get me started on the breakfast sausage…

At all these vacation chalets, the staff are given one day off per week and the guests have to go out for dinner. Unfortunately, all the hotels take the same night off. The restaurants are inundated with guests on that one night alone (both hotel guests and staff on break). We planned ahead and made reservations early for a lovely French restaurant. The food in France is really good and in the Alps, you have some regional specialties that are quite fabulous. Dennis and I shared a raclette. If you want to harden your arteries and run your blood pressure off the charts, this is your dish! It’s a block of cheese that is placed on the table with a heating unit. The heater melts the surface of the cheese which you then scrape off with a knife and eat with potatoes and sausage or ham. Start with a salad because there are no vegetables involved. MMM, it was good.

The other regional specialty is called tartiflette. This is a potato casserole with cheese and bits of ham or sausage. The cheese is a local variety (roblichon) that is rather strong, but really good. Dennis and I also managed to get out to one of the local bakeries for fresh chocolate croissants – one of our favorites. So, we managed to avoid the worst of the hotel food and we were happy to be in a cute town with lots of food choices.

The best thing about our hotel was the primo location. We were a 5 minute walk from one of the main gondolas and as I already mentioned in the center of a cute town. Being close to the lift was a huge advantage over the situation of last year where we had to be bussed to the ski hill. That was a problem because if you want to stop early, you still have to wait for the bus to take you back. Having a gondola also helps when the snow is poor (as it was this year) at the lower elevations. You can ride to the top, ski where there’s good snow, and then ride the gondola back to the bottom at the end of the day.

This year, we had pretty bad snow coverage. Despite the massive snow storms in December, the area had not seen any fresh snow in several weeks. A bit of warm weather melted everything at the lower levels. The very top of the mountain still had good snow, but it really limited the available runs. For me, and most of the group, the available runs were wonderful – lots of wide blue runs (for non-skiers: blue runs are the intermediate level hills, fun but not scary). Dennis and others who prefer more challenging terrain were out of luck so they got a bit bored.

The first two days of skiing, I was with my peeps (16 of us trying to ski together!) and I was really having a good time. I had been exercising a lot before the trip - even trying to run a little bit - to make sure I was fit for skiing, and it was paying off. I was strong and confident. The runs were groomed and fast. On the third day, I was punished for being over-confident. I was flying down the hill just enjoying the thrill of ride, when one leg suddenly slipped out from under me. In a spectacular, agony-of-defeat-style crash, I went down. As my head whacked against the hard packed snow, I was glad I had a helmet. I determined later that I actually gave myself whiplash, but at least I didn’t give myself brain damage. When everything came to stop and I tried to get sorted out, I realized that my skis had not come off. Again, for the non-skiers: your skis are supposed to come off during a crash to keep your knees from getting wrenched. So, ski s still on = knees wrenched. I managed to ski a little bit more that day, but then decided I better go in early and not risk further injury. I was still able to walk, but the knee pain got worse the next day. That was essentially the end of my skiing for this trip. By the time my knee felt OK, it was time to go home.

For the days I wasn’t able to ski, I hung out in the chalet with some of the other non-skiers. We typically spent the mornings reading books and sipping tea. Then, we’d take a short walk around lunch time to peek in the shops and find a good restaurant. An after-lunch siesta and some more reading was next. At about 3:00, we’d gather in the tea room to wait for the skiers to come back and regale us with their tales of more spectacular crashes and daring-dos’. Before dinner, we’d have cocktails (gin and tonic was the top choice – very British). Anyone still awake after dinner could hang out in the bar. With the right company, this kind of routine is really fun.

Another British tradition is fancy-dress. I know I’ve told you previously about fancy dress, so I’ll keep it short. Suffice to say that British men have a little thing for wearing dresses and all the better if it can be done in public. On the last night of our ski trip, we had our fancy dress night. We decided to skip the hotel dinner and go out on the town to get some of the more traditional French Alpine fare. The transvestites really grabbed a lot of attention even from the French people who were just trying to get a nice dinner in a quiet restaurant. Ha! No quiet dinners with our group nearby! We terrorized that restaurant the whole evening. Our French waiter was a hoot – he was practicing his English and kept asking for advice on pronunciation and phrasing. He was very patient and helpful which is not always the case when you are goofing off in a foreign country. I was actually surprised they didn’t kick us out.

And, so another year of skiing is done. We have met some fabulous people and are looking forward to skiing with them again next year.

42 things that remind me I’m getting older

2011-02-01T11:29:00.000-08:00

1) I can’t see as well as I used to

2) I call the blemishes on my face rosacea instead of acne

3) Are those freckles or age-spots?

4) I really want one of those handy chains for my reading glasses

5) “Fun” restaurants to are too loud

6) “Romantic” restaurants are too dark

7) The music in most places is just too loud

8) Movies are too loud

9) I still have a check book

10) Have the newspapers made the print smaller?

11) I pay attention to my parents health complaints because someday I may need to know about it

12) I can’t remember how old I am most of the time

13) I actually try to eat more fiber

14) I remember when gas was $1 a gallon

15) The only songs I know on the radio are from the ‘80s

16) Eating dinner too late gives me indigestion

17) I’ve had the same sofa for more than 15 years

18) I have to wear sunscreen to prevent age spots

19) Texting? I only know how to call…

20) I have two pairs of reading glasses, one for home and one for my purse

21) I find most teenagers annoying and rude

22) My shoes are comfortable not fashionable

23) I prefer not to have to drive at night

24) I really prefer to only drive on Sunday when there’s no traffic

25) When shopping I look for clothes that are age-appropriate

26) When I get up in the night to use the bathroom, I reach for my glasses first

27) I don’t want anything for my birthday because I ran out of storage space years ago

28) I have to continually adjust the TV volume because they whisper on the shows and shout on the ads

29) I have a hard time staying awake for the end of the movie

30) Don’t call me after 10:00 pm, I’ll be asleep

31) I’d rather read a book than go to a bar

32) I’m starting to think bifocals might be a good idea

33) I don’t know what Twitter is all about

34) Legwarmers are back in style

35) I really can’t text because I can’t see the itty bitty letters on the cell phone buttons

36) I keep obsessing about my age

37) When an attractive man looks at me, I wonder why

38) I still have a VCR and still blinks 12:00

39) I can’t make a Power Point presentation with animation

40) I remember when you could go into the bank and talk to teller

41) When I glance in the mirror sometimes I see my Mom

Did I mention that I can’t see a thing?

One Week in America

2010-08-24T12:20:00.000-07:00

I recently spent a week in the US. Sorry I couldn't visit everyone, but this was a business trip. Anyway, after being in the Netherlands for 2 1/2 years, I am really starting to notice the difference in my perspective. I think they call it reverse culture shock. Here are some of my thoughts:

Day 1: US government feels very intrusive (and this is not a Republican rant because I’m not a Republican). First there were all the extra security questions as I boarded the plane. Then the Customs forms to fill out. As I waited for my luggage I had time to read the USDA posters on the wall telling you how to identify hardwood firewood from soft. The poster did not say WHY you needed to find out if your firewood is hard or soft and I surely couldn’t understand why you needed to know that in an airport. Finally, when I had my bags and had cleared Customs, I was required to re-check my bags and go through security again. I argued that I was not making a connection, this was my destination. I was jet-lagged and very confused, but they assured me that everyone had to do this. The reason is that to get to the airport exit, you have to walk through a secured area. So, you can’t take your luggage and you can’t take any liquids. At least I hadn’t gotten liquor at the duty-free shop. Those poor people had to figure out a way to get their liquids in their checked bags. Of course they were informed of this after the baggage recheck… Note to self – no duty-free stuff on the way to Cincinnati.

Even outside the airport, the government was still obvious. As I drove to the hotel in my rental car, I noticed signs on the freeway indicating that the road construction was a special government program. At the office, there are huge information boards with all the legal notices and licenses. The MSDS stations are where they are legally supposed to be even though nobody uses them.

In Europe, you are likely to see security guards with machine guns in the airports. The Customs process is simpler with no paper work to fill out. The government doesn’t advertise that they funding the road construction. Isn’t it obvious that the government does the road construction? Why does the US need to spend money on signs to tell us that?

Day 2: Watching the news is like watching Jerry Springer and just as educational. The CNN you get in the US is NOT the same as what they broadcast to the rest of the world. It’s no wonder so many Americans are ignorant of world affairs. Since when have viewer opinion polls been the subject of the news? Do I really care that 20% of Americans believe the President is Muslim? Maybe if the news actually covered the news, people would be better informed. It’s really sad. I finally found an NPR station on the car radio and at least had a break from the Jerry Springer style news.

Day 3: MMMM – Dairy Queen! The food in the Netherlands can get monotonous – bread and cheese for breakfast AND lunch. It’s great to get all my favorites, especially Dairy Queen and Mexican food, not necessarily in that order. I also enjoyed American Diet Coke. They must use a different formula in Europe and it’s not very pleasant. The American version is more creamy and vanilla-like.

Day 4: I feel like I’m driving a lot and not walking much. Maybe I should cut back on the Dairy Queen and Mexican food? I’m also watching the roads and wondering how on earth anyone could ride a bike in Cincinnati. The roads are poorly paved (in spite of all the government funded road work) with no bikes lanes or shoulders. Cincinnati is a river city with some really steep hills especially as you get closer to the river. The Netherlands is super-flat and has bike lanes everywhere.

Day 5: Wow, this food is salty! I had several meals in restaurants that I found very salty, but I got one meal that I couldn’t even eat. Typically, I like salt and I haven’t made any special effort to cut down on salt, but I think the restaurants in Europe tend to use less salt. And I don’t eat a lot of processed food. That’s in part because the stores in the Netherlands don’t carry a lot of processed foods and nobody has the fridge or freezer space for such things. I guess I’ve gotten used to lower salt foods.

Day 6: OK, the air conditioning is really nice, especially when it’s 95 and humid outside. The Dutch hate air conditioning because they think it will make you sick to have the big temperature changes. I don’t think Americans get sick any more often than the Dutch. And when they do, they get much better cold medicine. So bring on the air conditioning!

Day 7: Petite size clothes! Yes, I did a lot of shopping for clothes while I was in the US. The Netherlands boasts the tallest population of any country in the world. That’s great for Dennis at 6’6” and not so great for me at 5’4”. Not only are the clothes more expensive in the Netherlands, but I have to pay another 10 euros to get the pants hemmed. Blouses are impossible because it’s not just the sleeve length, but the whole body length and how low the neckline is.

Day 8: I’m really ready to go home and see my husband and my cat. The US has some good things, but also some frustrations. In the end, home is where your loved ones are.

Nice is Nice, but Monaco is Super-Cool!

2010-07-26T10:45:00.000-07:00

Over the years, Dennis and I have managed to stay in contact with our friends Daryl and Annette. Dennis and Daryl worked together at West Publishing in Minnesota before we moved to Chicago in 1997. We went on vacation together to Hawaii and then to Europe in 2001. Since then, we’ve visited then in San Francisco a couple times and we even met up once in Arizona. As Dual-Income-No-Kids couples, we still have a lot in common that time and distance can’t change.

Of course, when we moved to the Netherlands, we invited Daryl and Annette to visit anytime. We were only a little surprised when Annette said she signed up for Ironman France in Nice to celebrate her 40th birthday. Dennis and I decided that it was worth a trip to Nice to see Annette race and do a little sight-seeing on the side. After the race, they would travel to the Netherlands to watch the first stage of the Tour de France. Plans were made, airline tickets were purchased, and soon we were basking in the warm Mediterranean sunshine.

We flew into Nice on a Friday night after work. On Saturday morning, we met up with Daryl and Annette. Annette was racing with two of her friends, Misha and Akiko. The three couples had rented a vacation house. Misha’s parents were also in town for the race, so it was a nice size group. The girls were very nervous on the day before their race. They had to check in and drop off their bikes and special needs bags, but otherwise were trying to stay off their feet. The rest of us went on a walking tour of Nice. We saw the Ironman Expo (not as good as you might think) and the farmer’s market (just as good as you would expect in the south of France).

Dennis and I continued walking and window shopping. One window had really shiny looking orange balls stacked in a beautiful display. We couldn’t figure out what they were, so we had to go in and see. It turned out that they were conserved mandarin oranges. The shop had a little tour where they told us that the oranges soak in sugar syrup for 40 days – skin and all. They also use the same treatment on other fruits and flowers! The shop was beautiful and we naturally had to buy some of the oranges. They are just as sugary/syrupy as you might imagine. The skin is like candied orange peel with very little bitterness. They are very good chopped and served over vanilla ice cream (with a bit of chocolate sauce for good measure).

We had dinner with the group who were not racing in the morning. The racing girls wanted to stay in and eat rather plain food that would not cause tummy trouble the next day. The rest of us worked on our race viewing strategy.

The first step of the strategy was to meet at 6:00 am for the swim start. It was very crowded already and hard to find a good spot to watch. Dennis and I stood right on the beach. At this point, it’s fair to mention that the beaches in Nice suck. There is no sand, just small rocks. The rocks are smooth, but still very painful to walk on. I’m not sure how the racers did it! From where we stood, I couldn’t see much until the swimmers were in the water. At an Ironman event, all the racers start at once which makes it very chaotic. All of a sudden, the water started to churn like a giant feeding frenzy. We would see the swarm of swimmers moving out, but it was hard to see which buoy they were aiming for. Finally, we saw the lead swimmers turn the corner and come back toward the beach. The swimmers had to get out of the water and run over the timing pad before getting back in the water for their second lap. It was complete pandemonium and we were unable to see anyone faces or numbers.

When we figured they were about done, we went up to the bike area. We couldn’t see the transition area – where they remove their wetsuits and get ready for the biking – so we just watched the bikers leaving for their 112 mile ride through the mountains. We managed to see Akiko and Misha, but we missed Annette. With so many riders going by at the same time, it was a miracle to recognize anyone! At this point, we had plenty of time to do some sightseeing and take a nap. We figured they wouldn’t be back for another 6 hours or more.

Dennis and I took the opportunity to see the Chagall Museum. Chagall did a lot modern-style religious art that was interesting, but not really to our taste. The museum was rather small though, so we were able to enjoy his work without feeling tortured. A leisurely lunch, long nap, and then we headed back out to the race course for the marathon section.

The run course was set up really well for spectators. The racers had to run out and back along the Promenade Anglais four times. That gave us lots of chances to see our people and give them the encouragement they needed along the way. We found a nice spot in the shade where we could stay cool. A nearby convenience store sold us cold water and Cokes throughout the long afternoon. Every time we started to complain about the heat or how tired we were from standing so long, we laughed because it seemed so minor compared to the people racing. All three ladies looked good on the run. Akiko was about 30 minutes ahead of Annette and an hour ahead of Misha at the beginning of the run. She was able to keep her pace throughout the marathon and finished in 14 hours. Annette was doing a very sensible run-walk, but each lap took a bit longer than the one before. Misha was concerned about the cutoff time, but we assured her that she had plenty of time and could relax a bit. She gladly took the opportunity to walk a bit. By the last lap, Misha was only 10 minutes behind Annette. Of course, they could see each other, too and knew they were close to each other.

For the last lap, we moved to the finish area so we would be able to see them crossing the line. We were amazed how many people were turning around to do yet another lap. Those poor souls would be out there running for another hour at least. You could not tell by looking at people how fast they would be. Some of the guys with guts and stocky women were finishing while some who looked far more athletic were still running. So much of the Ironman is in your head and in the many months of training. The last lap took Annette and Misha a bit longer than we expected, but when we saw them we understood why. They decided to finish together and came running down the finish chute hand in hand in 15 hours and 2 minutes. Both of them looked tired but none the worse for wear. We actually went back to our hotel before they got out of the finish are with all their gear. It was sure tiring to watch!

The next day, Dennis and I went to Monaco because we wanted to cross another country off our list. Monaco is a 15 minute train ride from Nice. It’s as close to Disneyland as you get in Europe. The train station had polished tile floors and was air conditioned. That’s nice for all the high-rollers heading for the Casino – oh never mind, they all get dropped off in their Masserattis. As we left the train station it became clear that Monaco is a mountainous country. All of the exits involved stairs. We went up to enjoy the view, but soon realized how hot it was that day! We went back and headed towards the palace where Grace Kelly used to live. We took the walking tour through the cathedral, botanical garden, and finally Jacque Cousteau’s aquarium. The aquarium was definitely the highlight. For those of you who are too young to know Jacque Cousteau, too bad for you. For the rest of you, the aquarium was much like the TV show and really showed his passion for conservation without being too preachy. Monaco is very small and we had no interest in the casino, so we headed back to Nice to have dinner with the rest of the gang. The racers were walking a bit more slowly than usual, but if it were me, I would not have been able to walk at all! At any rate, we had a really nice dinner with the whole gang and it was really fun.

For Tuesday morning, Annette and Misha wanted to go swimming to help loosen up the muscles. Since it’s silly to go to a beach resort and not go swimming, we decided to join in the fun. There are quite a few public beach areas in addition to the private, rent-a-chair and umbrella places. We went to a public beach since we wanted to swim not lounge around. The rocks on the beach proved very painful, but most of us managed to get into the water. I swam a bit with Annette and Misha while the boys splashed around closer to shore. The water was cool and comfortable, but getting out of the water was difficult. Most of us chose to exit the water by scooting out backwards like a crab. Next time you are on a sandy beach, be sure to appreciate it!

Annette and Misha were stuck at their place for the rest of the day waiting for the bike shop to pick up their bikes for shipping back to the US. They were told the pick-up would be sometime after 12:00, not unlike waiting for the cable guy. So, we took Daryl and went to Ville Franche sur du Mar, a small town between Nice and Monaco. By train, it was only 5 minutes, but a world away in feel. Nice feels like a city – lots of high rise apartment buildings, shops, and restaurants. Villefranche feels like small town that time forgot. The old town has “roads” that are so narrow only three people can walk side by side. I’m not sure you can really call it a road if there are stairs, but they did. We found a little street café to have lunch and the food was so fine, we stayed for 2 hours. We finally had to leave when all the chairs ended up in the sun and we were cooked! We strolled around the citadel and along the waterfront and finally to the beach. Villefranche has a lovely sandy beach only a few minutes walk from the train station. If we had known that a few days ago, we would have hung out here rather than Nice. When I grow up, I want to be rich and have a place in Villefranche.

Wednesday was the day we all left Nice. Dennis and I headed back to Amsterdam – work tomorrow and all that. Daryl, Annette, Misha and Scott headed into Provence for a few days before making the journey to the Netherlands. Our adventures in the Netherlands will be a tale for another day, however.

Playing Charades in Germany Part 2

2010-05-24T08:19:00.000-07:00

Town along the river with vineyards on the hills.

Trail through the woods to the castle.

Castle in the woods.

Please read Part 1 first (see below).

On Saturday, we headed for the wine museum hoping to learn a little bit more about the local wines. About all I knew was that they mostly make Rieslings in sweet, halfdry, and dry. The wine museum was funny in a House-on-the-Rock kind of way. Grandpa collected all the old-time tools of the trade and housed them in the old wine-cellar. He built a big party-room to extend his collection and give space for town “meetings.” The highlight of the tour was the wine tasting at the end. There was a mature woman working at the tasting bar and watching three little red-haired kids playing in the party-room. As we walked up the bar, I was thinking, “Boy, I’m not sure tasting wine at 9:30 in the morning is a good idea.” Then I saw the woman pouring “juice” for one of the little kids. Looking closer, it was red wine and she kept telling the kid “langzamer” which happens to mean the same thing in Dutch as German, “slower.” So, next time the little ones are starting to drive you nuts, just remember that in some places it’s OK to give them booze at 9:30 in the morning! The corollary is to watch what Grandma is serving the kiddies.

For our afternoon activity, we wanted to see the Berg Eltz castle, which Rick Steves calls the best castle in all of Europe. We got in the car with the trusty TomTom and set it for the Berg Eltz castle. Everything was fine until we hit some construction with a detour. The TomTom reset and tried to have us drive over a foot bridge, then it reset again and we seemed to be on the original path following the detour signs on a narrow road up a very steep hill. At the top of the hill it had us turn onto a small farm road, then onto an even smaller farm road. I decided NOT to turn on the dirt road that seemed to go right through the mustard field. Of course at that point, we came upon a truck stopped on the road and there was no room to pass. Turning around was an adventure because there was a very steep drop off on one side and a hill on the other. I did a 49 point turn and shut off the TomTom. I drove back the way we came and followed the signs to the Burg Eltz parking lot. Of course this was the Park and Walk lot, but it was better than rolling the car off the side of the mountain.

It ended up that we had a lovely hike through the deep dark forest. There was a gurgling creek, tall pine trees, and ferns and ivy on the ground. It was still cold, wet, and rainy and the trail was muddy but it was like an enchanted forest. After about 40 minutes of scrambling up the muddy rocks, we arrived at the castle. This castle is unusual because it’s still held by the original family that built it and it was never destroyed during any of the wars. One section of the castle is still being used by the current generation, but they’ve opened the rest of the castle for tours. The castle was cool in a very literal way. By the time the tour was over, we were both frozen. Good thing we had a 40 minute hike to warm us up on the way back to the car!

At this point, we decided to go to a nearby town and get some hot tea and watch people go by. It was getting a little bit late in the afternoon and the sun was breaking out through the clouds for the first time all weekend. We found a little ice cream shop in a cute town square. It was in the sun and out of the cold wind. A few minutes there and we were feeling quite a bit warmer and ready to eat some ice cream. Apparently, the Germans know how to make ice cream, unlike the Dutch who have not yet figured this out. You’d think in a country where people drink milk at every meal that they would have good ice cream, but really it’s awful. So, I was thrilled to have yummy REAL ice cream. The town wasn’t so interesting though, so we drove back to the hotel and decided to check out some of the wineries nearby.

The first winery we stopped at was a small cellar (think basement with a garage door) run by a little old lady. We asked for dry white wine, but she was pushing the half-dry. Well, the point of tasting is to try new stuff, so we tried it and it was really good and not too sweet. We did taste her dry wine, but we agreed with her that the aromatics seemed to be lost. When we told her we live in the Netherlands, she said her daughter lives in the Veluwe region of the Netherlands. After we tasted the wine, we spotted some kirshwasser on her table. We asked to try it. As she served it, she said it’s really good with champagne. I knew we had a bottle of champagne at home that someone had given us, but I don’t really like it so we hadn’t opened it yet. We bought the kirshwasser to go with it. Now at this point, I should explain that all of this communication happened with us speaking English and her speaking German. It’s funny how much we were able to understand and we really enjoyed talking to her.

Our next stop we a yuppy-looking wine shop with all the modern décor fitting more with Napa Valley than Mosel. The guy running the shop spoke really good English so I was finally able to learn a little bit more about the local grapes and the wine making processes. He also had some lovely wines. We tasted a really nice oak-aged wine that was like chardonnay. He had a good red wine similar to Bordeaux. We were having fun discussing the different flavors and techniques. Finally, he had us taste his special Riesling from the very top of the hill and from 2008 which was a really good year. Unfortunately, I really didn’t like this one! It was dry enough, but the aroma was like honey, which I don’t like. He was disappointed, but I still managed to buy 6 bottles of wine from him. These were by far the best wines we had tasted and of course the more expensive ones. Most of the other wines we tasted were about 4 euros per bottle (very cheap) and these were 7 or 8 euros. Considering that last time we were in Napa, none of the bottles were less than 15 dollars, I felt we were still getting a pretty good deal. And, my mission of learning a bit about the local wines was accomplished.

On Sunday morning, the sun was out and you could tell it was going to be a glorious day. Too bad we had to drive home. Apparently, all the other people in the hotel were leaving early and by the time I got up to shower, there was no hot water. I was also a bit tired of cold bread with meat and cheese for breakfast. Would it kill you to have a toaster? OK, maybe I was just getting a little cranky. It really is time to go home after all. The drive was pretty relaxing and we only hit traffic a few miles before we got to our exit. We were glad that we made the most of the holiday weekend even if the weather wasn’t very cooperative.

Playing Charades in Germany Part 1

2010-05-24T08:08:00.000-07:00

Barges on the misty Mosel River.

Mosel River- view from hilltop castle.

Newest Disney ride through the steep vineyards.

Riverside town as seen from the castle.

Here in the Netherlands, we have several holidays in the spring-time. Thursday (May 12) was Ascension Day and Dennis and I decided to take the Friday off to make it a 4 day weekend. After our nice experience in Rothenburg a couple weeks ago, we thought we’d do a little more exploring in Germany. This time we targeted the Mosel River Valley, a prime wine producing region with a bike trail along the river.

We made our hotel reservations on-line because we figured it could be busy with the holiday weekend. A couple days before the trip, I noticed that the weather forecast was for 50 degrees and rainy. So I looked at the cancellation policy for the hotel and realized that we would pay 80% of the entire bill if we cancelled. Even when Dennis came down with a cold the day before, we decided to go anyway and try to make the best of it. Actually I couldn’t help thinking of so many Memorial Day weekends in Minnesota when it was cold and rainy all weekend until it’s time to go home – then the sun comes out.

We packed the bikes (hybrids for this trip) and a lot of cold medicine and drove the 4 hours to the Mosel. The TomTom navigation system didn’t even register the name of the small town we were staying in, but we did finally manage to find the hotel. I guess we should have bought a map of Germany at one of those rest areas – it might have come in handy.

Checking into the hotel was a bit of extra fun. First, there was a note on the door instructing us to go to a neighboring hotel. The note was in German, so we were pretty much guessing. With a little bit of help from an English-speaking person, we finally found the right place. Little did we know how rare it would be to find another person who speaks English there! The hotel lady only spoke German, but that didn’t seem to limit her talking. She just kept talking to us in German as she showed us the room, the honor bar, and the breakfast room. Everything looked fine so we just kept smiling and nodding. We did notice that some words in German are the same as in Dutch, so we were able to understand every 5th word she said.

By the time we were settled into our room, it was about 4:00 so we decided to walk around town and stretch our legs a bit. Well, that took about 5 minutes. So, we strolled along the river path until we got to the next small town. Here, we found some wine-tasting shops that were still open. One of them also sold homemade liquors from large flasks. We were able to taste before we bought some hazelnut cream liquor and chocolate orange whiskey. The best part was when she filled some small bottles and then labeled them with a marker. We saw marker-labeled bottles of liquor in some of the restaurants in France and we wondered what they were and where they came from. Now we know those bottles probably came from a shop like this one!

On Friday morning, we dressed very warm and got on the bikes. The bike path along the river was awesome. Between the river and the steep hills dotted with grapevines were quaint small towns with river-side cafes and wine tasting shops. This is a place that time forgot. The hills are too steep for modern farming equipment, so they still grow the grapes in the traditional way. We rode past many fields with little tram-ways running up the hills. We thought this would make a good Disneyland ride. We stopped frequently to visit the cafes and snoop around the towns. We found a cool castle on the top of a hill. It was a ruin, but the view was spectacular. We couldn’t help but wonder how much better it would look if the sun were out. By the time we were done with the castle, I was freezing and it was starting to rain just a bit. We realized we’d been out and about from 10:00 until 3:00 so it was a good time to head back to the hotel and clean up for dinner.

For dinner we went to a neighboring hotel restaurant, arriving at about 6:15, only to be told that they were full. We thought we were the only ones who ate dinner this early in Europe! He said it was too bad because they were doing a lovely 5 course meal of local favorites (only 13 euros per person – unbelievably cheap!). We were set to go somewhere else when the guy said he’d check with the chef and see if there was enough food. He came back with a smile and sat us in the bright dining room. We were still not exactly sure what we’d get, but at least we didn’t have to translate a German menu! WE had the following: salad with duck breast and orange dressing, fennel cream soup, fish with lentils, pork with gravy (naturally), and ice cream with berry sauce. Everything was pretty tasty and went nicely with the local Riesling wine.

Christmas Pyramid

2010-05-10T10:08:00.000-07:00

Christmas Pyramid - heat from candles makes the propeller spin and it turns like a carrousel.

The angels are on the top layer.

The wise men are on the middle layer.

And the soldiers are on the bottom layer.

As promised, pictures of the Christmas pyramid. Obviously, this is not the kind of thing you can easily pack in a suitcase to take home. Most of the time when you travel, you can only bring home little things. We are collecting some of the bigger things while we can.

Giro d'Italia

2010-05-09T05:09:00.000-07:00

Here are the race leaders - about 5 minutes ahead of the rest.

