McDonald's

Kelly and I saw an advertisement for a stoopwaffle McFlurry on TV. We both LOVE stroopwaffles so what could be wrong with a stroopwaffle McFlurry? Absolutely nothing!!! It was great. We also wanted to try some unique Dutch McDonald’s food so we tried a McRookworst as well. It was quite tasty!!! Not to mention the good Dutch treats at McDonald’s it was quite a stylish and happening place. It was, by far, the nicest McDonald’s I have ever been into. I wanted to take a picture of the inside, but since it is such a popular restaurant I really didn’t want to risk my “coolness” for looking like a dumb tourist. The busiest restaurants that we see on a normal basis are McDonalds and KFC. Why do they insult American’s for our enjoyment of French fries when this country (and I suspect Belgium also, I will have to later confirm this) have a downright obsession with the fried potatoes. They are everywhere and these restaurants are always packed. Now, the people at the office belittle McDonald’s and say that nobody eats there and it’s bad, but I don’t think all of the Dutch agree. I’m just glad these stroopwaffles appear to be a winter special because, otherwise, I might have to get a frequent visitor card! They are just heavenly!

Stoopwaffle McFlurry and a McRoockworst. Great job McDonald's!!

Yummy!

This is a picture of a blue sky. I know many of you take the sky for granted, but this is the first blue sky I have seen since moving here approximately 1 month ago (not including when flying above the clouds). I was sooo excited yesterday to see this sky after work, I had to take a picture to document it. Then this morning it was nasty drizzly rain and it’s supposed to snow this weekend. Ew. But we had one day of blue sky!

I realized that I haven’t commented on food lately. Don’t worry, we have still been eating plenty, we just too hungry to stop and take pictures. The other day we went to an Italian place right around the corner from our apartment. It is really fancy but the service is terribly slow! I got a seafood mix on black spaghetti. The waiter asked if I had ever had it before and I said “no” and he offered to mix half white, half black but I figured black was healthier and it can’t be that bad so I told him just to leave it all black. Well I get my food and it looks like this (with more clams and a few octopus tentacles):

Kind of like a bunch of different sea urchins made a mess on my plate. It was fine though, the spaghetti tasted like seafood and it was very tasty. Just not worth the slow service and higher prices.

Kelly and I have a goal to try not to eat at the same restaurant more than once, least not yet anyways. So we went on our weekly shopping rounds last night and got hungry so we took a side street to see what we could find. We walked by a little place that was PACKED so we figured it must be really good, we’ll be trying there one of these days, but we kept walking to a place that had cute pearls in the window. Since Kelly and I are both pearl fans, we decided we should eat there. They had little chandeliers everywhere and quaint artwork on the walls. The food was amazing as well. Kelly had fajitas that were actually spicy and I had some sort of white fish (nobody knew the translation) wrapped in Serrano ham with a great sauce…..and a side of fries. This country and their fries! They also have this garlic mayonnaise that they serve with bread and it is so tasty! Too bad this country doesn’t worship broccoli and cabbage; it would be a lot easier to maintain the same pants size!!

Picky? Me? Never!!

This morning has gone by quite fast compared to some other days, but the learning curve is still hitting me. Richard asked us to run a report, and we got half of it done, but I’m still trying to figure out the other half. I’ve reached out to resources who know more than I do, so I hope they have the right answer.

While we have been working on this though, Kelly and I had an interesting talk which led to a mini “lecture” by Kelly to me. The message: Love comes in all shapes and sizes. She has caught on to how picky I am with the gentlemen species. Luckily though, Kelly is very patient with my idiosyncrasies and hasn’t lashed out or thrown anything at me. I hope I don’t drive her to that point.

I have also already mentally used all of my allotted vacation days. I’m sorry family, I won’t be home much for the 2010 holiday season but I will have attended a few weddings and seen a vast majority of Europe. I figured if I warn everybody now, nobody will be upset then. Right Mom?

Kelly and I have reached a new level of “Dutch-ness.” We walked to the store yesterday evening in the cold, nasty rain. Complete “Dutch-ness” will be when we ride our bikes. We talked to our manager (Richard) about the easiest way to get a bike and apparently if we were real Dutch, we would steal one. He figured out we weren’t very comfortable with that so he said he would ask around and see if they could “find” us some bikes to use for awhile. Who knows what they will come up with, but it will be fun to explore the town via bike!

