Easter and saying Good-bye

Poor reception in Zwolle.

We borrowed the Poppelmobile once again and followed the Dutch speaking GPS to a Catholic Church an hour and half away, in a town called Zwolle, near Tanja's family (since we were headed there for brunch). The Church was called the Peperbus (which means something like pepper shaker in English) because it looks like a pepper shaker. http://www.peperbus.info/nl/home
Mass was fabulous! The choir and organ were amazing and their beautiful melodies filled up this old church in a way I've never experienced! Claire went to a children's Liturgy of the Word and asked the instructor to please translate for her. (Claire is perfectly comfortable with strangers who speak in other tongues). After mass, the girls lined up for our annual "more bars in more places" photo but, alas, we had poor reception since we were missing a few bars.

 Brunch at the Van der Krabben's in Hattem was very, very tasty! Caroline, the meat lover, went crazy on sausage bread. Paul's quiche struck a chord with me, Jackie was partial to the apple pie and Claire really went wild over the sweet bread. Lee, I believe, enjoyed it all.

Tanja's father, Tanya and her sister took the kids to a local playground. Claire returned proclaiming that her tour of the Netherlands is now complete because she found the best playground in the world! We were inspired by something on our walk from the playground--someone had a trampoline in their front yard but they had recessed it into the ground! Since we have recently purchased a new trampoline, the girls in the family are lobbying to encourage Lee to do this with ours. All we got was a frown and an eye roll. Mr. Van der Krabben seemed to support our position, however, and substantiated to Lee that we had some valid points. We'll see.

After returning to Haarlem and sending the kids off to pack and sleep, Lee and I spent a few late hours chatting with Paul and Tanja. Funny, even though Haarlem is a city of substantial size, at night it sounds like a rainforest. The birds are incredibly loud with varying songs and there always seems to be a meowing or fighting cat.

All told, we had a fabulous time in the Netherlands and return home with many great memories and lots of photos and commentary to fill up our photo albums.

Thanks for following along. We hope you've found our travels and antics entertaining and somewhat informative.

Big, big thanks to Paul, Tanja, Nina and Saskia for withstanding the American invasion and sharing their home with us.

Karen risks arrest, BBQ w/ Poppelsdorf family, Biking to the Seashore and one more museum

Good Friday 2011

The girls of the family have been struggling with allergies. So, I took the empty box of Sudafed (for which I had to sign my life away in the states) into the pharmacy to buy something similar. I was promptly told that she was not permitted to give it to me and it is, in fact, illegal in the Netherlands! Whoops. I sheepishly tucked the box away and settled for the nose mist she gave me (not tremendously effective, by the way).  I then picked up some VERY yummy raspberries and strawberries from the produce shop and grabbed Claire and Caroline their favorite breakfast items (a mini loaf of bread and a croissant).

We spent the day relaxing and napping and playing with the babies. Lee and Paul popped out to the supermarket and fishmonger to grab some dinner items since Paul's family was coming in the afternoon for a BBQ. Caroline, Claire, Paul and Lee worked on blowing up the baby pool (yes, it took all 4 of them to accomplish this).

It was terrific catching up with Paul's mother, brother, Frank and his wife, Chang Heng and their little girls--lots of giggling and fun to compare cultures and customs of 3 nations.

Holy Saturday 2011
Today we rented bikes for the family and set out for Bloemendaal aan Zee (the seashore). The ride was about 6km to the beach. We didn't do much at the beach, it was more just a destination for our bikeride. We really hoped we'd blend in with our cool rented cycles but, since we were all a tad too short, we had to pop off the bikes every time we came to a stop. However, we really didn't have to stop that often on the way out because bikes have the right of way at intersections and roundabouts--there's even a bike lane in the roundabouts! It's very, very cool. It was difficult to get used to trusting vehicles to stop or look out for you but Paul assured us that awareness of cyclists is so ingrained in drivers that accidents rarely happen. After the girls gasped at some of the gentlemen's beach attire, we grabbed some lunch and cycled back to Haarlem.

 

After an ice cream snack, we went for a guided tour of the Corrie Ten Boom house in the Haarlem Centruum. The Ten Boom family were jewelers by trade and devout Christians who hid Jews and citizens involved in the Resistance. Through their efforts, 800 Jews avoided capture. http://www.corrietenboom.com/history.htm

Atop the Corrie Ten Boom House

The Hiding Place-alarm would sound in the house (unheard from outside) giving people about a minute to climb through this closet (via bottom shelf), close the door and then close a secret door behind. Torn away section shows the space where they hid--there was only enough room to stand. They had stored some biscuits and a bucket but had forgotten water. 6 people stayed like this for 2 days!