Here are the rest of the riders.

Yes, the Giro d'Italia started in Amsterdam this year. We had the unusual opportunity to watch the Tour of Italy in the Netherlands. Stage 2 of the race went from Amsterdam to Utrecht and passed within 5 miles of our town. We rode our bikes over the race course and watched them speed by.

Since I had the camera, I actually didn't see any of the race. I clicked as fast as I could and only got a few pictures. The whole group passed in just a couple of seconds.

We abandoned our plans to ride the train to Utrecht to watch the finish because I injured my leg this morning and can barely walk. Biking was OK, but walking was really a bummer. Utrecht would have involved a lot of walking and would have been pretty crowded. I don't do so well with Dutch crowds because I'm so much shorter than everyone else. Now, I'm trying to rest my leg so I can have fun for the long weekend coming up. Hopefully a few days of rest is all it will take.

Surprise in Rothenburg

2010-05-04T12:36:00.000-07:00

Pretty view of the valley from Rothenburg.

The market square with some sidewalk cafes.

Walking around the city walls.

I think you can guess who these people are.

The fountain near the market square.

After months of working too much and suffering the cold and rainy end of winter in the Netherlands, Dennis and I finally had some plans to get out of Dodge. Susan, my sister-in-law, who lives in Tucson, was going to be in Germany for a conference at the end of April. She called us a few weeks before and we arranged to meet her in Rothenburg, a touristy town near Fankfurt. We were lucky because the last day of April is actually a holiday in the Netherlands, so we had a three day weekend.

On Friday morning, Dennis and I started driving towards Frankfurt. I was apparently too optimistic in my time estimates. It was supposed to take about 4 hours to get to Frankfurt and then another 1.5 hours on to Rothenburg. Unfortunately, the road from Frankfurt to Rothenburg was one non-stop traffic jam from all the road construction. It was a bit ironic to be stuck going 30mph on the aurtobahn. We finally arrived a few hours later than planned, but still earlier than Susan whose flight was delayed.

We got settled in the really cute bed and breakfast that Susan picked out. Then, we went to explore the town a bit. Rothenburg is an old Roman fortified city built in the 1600’s at the intersection of two major trade routes, the East-West route to Asia and the North-South route to Rome. The city still has the old wall all the way around it and a really cute and compact city-center filled with shops and sidewalk cafes. We had a quick look around town and a cup of tea and then went back to see if Susan had arrived yet.

Waiting around the room, I was just getting restless so I decided to take my book to the lobby and wait there. I opened the door and stepped into the hall and almost ran right into my mother. My mother?! Just a few steps behind her was Susan with a big smile on her face. That wasn’t the way they planned the surprise, but I was surprised anyway.

Since it was already dinner time, we found a nice restaurant and enjoyed the heavy German cuisine. As we were leaving, we noticed that it was almost 8:00 and there was a tour starting in just a few minutes. We decided to do the Night Watchman’s tour, billed as the best evening activity in town. We met the group in the market square and waited for the Night Watchman to show up. He was easy to spot in his period clothing. He told us about life in the city in the 1600’s before the streets were paved and before they had sewers. The town’s livelihood was textiles, mainly wool from the locally raised sheep. The city walls were built to keep out raiding armies, but they didn’t always work. The town was nearly destroyed in WWII by bombs from American planes. Just before the end of the war, the Americans had orders to destroy the town to catch some high level Nazi Generals who were hiding there. But the American in charge was of German heritage, his family from Rothenburg. He didn’t want to destroy such a beautiful city. So, he met with the mayor and they figured out a way to save the town. The mayor surrendered the city in the morning, a move that made him a traitor. The generals were not found and 3 days later the war was over. After the war, the city asked for donations to help rebuild the historic walls. People were able to buy pieces of the wall in 1 meter increments and get their names posted along their section of wall.

Knowing the history of the town, we spent Saturday exploring the walls and the cute souvenir shops. Since we had the car with us, we were able to buy bigger things than most tourists can manage. The Christmas shop is where I got in the most trouble. Every day is Christmas in this little town. I got a very tall pyramid decoration. The pyramid is typically German ornament made from wood. There are candle holders around the base and the top has a propeller. The heat from the candles makes the propeller turn and all the little hand-carved figures turn around like a carrousel. As soon as I unpack it, I’ll get a picture to publish.

We really had a relaxing day, stopping when we were tired for lunch or a cup of tea, enjoying the view of the green and yellow valleys, and simply taking the time to chat and enjoy the company. I have to also say how nice this town was for tourists. They had public (and free) bathrooms all over the place, as if they wanted us to stay a while. The hotel guy was very helpful and made sure we had a map of the town and a bed long enough for Dennis. The waiter and waitresses all took time to describe their food and encourage us to try some of the seasonal specialties. At the shops, they opened packages to let me see things up close. Everyone was super-friendly and seemed to welcome tourists and Americans. The level of service stood in contrast to the business-like Dutch waiters and the surly French ones.

I was sad to have to say goodbye to Mom and Susan so soon, but on Sunday morning, we had to start the long drive back home. We found a route with less road construction, so at least the traffic wasn’t bad.

Flowers for Nova

2010-03-01T11:24:00.001-08:00

One of the cool things about living in the Netherlands is that buying flowers is an everyday thing and not just for special occasions. We ordinarily don’t partake in this cultural activity because of Nova. He’s always been a disaster with flowers and plants. One of his very first accomplishments was the utter destruction of a 3 foot tall peace lily plant. He followed that up by eating the 4 foot palm plant. Fresh flowers in a vase are even messier because the water just goes everywhere. We’ve tried every now and then over the years, but Nova has been very persistent.

Last Saturday, Dennis and I were tempted by the first tulips of the season. We figured that Nova is 12 years old now and we might be able to finally trust him. That and we got a really heavy vase that might be harder to pull over. When we bought the tulips, the girl told us to soak them in cold water for an hour to freshen them before putting them in a vase. The only thing big enough to hold the tulips is the bathtub, so in they went.

Sometime later, we were sitting downstairs watching TV when we heard a ruckus upstairs. We thought it was Nova rushing down the stairs after leaving a deposit in the litter box. Sometimes in his haste to escape the poopy-smell he races down the stairs and hits the bottom with quite a thump. Sometimes there is meowing involved (Nova IS a boy after all).

Oddly, when Nova arrived back to the ground floor, he had wet feet. And they weren’t just a little wet. And really he was pretty much wet all over. Hmmm, time to investigate…I went up to the check the flowers in the bathtub and I found the bathmat rumpled and water all over the floor. The flowers in the tub appeared untouched.

Apparently, Nova was leaning over the tub trying the reach the flowers when the bathmat slipped and he fell into the tub. Let me remind you that the water was very cold which elicited some meowing. He must have managed to scamper out of the tub and probably slipped again causing a big thump. Tulips 1: Nova 0.

Maybe Nova thinks the tulips are scary now. He’s left them alone for a record amount of time. Do you think we can finally have fresh flowers in the house?

Book Reviews

2010-02-13T07:11:00.000-08:00

I’ve really been enjoying my Kindle reader and I’ve read a lot of books over the last year or so. I thought it would be nice to share my reading list for people who might be looking for some recommendations. I try to avoid depressing books and the very predictable murder-mysteries. I have recently gotten some free books from Amazon that tempted me to read outside my normal genre, though. If you know of any books that I may like, please let me know. I’m always looking for recommendations, too!

The Host by Stephanie Meyer (of Twilight fame) – If you liked the Twilight series, you will like this one too. It’s pretty much the same story with the same themes but with a different setting. This time instead of vampires, its aliens that take over the human bodies.

The Brass Bed by Jennifer Stevenson – This was a futuristic novel about how the city of Chicago deals with the new influx of magic and magical beings. It was a free book and got terrible reviews. The reviews were right – it was a waste of time.

The Angel Experiment by James Patterson – This was another free book from Amazon and it was given out as a teaser to get you hooked on the series. It was about a group of kids who were genetically modified to have wings. They escaped from the lab where they were kept in dog cages and hid out in the forest away from civilization (except for their internet access, of course). Like the Twilight series, this book seemed more geared to the teenaged set. It was fun, but like most first-in-a-series books, it left more questions than answers. I have not yet purchased the rest of the series – I’m still debating whether it’s worth it or not.

The Red Tent by Anita Diamant - A book based on the story of Jacob from the Bible, but written from the women’s point of view. It’s an interesting perspective and gives a glimpse of what life might have been like during the Biblical times. It was pretty entertaining, too.

People of the Book by Geraldine Brooks – Also a religious theme; this is the story of a Jewish prayer book that was rescued from destruction by a Muslim during the war in Sarajevo. In flashbacks, it tells how the book was written and how it was kept from destruction by the Spanish Inquisition and the Nazis over the years. I thought it was interesting to learn more about the history of Jews in Europe beyond the Holocaust.

Shanghai Girls by Lisa See – Lisa See has written some really good books over the years. This was not one of my favorites. This one was about two wealthy girls growing up in Shanghai. They immigrated to the US during the war and faced poverty and discrimination. It was OK, but not a very up-lifting book.

Sari Shop Window by Shobhan Bantwal - This was a stupid romance novel that took place in an Indian neighborhood in New Jersey. Skip this book – it was a waste of time and had nothing new to offer.

The White Tiger: A Novel by Aravind Adiga – This book was about a taxi driver in India who murders his employer. He describes his life from childhood in rural India with little education to adulthood in the city where he works for the Indian upper classes. If you’re tired of reading about the problems in America, maybe you’re ready to read about the problems of another country. This was an interesting read.

The Help by Kathryn Stockett - The Help was my favorite book of the year. It tells the story of black housekeepers in Mississippi during the 60’s. It described the rules the black women had to follow to keep their jobs including using a separate toilet. Some of the stories were sad, some funny, and some happy.

Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Hurston – I didn’t like this book as much as The Help, although it is considered a classic black novel. It uses the black dialect which makes it a bit more difficult to read. The story is not what you expect either. It’s more about feminism than race relations. It takes place in the 1930’s in Florida and is the story of one woman’s life.

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett – Another really good book! This one is about a builder in the 16th century who dreams of building magnificent cathedrals. After seeing so many of these cathedrals in Europe, I was interested to learn more about why the Catholic Church spent so much money on the cathedrals. It explained the economic relationships between the church and the land-owners. It also explained how they were able to build such enormous structures. There was also a plot-line that kept the whole thing interesting for people who don’t like reading dry history books!

When the Elephants Dance by Tess Uriza Holthe – This was a rather dark book about the war in the Philippines. It’s told from the point of view of a family hiding from the Japanese and American soldiers. It mixes reality with the mythology of the Filipinos which makes the book more unique and interesting.

Three Cups of Tea… Greg Mortinson – This is one of the very few non-fiction books that I have read, but well worth reading. Greg Mortinson was attempting to climb K2 when he got lost and was rescued by a group of Pakistanis. After seeing how they lived, he promised to come back and build them a school. He has made it his life’s mission to build more schools in Pakistan and actually advises the US military on relations with the Pakistanis. If you want to learn more about what’s going on in the Middle East, this is a great book. It gives some hope that not everyone is a suicide bomber and things can get better.

Confessions of an Ugly Stepsister by Gregory Maquire - This book is just plain fun! Of course it’s the Cinderella story, but the characters are given much more personality and complexity than the original fairy tale. I was fascinated that the story takes place in the Netherlands and talks about the tulip trade and painting.

The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein – Written from the dog’s point of view, this book was rather disappointing. It was not nearly as entertaining or touching as Marley and Me and it was not really about car-racing either. Not worth reading…

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time: A Novel by Mark Haddon – Written from the unique point of view of an autistic boy, this book was rather funny and touching. Don’t expect it to be too deep.

My Sister’s Keeper: A Novel by Jodi Picoult – I actually avoided reading this book for a while fearing it to be too much of an Oprah Winfrey book choice. I was wrong. While the book is about the morality of raising a child to be an organ donor for her sister, it was also about how family dynamics are affected by having a sick child.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair – This book is about more than how disgusting the meat processing industry was (and maybe still is). It also talks about the people who immigrated to the US to work in the meat packing plants: their hopes, desires, and disappointments. I was surprised how much of their experience was directly related to the recent home mortgage crisis. If you haven’t read this book – do so now!

Back in France for Skiing

2010-02-06T08:29:00.000-08:00

Last winter we had a really fun time skiing with a British group led by my coworker’s father. Since we had such a good time with the group, we decided to go with them again this year. Our destination was St. Gervais, France a ski resort area near Geneva. There are actually several resorts in the same area and you can get lift tickets that allow access to all the resorts. That gives the benefit of having a huge area to ski and explore – important when you on a week-long ski trip.

While the rest of the group was riding a bus from the UK to France, Dennis and I flew from Amsterdam to Geneva. The flight involved getting up at 4:30 in the morning to get the train to the airport. We decided to give ourselves a lot of time before the flight because the local trains have not been very reliable in the snowy weather we’ve been getting. But everything went smoothly and we were in Geneva before we knew it. A one-hour shuttle bus ride got us to our hotel right around lunch time. The UK group had arrived a couple hours before us and was already out skiing. We decided to take our time getting lunch and arranging the rental skis so we didn’t get to the slopes the first day.

Later, in the day the UK group got back from the slopes and it was like meeting with family. Of course, not everyone from last year was able to join us this year and there were some new faces, but it was fun to see the gang again. Since we were staying in a larger hotel this year, there were other people around who were not part of our group. Everyone was from the UK and they were all friendly even if they had very loud children. The hotel served a tea in the afternoon (did I mention that it’s a British-run hotel?) and dinner at 7:45 for all the guests.

Actually, the hotel does require a bit more description. It is located in a town in the valley, so it was not really close to the ski areas at all. The hotel ran shuttle buses to the ski hills every morning, usually two different buses (8:45 and 9:15). In the afternoon, they drove the buses back to the hotel at 4:15 or 4:30. During the day, the drivers and most of the hotel employees went skiing. This arrangement seems OK on the surface, but there was no flexibility for bad weather or if you just got tired. One day, it so foggy we gave up skiing at noon. We had to wait in a bar on the hill for four hours until it was time for the bus. Since we were in ski boots and didn’t have street shoes, we were not even able to walk around the shops in town. The town was about ½ mile from the bottom of the ski lift, so it was too far to walk in ski boots.

The food at the hotel was really good at dinner. The tea was tolerable, but breakfast was a disaster. They normally had croissants at various stages of sogginess and some ham and cheese slices. For the hot breakfast, they had weird combinations like beans, hot pears, and fried potato cakes. They served oatmeal 3 days running. But they served sausage and fried potato cakes with it. They never remembered to put napkins out and if you were a little late, there was very little left for you.

Our hotel room was very small. At least the ceilings were high enough that we could stand up in it (unlike the chalet we were in last year). But there was absolutely no ventilation in the bathroom. We had a corner room so the bathroom was very cold. The heater was on the far side of the bedroom and the heat really didn’t reach the bathroom. When we showered, there was serious condensation collecting on the walls, floor, and the sink and toilet. Hang a towel in the bathroom and it would never dry. With that much cold and damp, the shower was pretty moldy. The shower curtain was hung too far into the bathtub so it would cling around your legs when you showered. Hard to feel clean when you can’t get away from the moldy shower curtain. Yuck! To make it even worse, the staff did not clean the rooms. They came in every day, but we decided all they did was make the bed and turn the heat off. Turning the heat off only made the moisture problem worse. By the middle of the week, the towels stunk, but they never replaced them. I was not impressed. It seemed like the staff was spending more time skiing than taking care of their customers.

But a fun ski group makes up for a lot, and we still had a great time skiing. I spent a lot of time with a group of about 7 people. I was the youngest and most of the time I was the slowest. The oldest in our group was 82. Did you know that when you are over 80, you get free lift tickets? Her secret for fast skiing was to not make any turns. You just make yourself tired by making all those turns. I probably skied 4 times further because I like to make a lot of turns to keep my speed under control. The only time I skied faster was when the conditions were challenging. In the fog, I was a rock star!

Skiing in the fog is really pretty fun. We got into a fog bank so thick, we couldn’t see anything but white. Thank goodness the run was groomed because that was our only slue that we were still on the run. We watched which direction the grooming lines went and followed them. Stopping was interesting, too. Without the visual clues, it was hard to tell if you had really stopped or not. It was like being drunk. We would try to stop and fall over because we were so disoriented. One person in our group got motion sick from the sensation. We also skied right past the lift that we needed and we ended up in the wrong place entirely.

We had a couple days with sunshine and it was really nice to be able to see the views. On one of the sunny days, I was feeling really good (finally had my new ski boots broken in and adjusted correctly) and we skied with a guide that day. The guide was awesome because he took us on all the best runs and we didn’t waste any time trying to read the maps. If you’ve ever been skiing before, you know that they mark the runs by difficulty – but there is no definitive way to rate how hard a run is so some runs marked as easy are really hard and vice versa. A guide knows which runs will suit your ability, no matter how it is marked on the map. That was our best day of skiing.

The last day we skied was also awesome. We had about a foot of fresh powder over night. Even though it was still snowing, the visibility remained OK. The snow was light enough that it just fluffed over the top of your skis like down feathers. As people skied on it, the snow started to pile up into bumps that made it a little more challenging. These are the kind of conditions that I’m more used to, so it was easier for me than the rest of the group. The others preferred the fast groomed runs with no bumps. It’s more common in Europe to have all the runs groomed every night. In the US, if there is fresh snow, they don’t groom the runs. So, if you like skiing in fresh snow, stay in the US. If you love skiing really fast on groomed runs, Europe is right for you.

Dennis was having a lot of fun on the last day and almost missed the bus back to the hotel. I was getting really worried because we had a flight to catch and limited time to get our shuttle bus to the airport. I shouldn’t have worried about Dennis, though. He made it in the nick of time to the bus, but our shuttle bus was a full hour late. It’s a good thing I always schedule to be at the airport 2 hours before the flight. Even with the hour delay, we easily made our flight home.

Paris!

2010-01-02T01:05:00.000-08:00

Back in 2001, Dennis and I visited Paris, but the museum workers were on strike and we were not able to see the Louvre. Now that we are so close to Paris, it was a no-brainer that we would make the trip. We hate to waste good summer weather in a city looking at museums, so we decided to go in the winter. It seemed fitting to see the City of Lights during the holiday season.

Our tour began with a 3 hour train ride from Amsterdam to Paris. Armed with our trusty Rick Steves Paris guidebook (on Kindle of course), we easily made the transition from the international train to the local metro train. After the rather modern trains we are used to riding in the Netherlands, we were surprised that the Paris Metro trains are rickety vintage things that shake, rattle, and roll. A ride on the Metro reminded me of Mister Toad’s Wild Ride – yikes! Despite the age, we found the Metro to be convenient and cheap. Train rides in the Netherlands are 3-5 euros at the minimum and can be quite pricey for long rides. The Metro was a little more than one euro per ride – probably more comparable to the trams in Amsterdam.

Our quaint hotel was located near the Eiffel Tower, in a neighborhood with a pedestrian-only shopping street. The room had everything we needed except space to walk around the bed, but that’s typical for European hotel rooms. We didn’t spend much time in the room anyway. We arrived pretty late on the night after Christmas, so we just grabbed a quick bite and went to sleep.

Priority number one was to visit the Louvre, but breakfast was first. We had our French breakfast in one of the numerous cafes near the hotel. A French breakfast is a bit weird to me. You get coffee or tea, orange juice, a croissant and French bread with butter. It seems a bit heavy on carbs to me. A Dutch person would be wondering why there wasn’t any cheese. After breakfast, we walked to the Louvre. It was a bit further than we thought it would be, but it’s fun to look at everything while you walk.

The Louvre was disappointing in some ways. All the “famous” art was mobbed with crowds. The Mona Lisa is quite small and impossible to see with all the people jockeying to get the best picture of the painting. We moved rather quickly through the important pieces with the help of the Rick Steves audio tour that we downloaded from the computer before we left. After the audio tour, we explored a bit more on our own. We found some really cool stuff that nobody else seemed to care about. It was nice to appreciate the art without so many people. We ended up staying until about 3:30 in the afternoon – pretty long for us in an art museum!

We walked back to the hotel and managed to see the Paris Christmas market on the Champs Elysees. It was getting pretty dark as we got closer to our hotel – so dark it was impossible to read the street signs OR the map. When we finally made it back, we were exhausted from walking so much – and hungry! With little energy to explore further, we found a restaurant close to the hotel and enjoyed a lovely dinner. After Dutch food, all the food in Paris is lovely!

Day 2 was the Orangerie museum. Since the Orangerie didn’t open until 12:30, we spent the morning exploring the Sacre Coer Cathedral on the north end of the city. It’s a pretty cathedral in the part of town where the artists hung out in the 1800’s. It’s a fairly seedy part of town now – but it probably was then as well. You know those artist types! We had lunch in a café near Pig Alley – the red light district. I felt the need to wash my hands frequently. It is surprising that Amsterdam is so well known for its red light district, but this area was larger and at least as colorful (just lacking the prostitutes behind glass).

The Orangerie museum houses a large set of Water Lilly paintings that Monet created specifically for this building. They were quite pretty, but as usual, we found the other exhibits more interesting. This is a small museum so we had some free time in the afternoon to explore a bit more of the museum neighborhood. We walked and we walked and we walked. After our long walk the day before, I was getting pretty tired. We had time for an afternoon break and to find a proper restaurant for dinner. The guidebook had plenty of recommendations and we easily chose one. After walking around all day, we were ready for dinner around 6:30, meaning we’d be dining with the tourists and not the locals. That was OK, but we ended up eating with American tourists. I think every group in the small restaurant had a copy of Rick Steve’s Paris. The food was good, but come on!

Day 3 was the Museum d’Orsay. This was actually the main event for me – the museum I really wanted to see – full of the French Impressionists like Monet, Degas, Renoir, and the rest. All the art is housed in a former train station which was beautiful in its own right. My only complaint was the dearth of bathrooms. There were a grand total of 6 stalls for women. 6 stalls for a huge and hugely popular museum! This should be a crime. But in the Netherlands, you are likely to have to pay for the bathroom even after you have paid admission, so maybe I should be thankful. Aside from the lack of bathrooms, the art was phenomenal. We couldn’t get close to any of the Degas paintings which seem to be quite popular, but I really like Tolouse Latreck. As an odd coincidence, a Degas painting from the Orsay collection was stolen on New Year’s Eve from another museum that had borrowed it for a temporary exhibit. I’m not sure why everyone wants to take a picture of the paintings. You can buy lovely postcards of all the favorites in the gift store – higher quality and no random heads in the way.

Day 4, we probably wandered around a bit aimlessly because we didn’t have much of a plan. We saw the Notre Dame Cathedral and the Ile St. Louis, an upscale neighborhood on an island next to Notre Dame. We didn’t have much of a plan for dinner either –except to avoid the Rick Steves crowd. We walked south of the Eiffel Tower into a neighborhood that didn’t seem to have any tourist attractions. Most of the restaurants and stores were closed, but we finally found one that was open. We didn’t spend much time reading the menu, just made sure it wasn’t 200 dollars a plate. As we entered at about 7:00, we were the only customers. They graciously took our coats and seated us in the small dining room. The waiter helped us a bit with the French menu, which was nice because I almost ordered squid by accident. The waitress, an older overweigh grandmotherly type, brought our first course. On a small plate she placed a tablet that looked like an antacid, but she said in her very limited English, “No eat!” She poured warm water from a pitcher over the tablet and it expanded into a napkin to clean our hands with. One of the few French words I know is serviette because the British tend to use this term for napkin as well. Kind of like a Far Side comic, I heard her say, “Blah, blah, blah serviette. Blah, blah, blah.”

My first course was a cream soup. You might be wondering as I was, “Cream of what?” The answer: cream. It was a cream soup with a garnish of balsamic vinegar and parsley oil, but I could not identify any flavor in the soup besides cream. It was like going to heaven. Dennis ordered the escargot (yes, snails), but they were served in a different style than the normal butter-garlic presentation. These were in a tasty stew with andouille sausage and tomatoes. For my main course, I had scallops on a bed of pureed celery root. I’ll have to try cooking celery root this way because it was really wonderful. Dennis had white fish cooked a la Provence, which means with tomatoes. At this point I should also mention the wine that was like no other wine I’ve ever had. It was a white wine, but dark yellow in color. It tasted just a bit like sherry, but very dry. It complimented the fish perfectly, “My, what a lovely fish you are, such beautiful eyes and kissable lips.” Just kidding. But it was really good. For dessert, Dennis had the better pick a chocolate cake with the molten center. My Grand Marnier soufflé was also good, but it wasn’t chocolate. I should have asked him to trade, but I don’t think he loves me THAT much! As we enjoyed our food, the restaurant was filling up with mostly French people. It was nice to eat in a less touristy spot.

On our last day in Paris, we took a walking tour (but of course!) that took us through the St. Sulpice Church. For those who have read the Da Vinci Code, you might recognize the name of the church. The tour guide told us all about the architecture of the church and described the history of how it was a pagan temple for some time after the French Revolution. We also walked through much of the Latin Quarter learning about the people who made this area famous. I leaned more about Paris in 2 hours than I did in a lifetime. I wished that we had done the walking tour at the beginning of our trip – maybe we would have found time to do a couple more. But alas, it was time to head back home.

We made it back home in time to watch the New Year’s fireworks at midnight. I fell into bed exhausted from walking nearly 10 miles a day for the last 4 days.

Netherlands Love-it/Hate-it List

2009-12-18T05:11:00.000-08:00

Shopping
Hate it – Shops close at 5:00 and are closed on Sundays. There is nothing like Wal-Mart and even the grocery stores are small with little choice.
Love it - We’re saving a ton of money because it’s so difficult to shop. We spend more time on leisure activities like biking and kayaking.

Food
Hate it – My company cafeteria sets a whole new level for terrible food. I bring my lunch every day. Restaurants are over-priced with slow service and plain food.
Love it – I have more time to cook dinner because I’m not spending much time commuting. The Dutch do make good cheese and really good apple tarts. The chocolate beats anything you can get in the US. The Indonesian food is fantastic.

Traveling
Hate it – There is so much to see in Europe that it’s hard to prioritize. It also takes time to plan the trips.
Love it –Airline travel is easier here than in the US. Flights tend to be on-time, passengers are treated like people, and baggage claim is pretty fast. Train travel is super-easy and convenient (but costs more than you think it should). Things are much closer here than in the US.

Neighborhood
Hate-it – Of course we miss our neighbors and friends from home!
Love-it – I ride my bike to work in 15 minutes. I walk to the grocery store and the city center in 10 minutes. The train station is close. And yet, we can bike and walk through woods and the heather or by the lake without having to get in the car.

Lifestyle
Hate-it – Our area is pretty traditional. Women stay home with their kids or work part time. Work is work and that’s it. Dennis and I are oddities because we have no kids and we’re much more career oriented than our Dutch coworkers.
Love-it – 5 weeks of vacation…Need I say more?

Turkey Quest

2009-11-23T11:23:00.000-08:00

As our friends and family in America get ready for Thanksgiving, I have another thing for you guys to be thankful for – turkeys! Turkey is one of my favorite foods. Sometimes at home, I would make turkey at non-holiday times of the year just to get my fix. Last year, I simply skipped the whole Thanksgiving tradition, preferring instead to be caught up in the local Sinterklaas celebrations.

This year, I decided that Thanksgiving was a necessity. A few weeks ago, a couple that works with Dennis had us over to their house for a dinner of traditional Romanian food. It was fun to learn a little bit about their homeland by tasting the different dishes. We wanted to return the favor and what better way than with a traditional Thanksgiving feast. Having guests make it seem like it’s worth the work involved. And it was a lot of work.

The main difficulty was getting a turkey. Apparently the Dutch don’t eat a lot of turkey. At the specialty stores, I could get duck, venison, pheasant, and rabbit, but not turkey. Heck, I can even get horse meat at the grocery store. My grocery store does have a service where you can special order cuts of meat for parties and stuff. Knowing this, I carefully wrote a note with all of the details for ordering the turkey including my name and cell phone number. The guy at the meat counter said he would call me on the Monday to let me know if he could get it. When I didn’t hear anything on Monday, I asked my Dutch coworker to call the store for me. I figured she’d have better luck speaking to them in Dutch than I would struggling in Dunglish. She found out that they couldn’t get the turkey. Plan B was to call the restaurant supply store. We shop there for work occasionally and they have a large selection of unusual products. But they also could not get a turkey. I was beginning to worry that my Thanksgiving was going to feature a chicken. Plan C was hunting on the internet for a poellier (a butcher for poultry). We found one in the neighboring town and gave them a call. Lo and behold, they actually have turkeys! So, we ordered the turkey for me to pick up on Saturday.