The Travel Bug Has Gotten An Itch

Kelly and I have officially begun our tour of Europe. We have a hotel reserved in Antwerp for Saturday night and will hopefully see some surrounding cities as well. Every Dutch person we mention this too always gives us a disgusted look. Apparently, they aren’t big Antwerp fans. It’s only 2 hours away so we figured we better go see it! We also heard Ghent was a nice city as well. Hopefully, you will have pleasant report to read this weekend.

We have also booked a hotel for our trip to Paris next weekend. It is only a 4-5 hour drive (depending on who you talk to) so we figured we better not waste any time! Kelly loves Paris and the only time I’ve been there was a very rushed experience, so it will be nice to spend a bit more time there, especially with someone who is a bit more “seasoned” on the ways of Paris. We will have a good time I’m sure. The weekend after that is Brussels then Kelly’s boyfriend will be arriving for his visit. I’m excited to meet him and Kelly is just plain excited. She just booked their tickets to go spend a few days in Munich and visit some castles, drink beer, and see Salzburg Austria as well. I know they will have a fabulous time. I am happy for them.

I, on the other hand, have dreamt up more ideas. Kelly and I have limited holidays so we have to be careful how we spend them. I found a good, inexpensive trip to Iceland to try and possibly see the northern lights. I have always wanted to go to Iceland…and see the Northern Lights. If I could get them both in one trip, and do it in a long weekend, I would be very proud of myself. Now, all I have to do is to find someone to go with me this week because for the special, I have to have it booked by the 31st. We’ll see how this goes. Anybody interested???

There is a group of young guys that work here so they try and teach me Dutch. I always have reservations about trying to remember something that they all start snickering at once one of them says it. I’ve learned these little signs and try to stick with it no matter how much they tell me that it isn’t a bad phrase. I know how guys work…it is pretty universal too.

So, to start off the day with practice: tot ziens!

It's SOOO Cold!!!

This morning was freezing! It was -5C (23F) when we left Haarlem and by the time we got to Beverwijk it was -11C (12F). I do believe is the coldest weather we have had since we've been here. Even the day when it dumped snow wasn't this cold! It’s not inspiring to get up and move about.

Yesterday (Monday) Kelly and I started working on the bin locations for the warehouse. We came up with the KAM method. Instead of writing it down on paper then re-typing it up, we just took our mobile laptops out there and put it directly into the computer. We're little geniuses I tell you! We got about half the warehouse done yesterday and hopefully we will get the other half done today.

On the brightest side of things, we got full internet capabilities as of Sunday night. It still wasn't working and our landlord came over and worked his magic, made a few calls, and viola! It works! Kelly and I are so happy! We can now video chat and other cool things like that. One of the other interns in the program got sent to Australia and didn't have internet outside of work. I don't know how she did it. Hence, the recognition on my blog. I'm sure it will make up for all the pain and suffering endured. Now that we have internet, we can download our shows that we are missing in the U.S. We have to keep up on Grey's, Private Practice, Brothers & Sisters, Desperate Housewives, The Good Wife, and Ugly Betty. We had to limit things there, especially when it is $2 an episode. We enjoy our TV time though. We need to find a cable to hook the laptop to the TV. That is our next project.

I hope everyone has a great Tuesday!

Sunday Funday!!

Kelly and I had every intention to do another walking tour of Amsterdam today, but I woke up and looked out the window and this is what I saw:

This is trees snow covered with a slightly frozen lake which equals coldness. Not my dream weather for a day of walking. So we decided to take it slow and have breakfast and enjoy our morning but we wanted to get out. We decided that touring a bit more of Haarlem would be good so we set off in search of the big windmill that we saw from the train on our way to Amsterdam. This is the De Adriaan windmill which was used for grinding wheat and other goods into flour. The below picture is the griding stones they use. The wheat comes into the middle of it and is slowly pressed out of the stones by the grooves on the inside of the stones which grinds it into flour and then travels out a little whole down stairs where they bag it and send it out.

They also have a lot of windmills they use to displace water, which is how they originally removed all of the water to extend the land masses. We also learned that the Schipol airport lies in low area so if any of the dikes break....we're not flying out of here. We'll probably have bigger worries than the airport anyways.

This is a model of the De Adriaan windmill. The windmill was built in the late 1800s but burned down in 1952. They rebuilt it and it still works to this day, although they don't use it except for show. They also have windmills that saw wood. They use no extra engery, strickly wind. Talk about being green!

This is a view of the church from on top of the windmill. I never realized how close everything was....or how big that church is! It only took 200 years to build as well. But as we learned later today, thats just a drop in the bucket!