Misc. shots

Along one of the canals in Haarlem

Not a clue, but isn't it hilarious?

Haarlem

Notice the bicycle traffic light

Check out the awesome bike lanes!

465 steps in Utrecht and bike parking

At the tippy top!

Today we caught a train to Utrecht--only had to transfer once, in Amsterdam. We arrived within an hour and began a delightful tour of this old university town. Our first adventure was climbing the steps of the Domtoren. The Domtoren is the bell tower that was once attached to the Domkerk. The original portion of the church was started in 1254 in and then years later they completed the bell tower (started in 1321 and finished in 1382) and finally, the nave was built to link the two (everything was completed in 1520). This was done so that the Bishop could be protected from enemies in the Domtoren but still make his way over to the church. Unfortunately, funds were low and the builders cut corners and omitted the buttresses. Sadly, in 1674 the nave met its fate during one of the few hurricanes experienced in the Netherlands-- literally blown down and then it sat as a giant pile of rubble for many years (no funds to repair or remove). Evidently, you can find portions of its bricks in many of the surrounding houses--people took the bricks to build their own homes. Now the area exists as a pretty little courtyard and road but you can still see where the pillars stood and where the floor of the church was because of the differences in the cobbles and bricks. Pretty cool.

More Lee (per Chris' request)

View from the Domtoren

Some people will go to any length for a signal.

Climbing the bell tower required substantial stamina as well as no fear of heights. Since Karen is the most fearless, she took the photos from the top while Lee and Jackie clung to the inner wall. We decided to also explore the tippy tippy top-Claire led the way up some very, very narrow and steep stairs and even met up with a pigeon who insisted on blocking our path. We threatened to flambe the stinkin' thing and he quickly scrammed.

Claire ringing the bells in Domtoren, Utrecht

Claire had the honor of ringing a few of the bells with a mallet. The bells she rang were puny compared to the main bell, which apparently takes teams of men to ring (which they only do on about five occasions each year: Christmas, New Year, Queen's birthday, etc.). The daily chimes come from the bells higher up and play a different tune every quarter hour.

Interesting fact about Utrecht: the water level receded at some point in its history and they turned the basement level of buildings along the canal into shops, eateries and such.

Also included: some miscellaneous shots

Bicycle parking garage

Domtoren

Caroline imagining being a bishop

Central Utrecht

Bike parking at the train station in Utrecht

How one brings a bike up to the train platform

Kinderdijk and "Where are the napkins?"

Another gorgeous day in the Netherlands so we spent it at Kinderdijk (the World Heritage Site with all those windmills). Paul graciously lent us his car and the drive took about one and a quarter hours. It turned out to be a lovely walk amongst canals and windmills with the occasional close encounter with a bike. In fact, at one point during our return saunter, a dude in a vest repeatedly blew his whistle to warn pedestrians to make way for the 40 or so cycling retirees following close behind. It took a solid 5 minutes for them to pass. In the meantime, we had another photo shoot. While I was taking a picture of Caroline and trying to encourage her to smile by saying that she is beautiful, an older German man walked by and started to sing "You are so beautiful..." We giggled and he stopped and said, "Well, she IS!"

We grabbed some sandwiches at a little cafe called Cafe "De Klok" and held a lengthy and very intellectual discussion about why no one here seems to use or need napkins. Needless to say, it has taught us to devour our food a bit more graciously. 

The highlight of the day was returning Paul's car unscathed. And, since we managed to do that successfully, he made burgers on the grill for us and some of their friends. Again, no weight loss in our futures but a perfect end to a perfect day! 

Cafe "De Klock" and Lee proudly displaying Paul's unscathed auto

Too many windmills for one day

Bulbs, embarrassing Americans, and super friendly bus drivers

Bulb fields

We had a tougher time mobilizing this morning. Our day in Amsterdam took more of a toll than we expected and Jackie still seems to be parked in Eastern Daylight Savings time. We eventually made it out the door and to the bus depot in time to catch a lift to the Keukenhof (the tulip fields/tulip park). Three noisy elderly Americans broke the dead silence on the bus with their annoyingly high volume of conversation. They treated the entire bus to stories of their cool backpacks with neat velcro pockets they bought in Australia along with their rants on pigeons. We vowed to do our part to repair the international reputation of Americans by pretending to be cool Europeans. Sadly, I have a suspicion we still stand out. Our faux pas at the bakery of trying to purchase what turned out to be a display loaf of bread sealed our fate.