Saturday morning, I jumped on the train to the next town. Dennis chose not to go along because he was on call for work and isn’t really allowed to be so far from home. But, I was armed with my google map so I would be able to find the poellier from the train station. It was actually not a long walk. Despite our phone call, I was still worried that they wouldn’t have the turkey for me. I was thrilled when they brought out a beautiful whole turkey and wrapped it in a couple layers of plastic. It was an 11 lb. turkey and cost me about $75 – ouch! No wonder the Dutch don’t eat turkeys. Not only are their ovens too small, but these birds are expensive! I packed the turkey into my backpack for the trip home.

As I was walking back to the train station, I noticed a rather large kitchen equipment store. I stopped in to see if I could get a roasting pan. Of course in a country that doesn’t eat turkey, you can’t get a cheap disposable foil turkey roasting pan! I ended up buying a Pyrex roasting pan with a wire rack that holds the turkey off the bottom of the pan and can be used to lift the turkey out of the pan. It had a nice oval shape, a spout to pour off the cooking liquid, and it looked like the right size. I briefly considered pulling the turkey out of my backpack to check the size, but I refrained. I did not refrain from buying a new 9x13 cake pan. I have one at home, but all the non-stick coating is peeling off. Yeah, I spent another $75 at this store.

Almost back to the train station, I noticed that this town has a market on Saturday morning. It’s really close to the train station, so it was really convenient for buying the produce for the meal. I got sweet potatoes, broccoli, apples, grapes, and pecans. At least this stop was cheap – only about $15. But the stuff I bought was so heavy my arms were falling off just walking the two blocks to the train station. I called Dennis from the train and asked him to meet me at the station to help Sherpa the groceries to the house.

Let the cooking begin! On Saturday afternoon, I made Pecan Tassies and cranberry sauce. Do you believe that I could get fresh cranberries, OceanSpray even? On Sunday I got up and started the stuffing – from fresh bread because you can’t get the premade bags of bread cubes. I cooked and cooked and the turkey came out beautifully.

Our friends from Romania came over and we explained the Thanksgiving tradition. Since it’s a harvest celebration, all the food goes out to the table so it looks like a feast! And with all the food served at once, everything gets piled together on your plate. For Europeans, this is rather disgusting. Europeans eat meals in courses, served separately and on separate plates. We explained this to our guests and they played along like great sports. They had their plates piled with everything!

Most of the food was completely new to them. Stuffing of course is pretty American, and doesn’t sound very appealing. Soggy bread anyone? Come on, it’s been cooked inside a dead bird! The stuffing got a thumbs up. Sweet potatoes got a mixed review. Waldorf salad with candied pecans was also popular even though they had to ask, “What are pecans?” Likewise the pecan tassies for dessert were totally new, but good.

Now, I have a week’s worth of turkey leftovers. This morning I had to refrain from eating turkey for breakfast – I wouldn’t want to have turkey three times in one day! MMM, turkey heaven…

Now that we’ve shared the foods from our home countries, we decided that our next outing should be to a restaurant so nobody has to cook. I think we already have our next adventure scheduled. Dennis and I mentioned our plans to visit the Christmas Market in Cologne Germany in a couple weeks and our guests thought that sounded like a blast. So they are making their arrangements (hotel and train tickets) and we’ll explore another country together.

The Pedometer

2009-11-08T09:40:00.000-08:00

Path in the foggy morning.

The haunted forest.

The sink hole that the monestary fell into. (In the background, you can see the water).

The friendly donkey - checking for treats in my pockets.

My latest fitness gadget is a pedometer. I used to do ½ ironman triathlons and I had all the gadgets: running shoes, bike shorts, tri-suits, sports bras, heart rate monitors, Speedos, swim goggles, sun glasses, and more. And now I’m excited about a pedometer. How the mighty have fallen…. (As if I was ever mighty!)

But seriously, after the stress of moving to a new country and suffering through my first very dark and rainy Fall and Winter, I found some extra pounds had become fairly well attached to my hips (and everything else for that matter). I had to do something, because this is a pretty unhealthy path. My initial attempts were pretty half-hearted. I lost a few pounds, but then got distracted. A few more months passed with no progress. At least during the distraction, I managed to not regain the weight I had lost, but I needed to get motivated

When we were in the US, Dennis was cleaning out some office junk and he found a McDonald’s pedometer. This is a pretty simple gadget that clips to your waist-band and counts how many steps you take. I grabbed it thinking it would be a fun way to stay motivated. I looked up pedometers on the internet and found out that you should aim for 10,000 steps per day, which is supposed to be 5 miles. So, I started recording my daily steps and found out that I actually walk quite a bit. I’m regularly up near 9000 steps without much extra effort. I do a lot of work in the lab and that gets me walking around. I also walk to the grocery store every few days.

I began to get frustrated with the pedometer after going for several long walks. Dennis and I walked around Naarden, a walk that we know is 4 miles, and the pedometer said I went 3000 steps. Hmm, that seems low. Then, we did a 12 mile hike that took about 5 hours. The distance was confirmed by Dennis’ GPS unit. But, the pedometer read only 8000 steps. I was hoping for a record high number, and I got screwed! I was mad. It may be important to note here that I am still a little bit competitive even though I’m not actually racing any more.

I went back to the internet (the Wizard of Oz for the Gen Xers) and found out that most pedometers are not very accurate. No kidding! I found a consumer report showing which pedometers have the best accuracy. Then, I spent a couple hours trying to find that same model in the Netherlands, and another hour trying to pay for it after my credit card was rejected (again). Finally, I got the email saying the new pedometer had been shipped. Yay! But wait, the mailman always delivers at our house during working hours (as if I don’t work). I always have to wait for the post man to do his two delivery attempts before I can go pick up my packages at the post office. Finally, after a few days of waiting, I had my new pedometer.

As luck would have it, the same day I got the pedometer, we went for a long bike ride, so I didn’t get to really test it out. We biked with an expat meet-up group for 60 kilometers (30 miles). Most of you know that a 30 mile bike ride should take a couple hours, maybe 3 hours if you’re talking a lot of breaks. This ride took 5 hours! At some points I felt like I was pedaling backwards to go slow enough. To be fair, we did get stuck for about 30 minutes waiting for a ferry to cross the river. It could have been worse because the ferry only ran every two hours. Thank goodness we got there only 30 minutes before and not 90 minutes before. It was very dark when we finally finished and it was starting to rain. It’s a good thing it was a fun group, but after 5 hours I was done being sociable. Dennis and I may not be racing anymore, but at least we aren’t this SLOW!

OK, back to the pedometer. After the first day, I’ve had over 11,000 steps per day and hadn’t gone on a real walk yet. This weekend, Dennis and I had a chance to go for a long walk. We picked a walk through the oldest woods in the Netherlands. In a country where much of the land is reclaimed from the water and by definition “new,” this is an important distinction. The woods also have a haunted legend. According to the story, there was a monastery in the forest that sunk into a big sink-hole. The legend says that it was pulled into hell and the monks still haunt the forest. It’s a big hot-spot for new-age believers and ghost chasers. A more plausible story is that there was a big chunk of ice under the ground and as it melted, it created the sink hole. Anyway, it made for a nice 11 mile walk. The walk was extra long because we started walking down the wrong road from the start-point and ended up going a mile before we realized our mistake and turned back. At the half-way point, we stopped at a café and had some tea and butter-cake to keep us going for the rest of the walk. We didn’t see any ghosts, but the sun shining through the trees was stunning. I also got to pet a couple donkeys that were very friendly and curious. In the end my pedometer said 24,850 steps! That’s better! Now I just have to loose some more weight.

Italian Sausage

2009-11-02T12:12:00.000-08:00

I’m sure I’ve mentioned how bad the food is here in the Netherlands. I didn’t think it was possible, but our company cafeteria recently reached a whole new level of awfulness. Seriously, they even serve terrible soup. So, I’ve been cooking at home more often to make sure I have leftovers to take to work.

One dish that always makes good leftovers is lasagna. While living in Chicago I learned that the best way to make lasagna is with Italian sausage rather than just hamburger. It really gives the lasagna a whole different (and yummy) dimension. But, Italian sausage is not available here and nobody seems to know what it is. Maybe it’s really an American thing or maybe the Dutch haven’t figured out Italian food yet.

Just as I thought I would have to wait until I got back to the US for good lasagna, I realized that I know how to make Italian sausage! Yes, at my last job, we occasionally developed Italian sausage seasonings and had to test them by making the actual sausage. The seasoning itself is not difficult – just a blend of salt and spices. The sausage is fresh, so it’s just a matter of blending the seasoning into ground pork. The seasoned meat does not even need to be stuffed into a casing. In fact, most of the time when I’m cooking sausage for pizza topping or lasagna, I squish it out of the casing anyway.

It took me a couple of tries to perfect the recipe, but I finally got a version that I really like.

Italian Sausage

1 ½ tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp black pepper
½ tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp. ground anise
1 tsp whole fennel seeds
½ tsp sugar
1 slice of white bread
¼ cup milk to make the bread soggy
1 lb ground pork or beef

Mix the dry ingredients together in a small dish. In a mixing bowl, soak the slice of bread with the milk. Add the ground pork and the seasoning. You can mix it by hand or with a mixer, just make sure to get the bread broken up and the seasoning evenly mixed. You can cook it in a frying pan and break it up into pieces for lasagna or pizza. You can also make patties or meatballs and fry them. Or you can push it into a meatloaf pan and bake it.

The other challenge here is cookies – I mean the ooey gooey chocolately chippy yummy American cookies. While many of the Dutch cookies are tasty (because they are made with real butter) they tend to be rather hard and dry. Of course, the main ingredient for these cookies is chocolate chips. Yes, it is nearly impossible to believe that the people who invented Dutch cocoa do not have chocolate chips, but it’s true. You can’t get them here. Fortunately, they do sell good semi-sweet chocolate bars that can be chopped up into pieces. That makes a pretty good substitute, especially if I can get Dennis to do the cutting. Baking soda has to be purchased at the drug store – a tip I found on the expat forums. My favorite cookies are Knapsack cookies, with oatmeal, rice crispies, and coconut. I know some stores sell Rice Krispies here because my coworkers know what they are, but I’ve not been able to find them in any of my neighborhood stores. And they don’t sell the sweetened coconut like we get in the US – only the dry flakes stuff for Indonesian food. So, I have my coworkers and my Mom send me the cereal and coconut for my cookies. Everyone at work loves the cookies. Some have asked for the recipe, but I don’t think anyone has succeeded at making them yet. Maybe you guys will have better luck!

Knapsack Cookies

1 cup butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. baking powder
2 cups quick cooking oats
2 cups rice crispies cereal
1 cup coconut
12 oz. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugars. Add the eggs and mix well. Combine the flour, baking soda, and baking powder and add to the sugar mixture. Stir in the remaining ingredients.

Scoop the dough by the heaping tablespoon onto un-greased cookie sheets. Bake at 350°F for 12-15 minutes and cookies look golden brown on the edges.

Social Life

2009-10-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

After we got back from the US, Dennis and I took a couple weekends just to recuperate. Then, Dennis was on call for two weekends in a row. So last weekend, we were finally ready to once again embrace our European life and get out there!

Over the year and half that we’ve been living here, we’ve noticed that the Dutch are very closed people. They are not open to new friendships and they don’t go out with new people just to hang out. They really only hang out with the friends they made in high-school and college. I had read this on the expat forums, but I did not believe it. The expat forums are full of people who just whine about everything. But, on this point I am going to agree that it’s true.

The conclusion, of course, is to meet people from other places who are living here. I had been reluctant to meet other expats because they always seem so whiny on the forums. I wanted to come to my own conclusions about living in the Netherlands without having other people color my opinions. We also wanted to meet people who do more than just go out to the bars. Dennis found an adventure group that does a lot of outdoor activities. Last weekend, they were planning a 13 mile hike so we decided to join in.

The hike started in one town and followed a river to another town. Each town has a train station so the logistics are easy. Dennis and I drove to the first town (Zutphen) and met the group in the train station. There were about 15 people total and a really nice mix of people from different countries. There were two other American ladies, two people from India, also people from Romania, Italy, Spain, Hungary, Sweden, England, and also one Dutch guy. It turned out that the Dutch guy had traveled as an expat in other countries so he has some rather un-Dutch attitudes towards friendships. Our hike was 5 hours long, so we had plenty of time to get to know everyone. By the time we got to the other town (Deventer), it was getting dark and we were TIRED! We were planning to take the train back from Deventer to Zutphen to get back to our car, but there was construction on the tracks and the trains were not running. They had busses available, but it was chaotic and hard to figure out which bus we needed to be on. We were with another lady who left her car in Zutphen as well. We had to ask a lot of questions, but we finally got on the right buses. It ended up taking an hour to get back to Zutphen and it was only a 15 minute drive. With 20-20 hind-sight, we should have taken a taxi from Deventer. Oh well, it’s all part of the adventure!

That same weekend, we had dinner with a Romanian couple that Dennis works with. They are a fairly young couple, but apparently they didn’t mind having us old fogies over. They served us traditional Romanian foods and some home-brewed Romanian wine and liquor. We had some funny conversations about politics. Dennis and I told about the corruption in Chicago politics and that some of our politicians are actually in prison now. They pointed out that the difference in Romania is that nobody goes to prison for corruption so it just continues. And because you can’t trust any branch of the government, you learn how to get around the laws rather than learning how to follow the laws. It’s a very different attitude than the US or the Netherlands.

This weekend, Dennis and I went to a horse show. We were looking on the internet for things to do and I found a link to an international horse jumping competition. Dennis surprised me saying it sounded like fun. The show was in Assen, a town about 2 hours north east of us here. We were surprised that it was held in a convention center and not just a stable with an arena. We were able to sit so close to the jumps that I was afraid of spooking the horses. I felt like they were looking right at me, but I know they were probably pretty focused on the jumps. It was fun to watch the different styles of the horses and riders. One rider was trying to make a very sharp turn and he fell off when the horse turned but he didn’t. Another rider fell off when his horse landed hard after a jump. The horse got really excited that his rider was gone and he ran around the arena and wouldn’t let anyone catch him. It was funny watching all the people trying to corner him in a round arena!

This week for work I spent three days in Belgium for a plant test at a potato chip factory. The whole trip was a disaster, but I really enjoyed the food. We went to the historic town of Veurne and walked around to square to pick a place to eat. We kind of randomly chose a restaurant and it ended up being fantastic. I’m not sure why the food is so much better only a few hours drive from Netherlands, but it really is. For one meal I had pheasant cooked in a rich browned butter sauce. Another meal was a fish stew served with bread to soak up all the creamy sauce.

On our way back home, we stopped at a McDonald’s for lunch. It is interesting to note that we did not see any McD’s in Belgium, but as soon as we got into the Netherlands there was one at every exit. I should also explain that we had breakfast at 7:00 am and didn’t get “lunch” until 4:00 pm. So, I ordered the Big Mac and was two bites into it when I noticed that it was undercooked. I walked back to the counter and got a new Big Mac. Again, two bites into it, I noticed it was also undercooked. This was not a little bit undercooked either – it was raw and bun was soaked with raw meat juice. Again, I went back to the counter. The guy was NOT happy to see me again. He started to argue with me that a little red color is OK, until I showed him the burger. His eyes practically popped out of his head and then he quickly showed the sandwich to the manager. He cooked the replacement burger himself. And that about sums up the difference between the food in Belgium and the food in the Netherlands.

On my next post, I’ll tell you about some of my adventures cooking in the Netherlands. Stay tuned!

Nova's Post

2009-10-04T00:24:00.001-07:00

Since my Human has not been writing much in her blog, I’m going to write a post for her by walking across the keyboard with my cat-paws.

We’ve been living in this funny place for a year and half. The first thing I noticed was that the stairs are super-steep and slippery. It took me months to get used to having my paws slip as I raced up the stairs for my dinner. From the family room, I have to go up 2 flights of stairs to the room where I get fed. It’s also the room with the litter box. Sometimes I’m too lazy to go up the stairs for the litter box (but never too lazy to get dinner!). The Humans get mad when I poop in their dining room – but they think it’s OK if I poop in MY dining room. I’ll never understand people!

After I mastered the stairs, I began to notice the other cats in the neighborhood. There are LOTS of cats here. One cat, a friendly yellow kitty, likes to sun bathe in the front yard. He follows the warm sunny spots like a sundial. We call him Sunshine. There’s a black kitty who looks a lot like me, but not nearly as handsome. He has a funny sounding meow. He’s quite scary when he looks into the front windows at night and makes his squeaky/freaky noises. There’s also a little brown cat that goes on walks with his dog. We see the owner with the little dog on the leash and then the brown cat just follows behind a few feet. My Humans never take me for walks in fact they don’t let me outside at all. Sometimes I poop on the floor just to remind them that cats are supposed to go outside.

I am quite a fashionable cat in the Netherlands because I still have all my claws. It’s very common here for cats to keep their claws. Declawing is considered cruel. Since most cats are allowed outside, it’s important that they keep their claws for defense. It’s fun to watch the neighborhood cats sharpening their claws on the tree in our yard. They really seem to enjoy it. I can’t sharpen on the tree, so I use the Human’s office chair instead. I was getting a really good section torn up and was already getting to the stuffing when the Human finally put duct tape over the spot. Now I have to start over in a new spot. Of course, if they just let me outside, I could do my nails on the tree… They never learn.

The cat kennel was another bit of humiliation I had to go through here. When the Humans went on vacation, they put me in the cat kennel for three weeks. I had to share a cage with two other kitties. They were not very friendly and one of them had a cold that I caught, too. The Humans were very upset by my illness because they had taken me to vet and made sure all my shots were up to date well before they took me to the kennel. To make sure they understood how sick I was, I would crawl up the back of the couch and breathe on them. Of course with a stuffy nose, my breathing sounded…well, juicy. They got the message. Now I don’t go to the kennel anymore. They ask the neighbor girl to look after me. Catharijne is a very nice girl and I talk to her a lot. I may need to learn Dutch to understand her better – I’m working on it. We did so well the first time she looked after me, that the Humans asked her to help out again when they went back to the US. This time I was a bit naughty for her and barfed up fur balls and pooped on the dining room floor for her. She still didn’t let me outside and she tattled on me!

Despite not being able to go outside I still like it here. I was never allowed outside in Chicago either, so really that is not different. My Humans were able to find the same brand of food that I like, so I didn’t even have to change food. The only thing I really miss is my buddy JJ – the Australian Shepherd who used to visit on weekends. JJ was always a lot of fun because he was terrified of me even though he was 8 times bigger than me. We played chase and ambush for hours on end. Then he got a little brother, a miniature Australian Shepherd named Dusty. Dusty was not afraid of me even though I could scratch his nose. Whenever Dusty came over, I had to hide in the basement. I bet he still thinks I’m hiding there!

So, that’s about all that’s been happening here. Eat, sleep, try to escape, repeat. If you get this message, please tell the Humans to let me outside!

Home Leave

2009-09-15T12:03:00.000-07:00

Before we went to the Netherlands, I read a book about the expat experience. Of course the book pretty much assumed that every expat is a man with a wife who organizes all the details of the home and family. But my feminist sensibilities are not the point of this blog post. The book had a hilarious chapter about “your first home leave visit.” Most expat contracts allow you to go back home once a year to visit family. This is known as “home leave.” Apparently most expats have a disastrous experience with their first home leave. It involves running around to visit everyone you are obligated to visit, buying gobs of clothes and needing to buy a new suitcase to carry it back, and feeling guilty about not visiting the rest of the family. Check. I can now say that I am a pretty typical expat in this regard. Even after reading the warnings and vowing not to make the same mistakes, we made them all. I guess some things you just have to learn the hard way.

As we made our arrangements to go back to the US, we knew we had to make some hard decisions about the house. We had been renting the front office to a neighbor who was working from home with 3 young children. But he decided to take advantage of the bad economy by building an addition on his garage. The guy who was using the bedroom like an extended stay hotel room when he was on business trips to Chicago also took advantage of the real estate market to buy a condo. And because everything happens in threes, the neighbors who were helping to take care of the house are expecting a baby soon. With a new baby, they won’t have time to pick up our mail and mow the lawn. We know that an empty house is not good for the house or for the neighborhood. We spent a long time debating between selling and renting the house. In the end we decided to rent it out with the help of a management company, but it was an agonizing decision.

When we arrived at our Chicago house, we had a welcome dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant with our neighbors. Day 1, we started doing all the outside yard work – trimming bushes, scrubbing the porch rails, and cleaning out gutters. So many of our neighbors stopped by to say hello that it was actually hard to get any work done. It just reminded me how much I liked living there. Day 2 was the dentist, eye doctor and of course packing the rest of our junk into boxes. Day 3 was renting the moving truck and moving everything to the storage unit. Good thing we had the neighbor kids to help with the heavy lifting – they worked from 8 in the morning to 9 that night. We spent Day 4 trying to figure out what to do with the rest of the junk that wouldn’t fit in the storage unit.

Day 5 we left Chicago for Minnesota. Flying Southwest Airline was a pleasure, but after all the work we had done, I think any airline would have seemed nice. The guilt portion of the trip occurred in the Twin Cities. We have quite a few friends and family there, but we flew it around noon on Thursday and still had a 4 hour drive to Dennis’ home town. So we didn’t stop – sorry everyone there just wasn’t enough time! In southwest Minnesota I managed to go shopping in Sioux Falls with my sister and mother-in-law, we went to a baptism for the twins of Dennis’ cousin, had a great steak dinner, got my hair highlighted, and helped to bail hay on the farm. We picked fresh apples, had homegrown tomatoes and had a fun BBQ with the family. We even visited the End of the Line Museum in Curry. Too bad we had to go back to Chicago a day early to finish the rest of the stuff for the house. Day 11 was traveling back to Chicago. With all the driving and the flying, it takes about 9 hours to make the trip. We did manage to see our old house in Minnesota before we went to the airport.
Back in Chicago, we were pleased to see that the kids had done the painting on the front porch and patio as arranged. They did a really nice job, too. But we still had lots to do – installing a new front door handle (old one was rusting), throwing away tons of trash, cleaning carpets, changing furnace filters, and fixing the leaky condenser pipe on the air conditioner. Image saving all of the home maintenance repairs for 18 months and trying to get them all done in less than a week. Yes, it’s a nightmare.

On Friday night, we had dinner reservations at our favorite Italian restaurant at 8:00. After stopping at 2 shoe stores, we finally sat down at 8:15. We had a relaxing dinner for our last night in Chicago. Saturday morning, Dennis ran the last of the stuff to the storage unit (vacuum cleaner and other cleaning stuff) and dropped off the old paint, pesticide and weed killer at the toxic waste facility. He also wanted to stop at the bike store to do a bit more shopping, but he had to be back home by 12:15 so he could shower before leaving for the airport. I went to Wal-Mart to buy the extra suitcase for all the junk we bought. At 12:15, Dennis made it home. Our newest neighbor dropped by to see the power tools that Dennis was trying to sell. A very quick transaction resulted in the neighbor taking most of the large tools and a lawn mower. We left feeling a little bit better about the last remaining things that have to be sold.

After two weeks in the US, we finally were heading back home. Yes, home is where the cat is. A day of jet-lag and it’s back to work. Actually work feels a bit more relaxing than “vacation” now. Maybe next year we will go to Hawaii instead! That was the advice in the expat book, too.

Playing Hooky from Work

2009-08-05T11:49:00.001-07:00

Numbered way-point sign on the bike path - shows all the connecting paths. No need to carry your own map, just follow the signs.

Here is the bike path (busy today) and the guy with the fashionable yellow pants.

See the cows with the white stripe in the middle?

This is a common style of barn here. The roof can move up and down on the big corner poles.

The hay had been cut was getting ready to be baled.

Old ladies with HUGE shoulder pads - the traditional dress of the Netherlands.

I was sitting outside at lunch today and when we had to back to work, everyone groaned. It was about 80 degrees and sunny, not very humid and just a light breeze blowing. It was great for being outside playing, but not so great for being in the office with no air conditioning. As we walked back to our building, I realized that I had no meetings planned for the afternoon. Nada, none, zero. If I was ever going to take an afternoon off, this was the one!

I sent my boss an email and let my colleagues know that I was leaving. Oh yeah, they were jealous. I zipped home and changed into my biking clothes. I even remembered to grab the camera as I left. Oh and I called Dennis to make sure he was also jealous.

I rode south along the freeway for a while and then turned off onto the farm roads. You’ve heard the saying “make hay while the sun shines” and today the sun was shining. The farmers were out making hay. The cows were out enjoying the sun, too. I even got a picture of the funny cows with the white stripe in the middle.

I got on a bike path along the lake and sat for a while having a snack and watching the people going by. This was a very popular path for a Wednesday afternoon. The lake was busy with sailboats and water skiers. I saw a guy with yellow pants and I wondered which store in the Netherlands sells these goofy pants – I see yellow, orange, green and even pink pants ON MEN. With local fashion being that well-developed, obviously I fit in pretty well.

My next stop was the little town of Spakenburg which is known for being very traditional. We’ve ridden through on Sunday and really everything was closed even the cafes. I was excited to see it when things were open. Normally when we ride, we follow the numbered bike paths. At every way-point, they give you a map with all the connecting routes. It’s really a fantastic network and we are getting super-spoiled. The only problem I’ve had with this system is in towns where the route makes several turns and they are not always well-marked. Today was even worse than normal because Spakenburg was having their annual festival. Only a very traditional town would have a festival on a Wednesday – and it was only running until 5:30. That’s so very Dutch! So, the town was crowded with booths and tourists and I ended up walking my bike. I also ended up quite lost. At least I managed to get a good picture of the old ladies wearing their traditional costumes. Apparently the costume involves brightly colored football shoulder pads. These ladies make those 1980’s shoulder pads look subtle!

I finally found my way out of town and thoroughly enjoyed the tailwind on the way home. I’m very lucky to live in such a beautiful place AND have more than 5 weeks of vacation so I can enjoy days like today.

Disconnected

2009-07-30T12:26:00.000-07:00

Most of the time I feel pretty connected to the people back home. We have so much technology available with Facebook, blogs, and email that I don’t realize how much I am missing. Today, I was surfing some blogs connected to MJ the Ironman. I clicked on Run Bubba Run, not even knowing who he is. His post was about a triathlete friend of his named Michelle who died from cancer. Even though I don’t know who Bubba is, I knew immediately who he was talking about.

I googled Michelle Chaput and found her obituary from June. I was sad that it took me over a month to find out that she died. Michelle was one of my first triathlon friends. She had started the Human Racers Triathlon team about the same time that I started racing.

The team was in Orland Park, quite a drive from Downers Grove – but I went for the weekly runs and Sunday morning bike rides on the Old Plank Trail. The bike rides were great fun. Dennis was always a little bit shocked and awed when Michelle passed him on the rides when he was going all out! Michelle taught us tons about riding and triathlons.

One year, Michelle had signed up for her first iron-distance race in the fall. You always have to sign up a year in advance for the long races. That winter, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. Knowing that she couldn’t do the whole race after going through all the cancer treatments, she called the organizers and asked to change her registration to a team instead of individual entry. She asked a couple of friends to do the 2.4 mile swim and 26.2 mile run and she would train for the 112 mile bike ride. I got involved shortly before the race when one of her friends dropped out. I stepped in to do the swim. It was the closest I’ve been to an ironman and I was glad it was over after the swim! Most of all, it was inspiring to watch Michelle race after the mastectomy, chemo, and radiation. I can’t imagine where she found the energy to train!

Dennis and I gradually drifted away from the Human Racers team as we found training partners closer to home. We still ran into the old gang at some of the local races and I had heard that Michelle’s cancer had come back. But I hadn’t heard that it was back for a third round or that it had spread. She was only 41. Even though we had lost touch, she left a lasting impression on me. I’m sad about her death and I’m also sad to realize how disconnected I’ve become.

Delft

2009-07-19T12:16:00.000-07:00

New Church

Old Church - see how it leans?

