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!