Site of the water altercation between Caroline and Claire

Anyway...the Keukenhof was a beautiful way to spend the day. The weather was gorgeous and the flowers were at their peak. Jackie, Caroline and Claire connected with their inner Japanese tourist and went camera crazy. Another failed attempt to preserve our reputations: Claire and Caroline began kicking water at each other and were scolded by a Spanish man. We saw this gentleman 10 minutes later and made Caroline and Claire apologize to him in Spanish. He was very kind and waved it off, saying it was no problem. Hopefully the embarrassment will cause them to think twice about behaving like imbeciles in public again.

Keukenhof

We abandoned plans to head to Leiden today, realizing we were in desperate need of an early evening. So, we headed back to Paul and Tanja's, picked up some dinner fixins and Lee put together a scrumptious chicken parmesan meal. When Paul got home with the girls and was putting Nina to bed, we all pounced on Saskia and kept her company for a little bit. These girls are in bed by 6:30pm every night! Now we are doing a little babysitting (not really because they are fast asleep) while Paul and Tanja are visiting with a friend.

Karen's observations of oddities:
•Counter height and toilet height are absurd! And forget the kitchen cabinets. I can't even reach the top shelf of the fridge!
•Bike lanes are awesome!
•I love having the butcher, baker, cheese shop and fruit/veg market so close.
•The electrical outlets are set 4ft. high on the wall.
•Bus drivers wave and say "goodbye" to passengers as they exit the bus.

Oh, the irony.

Lee from Nina's balcony (to fulfill Chris' request)

Jackie, Caroline and Claire's vacation comments

Claire says:
There are a lot of bikes and bike roads.
Pretty flowers.
Small, cute cars.
A lot of windmills.
Cool playgrounds.
Good food, especially fruit.
Cute, little shops.
Small markets.

Caroline says:
Most people here are fit or not nearly as fat as most people in America (probably because they mostly ride on bikes instead of in cars). Also there are a lot people with wheel-barrow type things that attach on the front or back of bikes that they put their kids in. There are special bike roads and bike traffic lights, too. Additionally, there are far fewer bugs here. At the house here we can open the screen free doors and hardly any bugs come into the house. I like it here.

Jackie will comment later because she is a big loser and can't be bothered to now.

Wandering Amsterdam

Since Tanja has forbidden us from taking up space on public transport during rush hour, we pushed our "early" start today to shortly after 9am with high hopes of beating the rush at the Anne Frank House. Hah! Fat chance. Online tickets are booked through August so we enjoyed the beautiful sunshine while standing in line for an hour, which actually wasn't as horrible as it sounds. If you've ever been to the Anne Frank House you know what an emotional and thought provoking experience it is. Jackie, Caroline and Claire really seemed to get a lot of out of the tour and materials and Claire feels very prepared for her upcoming book report and presentation about young Miss Frank.

Amsterdam

After some sandwiches it was off to the Van Gogh museum. However, along the way we happened to find a very tasty ice cream shop which really seemed to need some patrons. So, we obliged, which slowed our walk down a little but we still made it to Vinnie's place with plenty of time to walk chronologically through his work. Jackie and Caroline were a bit bored with the art but Claire very much enjoyed it and seemed to know quite a bit about him and his work already. It is humbling to be taught by a 9 year old.

A little tired and thirsty, we stumbled out of the Van Gogh museum and wandered over to Vondelpark for a nap and to recharge weary adult bodies. The girls used our naptime to conduct a photo shoot of their own in the park.

Lady who kept waving to us (top left window)

Amsterdam

It's horrid, we know. But they insisted on this picture.

We walked just north of the park through some neighborhoods where the really nice bikes are chained up--the ones without rust and with all the add-ons and accoutrements one could need or want. It was in this area that Paul told us to head for dinner--a restaurant called De Italiaan. Cramped, teeny tiny little place with a brick oven but very tasty food. Several pizzas, spinach raviolis, 3 beers and two hours later we decided to head back to catch the train back to Haarlem, via the "scenic" route. Yep, we took a wrong turn after a while and headed into the red light district then quickly turned around when we realized where we were. So, we ducked into a coffee shop and had some brownies for dessert. We felt great the entire way back to the train! (For all our friends who are teachers or law enforcement officials--JUST KIDDING.)

Park near Paul and Tanja's

Park near Paul and Tanja's