One of the more creapy tomb stones on the church floor.

The weather this weekend was pretty yucky for biking or kayaking so Dennis and I decided to do some sightseeing. We took the train to Delft – about an hour and half ride from here. Delft is close to Den Hague and is known for the blue and white pottery. I had also heard that it’s just a really cute city center and nice for a day-trip.

Armed with our guide book, we arrived in town in time for lunch. We stopped at the recommended pannekoeken restaurant and sat down next to the Red Hat ladies. Apparently the Red Hat craziness extends beyond the US borders because this was definitely a Dutch-speaking group. For those who are unfamiliar, Red Hat is a club for women who are over age 50. The group is based on a poem about a woman who stopped caring what other people would think and said she would wear a red hat with a purple dress if she wanted to. So, the Red Hat ladies all wear purple clothes and red hats – they are unmistakable.

After lunch, we visited the Old Church and the New Church. The New Church is still very old by our standards, but it houses the tombs of the Dutch royal family – the House of Orange and Nassau. You may not have noticed, but orange is the unofficial color of the Netherlands even though their flag is red white and blue. In the Tour de France, the Rabobank team wears orange uniforms. Dutch people always recognize each other when they are traveling because they are the only people in the world who think orange pants are cool (and can actually buy them at a store!). Anyway, the church had a pretty nice display showing the history of the royal family.

The Old Church was cool, too. The tower of the church has a 2 meter lean which you can see in the picture above. I also found the tomb of Anton van Leeuwenhoek. Two points for anyone who actually knows the historical significance of this guy… Some of the tomb stones in the churches were pretty cool. Apparently, burying people in the floor of the church went out of style during the plague. The clergy realized that the risk of catching the plague might keep people away from church.

There was also a nice antique market going on. We snooped around quite a bit and found a great set of Delft vases at a really unusual booth. When we walked up there was a Dutch lady teasing the sales guy about his accent. To demonstrate, he spoke in English – Texan English – to show her what it sounds like. I might add here that it was Texan English with a bit of a gay lisp. The other guy in the booth was actually Dutch. Both of them were very friendly and gave us lots of tips on looking for Delft pottery and also on sightseeing in the Netherlands. I’m sure the Netherlands is more welcoming of their lifestyle than anywhere in Texas. It ended up that these guys had the nicest vases and the best prices in town. We got a set of two vases and a matching urn for 65 euros. I’m sure they are not hand-painted, but at least they aren’t from China.

Summer in the Netherlands

2009-07-11T08:16:00.000-07:00

Since getting home from Australia and Singapore, I've been sick twice (a cold from the airplane home and then food poisoning from who-knows-what). I've also been crazy-busy at work and being sick didn't help any. It also doesn't help when it's gorgeous outside - sunny and beautiful - and it's yucky hot inside with no air-conditioning. Last year, summer was so short-lived that we're trying to appreciate it as much as possible this year. So far, we've been pretty lucky and it's been especially nice on the weekends.

Last weekend, Dennis and I took the kayaks out on the Vecht River (see pictures above). A couple weeks before, we had looked for the kayak dock that was supposed to be near the Hemelje Lock, but we couldn't find it. I was out on a bike ride in the area and decided to look again. Lo and behold, the dock was right where it was supposed to be and exactly where we had looked. But from the car, you couldn't see the dock down the steep river bank. It's hard to find a good place to get the kayaks in the water because most of the land along the river is private property. But we finally found the right spot.

The Vecht river doesn't have any current to speak of. It sort of flows south, except after a rain when it goes north. So, it's easy to paddle out and back and not have to worry about which direction you go. We had a really warm day for paddling and there were lots of boats and kids playing in the water. I am not so sure the water is clean enough for swimming, but that doesn't seem to stop the kids. There are a lot of house-boats along the river and I'm pretty sure they dump their sewage into the water. It was really cool to see the house boats and pretty gardens along the river. The hydrangeas are in bloom and they thrive in this climate. I'm amazed at the colors of the hydrangeas - everything from dark pink to baby blue to snow white.

This weekend is a little cooler - barely 70 degrees, but the sun is still out. It's perfect biking weather. We got out for a ride today and went past a bunch of dairy farms. The cows always look so happy when they can relax on the cool grass with the sun on their backs. We keep saying that we should take the time to see the rest of Europe while we're here, but honestly the Netherlands is so beautiful I don't want to miss it.

I did manage to see a bit of Germany last week. I had a training class in Solingen, a small town outside of Dusseldorf. It's only a two-hour drive away. It was my first time driving in Germany and I didn't think too much about it until I noticed some cars going super fast. Yes, I was driving on the autobahn! Too bad I drive like a grandmother on Sunday. I had to be careful when I was passing slower vehicles because the cars would come up so fast behind me. Most of the really fast drivers were in BMWs, Porches, and Ferraris. The Toyota Rav4 is just not made to go much over 70mph.

Maybe as we get closer to fall, we'll do some more sightseeing outside of the Netherlands. We are still planning to get to Paris, but we can do that when it's cold. We are also planning to get back to the US this fall. We just need a rainy day so we can make some plans.

Australia

2009-06-18T11:08:00.000-07:00

The last couple of weeks I’ve been on a business trip to Australia and Singapore. The flight to Sydney was pretty grueling. Its 12 hours from Amsterdam to Singapore. I had to kill 3 hours in the Singapore airport and then another 8 hours on to Sydney. With an 8 hour time difference, it’s a recipe for serious jetlag. I arrived on Saturday night and fell asleep quickly. But on Sunday, I didn’t have any energy and my stomach was feeling rebellious.

I spent Sunday in my hotel room reading tourist brochures. The hotel was in a suburb and not really close to any of the sight anyway. And it was raining. Its fall in Australia, but the temperatures were still pretty nice (high 60’s/low 70’s).

Monday through Thursday was spent working – I was helping with an internal training course. On Friday, I played hooky from work. I changed to a hotel in the downtown area very close to the Opera House. Armed with my list of things I wanted to do, I hit the town.

I had planned to take a harbor cruise, but when I looked at the schedule, I decided that a whale watching tour would be more fun. Dennis doesn’t like boats very much so whale watching is an activity best done on my own. We actually saw quite a few whales. They were humpback whales on their annual migration. Even more fun than the whales were the dolphins that played around the boat racing and surfing in the wake. Who can resist such playful creatures?

After the tour, I went to dinner with a couple of people from work. We went to a seafood restaurant in the harbor with a view of the Opera House. There was a light show going on that involved projecting images on the building. It was really spectacular -but hard to photograph.

On Saturday, I took the hop-on / hop-off bus tour of Sydney. These kinds of tours are hokey, but if you are short on time, they are a good way to see the main sights and learn a little bit about the city. I hopped off at Darling Harbor and went to Wildlife World. This is a new exhibit right next to the famous Sydney Aquarium. I love the fishies, but I really wanted to see Koala Bears! Wildlife World is not a regular zoo because its all indoors. They have all the creepy crawly poisonous spiders and snakes as well as the typical Australian cuties. The Koala exhibit is on the roof and I arrived just in time for the presentation. As soon as the zoo-keeper entered the enclosure, one of the little koala bears climbed down from his tree and walked around the fence line. He was super-cute. I also saw the kangaroos, lots of different birds, and wombats. I don’t think I had ever seen a wombat before. They are kind of like badgers in size and shape. Funny looking critters!

My other priority in Australia was to buy opals. I’ve always liked opals and I have a pair of opal earrings that I love from the opal mine in Idaho. I have mostly given up on buying jewelry because I don’t want to finance the conflicts in Africa. Since almost all of the world’s opals come from Australia, they are pretty much conflict-free. I managed to find a nice pair of earrings that weren’t too expensive. I also found a kangaroo charm for my charm-bracelet.

On Sunday, we headed to Singapore for the next training session. Singapore is HOT and HUMID. On Monday night we went out for a group dinner. Inexplicably, it was a Spanish restaurant and we had to sit outside in the courtyard where there was no hope of a breeze. I was OK at the beginning of the meal, but by the end I was melting. The food was just as yucky as you would expect from Spanish food in Asia. The next night we went out for Chili Crab – the national dish of Singapore. Mercifully, we sat inside in the air conditioning. It was much better. And Chili Crab is one of my favorites.

By Thursday, I was ready to get home. The flight from Singapore to Amsterdam leaves at midnight. I was glad that my colleague told me that you can pay for ½ a night in the hotel and check out at 8:00 pm. I was able to walk around Singapore a little bit, have dinner, and then shower in the hotel before my flight. On the plane, I fell asleep before take-off, woke up long enough to recline the seat and slept for 8 hours straight. The jetlag coming home was not nearly so bad in part because I was so happy to be back home!

Long Holiday Weekend

2009-05-24T05:43:00.001-07:00

Thursday was a holiday here in the Netherlands (Ascension Day) and Dennis also had Friday off. Naturally he didn't realize he had a four day weekend until Tuesday so we didn't have time to plan anything special. But I was able to take Friday off and the weather has been fantastic! Sorry, no pictures for this post. If you want to see how beautiful it is, you'll just have to visit!

On Thursday, we took a long bike ride (46 miles). We went on one of our regular routes around Flevoland - more of training ride than a site-seeing ride. On Friday, the weather was a bit cooler with a chance of rain. We headed to Arnhem to see the Hoge Veluwe National Park. I had been there with Mom and Dad and realized that this was a place that needed some more exploration. Dennis and I hiked from the park entrance to the art museum (which was closed the day I was there with Mom and Dad). It was about an hour walk through the forest. The birds were singing and the pine trees smelled amazing! The art museum was established by a wealthy family who collected paintings from French and Dutch artists and then donated everything, including the park land to the Dutch government. It was a really nice collection of Van Gogh and other art from that period. While we were walking through the museum, we noticed that it was suddenly very crowded. We heard some strange noise and finally realized that it was pouring rain outside! There was even thunder. After the thunderstorm, we went outside again to see the outdoor sculpture garden. The sculptures were placed at random through the forest which made for an interesting walk. Every time the wind blew, the water would fall from the trees. But the sun was out and everything had that fresh-rain feel to it. We hiked back to the car without encountering any more rain.

On Sautrday, we took the kayaks out on one of the nearby lakes. We had been kayaking in the area before, but hadn't explored the lake yet. We shared the water with everything from sailboats to yachts. There were some islands with campgrounds so people had parked their boats and had their tents set up on the shore. With the long weekend and the warm weather, it was pretty busy on the lake. Dennis and I were finished by about 2:00. As we pulled the boats out of the water, we noticed the clouds coming over. The rest of the day was cloudy, so I guess we were super-lucky!

This morning, we took another bike ride. Our goal was sight-seeing this time. We wanted to find a place to put the kayaks into the Vecht river. So, we planned our bike ride along the Vecht. This is a very scenic area to bike around. We saw hoardes of other bikers. We stopped in a historic town with a little manually operated drawbridge. The operator actually had to open and close the traffic gates himself. He said good morning to us both times that we stopped for his bridge. There were also a few castles along this route. The weather was sunny and mid-seventies and we were really enjoying just being outside. We rode for about 37 miles, but it took a long time. We had to stop and look at a lot of things along the way. Some of the bike paths were pretty narrow and hard to get a lot of speed. But I think we found a couple places to put the kayaks in and park the car, so it was a successful trip.

Now I'm trying to get packed for my trip to Asia. I am leaving on the 29th for Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore to give a training class on some new ingredients that my company is launching. I'll be gone for 2 weeks. I've been out shopping for clothes the last couple weekends to make sure I have summery clothes for the hot weather in Singapore. Australia should be similar to the temps we are having here, although it will be fall instead of spring. New Zealand will be difficult because it's already getting pretty cold. How do you pack for 3 different climates in one suitcase? So far, my answer is lots of layers. As long as it all fits in the bag!

My other dilemna is what to wear on the plane. My first travel leg is from here to Australia with a stopover in Singapore. It's like 27 hours of travel. I'm not sure any clothes are comfortable after 27 hours on a plane. I'm considering bringing some sweats to change into for night-time. I'm kind of dreading the flight, but I'm really looking forward to seeing Australia and New Zealand! I'll try to post while I'm traveling so we can keep up to date.

Queen's Day

2009-05-17T11:15:00.000-07:00

All of us in the silly orange hats they were giving away at the train station.

Party boats were popular

Flea Market example

Loads of party boats

These girls were very festive dancing in their orange dresses

Queen's Day in Amsterdam:

Queen’s Day is huge holiday in the Netherlands. Officially, it is the celebration of the Queen’s birthday. The first Queen’s birthday celebration was on August 31 for Wilhelmina. It was moved to April 30 for Queen Juliana. The current Queen, Beatrix, whose birthday is January 31, wisely choose to continue with the celebration on April 30. It is said that the weather on Queen’s Day is always beautiful. This year was no different.

While every town has Queen’s Day celebrations, Amsterdam is where the real party is. We rode the train into Amsterdam around 10:00 am thinking we would be on the early side of the party. We were wrong. The train station was a mad-house. As we left the station, there was a guy handing out bright orange hats. Orange is the official color of the Netherlands, taken from the name of the royal family, the House of Orange, even though the flag is red, white, and blue. We put on the orange hats just to keep in the spirit of things.

Our goal was to walk to Vondel Park at the far end of Amsterdam near the Rijksmuseum. We figured we would sit and have lunch quietly in the park before we worked our way back to the train station. Everything went according to plan except for the park not being quiet! I think everyone had my same idea.

The main feature of Queen’s Day is that it is a free market or a huge flea market. Anyone can sell anything on the streets that day. It’s like a city-wide garage sale. There were some large booths selling clothes and souvenir junk, but mostly there were people selling their used household goods. Some kids were out selling pop and home-made treats, too. We sampled the poffertjes or mini-pancakes slathered with butter and powdered sugar – yum!

Apparently one of the best ways to enjoy Queen’s Day is to be on a boat. The canals were choked with party boats full of people. We stood on the bridges and watched as the boats went by. With all the beer being consumed, there was the obvious problem of not having bathrooms on these boats. We laughed as we watched one guy pee into a bottle. He was trying to be subtle about it turning his back away from the other people on the boat, but I’m pretty sure about 1000 other people were watching!

Queen’s Day was definitely one of the highlights of my parents’ visit. It was something you have to experience to believe. It was sad to note that on this very festive holiday, someone tried to kill the Queen. It happened in Apeldoorn, not in Amsterdam. Some crazy guy decided to drive his car into the back of the bus carrying the Queen. He actually missed hitting the bus, but ended up killing 8 people and himself.

Exploring Near and Far

2009-05-11T12:24:00.000-07:00

Old building in Brugge

Dad in the sidewalk cafe.

Dad in the kayak.

Boats near Naarden Vesting.

Baby lamb -in Dutch it's a lammetje.

Heron near Naarden Vesting.

On Saturday, we decided to drive to Brugge Belgium for the day. Belgium is known for chocolate, beer, and lace. We made sure to hit every one. We arrived in town in time for lunch after a 3 hour drive. Lunch in Belgium is a true joy and we found a tiny restaurant with a great lunch special.

With full and happy tummies, we made our way to the lace museum. We looked at the displays of traditional hand-made lace and some machine-made samples. Then we walked through the live demonstration area. There were several rooms full of people making lace. One room had the old ladies like you would expect. Another room had middle aged women taking lace-making lessons. The third room had young girls – they were the fastest! To make the lace, they have at least 20 spools of thread that they knot in a kind of complex braiding motion. As they finish each knot, they use a straight pin to hold it in place while they make the next knot. While they work it looks like a forest of pins and a tangle of threads but somehow it turns into beautiful patterns with flowers, windmills, and peacocks. I’m sure Dennis was thrilled by this museum.

We took a canal tour and learned a little bit about the city. One building was dated 1675. Another building housed retired lace workers. But after we saw all the old ladies at the lace museum, we seriously doubted that they ever retired. During the canal tour, they pointed out a couple of places that have beer-making tours. Since Mom and Dad don’t like beer, they partook in another local past-time – sitting in a sidewalk café and watching the people go by – while Dennis and I took the brewery tour. After the beer, we bought chocolate to take home and then found a restaurant for dinner. We looked for a place that serves mussels, another Belgian specialty. We figured our little tour covered all the best things in Belgium.

After a really long drive home (they have road construction here, too), we decided to do nothing on Sunday. It was pretty rainy in the morning, but the clouds cleared away in the afternoon. Dad wanted to test-drive the kayaks, so we took them over to Naarden Vesting. Dad and Dennis paddled around while Mom and I walked. We enjoyed looking at all the baby lambs and nesting birds. It was a very relaxing Sunday and typical of what Dennis and I normally do on Sundays.

Dutch Tulips

2009-05-07T10:37:00.001-07:00

Fields of tulips.

Inside the flower garden.

One of the more popular designs.

Mom and me.

In the sun, some of the flowers glowed with color.

The trees were also in bloom.

I have not been posting lately because I’ve been busy running around the Netherlands with my parents. Mom and Dad timed their visit for the spring so they could see the tulips. April also seems to have the best weather – not too warm and not too wet. Since my parents lived in France for a while, they have seen most of Europe. Even though they were in Europe more than 40 years ago, the historic sites really don’t change that much. So we focused our site seeing on the country-side, smaller towns, and lesser known museums. As usual, I will have to break up the trip into smaller portions, so keep checking for more posts.

The first full day of their visit, the weather was sunny and perfect for a trip to the tulip gardens. The Keukenhof is a world famous garden featuring tulips and other bulb-flowers. It’s only open for two months of the year and the tulips are only blooming for a couple of weeks. It can be very crowded (mostly with Japanese tourists) on the weekends, but it’s OK in the mornings and on weekdays. The garden is a 45 minute drive from our house. It’s closer to the ocean and tends to be a little bit cooler. For Mom and Dad from Arizona, it was quite COLD!

As we drove up to the park, we saw some of the farm fields where they grow the bulbs. The farm fields are like very colorful corn fields. It’s strange to see. The park itself is divided into smaller plots that are planted by different garden companies. It’s a way for the companies to really show off. Some of them get really creative with the layout. Others just rely on the flowers themselves. We took tons of pictures, but we were not able to photograph the smell.

I do have to make one complaint about the tulip garden. They charge a 13.50 euro admission charge and then they have the audacity to charge an additional 50 cents to use the bathroom! It's very Dutch to charge for the bathroom and I understand it in some places (like the train station, for example). But I was really annoyed to pay for the bathroom after we had paid admission to the park. The saying, "They get you coming and going," is especially true here!

Kayaking

2009-04-05T13:15:00.000-07:00

Heron on the shore, killer swan on the water.

Dennis loading the kayaks on the car - not a job for short people!

Homes along the canal.

Dennis on the canal near our house.

After a week of absolutely gorgeous weather during which Dennis and I were working way too hard, we had a disappointing weekend that was cool and cloudy. But at least it wasn’t raining and at least we weren’t working. Phew!
On Saturday, we decided it was nice enough to go kayaking even though the sun was not scheduled to make an appearance. Dennis got the kayaks on the car – a process that only takes about 10 minutes. We drove over to the boat launch at Naarden Vesting, just a few minutes away. We explored around the vesting and then paddled back into Bussum. We were able to paddle just a block away from our house. It’s too bad that there’s no way to get the kayaks into the water that close to the house. It was cool to see the nesting birds up close. One swan came swimming out to us. As it came closer, I realized that it was being pretty aggressive and was coming right towards my boat. I figured I could beat it with the paddle if it attacked, but it finally backed off as I past the nest it was guarding.
We paddled for about 2 hours and realized that we don’t’ go very fast. Dennis ran the numbers on the GPS and figured we travel about 3 miles per hour. That’s about the same as walking – slowly.
We left the boats on the car Saturday night, but decided to go biking on Sunday morning. We rode about 30 miles and had a great time. It was cloudy and foggy most of the ride, but as we got back to the house, the sun came out. We decided to get some lunch and then take the kayaks out.
We put the kayaks in at the same place in Naarden Vesting, but this time we paddled down another canal. First, we went past the bird sanctuary where a pack of swans was hanging out. There was also a heron on the shore. After that, the canal ran along side a bike trail and between farm fields. It was not very picturesque, but we were able to see tons of people walking, running, roller blading, and biking along the path. It was very soothing and relaxing to paddle slowly in the sunshine. After two days of paddling though, arms were starting to feel like lead.
When we got back from kayaking, Dennis and I went out to dinner with one of my co-workers here from the US. We walked around Bussum a little bit before heading to the restaurant. There was a carnival in town and it looked like all the little carnivals they have in the US. Even the signs were all in English. We also walked by a restaurant that looked like they were having a wedding party. There was a party tent set up outside the place and there were dozens of people dancing and partying. That’s a lot of activity in Bussum on a Sunday evening!
When I go to work tomorrow, I’m sure I’ll be happy to sit at my desk and get some paperwork done. With all the paddling and biking, I’m exhausted. To me, that’s a good weekend.

Spring is Sprung

2009-03-29T09:10:00.000-07:00

April 1 is the beginning of the warm season here in the Netherlands. We changed to Daylight Savings Time this weekend. The daffodils are in full bloom. And April 1 is when the seasonal businesses like kayak shops start having extended hours and are open on Sunday. At least that’s how it is at the kayak shop we visited on Saturday. We were trying to beat the rush by shopping a week before they extend their hours.

We did our grocery shopping early on Saturday so we’d have plenty of time for the kayak shopping. Of course, the weather was nasty – cold, rainy, and windy. But the forecast for the week was looking good, so decided to buy the kayaks no matter what the weather. We got to the kayak shop about a ½ hour drive to a small town on the other side of Amsterdam. We found a friendly store employee and he really helped us pick out the best kayaks for what we want to do. We had been looking at the brand-new one-person kayaks and had it narrowed down to a couple. But we wanted to make sure that we got the right size boats for each of us. Rather than let us buy the new boats, the guy brought us outside to look at the used kayaks. He had one that was perfect for Dennis. I tried a couple of them before I found what I liked. Since they are molded plastic, it really doesn’t matter that they are used. They don’t wear out. The guy also helped us with paddles, life jackets, a dry-bag, and all the junk to secure the boats on top of the car. They even helped us put the kayak carriers on the car! As we were doing that, the sun miraculously came out.

I asked the guy if we could take the boats out from their dock for a test drive before we took them home. He agreed and we quickly ripped the tags off the life jackets and got ready. We got out on the water without tipping over or sinking and we happily paddled for about an hour before heading back. It was too bad that we forgot the camera. But stay tuned because we’ll be sure to get some pictures next time!

We got the boats loaded onto the car with a lot of advice and help from the store guy. I was surprised that driving with two boats on top of the car was no problem. I’m sure the gas mileage sucked, but the car handled just fine. I just have to remember to go into any parking ramps with the boats on top! At home, Dennis rigged up a way to hang them from the ceiling of the shed. We now have 5 bikes, 2 kayaks, a work bench, and very large chest freezer in the shed. Maybe I should take a picture of that!

On Sunday, we woke up with sore shoulders so we decided to go for a bike ride. It was sunny, but only about 45 degrees and a little windy. We dressed warm and headed out. Our first order of business was to find a good put-in for the kayaks where we would also be able to park the car. We located a good spot along the Naarden vesting. This should be ideal because it connects to a couple of other large canals so we can really go far if we want. We also rode our bikes along the Vecht river and Spiegelplas lake and found a couple more put-ins. Can you tell that I’m totally excited about the kayaks?

After the bike ride, we had lunch and warmed up a bit. The sunshine was still holding. I tore Dennis away from his computer and reminded him that we can’t waste any sunshine in this country. So, we went for a walk in the heather. When it’s cold and sunny, the heather is more popular than the forest. The heather areas are grazing land for cattle and they have lots of walking paths through them. There are small rolling hills with heather plants growing low to the ground. With few trees, you can really soak up the sun. About the time we finished walking, the clouds came over. It’s still dry and weather forecast for the week looks totally awesome. They are predicting 60 degrees by Wednesday and no rain for the whole week. With the time change, we should be able to get the bikes and the boats out during the week. I’m just not sure how I’m going to get Dennis away from work on time so we can go out and play.

One of Those Days

2009-03-25T12:52:00.000-07:00

We all have bad days every now and then. Monday was one of those days for me. Dennis and I both ended up working way too much over the weekend, so I wasn’t very happy about going to work anyway. I was planning to make breakfast cereal on the extruder in the pilot plant and I wanted to get an early start but that was not to happen. I procrastinated a few minutes at home watching CNN and then it took me a few minutes extra to get all the groceries loaded into my bike bags. I had done some grocery shopping for the lab over the weekend and had to haul the stuff to work.

So, I got to work schlepping the groceries and went to put them into the fridge in the lab. But the fridge was warm. WTF?! So, I found one of the techs and let her know that the fridge was on the fritz. We walked back to the lab and she just looked at it for a few seconds. Then, she picks up a big plug from the counter and says, “Isn’t this the plug for that fridge?” She plugged it back in and it immediately started running. OK, so I probably should have figured that out by myself, but who unplugged the fridge? It turned out that the electricians had gone through the labs on Friday evening to do a safety check and they unplugged everything. Maybe they wanted to save some energy, maybe they thought it was a solar powered fridge, or maybe – just maybe- they really are that dumb.

Next, I went to the pilot plant to see about starting the cereal project. The guy who runs the pilot plant told me that a customer was stopping by at 11:00 and he wanted me involved in the meeting. OK, so I’ll just start the cereal after lunch. I rescheduled with the people who were going to help me with the extrusion and got ready to meet the customer.

Naturally, the customer was late and we didn’t get started until 11:30. With no conference rooms available, they decided to meet in my office. They had to set up an overhead projector and point it to the wall. We used a couple of books to boost the picture over the tear in the wallpaper. Yeah, my office is a high-class joint! Finally, at 1:00, they took the customer to the cafeteria for lunch. I had no time for lunch because I still had cereal to make!

Back in the pilot plant, I finally got to make that cereal. Everything went pretty well except that it took too long. We finished about 5:00 and still had to clean up the huge mess. The cereal was the shape of Kix so the little round balls bounced and rolled all over the floor despite our attempts to keep them under control. Cleaning the extruder is usually pretty easy, but today there was a bunch of gunk burned on to the screw. I spent an extra half hour scrubbing it with a wire brush. I found out later that the people who used the extruder last had jammed it and then didn’t get it completely clean. Yuck!

I left work at about 6:00. It wasn’t raining, but it was pretty cold and windy, a nice head-wind for my bike-ride home. I am really ready for some nice spring weather.

Dutch Dental Care

2009-03-11T12:55:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's taken a while to post this blog. I had been having some computer troubles at work for the last few weeks and they finally fixed it by rebuilding my user profile. Of course, that reset all my preferences and deleted the password for getting on our wireless network at home. Naturally I noticed this detail several hours after Dennis left for a four day company ski trip. He's back now and he gave me the password so I'm back on-line.

Here's the new post:

We’ve heard all the jokes about British people with bad teeth. When I got to the Netherlands I realized the jokes are true for Dutch people as well. Apparently the teeth-whitening trend has not made it across the Atlantic. What really surprised me was that even TV and news people had yellow teeth. Well, now I know why.

Yes, I went to the dentist on Monday. It had been nearly a year since my last cleaning and I don’t want to let my teeth get all European. People complain here about how difficult it is to find a dentist that takes new patients. I guess I was lucky that the first one I called had room for me. Better yet, the office is right on the corner of my street, only half a block away.

My appointment was at 8:30. I was on-time, which is easy when you only have to walk half a block. I sat in the waiting room for about a minute. They called me in and asked the normal questions about how often I brush and floss. I got some x-rays done. She blew air on my teeth and poked around a little bit. Then she said, “OK, now we’ll do some cleaning.” She scraped one tooth and polished about four more. Then she used an evil high-powered water pick that sounded like a drill around several other teeth. Even though I flossed just 10 minutes before my appointment, she flossed my teeth again. “Here’s the water. You can rinse and make your next appointment at the front desk. See you in six months”
I checked my watch – 8:45. I touched my teeth with my tongue and felt the plaque still stuck way in back where the toothbrush can’t reach. I asked around at work to find out if this kind of dental care is normal. Everyone agreed that 15 minutes is the standard appointment length. If the dentist thinks you need extra cleaning, they set up a separate appointment for you. I think I’ll just wait until I’m back in the US again and have my teeth cleaned properly.

kayak shopping and hiking

2009-03-01T06:51:00.001-08:00

Little flowers are starting to bloom.