Kelly and I for a photo op. The people who ran the windmill were SUPER nice and friendly. He took a picture for us so we didn't want to criticize his finger in the corner. They were all older people, but very helpful and talked to us and told us stories. Very nice experience. All of our visitors will be sent here, so be prepared!

After the windmill visit, we to to Teylers museum. It too is just down the street from the windmill and our apartment. They are the oldest museum in the Netherlands and they have a huge fossil collection. I have never seen so many fossils, its what you see in pictures. They have a fossil that is 200,000,000 years old!!!!! There in front of your face.....you are looking something so old. It makes you think about how little of a role we humans really play in the scheme of things. Very humbling!

They also has a great art collection including many Michelangelo drawings and Rembrandt sketches. They collected art from the current day Dutch masters. This only reinforces my belief that if I start collecting art today, maybe in 200 years it will be worth something :)

This picture is of the oval room. This museum has a huge collection of tons of different things. They have some original telephones, radiation equipment, books from Charles Darwin, and neanderthal skulls. History is just laid out in pretty shelves. It is mind boggling that these people dreamt of these inventions hundreds of years ago and then other people had the idea to start collecting them. The forsight of our ancestors!

On our way back, we decided to stop and have an early dinner. We were walking along and found the Nobel resteraunt. It looked cute so we thought we should explore. When we walked in, we realized it was for Nobel peace prize winners. I think the paper said that they have had real nobel peace prize winners visit there, but it was all in Dutch so I'm not sure how much I really understood. Anyways, they had the Obama burger.

My favorite part of this is that the burger is a veal burger. It made me mad, again, that Obama got the prize anways, but to know that they gave him the veal burger made me feel a bit better. We also wanted to get a desert but we asked if they could put it in a doggy bag for us so we could eat it when we got home. This seemed to be an unusual request, but they were nice and improvised something for us. I got the rubarb cake and Kelly got the cheesecake. They also were worried about putting ice cream with it, but we knew it wouldn't melt on the walk home!

The cheesecake is on the left with ice cream and the rhubarb is on the right with ice cream. The presentation of it made us laugh and everybody stared at us when walking home. Apparently, take home isn't normal in the Netherlands.

I enjoyed seeing another side of our new city today. Not good weather, but there were hardly any people out on the streets. Much better than the masses that were in Amsterdam. It was peaceful and cool, I couldn't ask for more. This place just keeps growing on me!

I'm In Love....With Chandeliers!

Another georgous picture of the Amsterdam train station (with snow flakes). I love the Leipzig train station, but this one takes the cake externally. I love the inside of the Leipzig train station, but this one is so pretty!!!

I loved this stair case! We went to the Oude Kerk in Amsterdam, it is in the red light district, and now surrounded by women in windows and coffee shops. They wern't pretty women in windows either. Kelly and I were a bit taken back by the view. They also had a crazy art show/display going on in the church. Definitely a wierd atmosphere. Not my favorite.

I did like this grave inside the church though. Rembrandt's wife, Saskia, is burried in this church as well, but due to renovations, we couldn't see her stone. A bunch of Amsterdam seems to be under rennovation.

Kelly bought a book about Amsterdam online and in it it has great walking tours, which is what we did today. It took us all over the older part of the city, and has step by step of where to go and what you will see. There are several options and we did the Old Center tour today. We plan on going back and doing another one tomorrow. We also realized that the lawyer's office we went to tomorrow is in a prime location. NOV must be paying big bucks....they are located on the Times Square of Amsterdam. Impressive.

In the above picture, I just really liked all of the buildings. The Dutch architecture is so pretty and quaint!

More neat buildings along the canal. This is the beginning of the red light district and by our Museum Amstelkring. Maybe when the weather is better, we eneded up getting snowed on today, we will do a canal boat tour.

This is the Huis aan de Drei Grachten (House on 3 canals). It is Dutch Renaissance style with the wooden shutters dating back to 1609.

This is a house in Begijnhof which was originally a cloister for devoute women in the 14th century. These women were devout catholics who didn't want to join a convent, but wanted to be faithful. When the Protestants took over in Amsterdam back in the 1600's they ignored the area primarily because it was so private and mainly women. They had their own church, which was eventually converted to Protestant Reform so then the women must rely on house churches. To this day, the community is larger, but it is still only rented out to women. The above house is the oldest house in Amsterdam (built 1425)and one of two timber houses that still remain. The rest were burnt down in the great fire. Amsterdam had 2 big fires. The first was in 1421, and the second was in 1452 where 3/4 of the city burnt down.

