Netherlands Love-it/Hate-it List

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.