This windmill was one of the points of interest on our hike. These are the kind of windmills they use to pump the water up and out of the fields.

You can see that the sheep are in a soggy field. We were standing on top of a dyke with a bigger canal behind us. The water level of the big canal was about 10 feet higher than this farm field.

Dennis and I are thinking about getting a kayak. With so much water around, it would be fun to explore by kayak. I did a search on the internet and found a kayak store about 30 minutes drive from here. It’s just on the other side of Amsterdam. Dennis and I drove over there on Saturday just to see what they have. This store was HUGE! We found a very helpful salesman who showed us the different types of kayaks they have and told us about all the other junk you need to buy. We are still trying to decide if we want two single kayaks or one double kayak. We are checking with coworkers to see if we find a used one for sale. What we buy might depend on what’s available. We also have to figure out how to carry a kayak on the car. The Toyota RAV4 is big enough to handle whatever we buy, but it doesn’t have a rack on top. Dennis will have to get that sorted out before we buy anything!

While we were up north for our kayak shopping, we decided to do a hike nearby. The Dutch equivalent of AAA publishes walking routes for all over the Netherlands. There is a book with descriptions of the walks and then a one page map for each hike giving all of the details including where to park. We had done two of the hikes already and found the routes to be nice and the maps accurate. Well, for this trip, we chose a 9 km walk around a polder (reclaimed land with lots of small canals). Since we did a 9km walk last weekend, we figured it would be no problem – a couple hours walking.

We got to our hiking start point, the town of De Rijp. It’s a very Dutch little town along the canals with cute bridges and narrow roads. We started out by having a cup of tea in a café. It was pretty quiet in the café and we were surprised to hear the couple next to us speaking English! It was strange to find other English speakers in such a small Dutch town. We said hello, but we were impatient to get started. By the time we got going it was 1:30 in the afternoon. We walked for about an hour and according to the map we were about 1/4th of the way done. This was my first clue that this hike was going to be a bit longer than advertised.

We kept walking, really enjoying the little flowers that are starting to bloom and the warm, spring-like temperatures. At 3:30, we pulled the sandwiches out of the backpack, but decided to eat while we walked. At 4:00, we saw a road sign indicating that De Rijp was still 4 km down the road. How can this be a 9 km hike if we still have 4 km to go? According to the map we are way more than halfway done. OK, now we’re doing the math. If we walk at 3 miles per hour for 3 hours, that makes the hike more like 9 miles, not 9 km. What the hell? The map also gives an estimate of how long it will take. They claimed this hike would be 2 ½ hours. Dennis was using the GPS the whole time, so we know that we didn’t get lost. In the end, we hiked for 3 ½ hours and when Dennis calculated the distance according to the GPS, it was 10.1 miles or 16.8 km.

We were kind of tired when we got back to the car. We still like the walking route maps, but from now on, we will check the route on the computer to verify the distance before we go. There’s a big difference between 9 km and 16.8 km!

On Sunday, we woke up to the sun. Yes, I said the SUN! Feeling energized by the sun, we decided to get the road bikes out for the first time this season. March 1 is a cool date to start with outdoor cycling! Of course, by the time we were ready, the clouds had started to come over. But we still had a nice ride and it wasn’t too cold. We went about 18 miles – so a pretty short ride. It felt great to be out on the road bike and now I’m looking forward to more nice weekends.

Language Confusion - you think you know what it means but you don't

2009-02-22T00:13:00.000-08:00

I know that I’ve mentioned language difficulties a few times, but I think it deserves a bit more attention. Nearly everyone in the Netherlands speaks English – probably better than a lot of Americans – but they speak British English, not American. This leaves a lot of room for confusion!

The one thing I have still not gotten used to is what floor I work on. I insist that I’m on the third floor. Everyone in Europe thinks I’m on the second floor. They begin counting with the ground floor, or floor zero. In the US, the ground floor is one.

The next troublesome point is the time – and this one is double-trouble. In the Netherlands they say half nine to mean 8:30. But when the British say half nine, they mean 9:30. In the US, we just say what we mean. I always have to confirm what time they really mean.

Numbers in general are difficult to translate between Dutch and English. In Dutch, they say the numbers backwards so 46 is said six and forty (of course, the numbers are said in Dutch). The Dutch suddenly become terribly dyslexic when translating numbers to English and many will translate six and forty to 64. I see it all the time on the TV subtitles, too. With money, you often get twice the confusion. Your total is 65.94 becomes five and sixty, four and ninety. My mind can’t translate the numbers and turn them around quite that fast, so I just look at the register for the amount or I mindlessly use my PIN card.

British people go on holiday, while Americans go on vacation. What we would call a holiday in the US, is known as a public holiday. Dutch people go on vacantie, but translate it as holiday.

I think the British got in too much trouble for their funny pronunciation of the word schedule so now they ask you to check your diary. I personally haven’t had a diary since I was 16 (unless you count this blog, of course). I chuckle every time I’m asked about my diary.

Children’s games are especially fun. I found out that Tic Tac Toe is called naughts and crosses in England. In Dutch, it’s called botter, kaas, and eiren (butter, cheese, and eggs). While I was in the B-section of the Dutch-English dictionary, I noticed that botterham trommel is Dutch for lunch box. Sandwich bags are called botterham zakjes. It seems that everything having to do with sandwiches is called botterham because they eat so many ham sandwiches with butter. And the Dutch favorite hagelslag (literally hail), translates to tens and thousands in British, but in American we just call them chocolate sprinkles.

I was impressed to learn that a backpack in Dutch is called a rugzak. Rug is the word for back and zak is a bag. In England, they call a backpack a rucksack – interesting how similar these words are.

You have to be careful at the market and know that an ounce in the Netherlands is 100g. For the non-cooks out there, an American ounce is about 30g and there are 16 oz in a pound. So if you order 8 ounces of fish here, you’ll be getting close to 2 lbs rather than half a pound! That could be an expensive problem. If you ask for a pound of something here, you will get 500g which is remarkably close to an American pound.

The British people that we went skiing with kept talking about one of the guys who lost 2 stones and looked really good. I had to ask the question, “What’s a stone?” Yes, it sounded pretty dumb when I asked it, too. A stone is 14 pounds. Damn the British for coming up with such stupid measurements!

By the way, I also had to ask, “What’s a quid?” It’s actually the language equivalent of a buck, so a quid is one pound (no, not the weight, the money!). And of course we haven’t even talked about lorries, lifts, trollies, and wellies.

eet smakelijk

2009-02-14T07:41:00.000-08:00

When I buy lunch in the cafeteria, the person at the register always tells me to eet smakelijk. As I sit down, my co-workers say the same thing to me and each other. It is literally translated as eat tastily. In France, they would say bon appetit, or good appetite. So the question always arises, “What do they say in America?”

Here are some thoughts:

1) Nothing – we just eat
2) Enjoy your meal
3) Shut up and eat
4) Dig in!
5) Lord, we thank you for the food we are about to receive…

What else do YOU say before eating?

Birthday Weekend

2009-02-08T09:02:00.000-08:00

On Thursday, I celebrated my 40th birthday. Birthdays are a big deal in NL, so when I got to work I found my office had been decorated for the occasion. Everyone who walked by noticed the flags and streamers and wished me a happy birthday and gave me the standard three kiss greeting. I brought home-made American cookies and brownies to share at tea time. These were very popular.

For dinner that evening, Dennis and I went to the restaurant just down the street from the house. They serve typical Dutch food, but it’s usually pretty good stuff. For dessert, we got the Crepes Suzette with a huge sparkler on top instead of candles. I was one of three people in the restaurant that evening getting fireworks on my dessert. The 5th must be a popular birthday!

The fireworks reminded me I spent my last birthday here in the Netherlands also. I was here for business meetings and then Dennis joined me for house hunting. I remember that I was completely jet-lagged and was struggling to stay awake during dinner with the group. I had never seen a sparkler as big as the one they put on my dessert. I can hardly believe that it was a year ago!

My cat gave me a lovely birthday present by pooping on the dining room floor. I think he’s still mad because we left him for a week. We hired the neighbor girl to feed him and I’m sure she spent some time petting him, but he was still angry. At least we didn’t have to send him to the kennel again after he got so sick there the last time! The cat continued his naughtiness last night by breaking into his food container. I really don’t know how much food he got, but he wasn’t hungry for breakfast this morning. And naturally, he just puked because he must have known I was writing about him. What a brat!

For this weekend, the weather forecast was for a sunny Sunday. Dennis and I decided to drive over to another town and walk along the lake shore. We wanted to start exploring a bit more by car and also get out for a hike. The sun was out early this morning, but just as we were leaving, it started to rain. We decided the weather would change four times before we got to our destination anyway, so we left. Driving was a pleasure with very few cars on the road. We went across the lake to the recently created Flevoland. Flevoland was reclaimed from the lake about 50 years ago. We had biked there before, but always avoided the cities. Today, we drove through the cities. The architecture was very modern – as you would expect from a city so young. There was a building that looked like a spaceship, and another that looked like it was tipped sideways. Crazy!

We finally made it to our start point for the hike and the sun was shining again. It was cold, but it IS February after all. We walked for about 20 minutes when it started raining. Another 10 minutes and the rain turned to snow. We turned around, deciding that it was a bit too miserable for hiking. We stopped for tea at a coffee shop along the beach and we laughed as the snow fell harder and harder. Once we were warm and dry again, we headed back to the car. The snow was almost done by then, but it was colder. Yuck! We’ll have to try another hike next week and hope for better weather!

Skiing in the Alps

2009-02-01T05:50:00.000-08:00

Ski runs in the Alps.

One of the huge, bus-style gondolas.

Fancy-dress (this is really a guy).

Me with my new ski buddies.

Dennis and I had a lovely ski holiday in France. The ski resort, Le Trois Vallee, is the largest interconnected ski area in the world. We flew into Geneva Switzerland and the ski chalet staff picked us up in a mini-bus. We drove for a few hours to the chalet in the little town of La Tania. Once there, we started meeting the other people in the group and learning how the ski chalet works.

The chalet is like a big house with a dining room and family room with TVs. The bedrooms are very small, but have private bathrooms. Breakfast, afternoon tea, and dinner are served in the dining room. Lunch was the only meal we had to buy. The chalet holds 28 guests and there were about 5 staff members to take care of us. The staff took care of everything for us. They got our lift passes, reserved rental skis, and even took us on guided ski tours.

The group that we were with is a ski club from England. We got together with them through my co-worker, whose father organizes the trip. So, we didn’t know any of these people when we got there, but they knew each other. The ages ranged from 8 to 80, but Dennis and I were on the younger side of the average. It was a very friendly group and we felt included from the start.

On the day we arrived, it was snowing and it snowed the whole first night. In the morning, the sun was shining and we went out with the ski-guide to explore the mountain. There were only about 6 of us with the ski guide that day, including Heather, the octogenarian. Let me tell you, Heather is a darn good skier! I skied with her quite a bit through the week and she always had to wait for me at the bottom! Having a ski guide is a fantastic way to ski. He showed us the best ski runs, shortest lift lines, and the cheapest lunch options. Best of all, we didn’t waste any time looking at the ski map.

The fresh snow was brilliant, but with snow comes clouds. On the third day of skiing, the clouds were so thick that we could not even see the runs. They had poles marking the pistes (runs) set about 20 feet apart. At some points, we were only able to ski from one pole to the next. We tried to go up higher on the mountain to get above the clouds – no luck. We tried to go lower to get below the clouds – no luck. But, we still had fun and we only got lost once when we missed the turn-off to our chalet and had to ride up the list again to make it home.

The fourth day was completely clear and sunny. We decided to try to ski to the far side of the resort. The resort, despite the name, actually contains four valleys. When going this far, you have to remember to leave enough time to get back before the lifts close. We got out to the third valley by 2:00. We had a quick snack and headed back to the chalet. We really had to hurry to make it and I was really getting tired. To get where we wanted to go, we had to ski down into the valleys to catch the lift up to the next peak. As we got lower, the pistes became more crowded and more icy. One run was just a big ice slick that we slid down sideways. I was terrified! I was tired! And I was worried that I was going so slow we’d miss the last lift! But the group stayed supportive and encouraged me to hang in there. We finally made it up the last lift with a few minutes to spare. I started to ski towards the chalet and through my haze of exhaustion I noticed that we were headed right for the top of the gondola that we started from every morning. A quick check of my watch indicated that if I hurried, I could ride the gondola back down before it closed at 4:30. I was super-relieved to have an easy way down. My sister actually taught me this trick when we skied in Utah. The bottom of the mountain is usually icy and crowded as everyone is heading back down for the afternoon. When you are tired at the end of the day, it can be dangerous to ski in those conditions. Riding the gondola down is the safest option.

Dennis managed to find some people who wanted to ski hard stuff and I managed to find a group that I really enjoyed skiing with. We had tons of fun skiing. In the evenings, the group hung around the chalet talking and playing cards and stuff. One night, we did a quiz game in teams of 6. Dennis and I were recruited onto different teams. With most of the questions being British oriented, we were not very helpful. But there were a couple questions where Dennis and I were the only ones who knew the answer. See how you do:

What is the state animal of Wisconsin?
What sport is featured in the movie American Flyers?
What city is the headquarters of the Morman Church located in?

My team won the game and Dennis’ team was second place.

On the last night, the group did a “fancy dress” dinner. When we were first told about fancy dress, I was panicking because I didn’t want to pack formal clothes with all of our ski gear. A few days before we left, the guy who organizes the tour called to discuss the last minute details. He gave some examples of fancy dress: he had worn a kilt, one couple dressed as sumo wrestlers, men dressing as women etc. Dennis immediately decided that we should wear Hawaiian shirts and be American tourists. It ended up being a hilarious evening. The staff even dressed up and joined in the fun. The British are completely mad!

Now, we are back at home all safe and sound from our trip. We had so much fun that I’m afraid no other ski trip will ever be as good!

The next big trip - skiing in the Alps

2009-01-15T11:39:00.000-08:00

Now that the ice skating craze is over and global warming is back in effect, it’s time to turn our attention to more important things, like vacation! Dennis and I are finalizing our plans for our ski trip in the French Alps. We are leaving next weekend and we’ll be gone for a whole week.

Dennis and I had been looking at various ski places around Europe, but we really had no idea which place would be good. We were asking around for advice and found out that Switzerland is good for hard, technical skiing, Austria is good for after ski partying, and France is good for intermediate skiing with a relaxed family-oriented atmosphere. Not being party animals, we decided that France would be fun. One of my coworkers told me that his dad runs a ski trip and he put us in contact.

The club ski trip is in Le Trois Vallee, which is the largest group of interconnected ski resorts in Europe. We will be staying in a chalet that serves dinner every night prepared by a French Chef. Of course, French wine is also served. Hopefully, it will be as good in real life as it sounds on paper (well, not really paper…).

I bought the airline tickets directly on the KLM website. KLM, like their US partners, has instituted a strict luggage policy. At least the first piece of luggage is free, though. But I had to call to get approval to take the skis. The guy told me that the skis could count as my free luggage as long as I don’t have any other luggage. Is this guy for real? How can anyone go skiing with only skis and no other luggage? To get approval for the skis, he needed to know the exact dimensions and weight of the ski bag. In the end it took three phone calls to the airline to get it straight. The skis are nearly as inconvenient as taking the cat on the plane!

Speaking of the cat, we have asked the neighbor girl to watch Nova while we are gone. When we picked up the cat from the kennel after out trip to Spain, he was very sick. Have you ever seen a cat with a head-cold? He looked miserable and could not even breathe through is nose. He had to breathe through his mouth with his tongue hanging out! Anyway, it will be nice for the cat to be safe at home and the neighbor girl was pretty excited to earn some extra money. It turns out that she’s an experienced cat-sitter, too. She and her Mom will come over this weekend to see where we keep the cat food and stuff. My next chore (yes, writing the blog is actually procrastination for other chores) is to write the care instructions for the cat in English and in Dutch. The girl does not speak English although her Mom does and could translate. But writing the directions in Dutch will be good practice for me. I’ll get one of my coworkers to correct all my mistakes!

I learned a bit more Dutch this week at work. We were talking about hair styles. One lady was talking about her “pony” but she was pointing to her bangs. I said that in the US, a “pony” would be a ponytail and I pulled my hair back to show her. She said, yes that’s a ponytail, but ponies also have hair on their forehead, as in a forelock. In England, they call bangs a fringe. I think the word fringe is much more descriptive than bangs or pony. Does anyone know why Americans use the word bangs?

Happy New Year!

2009-01-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

After getting back home only one day behind schedule, I was happy that I had the whole week off anyway. I spent some of my free time working on the last of my Christmas cards. Of course, they are now New Year's cards and since I haven't gotten them mailed yet, they are in danger of becoming Valentine's Day cards!

New Year is a pretty big deal around the Netherlands. All the bike stores improve their winter sales figures by selling fire works. The liquor stores also do a big business. Being boring, Dennis and I stayed home and planned to be fast asleep by midnight. People were setting off fireworks all evening, but we finally drifted off to sleep around eleven. At midnight, we were startled awake by the noise of a million fireworks. We opened the curtains to watch. It sounded like a war-zone! Everyone was out in the streets with everything from firecrackers to Roman candles to professional style rockets. All the way around the house, we could see the fireworks. It went on for more than an hour.

We were surprised that the normally very reserved and conservative Dutch people would spend so much money on fireworks! In the morning, the streets were covered in red papers and other debris from the fireworks. I wondered how many people were missing fingers - but we still don't catch all the news around here!

Dennis had Thursday and Friday off work and it was nice to spend a few days just relaxing. We went to Ikea and bought some stuff for the house. We also got out for some long walks around the neighborhood. It was pretty cold, but the sun was out which is a special occasion around here. On Saturday, it was cold enough that people were out ice skating on some of the canals. It's been at least five years since the canals have frozen around here, so this was a very special occasion! The deeper waterways were still not frozen and a rain shower on Sunday morning caused a lot more thawing. But it's been cold enough since then to get everything good and frozen. People left work early today to go skating in the daylight and I expect a lot of people will take off on Friday to skate. It might be the last chance for another five years!

Dennis and I probably will not take part in the skating. While the idea of skating around the lakes is more appealing than going in a circle around an ice rink, I'm not sure its very safe. Remember, the Dutch think it's prefectly safe to ride a bike with a kid in the child seat while talking on the cell phone with no helmets on. I had one memorable skating incident in college that left me with a broken elbow, so it's not just thin ice that worries me!

Flying at Christmas

2009-01-01T06:19:00.000-08:00

“Attention in the waiting area. Please note that flight 666 will be departing out of gate B3, not A21 as listed on the airport monitors. The airport is in charge of the monitors and they are not updating the information properly. Also, the flight is delayed by an hour and a half. Thank you for flying Satan’s Airline and have a nice day!”

“Welcome on board Satan’s Airline Flight 666. Due to bad weather at our destination, we will not be able to take-off for another 2 hours.”

“As we reach our cruising altitude, we will turn off the fasten seat belt sign. At this time, the flight attendants will go through the cabin to sell beverages and snacks. Everything costs $3.64 and exact change is required. The flight attendants are here for your safety, not to provide you with change.”

“Sorry to cut the beverage service short, but we are experiencing some serious turbulence. For your safety, please return to your seats and fasten your seat belts. The turbulence will be a problem for about 40 minutes.”

“Air sickness bags can be found in the seat back pockets. If you do not need your air sickness bag, please pass it to the rear of the aircraft where extra bags are desperately needed. Thank you!”

“As you can tell, we have started circling the airport. They are changing the runway configuration in response to the changing weather conditions. We estimate landing in about 30 minutes. Sorry for the turbulence, we will be on the ground just as soon as we can.”

“Satan’s Airline would like to welcome you to the 9th circle of Hell. For those of trying to make a connection, please check the monitors in the terminal for flight information. Since we are about 4 hours late, you have probably already missed your connection. To get rescheduled, go to the customer service desk in the main terminal. Expect the lines to be really long because we laid off most of our employees and the rest called in sick. If this is your final destination, you can collect your bags at baggage claim 5. Please be aware that the airport is experiencing serious baggage delays because of the lay-offs and the bad weather.”

“Thank you for flying Satan’s Airline. We know you have a choice in airlines, and through our code-share arrangements, no matter which one you choose, you still end up flying with us.”

(Yes, most of this true...)

Getting ready for Christmas

2008-12-15T10:05:00.000-08:00

Dennis and I are going through another stretch of boringness as we prepare for the holidays. We are both spending far too much time at work. It’s easy to get caught up in work when you don’t really want to spend time outside. The weather has turned a bit colder – right around freezing – and the days are so very short. Remind me never to move any further north!

In the mornings, I find myself procrastinating about getting to work. I hate the idea of riding my bike to work in the pitch blackness. By about 8:15, it’s just light enough to go. I seem to have no trouble riding home in the dark, though. It gets really dark around 5:00. A quick check on the internet indicates that the shortest day here is one full hour shorter than in Minnesota. Of course, we get the long days in the spring and summer that help to make up for this horrible darkness.

For Christmas, I am going to Salt Lake City to visit my sister and her family. Our parents are going to be there as well. Dennis is still too new with his job to have any vacation time, so he has to stay home. Feeling bad for him, I arranged to be back in the Netherlands so we can celebrate the New Year together. A one week trip to the US is going to be tiring, but I’m still pretty excited to go.

I’m now trying to figure out what to take along and what I need to buy while I’m back. I’m planning to take the Christmas cards with me. I can address envelopes on the plane. I’m making Dennis write the Christmas letter this year too, so you’ll hear his perspective for a change. Of course, this means that all the cards will be a bit late – sorry for that! I’m also carrying the Christmas gifts that need to be shipped. Shipping from Salt Lake will be much easier than from the Netherlands. You have no idea how complicated the Homeland Security department has made it to ship things to the US. And I better not even start about import duties and taxes! As it turns out, it’s really difficult to find things here in the Netherlands that you can’t get in the US anyway. Next year, I’m going back to my usual internet shopping for Christmas!

For the return trip, I have a long and strange list of things that are difficult to get in the Netherlands. Mostly, I have a hard time finding good cold medicine here. But I also desperately want to go to Eddie Bauer.

Other things that have kept us busy are house projects and Dutch lessons. The house here was fitted with very minimal light fixtures. We installed a couple new fixtures when we moved in, but it was hard in the spring to judge how much light we would need in the winter. It also is a bit of a pain to buy light fixtures for a house you don’t own. Oh well, I’d rather have the lights! With our new lights, it’s much easier to study our Dutch lessons at the dining room table. We’ve been reading and watching Dutch TV programs. Our vocabulary is getting bigger, but we still struggle to speak. It’s going to take a while!

So that’s our boring life: work, groceries, laundry, study etc. We moved halfway around the world to get a taste of a foreign lifestyle and so much of life still boils down to work, groceries, and laundry!

German Swine

2008-12-07T12:44:00.000-08:00

Christmas stuff for sale at the Dusseldorf Christmas Market.

A booth with crepes and other sweet treats.

Dusseldorf from the observation tower. This is the Rhine River.

You can see the tower behind the bridge. Fortunately, it was sunny when we went up.

Dennis and I went to the Christmas Market in Dusseldorf Germany for the weekend. Dusseldorf is only two hours away by train, just across the border. While this trip can be done in one day, we decided to spend the night and make it a bit of a vacation.

The first part of the adventure is getting there, of course. Dennis bought our train tickets earlier in the week directly at the train station. The train left at 11:00 am so we even had time to sleep in! Everything was going well on the train. We had our assigned seats and I packed sandwiches. When they announced that the next stop would be Dusseldorf, we got ready to get off. As we slowed into the station, we thought something was wrong because the sign said Duisburg. Knowing the city names can be quite different depending on the language (example being Cologne Germany, which appears is Koln in German), I decided to ask one of the other passengers getting off the train. “Is this Dusselfdorf?” I asked. “Yes, this is Dusselfdorf,” was the answer. So, we got off and the train zipped away. WE headed into the station in search of the tourist information office. We waited in line for a few minutes only to find out that we were at the ticketing office, not tourist information. But, still thinking there was something amiss, I asked the lady at the counter, “Is this Dusseldorf?” “No, this is Duisburg,” she answered. “Oh shit, we just got off the train at the wrong station,” I said. Rather than telling us we are stupid idiots who cannot even handle riding a train, she simply looked up the next train to Dusseldorf and told us which track to go to. We didn’t even have to buy another ticket because we had already paid to go to Dusseldorf! With true German efficiency, we arrived in Dusseldorf only 10 minutes behind schedule!

In the real city of Dusseldorf, the tourist information office gave us a map and marked the location of our hotel and the Christmas markets. Everything was within walking distance – although it was A LOT of walking! So, we headed off the hotel, dropped our luggage and went to the market.

The Christmas Market on Saturday afternoon is a very popular place. The food and drink booths were especially crowded. The traditional drink is Gluwein, spiced wine which is served hot to ward off the winter chill. I could only tolerate a few sips – it was very strong and very sweet. I don’t like sweet wine, but Dennis thought it was pretty good. Another local treat is pork roasted on a spit. Rather than wait in line and eat standing up, we found a near-by restaurant that specialized in roasted pork. The pork came on a plate with French Fries. No bread, no vegetable, not even some parsley. But the pork was divine! It was tender and succulent, with a lovely pork flavor not masked by anything but a bit of salt. Along with the fries, this was a meal to clog every artery in the body. So long heart – pass the pork! By the way, in German, they refer to pork as schwein, or swine, hence the title of the blog.

With full tummies, we walked around the rest of the market. It was easy to get in the Christmas spirit with all the booths selling Christmas decorations, gifts, and holiday treats. I’m not sure how much of the stuff was hand-made, or even German-made, and how much was from China, but it was cool nonetheless. We found a few cute things for us and a few for gifts.

The next morning, we were able to sleep late again. Without the cat, who wakes us up at 6:00 am or before every morning, we were able to sleep in peace. The hotel served breakfast until 11:00, so we didn’t even have to hurry for breakfast. When we did make it down for breakfast, we were pleasantly surprised. Not just bread and cheese, this was a full spread including fresh fruit and make-your-own waffles. It’s nice to be in a country where food is appreciated. The highlight of breakfast was the bacon, which was beyond delicious. These people really know their pork products!

As we had already seen most of the Christmas markets, we decided to go up to the observation deck of the tower (see picture). The day ended up being sunny so we had really good views of the city and the Rhine River. We made a note that the Rhine River is probably nice to see in the summer, too.

After the tower, we spent the rest of our time at the Christmas market tasting more of the treats. We tried the egg nog, but we were surprised at how much alcohol they managed to get into it. It was also served hot, which seems wrong for egg nog. The crepes were really good, though. And we got some sugar-roasted almonds to eat on the train back home.

By the time we got to the train station, we had been walking for four hours and I was seriously looking forward to sitting down for two hours. The train was super-crowded, but Dennis had paid a little bit extra to get assigned seats. It was worth the extra six euros especially since we were hauling all the stuff we bought! Needless to say, we managed to get back home without further mishaps and we deemed it a very successful trip.

Sinter Klaas in Naarden

2008-11-28T00:22:00.000-08:00

A Zwarte Piet band in the parade.

Another Zwarte Piet band. Disturbing, isn't it?

The kids on this float think it's OK.

Here's the big deal - Sinter Klaas himself riding a white horse.

Wow, I can’t believe another week has already flow by! I meant to write a blog entry on Sunday, but it didn’t happen. Let’s catch up!

Saturday was the Sinter Klaas festival for Naarden. Naarden is a really cool city just a bit north of Bussum. The city is surrounded by canals making it like a small island, about five blocks long and three blocks wide. When they have a party, it’s like a huge street party. It’s much cooler than Bussum. Saturday night, Dennis and I bundled up against the cold and walked about 30 minutes to get to the center of Naarden. The streets were closed to car traffic and all lit up with Christmas lights. Kids were playing in the streets and parents were drinking mulled wine. We wandered around until we heard the parade starting up. Finding a nice spot on the sidewalk, we stood by to watch.

The parade was short like in most small towns. There were a couple of bands, a fire truck, about 5 floats with tons of kids on them, a group of Zwarte Piets throwing candy, and finally Sinter Klaas on his white horse.