This is a picture of the court yard in the Begijnhof. All of those houses is where women live today. There were little bars that said "For Residents Only." I would live in the area!!

This is the chapel in Museum Amstelkring. It is a hidden chapel in the attic of 3 canal houses that were purchased by a weathly merchant. The church was constructed in 1661-1663. It served as a Catholic church during the time when the Protestants outlawed catholicism in 1578. It is still, more or less, in its original state. The government officials turned a blind eye on the house churches as long as they were not recognisable on the outside. The church was in use until 1887 until its successor Great St. Nicolas Church was opened. A group of people banned together to save it and they helped gather artifacts for the display there. Since 1888 the church and house banned together to form the musuem that it is today. It is still used at Christmas, for weddings, and the first Sunday of the month in the winter.

This is another one of the rooms in the hidden church. It is referred to as Our Lord in the Attic, but initially known as "Het Hart" (The Heart), most likely after the merchant, Jan Hartman, who had built it.

This was the fire place in the Parlour, which was the best room in the house. It is the room where the Hartmans entertained their guests. The room has been refurbished to appear much like it would have during the 1660s, in Dutch classicm.

This was the room where Jan Hartman and his wife lived. The cabinet was painted by Frans Francken II with scenes from the New Testament parable of the Prodigal Son.

This was the 19th century kitchen that was built in 1888 in the middle of the house and is not as antiquated as it looks. The kitchen looks old because of the historical materials that were used to build it that were salvaged from demolished buildings in the neighborhood.

This is the view from one of the windows upstairs in the chapel area. One side of the building had views of the Oude Kerk (seen here) and on the other side you could see St Nicolas's Church. The other side was closed for renovations, as was many parts of the house, so that picture is not available. Many of the artifacts and paintings where also put away due to the restoration which was slightly dissapointing.

During all of this walking Kelly and I got hungry so we stopped at one of 500+ Argentianian steak houses around the city. Those people know how to cook a steak! It was great!! After a bit more walking, we got back into the Dam Square where all the action, and people, were. It was so crowded! I'm glad we started out early because we didn't have any crowds anywhere up until then. We had a slice of cake at Cafe Luna which was a treat. We made our way to the square and decided we wanted to take a tour of our future home, the Royal Palace of Amsterdam.

The exterior of the Palace was all covered in scaffolding due to more restoration...but the little model inside made the exterior look amazing! It is one of 3 locations that the Queen has at her disposal for use. She chooses to live in Den Haag, but uses this palace for official state functions such as state visits, the Queen's New Years party and provides the setting for royal announcements and prizes. A history of the palace can be read here.

The real beauty of this place was its use of chandeliers. They had them in EVERY room along with lining the hallways and in foyers. I was ready to move in! Here is a picture of the BEST chandelier in the place. We wern't allowed to take pictures there, or else this posting would be 2x as long. I was taking notes for my future house. The Dutch know how to do chandeliers! The even have them in lights on the streets. It's beautiful!

I am tired and believe it is my bed time. I need to rest up for another day of walking tours tomorrow! I don't think the weather is going to be any better though. Maybe we'll get lucky!

We're Legal!!!

Kelly and I went to Hoofddorp to apply for our Dutch residency. We got it! Well, we got the sticker in our passports while we wait for the cards to come in. This is my first picture as a legal resident. Totally different than all the rest, right? I know, but still, Kelly and I had to celebrate.

So we took a picture of us two together in fron of the steps leading up to the big, glorified MVD office. We had to take a number and everything, but it went so smoothly. Definitely put our American style process to shame. I won't mention, though, the stack of 50 papers that the lawyer office put together for us so all we had to do was show up, hand them the papers, and pay. Pretty easy on our ends!

So to properly celebrate, we went to this little restauraunt not far from work. Richard (our boss) took us there during our first week but we haven't been back. They have an amazing chicken sandwhich that Kelly was craving and I wasn't going to stand in the way of great food so we set off to search for it. We ended up taking 3 different exits trying to see which one looked familiar enough, and guess what? It was the 3rd exit (and closest to work, I might add). So we go in, thinking we are so sly and proud of our selves for finding it. Granted it was lunch time and we didn't do anything too wrong, we could have eaten at a faster place and come back to work a bit sooner. That didn't sound so good though. We came up with a plan, if anyone asked, we just ate while "on our way back." Right at the time our celebratory brownie and ice cream came (AMAZING!) in walks Richard. Next door to the shop is a ski shop and he wanted to get some things for his up coming family trip. We got busted! He just stopped by and said "hello" and was off again. Kelly and I just started laughing, of all the odds....and I had thought these very thoughts when we got there but didn't want to say anything for fear of jinxing us! Can't win them all! Maybe next time we'll be a bit sneakier......