Here’s another confusing Sinter Klaas fact: Sinter Klaas and Santa Klaus are two different people. Sinter Klass is a saint who was a real person. Santa Klaus is a fictitious character who represents the commercial side of Christmas. It seems that the Dutch and German immigrants to the US brought their Sinter Klaas traditions with them. Over the years, the traditions changed to become what we know today as American Christmas. More recently, the shops in the Netherlands have tried to get people to buy more stuff at Christmas and started using Santa Klaus in their advertising. So, Santa Klaus represents the commercial, American style Christmas. The whole thing is a bit like a dog chasing its tail!

Dennis and I spent much of this week in our Dutch language class. It was a three day immersion course for people with some knowledge of Dutch. There were four students total, so we got a lot of individualized attention, especially when the other guys were late! The class held in the teacher’s house in Bussum, so we were able to walk over. We sat at the kitchen table for the lessons and she even made lunch for us! We had to speak Dutch the whole time, which was very hard for me. The other two guys seemed to be able to say exactly what they wanted while I struggled for every word. Whenever we did exercises on paper, I seemed to do OK. From the Teach Yourself Dutch book, I had learned a lot of the grammar and spelling rules. And, since I took a lot of Spanish classes in high school, I have a basic understanding of how foreign languages work. One guy in the class was shocked to find out that you can’t just take an English sentence and translate every word. You actually have to start thinking in Dutch to get the right word order and idioms.

I got a lot of practice on speaking and the teacher gave us lots of things to do at home to keep learning. But the best part of the class was the teacher’s pets (as in cats and dog, not “teacher’s pets”). While we worked the little black cat, named Minnie, would sit on my lap and purr. The dog, a big black Labrador, would stick his graying nose in between me and Dennis to try to get some attention. I have been missing Lady recently, so it was nice to have a dog around. On the last day, the teacher took us out for a walk in the woods to get some fresh air while we working on verb conjugations. The dog was so excited to go along that he barked in the car the whole way to the woods.

Now that the Dutch classes are over, I need to start speaking Dutch at work. It’s been kind of nice to have a few days away from the office, but everyone knows I was at a Dutch class. I hope they don’t expect too much!

With the Thanksgiving holiday this week, it was a nice quiet week to be out of the office. We didn’t do anything special for Thanksgiving day, but I will cook some turkey drumsticks this weekend. I found out that I can order a whole turkey at the grocery store, but they normally don’t carry them until Christmas. It’s hard to get in the Thanksgiving mood when nobody else celebrates it. Even though the British people speak English, they don’t have Thanksgiving.

PS - I'm writing my blog while the repairman fixes the water heater. He was surprised that it held out for us and didn't quit working. But right now the heat is off and he's been going in and out so it's getting really COLD in here! I'm going to shut this off and put on my coat!

Odds and Ends

2008-11-21T08:25:00.000-08:00

I'm taking a vacation day today to take care of some odds and ends. One of them is to answer some of the questions that have popped up on the blog's comments.

Running with compression socks - I'm running up to a mile at a time now. My legs are feeling OK, but not great. I don't know if I'm feeling better because of the compression socks or because I took a year off from running. I haven't tried running without the socks, so I can't tell. But, I'm happy to be able to get out for a quick run in the evening when it's too dark and cold to go biking. I'm trying to run every other day and I'm building my distance one block at a time. So far so good!

Driver's Licences - You are only allowed to drive on a foreign driver's licence for 6 months after moving to the Netherlands. To get the Dutch licence, I had to turn in the Illinois licence. Apparently, the Dutch government sends the licences back to the US, where I'm sure someone simply throws them away. I did send an email to the Illinois Secretary of State to ask about getting a duplicate licence in my situation. I haven't heard back yet. The same person probably throws away all email inquiries as well! Anyway, I can rent a car in the US using my Dutch licence. And I'll just have to use my passport to get on airplanes in the US. If I can't get my Illinois licence back, I'll just end up having to take the driver's test again when we move back. Thats still a whole lot easier than taking the driver's test here!

Weather - It snowed today here! Yes, I saw real snow flakes falling from the sky for about 2 minutes. It started as sleet, but it switched over. We've been having an icky, blustery day today. It's changed from rain, to sun, to sleet, and to snow at least twice today. The wind is pretty nasty too. I think the last of the leaves have been ripped from the trees along with most of the twigs. But even with that, it's still above freezing. The days are really short now. I am using my bike lights going to and from work. The sun comes up at about 8:00 and it's dark by 5:30.

Language update - Dennis and I are going to a three-day Dutch immersion course next week. We've been studying almost every night and our vocabulary is finally getting big enough that we should be able to express ourselves. But knowing the words and being able to speak are two very different things. I'm hoping that the class will build our confidence with speaking and give us some good practice. Some of our Dutch studying is funny. We have a children's book called "Dikkie Dik" with cartoons about a cat. Dik translates to thick, which the adjective they use to describe fat people, or cats in this case. Dikkie Dik is naughty, like our cat, so we have fun with it. We also got a CD with a children's movie called "Het Paard van Sinter Klaas." Paard means horse and it's good word to know so you can avoid buying horsemeat at the grocery store! The movie is about a little girl who moves here from China. Her dad runs chinese restaurant and she has to learn Dutch just by going to school. She falls in love with a pony that lives in pasture near her house. When the pony dies from old age, she decides to ask Sinter Klaas for a horse. And when Sinter Klaas comes to visit her school riding a white horse, she thinks that he's bringing the horse for her. While Santa is with the other kids, she highjacks the horse and takes him home. It's really a cute movie. It's all in Dutch so we really have to pay attention. We've already watched it twice. Now I know why kids want to watch the same movie or have the same book read to them over and over and over again. They are learning the language.

Water heater - I stayed home today mostly so I could have the water heater repair guy come over to look at our leaking water heater. I figured it's better to schedule the guy while it's only a small leak and I can plan a day off rather than having an emergency repair when it's really not convenient. And since the water heater is in the attic, there is a good potential for significant damage if the leak becomes major. Like the US, they give you a 4 hour time window when the guy might show up. I was lucky today that he was early! But, of course, he has to order a new part so I get to take another day off to deal with this problem. But I'm really glad I called. He said the water heater will shut off completely if the water level drops too low. And he told me this heater runs the hot water for showers and for the radiators. So if it goes out, the house will have no heat. Now, I just have to cross my fingers and hope for the best until the part comes in!

Cleaning lady - Now that Dennis is working, I found a lady to clean our house. I got her name from a co-worker who got her name from a friend. When I called and told her where I live she laughed and said she lives on the next street over! She cleaned for the first time on Wednesday and I think I have a new best friend. She did a really nice job and we're going to have her clean once a week. The house here is smaller than in the US, so the dirt is more concentrated. Now that I don't have to clean on the weekends, Dennis and I can plan to spend more time traveling around.

There's another Sinter Klaas festival on Saturday night in Naarden (the town just north of us). It's supposed to be a really nice party, and we're planning to go. I think the weather is going to be very bad, though so I don't know how long we'll stay. I'll try to take some better pictures!

Sinter Klaas Comes to Bussum

2008-11-16T03:26:00.001-08:00

People posing for pictures with 2 Zwarte Piets.

Zwarte Piet giving candy to a kid.

A store-front display featuring Zwarte Piet.

Sinter Klaas day is December 6, but Sinter Klaas comes to town on November 15th so he has lots of time to whip the kids into frenzy. Sinter Klaas lives in Spain. I don’t know why Spain, but it makes as much sense as the North Pole, I suppose. He arrives by boat, and once he’s in the Netherlands, he travels by train or by horse depending on where you live. Instead of elves he has a helper named Zwarte Piet.

Zwarte Piet has lately become a controversial character in the Sinter Klaas tradition. In the past, Zwarte Piet was Sinter Klaas’ Moroccan slave. Zwarte Piet was in charge of the Naughty Book and would kidnap bad children and take them back to Spain. You can see that with 21st century sensibilities, this wouldn’t go over big. He has now morphed into a Santa’s helper, like the elves, and he helps deliver the candy and gifts for Sinter Klaas.

But, you’ve probably already realized that zwarte means black. And being Moroccan, Zwarte Piet is black. Since they don’t have many black people here in the Netherlands, the pale-skinned Dutch people wear black make-up to play the part of Zwarte Piet. This is where the real controversy comes in. People from America with their ideas about political correctness really don’t like white people putting shoe polish on their faces to portray Santa’s slave. The Dutch people are downplaying the slave part, but see no problem with the black make-up. It’s their tradition and it’s not meant to offend. In all reality, Santa’s elves are probably degrading to all the midgets in the US.

Controversy aside, Dennis and I went into town on Saturday evening to see the festival for the arrival of Sinter Klaas. All day on Saturday, you could feel the excitement in the air. The kids were pretty wound up! They had some special booths set up down town selling oliebollen (literally oil-balls, but really just donuts), and poffertjes which are mini pancakes served with powdered sugar and butter. They also had a blow-up jumping thing (does anyone know the proper name for these things?) and a carousel swing. Near the town hall, they were setting up the main stage where they would perform all the Sinter Klaas songs.

At 5:00, everyone gathered around the stage. The children had hats that they made in school. Some had tall red Sinter Klaas hats (like the red hats that cardinals wear), and other kids had beret style Zwarte Piet hats. Some of the kids even had on the black face make-up to look like Zwarte Piet. There was a fleet of Zwarte Piets distributing bags of candy to the kids. The kids would yell to get Piet’s attention. So, you can imagine a group of kids all hopped up on candy yelling, “Piet, Piet, Piet!” All the while, the children’s choir on stage blasted what we can only assume are Christmas tunes. It was complete bedlam!

I tried to get a few pictures (without being creepy), but it was dark and starting to rain. Hopefully I can get some better pictures over the next few weeks. Since it was raining, Dennis and left before Sinter Klaas actually showed up. So, I don't have any pictures of Sinter Klaas, either. He is normally dressed in a red robe and tall hat like a Catholic cardinal. If we wanted to, we could visit the place where Sinter Klaas lives while he's in the Netherlands. He stays at the museum in Naarden vesting so it's really close! But I'm not sure I want to pay 4 euros to see his bed.

From the people at work, I learned a little more about Sinter Klaas and how things work. A lot of the tradition depends on your family, a lot like Christmas traditions in the US. The basic deal is that kids can put out their shoes near the chimney on December 6th and Sinter Klaas delivers a gift. Many kids will put a carrot in their shoe for Sinter Klaas’ horse. So, why does Sinter Klaas come to town several weeks before Sinter Klaas day? As the holiday has become more commercialized, it gives the kids more opportunities to get gifts. Some lucky, spoiled kids leave their shoes out EVERY night from Nov. 15th until Dec. 6th! Other kids are only allowed to put their shoes out on SATURDAY nights until Sinter Klaas day. The kids also get loads of gifts from grandparents and other family members. Some families also give gifts again on Christmas. So, like the US families can get really carried away, or they can keep it a bit more low-key. But it sounds like the gift-giving is generally more low-key than what we’re used to seeing in the US.

Saint Martin's Day

2008-11-12T10:48:00.000-08:00

November 11 is Saint Martin's day in the Netherlands. In the US, Nov. 11 is Veteran's day and in England it's Armistice Day, both really celebrating the end of World War I. But, in the Netherlands, they celebrate Saint Martin, the patron saint of children. I'm still not clear on why a country that has such a strong Protestant history celebrates a Catholic saint's day, but we'll let that pass.

Saint Martin's day is the equivalent of Halloween with the kids going door to door collecting candy. Instead of saying, "Trick or treat," they have to sing a song. After the song, they are given candy. They don't wear costumes, but they carry paper lanterns lit with tiny light bulbs.

In the days leading up to Nov. 11, there were advertisements on TV showing kids singing at a man's house and he tries to give them pickles because he forgot to buy candy. I didn't want to be like that guy, so I bought several bags of candy last Saturday. I was a little worried when the people at work said that not all the neighborhoods really do St. Martin's day. But I know that my neighborhood has tons of kids, and I figured they would not pass up the opportunity for candy!

On Tuesday afternoon, I actually left work on time and I gave Dennis directions to get home at a reasonable time to see the kids. At about 6:30, just as our dinner was coming out of the microwave, the first kids came by. The kids came by in rather large groups, probably because it's easier to sing in a group. It was cool to see the kids walking around with their colorful lanterns. By about 7:30, all the kids headed home, unlike in the US where the kids keep bugging you until 10:00.

The next big holiday is SinterKlaas Day. SinterKlaas is coming to town this weekend, so hopefully I'll have more fun information to share then.

Visit to Muiderslot Castle

2008-11-09T05:46:00.000-08:00

Last Sunday, Dennis and I rode our town-bikes over to Muiderslot Castle. It's about a 20 minute ride, so it's pretty close. The castle is located in the town of Muiden, where the rver Vecht meets the big lake. You may remember from earlier blogs that the big lake used to be the Zuiderzee, in other words, part of the ocean. The Dutch were going crazy fighting the high tides, so they built a huge dam across the opening of the Zuiderzee. The sea became a lake and over time the water even became fresh. So, back when this castle was built, it was in a pretty strategic location to keep invaders from entering the country by going down the river. After the dam was built, the castle was no longer needed. But it's still pretty cool to see the old castle and the scenic river Vecht.

We took the guided tour of the castle even though we were told the tour would be in Dutch. The advantage of the tour is that you get to see some of the rooms that are otherwise off-limits. Fortunatley for us, the tour guide had English translation cards for us. So we could read along as he talked in Dutch. We are working really hard to learn Dutch, but we are far from being fluent! One of the highlights of the tour for us was an old painting featuring the local celebrities. One of them was Roemer Visscher. So, now we know who our street was named after.

Other than the trip to the castle, we've just been doing the normal workaday thing. I had to travel last week to Switzerland for a couple days and it always seems to take a while to catch up from that sort of thing. Between packing, unpacking, doing laundry, and going grocery shopping, you can really get lost in the day to day activities. We did manage to get out for a nice bike ride yesterday when the sun was shining. It was about 50 degrees and sunny which was good enough for a 20 mile ride. I really love riding along the farms and seeing the cows, sheep, goats, and horses.

The final bit of big news is that I got my Dutch driver's licence this week. It's been in the works for several weeks now and I'm glad it's done. It's always strange to learn the rules of a different country. To get the Dutch licence, I had to fill out a medical questionaire. To get the questionaire, you have to go to the town hall and pay 20 euros for it. Then, you mail it to the bureau and wait for them to send you a letter saying you are medically fit to drive. Once I got the letter back, I took it along with several other documents back to the town hall. Again, I had to pay some money. At this point, they took my US licence from me. The town hall guy was very helpful and gave me copies of all the application forms in case I got stopped by the police while I was waiting for my official licence to arrive. It took about 2 weeks to get a letter stating that my licence was ready to be picked up at the town hall. Since the town hall is only open from 8:30 until noon, it took me another week to schedule a time to go get it. So, all in all, it took three trips to the town hall during working hours and about 6 weeks to get my licence. Phew! Now, I just need to figure out how to get my US licence back!

Now that I have my official licence, I am hoping to do more road trips. The car is getting lonely in the driveway because the weather has been pretty nice lately!

Ghent and compressions socks

2008-10-26T08:01:00.001-07:00

Ghent Belgium - late in the afternoon.

I recently attended a seminar in Ghent, Belgium. A coworker and I drove together which made the trip more fun. It’s only about 2 ½ hours from here. In the northern half of Belgium, they speak Dutch. In southern Belgium, they speak French and I think the French have had a far greater influence culturally than the Dutch.

Here’s a French joke (don’t worry, it’s clean): What’s the difference between a Dutch breakfast and a Dutch lunch? Answer: 4 hours. Yes, bread and cheese with a glass of milk for both meals.

For the seminar, I was surprised that they served us a full, three-course meal for lunch on the first day. There was wine on the tables, possibly to give us a good excuse for nodding off during the afternoon sessions, but I had to ask for a Diet Coke. The second day, we had a Dutch lunch – cold sandwiches eaten standing up. But they still served wine!

Ghent is a beautiful city with several old cathedrals in the town center – all with working bell towers that ring all night long! There are restaurants and bars along the canals serving typical Belgian fare like mussels, French Fries, and local beer. It was too bad we didn’t have more time to see the city. Dennis and I definitely have to get back here!

So, it’s the weekend and we’re at home. Dennis is on-call and has to be available within 15 minutes to reset the website if it should crash. Fortunately, they take turns being on-call and he gets paid for it, too.

On Saturday, we managed to run out to the farm that we visited last weekend to buy some beef. During the week, we had gone through the price list and translated the cuts of meat into English. I made a list of the cuts that I wanted and how much. Since we have the huge freezer in the garage, I figured we could stock up. The farmer, who doesn’t speak English, was there when we pulled up. He recognized us and seemed very relieved when I handed him the list! He pulled all the meat from the freezer and weighed each type. When he was done tallying the total, he just showed me the slip. We paid with exact change and were happily on our way. I think the farmer was happy, too!

We also went for a long walk on Saturday afternoon. The sun was out and it was mid-50’s so it was nice for walking. We’ve really had a quite a stretch of sunny days. Fall seems to be a nicer time of year than summer here. Summer was rainy and muggy. Yuck! Today, it’s raining again…

I managed to get out for a short run today despite the rain. As some of you know, I stopped running completely last summer. It’s been over a year since I’ve run at all. I was having serious pain in my lower legs. I went to several doctors and made sure that it was nothing serious, but stopped short when they wanted to stick a large needle into my shin muscle while I was exercising to measure the pressure inside. Running is not THAT important to me.

But I recently read MJ’s blog about her compression socks. I was intrigued and read more on-line about how they work and what they are supposed to do. One of my co-workers here also runs with compression socks. So, I asked her where she got them. She gave me the name of a store in Utrecht, the city where Dennis works. So, on Thursday evening, I went to Utrecht and Dennis and I went to the running store. The lady at work had warned me that you have to get measured to determine what size socks you wear so I had even shaved my legs that morning. I wasn’t exactly prepared for the high price of the socks, but I figured I already spent more than that at the doctor’s office. I figure the socks are worth a try!

For my first run in over a year, I went around the block. And I had to walk some of it. I couldn’t tell if the socks were helping or not. I think I was breathing too hard to notice! Since I’m totally not a natural runner, I really have to start slow. This was how I started running in the first place. So, this is how I’m going to start this time. For my second run, I went around the block and was able to keep running the whole way. Maybe by next week I’ll be able to go around twice! I’m still not convinced that the socks are helping, but I’ll keep trying until I know. Wish me luck – this is my last chance to get back into running.

Back to Normal Life

2008-10-19T08:44:00.001-07:00

I managed to take a couple of pictures with my cell phone camera. They are not the best quality, but you can still see how pretty it was!

I only have one more post to do to finish the Spain and Portugal vacation series, but I just can’t force myself to do it. If I’m bored with it, I imagine that you guys are too. Here’s the condensed version: We went from Algarve to Lisbon. We saw really cool cork tree plantations. We tried port wine which Dennis likes, but I don’t. There was yet another big church and then we came home.

So, now I’m back to normal life. As you know from the news flash, Dennis started his new job. He seems to like it so far, but he had to work last weekend. Adding salt to the wound, it was a beautiful weekend. We managed to get for a bike ride on Saturday afternoon. It was a gorgeous sunny fall day. I chose the route but unfortunately, most of the trails were unpaved. We actually ran into one of my co-workers on the path. He’s big into mountain biking (that’s some kind of Dutch joke because there are NO mountains in the Netherlands). Anyway, we stopped and chatted for a while. It reminded me of going running at Waterfall Glenn and seeing people from the tri club or the bike club. I really miss everyone!

This weekend, we got super-lucky and the weather was pretty nice again. It’s in the 50’s and a bit cloudy, but the sun comes out every now and then. The trees are really turning colors and there are leaves on the ground that crunch under foot. We went biking yesterday and had a good ride. We stopped by a farm that advertised “rundervlees voor koop” or beef for sale. The farmer didn’t speak enough English to understand our questions, so he called his wife over. She showed us the cuts of meat they do and the price list. But she said they were pretty much out of meat, but another cow just went away to the… (Here she made the throat cutting gesture indicating slaughterhouse). So, next weekend they will have some more beef. That gives us some time to translate the cuts of beef into English and decide what we want. Cool!

Today, Dennis and I drove over to Groenveld Castle for a walk in the park. Groenveld means green field in Dutch. We biked past it yesterday, but the garden looked more suited to walking than biking. The term castle is used pretty loosely in this case. The building was the summer home for a rich family from Amsterdam. It was built in 1710 and includes an English-style garden. We paid 4 euros each to see the main house, but it was very disappointing. They mainly use the building for exhibits – like for school kids. So, it was boring. But the gardens were very pretty. Mostly it was like walking through the woods with a river in the middle. There were cow and horse pastures nearby as well. Tons of people were out enjoying the fall colors with their kids and dogs. Wandering around the park-lands is a pretty typical Sunday activity especially on such a nice day!

The Algarve, Portugal

2008-10-15T10:33:00.001-07:00

The cliffs on the coast of Portugal.

The beach in Salema. In the winter, the sand washes out to sea. It comes back in the spring just in time for the tourists.

The view from the boat of the waves crashing on the cliffs. There were also people fishing from the tops of the cliffs!

From Arcos de la Frontera, we moved on to Portugal. For a bit of a breather, we went to the Algarve, which is the resort area on the southern edge of the country that is popular with the German and British tourists. Before you start picturing sun-drenched beaches with topless women frolicking in the surf – let me remind you about the Germans and the British. In England, they don’t buy beach umbrellas to block the sun; they buy wind blocks to keep warm. And the Germans appear to care more about inexpensive beer than smooth sand. For a beach vacation, you might want to follow a more discerning crowd.

With that said, the area was strikingly beautiful. We stopped at one place that used to be considered the end of the world. Beyond this, it was though that you would sail right off the edge. Indeed, you could stand on the cliff overlooking the ocean and believe that it’s true. It was our good friend Christopher Columbus sailing from Spain who finally proved there was something else out there. It would have been cool to post this blog on Oct. 13 in celebration of Columbus Day, but I don’t think you guys want to wait that long. You’re probably tired of this vacation by now and just want to go home!

We actually stayed in the little town of Salema for two nights to give us a little break from all the city tours. It felt nice to relax a little without the sound of motorbikes and jackhammers. Salema is so small that it only has one very small grocery store and no other real shops. There are a few restaurants and some hotels serving the little stretch of beach. The water here was terribly cold and never gets warm. The weather was very cool in the evening and only seemed to warm up after about 2 in the afternoon. We spent the first afternoon just appreciating the ocean and beach. For dinner we ate as a group at the beach-front restaurant. The seafood was pretty fresh. In the morning, we watching the fishing boats being pulled up the beach by a large tractor.

The next day, a lot of us went on a boat tour. Dennis who tends to get sea-sick decided not to go. The boat tour took us out to see the cliffs from the water. It was pretty windy and a bit cold. The ride was not terribly rough, but Dennis would not have appreciated it. The cliffs were stunning. You could see how the cliffs are eroding away in places. One cathedral is now closed to the public because one corner has fallen away. The guides also told us about the fishing industry and how they catch the fish. For the big fish, they string a bunch of hooks on one line and put it in the water with a buoy. Each fisherman has his own color of buoy. The guys who catch octopus use clay pots that they drop to the bottom. The octopi hide in the pots thinking they found a safe spot. The fishermen just pull in the pots and collect the octopi.

Sevilla

2008-10-12T01:09:00.001-07:00

One of the cute little squares in the historic quarter of Sevilla.

Our tour guide Amanda with the Alcazar palace in the background. You can also see the palm trees and bright blue sky that helped to create a lovely ambiance.

Part of the cathedral. For those of you who are not familiar with all the old architectural styles, this is a fine example of Gothic.

This is the huge golden alter inside the cathedral. This is apparently the largest alterpiece ever made. The picture is good, but it doesn't do it justice!

The paella that we had for our group dinner. You can see the regular sized dinner plates in the background to give you an idea of how big this pan is!

From Arcos de la Frontera, we got back on our bus to Sevilla. Sevilla is another big city, but after Granada, it seemed very clean and safe. One of the big attractions here are the orange trees all over the city. In the spring when they bloom, the air smells is fragrant with orange blossoms. Unfortunately these oranges are no good for eating. They are very bitter. There is only one use for them – in British orange marmalade. The people of Sevilla shake their heads that anyone would bother with such bitter oranges even as they sell them all to the crazy British people!

Sevilla has a very small historic center, about 1 km square. The streets are impossibly narrow and curvy making maps difficult. As in some of the other cities, the cute little open squares were actually not original. In Sevilla, they were built in 1929 for the Exposition. This ended up being a really bad year for an Exposition with the stock market crash and all. But they tried again in 1992 and the city ended up with some nice infrastructure and a lot of pedestrian-only streets. It all makes for a really pretty and charming city.

The two main sites in Sevilla are the cathedral and the Alcazar palace. The cathedral is the 3rd largest in Europe and it’s impressive. We had a fantastic, local tour guide who told us all the cool details about it. There is a tomb for Christopher Columbus here, but the city of Santo Domingo also claims to have his body. She explained that they ran several DNA tests before they were finally able to conclude that the remains in Sevilla are really Christopher Columbus. But Santo Domingo still claims that they have at least part of his body! The main alter of this cathedral was huge and all gold. I put the picture in, but you have to imagine it 10 times cooler. After we toured the inside of the cathedral, we climbed the bell tower. From the top, we were able to see lots of details on the church itself as well as the whole city. The bells were huge and when one of them rang, we nearly jumped out of our skin it was so loud!

Later that evening, we walked to dinner with the group. This was our paella dinner and they brought us one huge paella for the whole group. Again, I included a picture of the dish as they started to serve it. It was pretty good, but the stuff we ate in Madrid was better. After the meal, our tour guide had a surprise for us. She had arranged horse and carriage rides for the whole group. This was totally cool! We rode around the Cathedral and the palace and stopped for some pictures (sorry, none of mine were very good) before heading back to our hotel.

The next day, Dennis and I went to the Alcazar palace, which was very similar to the Alhambra but not quite as cool. Still it was nice to stroll around the gardens and enjoy the beautiful day. We walked around town quite a bit also and managed to find lunch in a little tapas restaurant. Later, we tried to find dinner, but as usual we struggled to find food before 8:30 pm. Thank goodness for tapas. We would have waited until later, but we had a Flamenco performance to go to at 8:30. The Flamenco was done in a really small theater, about 60 chairs around the center stage. There were only two dancers and the costumes were quite understated – not the huge ruffled dresses that we normally think of. After the performance, one woman asked if the Catholic Church had ever censored Flamenco because it’s so sexy. We were surprised to find out that they had not.

Arcos de la Frontera

2008-10-05T06:39:00.000-07:00

This is the city of Ronda, built over the river gorge. It was really hard to choose which picture to put in my blog, because Ronda was so beautiful.

Another view from Ronda. The farm land below is full of orange trees.

This is from Arcos de le Frontera. It's not quite as spectacular as Ronda, but still pretty cool.

In tribute to my brother, I am including this picture taken from the bathroom of our hotel room.

The narrow lanes with the white-washed buildings in Arcos.

From Granada, we rode the bus to Arcos de la Frontera, one of the beautiful white hill-towns. This is the southern part of Spain, the state of Andalucia, and is pretty much what we have in mind when we think of Spain. This is the home of bull-fighting, gazpacho, and flamenco.

As we left Granada, our tour guide warned us to have a very light breakfast because we would be stopping for brunch. As a source of revenue, some of the senoras in one of the small towns started a business serving tourists meals in their homes. We arrived in the small town, broke out into groups of seven, and followed the senoras home. The senoras only speak Spanish, but are very good at pantomiming. It was very good practice for me. I was able to understand most of her rudimentary commands and questions.

She served us a lot of different dishes, but all pretty basic. We had fresh bread, cheese, and some sausages and a meat spread that was like chorizo. The main part of the meal was Spanish tortilla, an egg and potato dish. There was a simple tomato and olive oil salsa to go with it. She tried to get us to drink wine with the meal, but we all thought it was too early. After the meal, she passed around a plate of grapes –these are the local wine grapes and tasted very fragrant. Then we had coffee and cookies (no wonder we were told to eat a light breakfast!). Finally, she started pulling out the brandy and other liquors. She encouraged us to drink some by indicating that we could sleep on the bus. The apple brandy was quite nice and not very strong. It was more like a wine than liquor. After our huge meal, she took us on a house tour. It was a nice house, although not very big. The kitchen and bathrooms were about what we would expect. The bedrooms were fairly small but again, looked pretty normal. The dining room was crammed into a small family room and had all of the important family pictures of Christenings and graduations.

We slept for a while on the bus until we reached our next stop, the city of Ronda. Ronda is built on a huge river gorge and is quite spectacular. We visited a bull-fighting ring, complete with blood still visible on the dirt. We did not actually see any bulls, but we did see some of the beautiful horses. Remember the famous Lipizzaner Stallions in Austria are actually from Spain (the Spanish Riding School). Anyway, we had some time to walk around the city and enjoy the views before we had to go.

Our final destination for the day was Arcos de la Frontera. The Frontera was the front line of the war against the Moors. The hill-tops were strategic locations and the towns were pretty well protected. One feature of all these hill-towns is the white-washed houses. I think white is the only color of paint that they sell. But the sun is so intense that the white probably helps to keep the interiors cool. In Arcos, there are not many sights other than the city itself. We did go into the small cathedral to see the dead dudes. One of them is “the incorruptible body” or St. Felix who miraculously never rots. He really looks like a skeleton dressed in clothes. I couldn’t figure out who the other guy was, but he looked the same. Fortunately they were both behind glass so we couldn’t smell them.

One really cool thing in this city was watching the cars trying to navigate the narrow roads. Virtually all the cars in town had long scratches on both sides and a lot of them had broken outside mirrors dangling off. These were compact cars, too. We stood and watched at one section where the buildings squeezed the road so the cars barely fit through. The drivers had to approach the narrow section and then back up a little bit to make sure that they were exactly straight. At this point, they opened the window and tilted the side mirror in. Then, ever so slowly, they would proceed. Once clear they reached out and pushed the mirror back out. There were tons of motorbikes here, too. Motorbikes would be much more practical than a car. The steep hills would make bicycles nearly impossible. Even walking up some of the hills was difficult!

Granada

2008-10-02T12:02:00.001-07:00

The La Mancha countryside with olive groves and vineyards.

The Don Quixote windmills.

The Alhambra as seen from our restaurant.

The gardens at the Alhambra.

The Moorish stucco - see the color?

Every door and room was decorated with the beautiful stucco.

From Toledo, we drove south towards Granada. On the way, we stopped at the Don Quixote windmills in La Mancha. The windmills were up on a hill (where there is a lot of wind) with a view of the surrounding farmland. The local crops are olives and wine grapes. Most of the olive oil in the world comes from Spain – they actually sell olives to the Italians. They are working on switching over from wine grapes to olives. The wine from this region tends to be crappy and the olive oil sells for more money. The windmills were actually used for milling wheat although they don’t grow as much wheat here as they used to.

We arrived in Granada in time for a walking tour and dinner. Granada, in the south of Spain, is the gateway to Morocco. The Moroccan influence was obvious in the restaurants and souvenir stores. The smell of incense poured out of all the little souvenir stores. The streets were narrow and dirty. There were lots of homeless people and weird looking hippies. Lots of them had scraggy-looking dogs. I really did not like this city. But it did have some redeeming factors.

For dinner, Dennis and I went to a wine bar. Granada is one of the last cities to serve tapas free with your drinks. Our tour guide advised us to keep an eye on what other people were getting and make sure you get the same. At our wine bar, we sat right at the bar so we could ask the bar tender about the wines. We ordered a glass each and we got our tapa – a toothpick with a grape and a square of cheese. OK, that’s a bit underwhelming. But we saw the chef deliver a platter with a gorgeous seafood salad (mussels, carrots, red peppers in vinaigrette). With my great high-school Spanish, I asked the bartender, “Que es esto?” With that, he gave us each a small serving of the salad. We ordered a few other tapas off the menu, too. The menu for once was understandable and the prices were listed clearly as well. Another glass of wine got us an even larger portion of the mussels! Yum. The tapas that we ordered were also wonderful. Finally tapas the way we thought they should be!

The next day, most of the group went to a Moroccan restaurant for lunch. They seated us in the upstairs dining room and we had the room to ourselves. The waiter just brought us an assortment of foods to try. It was a great way to sample a lot of dishes, but it was nearly impossible to know the name of the dish. So, there’s no way to order it again. Oh well, it was all fantastic, so it probably doesn’t matter what it’s called.

Finally, the highlight of Granada and the real reason that people come here was the Alhambra. The Alhambra was the Moorish Palace until the Crusaders conquered Spain. Then it became the Palace for Charles V. It’s a huge complex on a hilltop with gorgeous gardens and fresh cool breezes. The Moorish Palace still has the original stucco work complete with the colorful paint. The gardens were built after the Moors and were like an English garden. It’s really hard to describe such a large complex, so if you ever get to Spain, this is one of the places to see. You have to plan ahead, though. Tickets are all sold in advance.

That evening, we had a group dinner at a restaurant with a view of the Alhambra. After dinner, one of the guys in the group provided some entertainment. As a high school student, he played Don Quixote’s sidekick in The Man of La Mancha and he actually remembered one or two of the songs. The whole time he was singing, our tour guide was panicking that we would be kicked out! But our singer was pretty good and everyone was having fun.

So, the bottom line on Granada is great food and the fabulous Alhambra all in a dirty city with bad atmosphere.

Toledo

2008-09-28T09:56:00.001-07:00

One of the wider streets in Toledo.

A peak at the Cathedral from one of the narrow streets.

See the Basset Hound on the balcony? He barked at everyone walking by. What fun!

This is Toledo from the road. The Tajo river curves around the city in a U shape.

Toledo
From Madrid, we went just a little south to the historic city of Toledo. Toledo used to be the capitol of Spain. It’s a natural fortress with the Tajo river running along three sides. This protection also made it difficult to expand. That’s why they moved the capitol to Madrid. The entire city of Toledo is a Unesco World Heritage Site. It’s a very cool city made up of a labyrinth of cobble-stoned streets.

Our walking tour of Toledo started with an explanation of the phrase “holy Toledo!” Apparently, Toledo was considered the most holy city in Europe by the Sephardic Jews who lived there. Toledo was also a Roman city, then Visigothic, then Moorish before the Christians recaptured it in 1085. Obviously, there is a lot of history here!

The main Cathedral was truly spectacular. The bright colors on the altar are original. It was recently cleaned and they think the dirt actually preserved the colors. There is one place with a skylight that artistically illuminates the gilded Eucharist scene. This was a late addition to the Cathedral and many people thought the hole in the ceiling would weaken the structure. But it was built with care and caused no damage. The Sacristy is practically and art museum with mostly El Greco paintings.

After the walking tour, we headed out for lunch. The tour guide recommended a place in a small square just a few blocks from the main square. This tucked away little place was serving some local favorites. We had venison stew and a pork stew with lots of bread to soak up the sauces. We also found the local marzipan shop. Marzipan is a local treat and it’s quite different from the overly sweet, sticky stuff you’ve probably had. This was rich and baked so it was tender and moist, but not sticky.

Our group met for drinks on the roof of the hotel that evening. The tour guide had all the things to make Tinto de Verrano, a type of sangria. Here’s the recipe:

½ cup red wine (cheap wine is fine for this!)
¼ cup sparkling water
¼ cup orange or lemon lime soda
Splash of vermouth
Serve over ice with slices of orange and lemon

After the happy hour, we walked over to a restaurant where some people said they had a great lunch. We knew the name and approximately where it was, but we didn’t have the address. Most people find Toledo very confusing, but Dennis and I were pretty successful. We aimed in the direction we thought it should be, walked around a few of the side streets and voila! We had a fabulous dinner with some of the best red wine ever. We ordered the house wine, but when the waiter came and opened the bottle in front of us, we were a little concerned. Not knowing how expensive the wine was, we stuck to a single glass each. When we got the bill and saw that it was only 3 euros, we almost ordered more! Dennis had another typical Toledo dish, the partridge. I ordered the “acorn-fed Iberian pork.” Both dishes were fantastic. As we left, we grabbed a card to give to our tour guide. A good restaurant like this is too good to keep to ourselves!

So, after a rough start with the Spanish tapas, we were finally finding excellent food. Toledo was a lovely city and I could have spent another few days here for sure. Most of the streets are too narrow for cars, so it’s mainly a pedestrian town. And with little shops selling marzipan, knives, and beautiful gold-inlayed damascene it was fun to shop between sights. This was by far my favorite city on this tour!

PS - Per the last comment: The Spanish people are more into walking than biking. There were a few bikes in the big cities, but not like the Netherlands!

Madrid

2008-09-26T12:30:00.000-07:00

The Royal Cathedral in Madrid.

The bear and the tree are symbols of the city. This statue was on the corner of the pedestrian street that our hotel was on.

Dennis at the Royal Palace overlooking the rest of the city.

From Barcelona, we took the high-speed train to Madrid. On the train we really saw how wonderful the Spanish people are. The train had assigned seats, but Dennis and I were in a row without windows. Since we wanted to see out, we switched seats with the lady behind us. At the next stop, another person was supposed to sit in our row. The first lady explained the seat switch to him and he gladly sat down in the row with no windows. By and by, the lady got off and ANOTHER person came to our row. The guy explained and again, we were allowed to keep our good seats. That was pretty nice!

Madrid is right in the heart of Spain and is the capital. It’s a nice city with lots of pedestrian-only streets and beautiful squares. The squares and open space are relatively new. Jose Bonaparte (brother of Napoleon) tore down many of the Catholic buildings to create the squares from their courtyards. The Catholics were not happy but it makes for a nice walking city.

The first afternoon, we had time on our own. Dennis and I went to the Royal Palace. It’s a huge and beautiful building modeled after Versailles. It’s actually still in use and is therefore furnished. It’s rare because the furnishings are mostly original. Versailles is no longer original since the French Revolution when the people looted the place.

For a nice afternoon snack, we tried the typical Spanish treat of churros and chocolate. The churros are similar to what you get in the US, but without the sugar. The chocolate is really where the difference is. The Spanish chocolate is thick like a chocolate pudding, but more rich and less sweet. The little place that serves the churros and chocolate is tucked into a small alley. They have lots of outdoor seating and they only serve one thing. What a cool place!

That evening, the group got together for a dinner. The appetizers were good, but everyone agreed that the main courses were pretty bad. We had to choose between the ox-tail stew or cod. Dennis had the ox-tail and I chose the cod. Both dishes were painfully salty. If they weren’t so salty, I think they would have been good. Oh well, another disappointing meal…

Our hotel was on one of the main pedestrian streets. Since it was Saturday night, we sat out on the sidewalk café and drank sangria and watched the Madrilenos on their passeo.

In the morning, we had a walking tour of the city that included the Prada Museum. The guide showed us many of the famous paintings and explained their significance. Dennis and I were astounded that all of the paintings were religious or of royal families. How could there be so many paintings of Jesus and Mary?

For dinner, we got together with another couple who were also struggling with the cuisine. We decided that paella would be a nice change of pace from the tapas. I had checked a bunch of menus that afternoon as Dennis and I walked around. Lots of places advertised paella on large posters. Oddly, most of the posters were the same. Soon we noticed that they all had the same corporate logo on them. We realized these restaurants were serving frozen paella – not what we were after! We started checking the menus at smaller restaurants looking for REAL paella. Finally, right next door to our hotel, we found a menu with a note that you will have to wait 40 minutes for an order of paella. So this is where we went.

We had to wait until 8:00 for the restaurant to start serving dinner. But in the end, it was worth the wait. This was one of the best meals we had on the whole trip. The rice was savory and a little spicy, and caramelized on the bottom of the pan just the way it should be. The restaurant was not beautiful but the owner was very good to us. He didn’t speak much English, but we got by on my high-school Spanish. Again, we were impressed by how friendly and polite the people were.

So, Madrid was cool. They speak regular Spanish, are friendly and welcoming. The food is getting better, too.

News Flash

2008-09-25T11:05:00.000-07:00

Dennis has already found a job! The stats of his job search are pretty remarkable. He interviewed with 6 companies. He got three offers, one rejection, and the other two were still in play. He interviewed 9 times. The whole process took less than 5 weeks and we were on vacation for 2 of them. He is supposed to start work on Wednesday which means his time as a Man of Leisure is seriously limited.

His job is with a company that runs a popular website that compares product features and prices. They are located in Utrecht – just a 25 minute train ride from home. Since we picked a house that’s only 4 blocks from the train station, it should be very convenient. And the company is next door to the train station in Utrecht.

More later….

Barcelona

2008-09-21T05:29:00.000-07:00

This is the Ramblas were people stroll in the evenings when it's cooler.

Here are the hams hanging in the market.

This is just one small part of the Gaudi Sagrada Familia.

This is one of the historic Roman gates to the city.

The first stop on our tour was Barcelona – a sunny city on the Mediterranean Sea and home to Gaudi and Picasso. We had an easy flight and found our hotel without any problems. Of course, we had the advantage of not being jet-lagged like the rest of our group! The tour group was 24 people from the US and Canada. Our leader, Amanda, is also American but lives and works in Madrid.

The first evening, we went out as a group for our first taste of tapas. Most of the tapas were fried – calamari, fried artichoke hearts, and fried cheese. There was also a small plate of paella, a yummy potato salad, and tortilla, which is potato layered with egg. All in all, the food was pretty boring.

The next day, we started the tour in earnest with a walking tour of the Gothic Quarter and Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. The Gothic Quarter was cool because it was the old Roman city with narrow streets and all the historic buildings. Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia was a bit disappointing. Apparently, it’s been under construction constantly since it was started. So, you have to look past the workers and the scaffolds and junk to see what’s going on. Of course Gaudi was known for his “more is more” philosophy so there was a lot going on. Actually, when you looked at each section individually, it was quite beautiful. The whole thing was designed to show his love for God. No public funds have been used in the construction. It’s all funded by entry fees and donations. That’s part of why it’s taking so long.

After our long walking tour, we were set free for the rest of the day. Dennis and I grabbed some sandwiches at a small shop and then went on to the Boqueria Market, a beautiful food market. The fruit sellers make all sorts of fruit juices which is really refreshing on a hot day. The seafood was stunning as well. But what we really noticed were lots of shops selling Serrano ham. The ham legs were just hanging from the awnings. When someone orders, they shave thin slices off the leg. Some of the ham is 150 euros per kilo! We tasted a mid-priced ham and just got a couple euros worth. It was tasty but rather dry and chewy.

For dinner, we tried some more tapas and also had sangria. The tapas were mostly French bread with some toppings like ham, cheese, or seafood. Really, the tapas thing seems to be over-rated. But with the dinner restaurants not opening until 8:30 or 9:00, we didn’t have a lot of options. Since it’s so hot during the day, the Spanish go out very late. In the evenings, they walk outside (called the paseo) to meet their friends and get some food. They eat tapas as a snack before their main meal.

Our other problem with the tapas was that the menus were not in Spanish – they speak Catalonian in Barcelona. So the menus were not helpful. We tried sitting at the bar to get a better view of the tapas on display. That way we could point to what we wanted and not have to know the name. But you also don’t know the price…

The coolest part about Barcelona was the Rambla, a mile-long pedestrian boulevard stretching from the waterfront to the main square. It’s full of little shops and kiosks, street entertainers, tourists, and pick-pockets. The people- watching was fabulous! We chose to spend more time walking the Ramblas rather than seeing the Picasso museum. Neither of us are big Picasso fans.

In a nutshell, Barcelona is beautiful, warm, and sunny, but the language barrier is difficult. It seemed pretty touristy along the Ramblas. The tapas here were not so great.

Home from our Holiday

2008-09-19T03:27:00.000-07:00

We arrived home last night from 15 days in Spain and Portugal. We've managed to pick up the cat from the kennel and go grocery shopping and the laundry is started. I haven't downloaded the pictures yet. I have several hundered to go through, so please be patient.

The trip was fabulous. It was warm and sunny almost all the time. Now that we're home, it's definitely feeling like fall. The air is crisp and cool! Spain and Portugal look a lot like the southwest US. Along the coast, it's more humid than I expected, but the land was pretty dry. The food varied from really good to pretty bad depending on what city we were in and what we ordered.

Since we visited so many cities, I think I'll describe them one at a time in the posts. That will give me time to go through the pictures, too! But to give you a bit of background, we took an organized tour through Rick Steves - you know, the guy who does the travel programs on public TV? Anyway, there were 24 people on the tour. We mostly traveled by bus which enabled us to see some of the small towns and the countryside. The tour leader was really good about explaining the food and culture at each stop. We usually had about 1/2 the day to tour as a group and then we had the other 1/2 day to go off on our own. It was nice to have the free time to see what we wanted at our own pace, or just to get some extra rest. Afterall, it is a vacation!

But after 15 days of cities and cathrdrals and palaces, I'm glad to be home. After a while they start to all look alike! And I'm a bit tired of all the city noises, too. It's nice to be back home where it's quiet and everything is green!

Sick and boring

2008-08-31T01:17:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts for the last couple of weeks. Dennis got back from the US a couple of weeks ago and he managed to pick up some kind of super-germ on the plane. He flew in on Saturday and got sick on Monday. By Friday, I had it as well. So, we've wasted two weekends just laying around the house sniffling, sneezing, and coughing. Not only is this cold quite severe, it seems to last a long time. Dennis has been sick now for two weeks, but is finally starting to feel better. I'm a few days behind him so I am still miserable.

I'm hoping that we will be healthy by Thursday when our vacation starts. We booked a 15 day tour of Spain and Portugal. It's supposed to be a lot of walking so I really want to be feeling good for it. Of course we had hoped to be out walking every night for the last two weeks to get ready, but the cold-from-hell pretty much wreaked that plan. The most walking we've done has been to buy more kleenex and soup at the store!

Now that Dennis is unemployed (a man of leisure), he's been spending some of his time on the job search. At least this seems to be going well. He posted his resume on Monster.com ona Friday. On Monday, the phone wouldn't stop ringing. Every headhunter in the Netherlands was calling. Dennis is working with a couple of the recruiters who called and he's already had two job interviews. This week, he has two more interviews lined up. It's too early to have any job offers, but we are excited about the number of opportunities out there. I suspect Dennis will not be a man of leisure for very long!

Today is one of those rare summer days in Holland where the sun is shining and it's warm. After several weeks of clouds and rain, this is like a miracle. We are planning to ride our bikes over the little beach and try to cook the cold germs out in the sun. Wish us luck!

2008-08-08T10:14:00.000-07:00

In the canals around the Naarden vesting, rowing is quite popular. If you look closely at the first picture, you can see a row of ducks on the other side of the scull boat. What copy-cats! The second picture is a swan on one of the canals. Swans are pretty common here. The third picture is the little bridge that I bike over to get to work. The last picture was taken from the same bridge. There are homes on one side of the canal and cows on the other. This canal connects to the larger canal around the Naarden vesting. The people in the boat had to duck to get under the bridge although it's technically a drawbridge. There are some serious rusted padlocks indicating that it doesn't "draw" very often.

More Pictures

2008-08-01T10:11:00.001-07:00

The first three pictures are of the town center in Bussum. This is where I do all the shopping. In Dutch, they say boodschappen for buying groceries and other regular stuff. If you are shopping for clothing or just browsing, it's called winkelen. The shops are called winkels. One of my favorite shops is the cheese shop - but probably because it has such cute cow-decor! The town has two church clock towers, you can see one of them in the first picture. The bells chime, but I rarely even notice it when I'm at home.

The next picture is one of the bike paths. The farmer had just been out cutting hay when we rode by. Actually this is not just a bike path, it's also the access road for the farms. We thought it was just a path because it was so narrow, but we have seen cars on it. Fortunately the cars yield to bikes so you don't have to worry about getting run down.

The last picture is the Vecht river. It's one of the few natural rivers as opposed to being a canal which would be straight. The Vecht is a favorite place for the Dutch people. It's really pretty and there are really cool houses (and house boats) all along it. When the weather is good, there are plenty of people on sailboats, speedboats, and yachts playing on and in the water. There is a great bike path along the river which is also a popular destination. What you can't really see from the picture, is that the land behind me as I took the picture, is actually lower than the river. It's really strange and hard to capture in a picture.

I've been getting around taking more pictures, so check back soon and I'll post some more. I know I've been putting up a lot of posts lately, so I'll try to give you guys a break. But I'd love to see some comments!

2008-07-31T09:56:00.000-07:00

I finally got around to downloading some pictures to the blog. The top pic is our street - there is almost no traffic, but it's not really quiet. There are tons of kids who play outside and definitely use their outdoor voices!

The second pic is the front of our house. The little orange cat seems to live in the yard. I've named it Sunshine, but I don't feed it. It's a very sweet cat, though,

The last pic is the view of our back garden from inside the dining room. The hydrangeas are blooming right now - very pretty. There is plenty of room for the patio furniture and the grill, but not very much yardwork to do.

I'll post a few more pictures once I make sure these look good.

Open water swimming

2008-07-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

Back home in the Netherlands, the weather has finally started to feel like summer. Think hot and humid with no air conditioning. I did some stuff over the weekend including biking to Huizen to shop their Saturday market and walking through the woods on Sunday. Both days I thought about riding my bike over to the little beach on one of the nearby lakes for a swim, but I never quite got there.

Today, I spent the day at work just trying not to break a sweat. That means a slow bike ride to work and riding the elevator between floors. But I was still getting crabby from the heat. This afternoon, I biked home and dug out my triathlon gear. It’s been a long time!

I headed out toward the lake taking the shortcut along the unpaved path. I took my hybrid bike so I could take this trail and also bring along a towel, bike lock, and other junk. The little beach is an easy 40 minute ride from my house. It’s a tiny beach along a bike path – no access by car. I was a little worried that nobody would be there making it a bit dangerous to swim by myself. But when I arrived, there were about 10 people there including a family that pulled up in a speedboat.

I only got a couple of strange looks as I took off my shoes and got in the water with my biking clothes on! But the water was so cool and felt fantastic! All of my crabbiness just melted away. I swam around for a few minutes and then I noticed that one of the other swimmers was not wearing much. In fact, she had nothing on at all. This didn’t seem to bother anyone else, not even the family with young children. At least the naked lady looked good. Some of the other swimmers would have been pretty frightening with no clothes – they were frightening enough with clothes ON!

At any rate, I swam around a little longer and then rode home. In 40 minutes of riding, I was still dripping water when I got home. It’s that humid! But now that I’ve found an awesome place to swim, it can stay hot for a while longer!

Ooh, the chocolate!

2008-07-27T10:34:00.001-07:00

Switzerland was really a cool place. I really need to plan a hiking vacation to the mountains for next summer. The air was clean and fresh and the chocolate was to die for. And the view of the snowcapped mountains from the taxi was almost too tempting. The taxi driver tried to convince us to skip work and go sight seeing instead. On a beautiful sunny day, we almost accepted.

So, instead of going on a nice hike in the mountains, here is how the trip went down. My flight from Amsterdam was delayed, and it was packed with tourists. When you are traveling for business, there is nothing worse than a plane full of tourists to remind you that you are NOT on vacation. The Japanese tourists were especially aggravating – they are very impatient and tend to push in line. On the plane, I was letting the other people in my row get seated before I took my aisle seat. A Japanese guy tried to push past me, but I wouldn’t let him. He even indicated that he needed to get past me to get to his seat. I told him I would be out of his way as soon as the others were seated. He looked totally frustrated. But the kicker is that nobody was behind him – the rest of the passengers were on a second bus that had not even arrived at the plane!

When I got to Zurich, I got some cash from the ATM. Switzerland uses Swiss Francs rather than the Euro. One Swiss Franc is almost exactly one US Dollar, so I wanted 100 Francs. The cash machine gave me a one hundred Franc note. I walked over to the bank to see if I could get smaller bills, but she assured me that the 100 is the most commonly used bill and I would not have any problem using it. That was my first indication that Switzerland might be rather expensive. The next was the 100 Franc taxi ride to my hotel. It only took 20 minutes. Wow, good thing the company is paying!

At the hotel, I noticed that all the TV programs are dubbed into German (probably Swiss German, which is different than regular German, but hardly important when you don’t understand either one). The only English language programming was CNN. So, if I go to Switzerland for a vacation, I need lots of money and a good book.

At work, we learned some interesting things about Switzerland. Every house must have a bomb shelter and emergency food. Even if you are building a brand new house, you better plan to build a bomb shelter. Things run pretty much right on time in Switzerland. The taxi drivers that we arranged to take us to and from the hotel were always 10 minutes early. We saw a storage room that was completely organized. Bottles and jars were neatly lined up with their labels facing front. It was definitely different from all the messy store rooms I’m used to. The Swiss people eat a lot of cheese, but they don’t drink milk like the folks in Holland. I saw lots of people riding their bikes and most of them had helmets on, again a contrast to Holland.

In the evenings, we had a little time on our own. The first night we shopped for chocolate. We found the local chocolate shop and bought small amounts of the terribly expensive chocolate. Then we went to a grocery store to buy some less expensive stuff. When I got back to the hotel, I tried the expensive stuff and it was beyond fabulous! If I hadn’t already spent $60 on chocolate, I would have gone back to get more.

The second evening, we borrowed the hotel bikes and rode around town a bit. The taxi driver had given us directions to a restaurant that we could ride to that was on a lake. When we arrived, we laughed out loud. The lake was more of a pond and the restaurant looked like the snack bar for the mini-golf course. So, we just rode around a bit more and then went back into the town center for dinner. Of course, I should tell you that I did not have my bike helmet with me, so I was living dangerously. And, at one point we decided to take a side street just to see where it went. Well, that side street went straight up a hill. After biking in Holland, neither of us was doing very good on the hill. We had to stop a couple times to catch our breath. Good thing we had mountain bikes with lots of gears! As we got to the top, we realized that there was nothing to see, so we rode back down. Down is always more fun than up! But at least we earned our dinner and it was nice to get outside to enjoy the weather.

Girls on the Town

2008-07-23T04:05:00.000-07:00

Friday night a group of us from work went out for drinks at the local watering hole. While my Dutch is still not very good, I know to watch for the emails that say “Biertje bij Demmers.” Demmers is the name of the bar and biertje means beer (the “tje” at the end is a diminutive, so it’s literally a small beer). Of course they also serve wine for non-beer drinkers like me.

Demmers is a little pub in Naarden Vesting and it has a nice outdoor seating area. It’s close to work, and also not too far from my house. That makes it very convenient for biking. So, after work we all gathered and began enjoying the start of another weekend. Most of the conversation at these events is in Dutch, and I think I only understand about 10% of it. Some of my coworkers either think I’m more fluent than that or they are trying to help me learn. Here’s what I heard at one point:

“Blah, blah, blah, eat something, blah blah blah…Karen, blah blah, eat something?”

Naturally I answered yes! With Dennis out of town, I have no place I need to go so what the heck! I’ve learned that when you’re with friends the answer to most questions is yes. It’s best to assume the question is whether you want to do something fun, or try something new. When you’re at the store, the correct answer is mostly no. Here you are assuming that they asked if you want help, have a store discount card, or want a bag.

After we paid the bar tab, I hung around to find out what I agreed to and who else was going. It turned out that several of the ladies were going up the street to eat dinner at a restaurant. As we got settled in the restaurant, the girls decided that I needed help translating the menu so they were going to ask the Irish bartender to come over and give us a personal translation. Of course I told them I can read a Dutch menu and don’t need help. But once the (handsome) bartender came over, I understood why they wanted the translation!

This smaller group of people and quieter atmosphere made the conversation a bit easier for me. They mostly spoke English unless they didn’t know how to say it. Then one of the other ladies would help with the translation. Having dinner with these ladies was really fun for me and I’m glad they included me.

Right now I'm in Switzerland for work. My next post will have some good travel stories!

Holiday Time

2008-07-16T11:56:00.000-07:00

Its summer vacation for the school kids here in the Netherlands. That means everyone is taking most of their 5 weeks of vacation. Yeah, 5 weeks – and your vacation is calculated by age instead of how long you’ve been with the company. Oh, and most people in the Netherlands also get an additional 13 days off as part of a government plan to increase employment.

As someone without kids, I’m working through the school holidays and will take my time off in September. But that means that I’m covering for a lot of people in my group. Out of 6 of us, there will be 2 in the office for the next several weeks. That should keep me busy while my husband is in the US!

With all the holidays, people are talking a lot about their plans. It seems that most people get a camper and head to wide outdoors! When you pack the camper, there is always the question of what appliances you should take along. Do you really need the coffee maker AND the fryer? Apparently, it’s quite common to take a fryer along so you can make French fries at the camp-site. And, of course, you have to bring your 5 kilo bag of potatoes too. I would have thought my coworkers were pulling my leg on this one, but I saw the neighbors packing their potatoes in the camper.

I’m also a bit surprised at the camping locations people pick. One my way to work yesterday, I saw a tent pitched by the water near Naarden Vesting. Naarden Vesting is really cool, but you can see it in one day. And with no public toilets and no shower facilities, why would you want to camp there?

One of my coworkers is going to Switzerland to go hiking. It’s not camping and her luggage will be taken from one chalet to the next so she doesn’t have to carry a huge backpack. I thought this sounded cool, so I asked about the details on such a trip. She said to check the internet. On-line, I found two companies that lead hiking tours like the one she described. The tours sounded fantastic except that they were all 2 weeks long. OK, hiking is cool, but NOT for 2 weeks. I was thinking 3-4 days would be plenty of hiking. 2 weeks sounds just painful.

Fortunately next week I’ll have a chance to do some more research on light hiking in Switzerland. I’m going to Zurich for a few days next week for work. I’m hoping to find some good travel brochures in the hotel, because that’s probably all I’m going to see.

Dutch Humor

2008-07-06T09:51:00.000-07:00

So you all know that Dennis had a sore foot last week. He managed to rest it enough so he was able to get through the airport without too much trouble. But when he got home, he still decided to have a doctor look at it. Naturally they did an x-ray and they found out it's broken. The third metatasil, to be exact, is broken all the way through. He has an appointment to see an orthopaedic sugeon tomorrow, so we'll know a bit more then. I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict that the ortho will tell him to stay off it for a few more weeks, and use ice and ibuprofin if it hurts. We'll see if I'm right. I'm not a doctor (I just play one on TV).

Now that Dennis is back home in Chicago, I'm feeling a bit lonely here. But at least I can still ride my bike and walk! So that's what I've been doing - besides work, of course. Today I walked over to another little town nearby to see their carnival. It was a long walk, one hour each way, so I treated myself to cotton candy at the carnival. Carnivals are always such good people-watching. And when the old lady remarked about my cotton candy, I just smiled and laughed along with her. Yeah, I had no idea what she said.

Yesterday, I took the train to the bigger town just south of us, Hilversum to do some shopping. They have a bigger town center than ours, so it was worth the trip. I walked pretty far through town and was ready to head back when I realized I had no idea where the train station was. I asked several people for directions and was beginning to feel like I was going in circles. Each person told me to go back the way I had just come! Finally, a guy in a car asked ME for directions. Again, I really don't know what he said, but he named a street and it sounded like a question. Sometimes you just have to make the guess. I answered that I can't even find the train station! He was the only person who gave me good directions. I finally found the train station by asking the person who was lost. Funny!

On Friday night, I went into Bussum to get a haircut. I was very relieved that the stylist spoke English. The last time I was there, I had to wait for the one person who spoke English. So, we were speaking Engish the whole time. When it was time to pay, we walked to the register where there were several other people. The cashier asked if I was in their computer system. I said yeah and told her my very very Dutch surname. The whole group laughed out loud!

I also managed to see a movie in the theater, too. There's a small movie theater just a couple blocks from our house. I wanted to see Juno, and knew that Dennis wouldn't be very interested. So, I walked over. Movie theaters are one of those things that are different in every country. In Singapore, you had to choose your seats when you but the ticket. Here, you can call ahead for resverations. Even though I didn't have reservations, I was still able to get a ticket. The theater was small - only about 100 seats. Their concession stand sells beer and wine, but most people just had a cup of tea. No popcorn and no Big Gulp! They had a limited selection of candy, but you had to look for it. The atmosphere was more like a concert or a play than a movie.

There is one scene in the movie, where the girl is driving through a yuppie neighborhood. They pass a bunch of houses, but there were only three different models. So it looked like they were just driving by the same three houses over and over, but the landscaping changed. Anyway, this bit of American humor made me laugh out loud. I'm sure the Dutch people just didn't get the joke!

The British think they have the corner of the market on humor and that no Dutch person has a sense of humor. My conclusion is that Dutch people are funny. And since laughter is the best medicine, I hope this helps Dennis' foot heal faster!

Friday Evening Party

2008-06-29T02:07:00.000-07:00

One of the ladys in my group had a house-warming party on Friday night. She and her boyfriend recently bought a house in a nearby town. She also wanted to have a group party to welcome the two of us who recently arrived in the Netherlands.

Coming up to the party, we all had a very busy week. Our boss was in town from the US which meant meetings, and lunches, and dinner out. We were also interviewing several people for an open position in our group. By Friday, we were all ready for a bit of relaxing.

Dennis and I got a ride to the party with our expat neighbors, the Haywoods. The Haywoods have 3 children so just getting to the party was a bit of an adventure. All of them were vying for our attention and we were glad that it was a short drive. The three year old was all ready to party with her pink jewled tiara. At the party, there were six other children, all between 7 and 10 years old. Of course, the 3 year old was in her glory as the center of attention with all the older kids playing mommy and daddy to her.

The grown-ups sat outside on the deck overlooking the canal and had drinks and nibbles. I brought the Mounds Bar Brownies which were quite popular. I had to explain the name since they don't have Mounds Bars here. They something similar called Bounty Bars - so maybe I just need to adjust the name of my dessert for the local culture.

The canal was nice attraction for the house. The deck went right over the canal and they had a small row boat. I was surprised that there was no fence to keep people from falling into the water. The Dutch people explained that in a country with so much water, all children are taught how to swim from an early age.

While everyone at the party was able to speak English, much of the conversation was in Dutch. I know some people would think it rude of the group to speak Dutch when four of the guests do not. But it really doesn't bother me. I understand that it can be tiring to speak a foreign language and when you are relaxing at lunch or at a party, you may not want to work that hard. There are many times that someone will stop the conversation and fill me in on the topic. It's a good way for me to practice the language. I can listen and guess what they are talking about - many clues come from the body language and gestures - and then get a little confirmation at then end. I have not had the feeling they are talking about me - that seems so 7th grade!

The rest of the weekend is getting kind of boring. Dennis hurt his foot this week and can hardly walk on it. He's also getting ready to head back to the US on Monday. So, he's resting his sore foot in the hope that he'll be able to walk through the airport. We're just hanging around the house doing the laundry, cleaning, and packing.

Last week in England

2008-06-22T06:13:00.001-07:00

I spent most of last week in England for a training program through work. I have been to London before, but I had never seen the rest of England. Judging England based on visiting London, is a bit like judging the US after seeing only New York City. For this trip, I flew into Manchester and then went by car to Port Sunlight which is near Liverpool. We also took a long drive to another production site near Coventry. This gave me a good opportunity to see the country side.

There was one big thing that struck me about England. It is very similar to the US. They have the urban sprawl, 24 hour grocery stores, fast food joints and loads of junk food. During our meetings, they brought pop and cookies along with the coffee and tea. The company cafeteria had lots of point-of-sale advertisements for candy and chips. And of course, the people in England are fat like Americans, too.

England is a 1 hour flight from Amsterdam and yet it’s a world away in terms of food and advertising. In the Netherlands, the food marketing is not as aggressive as what we see in the US or England. We’re used to seeing advertisements that play on our emotions: food is linked to pleasure, wealth, success, and health. There are lots of ways to entice you to buy larger packages (buy one, get one free, larger package is a better value, get free music downloads with each bottle of pop, etc.). As you know, when you have a larger package, you are more likely to use more of the product. That holds true whether it’s potato chips or laundry soap.

In the Netherlands, pack sizes are very small. Buy one get one free offers are limited to shoes. Most food advertising is for healthy products, like yogurt or fruit drinks. There are a few commercials for McDonalds and Burger King, but certainly not in the numbers that we’re used to seeing in the US. Another interesting note for advertising in the Netherlands, is the length of the ads. When the ads start playing on TV you have enough time to do all the dishes, or fold the whole load of laundry. That really invites you to walk away, rather than stick around and watch the ads.

In England, we went to a 24 hour grocery store called ASDA. As soon as we walked in, it reminded me of home. They sold clothes and household goods as well as groceries and had a cafeteria – just in case you work up an appetite with all that shopping. Later, I saw a truck that said, “ASDA – part of the Wal-Mart family.” That about sums it up, doesn’t it?

Food in the Netherlands

2008-06-16T11:24:00.000-07:00

One of the blog readers asked for more information on weight and eating issues. Since this is a huge topic, I’ll only bore you in small bits.

True life conversation: I am telling a guy from work, “I ride my bike to work. I only live 3 kilometers from the office, so it’s very convenient.” He replies, “3 kilometers isn’t enough exercise for you.” Hmm, what DO you say to that?

At work we received some samples of food from the UK. One lady pulled out the package of Lunchables and declared it child abuse. We also received samples of snack chips from around Europe and the US. The group here was astonished that the bags from the US were so big – huge by local comparison. The price marked on the bag was $4.89 and this was also astonishing. Another shipment brought Twinkies, Rice Krispie Treats, and beef jerky.

The people at work now think that Americans (and British people) only eat large quantities of snack foods and serve their kids Lunchables. The Dutch people are very smug about their weight and healthy eating habits.

But they have junk food here in the Netherlands, too. There are stroopwafels, pannekoeken, apple pies, cheese, chocolate, and a bakery on every corner. They drink loads of milk and eat lots of bread. So, why does the US have an obesity problem and the Netherlands doesn’t? Obviously, it’s far more complicated than Lunchables and big bags of chips.

I’ll spare you the history lesson, but try to remember where our Puritan forefathers came from. You got it, a whole lot of them were Dutch. The Calvinists were the ones who thought that pleasure was the Devil’s work, so they worked hard to make life as uncomfortable as possible. While most modern Dutch people are not very religious, I think this Calivinst attitude kind of stuck.

Food is very much a utilitarian thing. It doesn’t have all the emotional power that we attach to it. Food doesn’t entertain you, or make you happy, or give you extra energy for the day. People don’t expect donuts for a morning meeting or cookies in an afternoon meeting. Fruit is sometimes served with the coffee and tea but most people just take one for later.

Another time, I’ll tell you about the restaurants and grocery stores.

Epic Bike Ride

2008-06-08T06:56:00.001-07:00

Saturday morning and the weather forecast called for 70 degrees. We decided we didn’t have too many errands to run, so we’d go for a bike ride. Besides riding to and from work, I’ve been out on the road bike only about once a week and only for 20 miles or so. Our rides have been pretty slow because there are so many little towns around here. The bike route system is fantastic until you get into a town and the signs disappear. We end up doing lots of map checks to get back on track. But Dennis had found an area where there are not very many towns and there are some nice long stretches to build up our speed.

Our route took us out of our town, past my workplace, and through the neighboring town of Huizen. Huizen is along the lakeshore and we rode along the beaches, beachfront homes, and restaurants. Most of the in-town routes are brick roads with speed bumps and it’s hard to get going very fast. But soon, we left Huizen via the crushed limestone path along the lake. This section is short and worth taking to avoid more of the city streets. It’s a pretty direct way to the bridge across the lake.

The bridge offers one of the few “hills” in the area. Otherwise, the landscape is seriously flat. It makes Chicago appear mountainous by comparison. On the other side of the bridge is the newly created Flevoland. This is land reclaimed from the lake. I’m older than this land which was dried out in the 70’s. The few towns in Flevoland are also very new. For young families, it offers new, large homes for lower prices than the older more established cities. It’s a bit like Plainfield and Romeoville that way.

As we crossed the bridge, we followed one of the bike routes into a forest preserve (yeah, that’s funny because the trees were planted and they are only about 30 years old). The path was nicely paved, but wove around the woods with lots of twists and turns. There was some sort of organized roller blade event going on, so we also had to dodge roller bladers.

Finally, we got out of the forest and got on a small road that ran parallel to a canal. This is what we were looking for – a long stretch of smooth pavement with few cars. There were plenty of other riders, too. By this point in the day, the sun had come out and the wind was almost non-existent, but the temperature was only around 70. Dennis and I hammered a bit out here, but as my speedometer said we were already 20 miles from home, I was concerned about having enough energy to make it back. Even so, it was really fun to get in the aerobars and really cruise! When we got to the group of huge windmills, we stopped for a snack. Stroopwaffels make very good biking treats. These are thin wafer cookies stuck together with caramelized sugar syrup. They are tasty and they travel well. We took some time to read the signs about the windmills and the land reclamation. These windmills are huge modern things, not the old-fashioned historic ones. Unfortunately, the signs were all in Dutch and our language skills are not good enough for full appreciation of the subject.

Rested and fueled by stroopwafels, we continued on our way. Dennis led us around one of the few towns and onward back toward the lakeshore. We took a slight detour where the bike route was closed for constructions, but the detour took us on another really nice road. I was really having fun with the roads and the great weather, but was still wondering how much further we had to go. A check of the map indicated that all we needed to do was go along the lakeshore back to the bridge we came over on. Conveniently, there is a bike path all the way.

We started along the bike path and we were making good time, when the pavement ended and it became a crushed limestone trail. We normally don’t like such trails when we’re on the road bikes because the skinny tires don’t have much traction and the bikes just weren’t designed for this kind of surface. But, it seemed like it was in good condition and we figured the pavement would start up again soon. As we continued, the path became quite narrow – single track actually. Because we were near the shore, there were lots of hikers and people out sunbathing. One guy, about 60 years old, was crossing the path dressed in a Speedo and knee-high socks, no shoes. He was quite pale and plump and that’s an image you just don’t want seared on your retinas. Yikes!

As the path degraded, there were more and more patches of deep sand. If you hit those on road bike, the tires get mired down and your body lurches forward in a classis example of the laws of physics. We were almost 40 miles into the ride and my shoulders were aching, my butt was getting sore, and my legs were tired. When is this going to end?

About this time, we hit the bugs. Swarms and swarms of gnats seemed to never end. We had to slow down to keep from breathing too hard. If you open your mouth, you’d have gnats on your tonsils. Even breathing through my nose, I’m sure I inhaled several little guys. We both ride with sunglasses, but the bugs were still getting in our eyes. But you can’t take your eyes off the trail, or you’ll hit one of those treacherous sandy patches. OK, I’m not having fun anymore! Are we there yet?

Finally, we emerged from the nature area and onto a paved path. The little headwind we encountered here was a welcome relief from the bugs. I had Dennis help me fish a bug out of my eye. Once I could see again, I noticed that he was literally coated in bugs! His arms and legs were black as the gnats got trapped in his body hair. Boy I’m glad I shaved my legs!

About this point, I spotted an ice cream truck parked along the beach where a bunch of people were fishing. I told Dennis I wanted to stop for ice cream. “Do you have any money?” he asked. “Of course, I always have 20 bucks in case of emergencies. This was definitely an emergency! So we each had an ice cream bar as we watched the sailboats on the lake.

With a fresh burst of energy, we were off again. I was quite relieved when we were able to see our bridge in the distance. By this time, we had more than 45 miles on the speedometer and quite a few miles still to go. This was getting hard. We stopped a couple more times just to stretch and shake loose. We finally got home after 4 hours and 53 miles.

I’m hoping we can check the maps and GPS and figure out a way to find the sweet roads without having to take the single track. I’d also like to find a route that’s a bit shorter!

Got Milk?

2008-06-03T12:00:00.000-07:00

I haven’t forgotten about my blog, I just haven’t had much that interesting to say. After months of living in a hotel and being away from my husband, my cat, and my belongings, I am in fact just enjoying “playing house.” Shopping, cooking, and cleaning don’t make for interesting blog posts, though.

My biggest excitement yesterday was not buying the car from my friend, but getting the vacuum cleaner and microwave oven. I will probably be using these appliances more often than the car anyway. I did drive to work this morning because it was raining. I can hardly believe that for the 2 weeks I didn’t have a car, I did not get rained on once! It rained plenty, but not when I was biking to and from work. How lucky is that?

At any rate, I have another Dutch observation for you. This time, it’s about milk. The Dutch people drink tons of milk. I’m not sure if I believe that drinking milk makes you grow taller, but there seems to be a positive correlation here in the Netherlands. In the US, I’m considered a bit short. Here, I’m freakishly short – bordering on midget. As an example, the built-in microwave oven in my kitchen is at the height of my nose making it impossible to see the food. My husband on the other hand, who is considered quite tall in the US, is just plain normal here.

At this point I must let everyone know that my Mom tried very hard to get us kids to drink our milk. She dutifully served us milk with every meal and despite our constant complaining, never gave up the fight. Of course, since my Mom is shorter than me, all the milk in the world wouldn’t have made me tall.

I still don’t like milk very much. It’s OK on cereal and for cooking, but I cannot bring myself to drink a glass of milk. Yuck! Like most Americans, I drink pop with my lunch and water at dinner. Despite the high cost of Diet Coke, I allow myself the luxury every day at lunch. I’m definitely in the minority on this one.

A couple weeks ago, I attended a training program at work that included lunch. I was shocked to see that milk was the only beverage supplied at lunch, no iced tea, no pop, no bottled water. And no complaints about it either! In the US, there would have been a mutiny!

Most people drink half-fat milk which is about 1.5% fat. Buttermilk is also a popular option. You can get skim milk, but it’s hard to find. At the grocery store, we can only get skim milk in 1 liter containers, which is about 1 quart. Yogurt and yogurt smoothie drinks are common also. Some of them are quite good – but I’m still attached to my Diet Coke!

Chocolate Sprinkles

2008-05-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

Our activities are getting mundane now: go to work, buy groceries, make dinner, watch Baywatch, repeat. I am going to have to get more creative with my posts. To that end, I will try to share some important cultural tidbits.

Today’s lesson is on the proper way to consume chocolate sprinkles. Yes, I am talking about those little brown mouse-poop shaped treats that we normally see decorating donuts and sugar cookies. Here in the Netherlands, you will find small boxes of chocolate sprinkles at the hotel breakfast buffet and in the office cafeteria. At the grocery store, you will find large boxes of sprinkles – enough to cover several dozen donuts. Like you, I wondered what the Dutch people could possibly be doing with all these sprinkles.

Dennis tried adding them to his coffee to make a nice mocha drink. But that generated surprised looks and shaking heads. Putting sprinkles in your coffee marks you as a tourist as quickly as wearing sneakers around town (something I still do, by the way).
My office mate is the queen of the chocolate sprinkles. Instead of buying the small boxes at the cafeteria, she brings her own monster box from home. How does she eat them? She sprinkles them on her bread and then eats the bread with a knife and fork. You might think that buttering the bread would be a requirement for making the sprinkles stick, but you would be wrong. Through some finely honed skill (or magic) those little brown things stay on the bread without falling off through the entire knife and fork maneuvering. And she doesn’t put just a few sprinkles on her bread either – she piles them on about ¼ inch thick. This is truly an amazing skill.

Going Shopping

2008-05-21T10:52:00.000-07:00

Shopping is a challenge, but we’ve been pretty successful at finding what we need. The grocery stores are open later then the other stores, so I usually have time to shop after work. Everything is closed on Sunday. Planning ahead is essential. But since everyone is shopping Saturday it can get pretty hectic.

The stores are much more compact than in the US. When they are crowded, it’s nearly impossible to walk through. You have to look hard for what you want because it’s crammed into such a small space. The stores are generally well organized, though.

On Saturdays, there’s a lot of pressure to grab your item and move out of people’s way. If you don’t move fast enough, they will elbow you out. Now imagine not being able to recognize the brands and you can’t tell if you are buying dishwashing soap or laundry detergent. It can take some time to examine the label and figure out what it is. And sometimes they just don’t have what you are looking for. Oatmeal is called havermout and comes in a small box rather than the round tubs we’re used to. The picture on the front makes it looks like cream of wheat. The only give-away was the very small Quaker Oats logo on the corner of the box. And baking soda in the familiar yellow Arm and Hammer box? Not here! You get that stuff in the drugstore behind the counter. I was lucky to have found that tip on an expat website because I never would have found it otherwise!

We found a store close to our house that’s like a miniature Home Depot. We’ve already been there a lot for things like batteries, light fixtures, shower curtain rods, and floor wax. A bit further away is a more traditional hardware store. This is the store that sells Weber Grills and all the accessories, too. It’s more like an Ace Hardware store. The guys working there were very helpful. They helped us find some odds and ends like the small bits of wire that we needed to install the light fixtures and conversion kit for our American grill.

Another good find was the cheese store. At the grocery store, you can buy gouda cheese. Your choices are young, old, and very old, but it’s all gouda. I like gouda cheese just fine, but it gets boring after a while. But when we went into the cheese store, all the names were unfamiliar. Fortunately, they were not super busy and the guy at the counter was willing to help us. We asked for something a bit stronger flavored than gouda, but not as strong as limburger. We gave us several samples and we bought a couple of pieces. Too bad I can’t remember the names of the cheeses that we bought because they were pretty good!

To finish out the Saturday rounds, there is the banketbakerij to get apple turnovers and other pastries fresh from the over, the chocolate shop where you can buy a pound of chocolates for 9 euros, and the wine shop. Phew! I’m tired already!

I'm a bike commuter now

2008-05-18T10:56:00.000-07:00

I have commited myself to biking to work for the next two weeks. We returned the rental car today and we can't get the car from my friend until June 2. I decided that would force me to ride to work and I wouldn't have to worry about the rental car any more. The car had to be returned at the airport and so we rode the train back to Bussum. We were happy to find the trip was very easy and only took 40 minutes.

To get ready for being carless, we spent Saturday getting the bikes "road legal." That means we bought front and back lights and bells to warn pedestrians to get the heck out our way. We also got pannier bags so we can do our shopping. We found the bike locks in our miscellaneous biking gear, so I should be ready to ride to work tomorrow. This will also make our errands a little more efficient.

Before we took the car back, we went for a road bike ride. While the weather was cooler and rainier than the previous couple weeks, we still managed to get 25 dry miles of riding. We started out going through Naarden Vesting and then went northwest along the shore of the Gooimeer. The Gooimeer used to be part of the Zuiderzee, but the ocean tides were too damaging. They dammed off the sea and turned it into a lake. The lake is now fresh water and has several names depending on which part you are on. From the bike path, we could see people sailing and windsurfing.

Our plan was to ride across the bridge to Almere, turn east and ride along the shore to the next bridge and cross back to our side of the lake. But the first bridge was under construction. We weren't sure exactly where to go, but the bike path signs kept pointing us away from the bridge. With no other options, we followed the signs. As we got closer to the lake, we met up with a large group of road bikers. One of them called to us in Dutch, of course, so we didn't know what he was telling us. As we rode up to the pier, we figured out that he was telling us to hurry because the ferry was leaving soon. We debated for a minute before getting on. There was nobody taking money or anything, but also no indication of where the ferry was going. Fortunately there was a couple of bikers on the ferry so we asked - yes, it was free since the bridge was under construction, this was the alternate route.

We got to the other side and found the path along the beach. It was a nice fast straight away with super smooth asphalt. The first section was a bit protected from the breeze. Apparently the breeze helps to clear the gnats. Because in this section, the gnats were so thick it was hard to breathe. Gnats pelted us like rain. We were glad to have sun glasses on, but it was kind of gross to be covered in so many bugs. We finally got out of the gnat swarm and continued our ride. But the bugs were still with us. When we got home and undressed, the floor ended up littered with gnat corpses. Eww!

The other big achievement for the weekend was getting the grill working. We had to teach our American grill to speak to the Dutch propane tank, but we got it going and grilled some chicken for dinner. I haven't really felt at home since January when I started living in a hotel in Cincinnati. Now that I have my husband, my kittycat, the kitchen stuff and the grill, I feel like I'm home.

Our Stuff is Here!

2008-05-14T09:45:00.000-07:00

After 6 weeks in transit, our stuff was finally delivered on Friday. What took a day and half to pack, took only half a day to unpack. The moving guys were done by lunch time. Now comes the hard part of finding where everything is going to go.

Since we had to leave our big furniture in Chicago, we don’t have as many places to put things. We don’t have the armoire or the dresser, the china cabinet or the entertainment center. And the kitchen here is very small compared to our old one. Our dishes have to be stored in one of the closets in the dining room. The pantry is also a closet in the dining room. There are only two small drawers for kitchen utensils. Since I love to cook, I have a LOT of kitchen utensils. The problems became obvious very quickly.

So we did what the Dutch do – we went to Ikea. We found a couple of very inexpensive shelving units to go in the kitchen. There are plastic tubs that slide like drawers giving me enough space for all my utensils. These fit right next to the stove so I now have a bit more working counter space too. We also found a dresser that would easily fit in the bedroom. After reconfiguring all the stuff, it looks like we found room for most things. Now that everything is put away, I’m not sure if we’ll be able to find it again!

On Saturday, we went to Wassenaar to visit one of my coworkers from my previous job. She and her husband have been in the Netherlands for several years and are heading back to the US. That makes for great timing because they are selling their Dutch appliances just as we are trying to buy some. Since the electricity is different in Europe, the motorized appliances don’t work very well even with a conversion plug. Computer equipment is generally OK – the ones that have the huge blocky plugs self-convert. Also, TVs work on a different system here, so a US TV wouldn’t get a signal here. We left our TV and most of our kitchen appliances at home and now we need to find Dutch replacements for them.

We picked up a TV, a fan (there’s no air conditioning here), a mixer, and a boatload of books for learning Dutch and traveling in Europe. We also have our name on a microwave, a vacuum, a crock pot, and a toaster that they don’t want to give up for a few more weeks. We took their car for a test drive and we are hoping to buy it, too. Buying second-hand is saving us a ton of money!

Finally, on Sunday we were finally able to go biking. The weather is still holding and the bike paths are everywhere. For the most part, if there’s a road, there’s a bike path. At major intersections, the bike paths have their own traffic lights. Of course you have to push the button to activate the signal. But they put the button where you can reach it from the bike, unlike the US, where they put the buttons in some really goofy places!

It was a pleasure to be out exploring by bike, but I can tell that it’s been almost 8 months since I’ve ridden. We went less than 20 miles and my butt was pretty sore! The only thing to do about that is to keep riding to get toughened up.

Thuis - means home

2008-05-11T02:01:00.000-07:00

My husband and my cat arrived last Friday morning as scheduled (May 2). Their flight was uneventful, which is the way you want a flight to be. Nova, our big black cat howled a bit as we carried his kennel to the car. As expected, he was a bit put out by being locked in the kennel for 12 hours. As we got him to our new home, we closed him into room with his litter box and gave him some food and water. It turned out that he was more interested in exploring the house than eating or drinking. It was late that night before he finally ate some food and used his box. I guess cats get jet-lagged, too! The next day, he was pretty much on schedule, but it took a week for him to get used to the treacherous stairs.

My husband, Dennis, also settled in quickly. Despite the jet-lag, I dragged him all around town to shop for necessities. Sunshine and exercise are supposed to be good cures for jet-lag. Unfortunately, sharing a twin-bed mattress is not good for jet-lag or a marriage. The next day, our top priority was to buy something better to sleep on. We ended up at the sporting goods store buying a self-inflating queen-sized air mattress. It was on sale for 50 euros, so we considered it a good investment. We plugged it into the wall outlet and in 5 minutes, we had a bed. It was actually pretty comfortable, too. Having this mattress also means that we have more guest capacity - hint, hint.

On Monday, it was back to work for both of us. Dennis got the computer and the internet telephone all connected so he could work remotely. Too bad he was sitting in a lawn chair using an overturned box as a table! Fortunately, he works from a laptop. But it was still pretty uncomfortable.

It's obvious that we were anxiously awaiting the delivery of our worldly goods. But May 5 is ANOTHER holiday for banks and government. Not Cinco de Mayo, but a day celebrating the end of German occupation. The moving company had told us our stuff arrived in the Netherlands, but they had to wait until after all the holidays for it to be released by customs. Fortunately, on Tuesday morning we were informed that our stuff would be delivered to us on Friday, May 9. Dennis only had to work from the lawn chair for 4 days. He may never want to see those lawn chairs again!

While we wait for our delivery, the weather turned even nicer. It got up to 25C, which is about 75-80F. The humidity is just at the nice point where it's neither sticky nor dry. The sun shines from 5:30 AM until 9:30 PM right now. We really want our bikes so we can take advantage of this fantastic weather. The locals are telling us this is a very unusual stretch of lovely weather. We hope it keeps up!