To The Lawyers....

Kelly has been sick the past couple of days. We had a doener at a Turkish restaurant; it’s a bit like a gyro. Well they are my favorite, and I guess they don’t like Kelly. She got food poisoning. The place is even named “Amalia” so in theory, I gave her food poisoning. She was a wreck on Wednesday and we took her to the Dutch doctor’s because she looked like death. I really didn’t want her to die. So one of the guys helped us find a doctor nearby and he took us there then to the pharmacy where we got Kelly all hooked up. I am happy to announce the medicines helped and Kelly is still alive, but not quite back to normal.

She looked almost normal this morning, but then something hit her mid morning and she got sick again. We had to go to Amsterdam this afternoon to meet with the immigration lawyers to get the paperwork we need to file for our residency permits. I was a bit worried Kelly wasn’t going to make it. After a 2 hour nap, she was ready to face the world. We “cheated” and drove to the train station instead of walking, figured out how to buy a ticket and managed to get on the correct train. After a short 15 minute ride, we were at that Central Amsterdam train station. It was so easy! The outside of the train station is BEAUTIFUL (see picture below)! We managed to find the correct street we needed and started walking.

A sea of bicycles outside of the train station. Definitely the most I've ever seen in one place!

Before we went to the lawyer’s office, we had to get Dutch government approved photos made. The office told us of a photo place just down the street so we managed to find that and get the photos done. It was all so fast and easy. The photo man was very nice and helpful and spoke great English. That is one great thing about this country, everyone knows English. We walked by a pizza place and Kelly said she needed some food so we stopped to get some. We had a bit of extra time, so it was a nice little break.

We then walked to the lawyer’s office, signed our life away on about 20 different pages, and left all in about 20 minutes. I was very impressed. I was expecting a huge ordeal full of torture, but it was painless. On our walk back to the train station we were able to look in the windows of all of the diamond stores around. Very pretty jewelry! Now all I need is a few extra hundreds (thousands) of Euros and a reason and I would be set!! We didn’t do any sightseeing, it was a straight there and home mission but, hopefully, Kelly will feel back to herself again by Saturday and we plan on going back for 2 days of extensive sightseeing and food eating. I cannot wait!

When Kelly was napping today, I ran across the street and got some potatoes to make her potato soup. It’s what my Mom always made me when I was sick, so I figured it had to work! It’s not quite done yet, still boiling on the stove, but I hope it turns out. We shall see. I figured this is a turning point that I started making potato soup instead of having it made for me. I’m not sure I’m ready for this, but I guess it crept up on me without me knowing. I’m sure I can revert back childhood when I’m around my mom. I don’t think I am very fond of the adult/responsibility thing. I do like the freedom and privileges though! Something tells me they happen to go hand in hand though.

Better go check my soup!

Things I Miss....

Yesterday was quite hectic and it made me think of all the things that I miss in the U.S. and am thankful that I will have again. I thought I would express them.

A dishwasher. I have never really lived without a dishwasher. I realize that many people do not have dishwashers and I have still washed many dishes by hand but I forgot how handy it was to throw that one bowl into the dishwasher after breakfast. Or the two plates used for dinner. Granted, its not too much work to only wash a few dishes at a time if you stay up with it, but I miss a dishwasher.

Free shopping carts. You know when you go to Wal Mart, or Krogers, or any of the other many grocery stores, you just grab a cart and go. Not in Europe. You have to put in a 50cent or 1 euro coin to unlock the cart. The stores keep them all chained together and you only get your money back if you take the cart back and re-lock it up with the rest of them. It's especially annoying when you're American and can't quite figure out HOW to un-lock them as all the other Dutch people are starring at you getting annoyed. Usually a nice lady helps but Kelly and I still try and stick to the FREE baskets that you carry. America better never find out about this little secret. Think of how much money they could save by not having to hire those cart retriever guys and by having to purchase fewer shopping carts because half of them won't be strewn about across the parking lot at any given time.

People who bag your groceries. They also don't give away free shopping bags. You have to buy them or bring your own. I don't mind that part so much, I can be green. It's the part where they scan all of your items, shove them to the end of the register and expect you to bag them the same time you are paying. Now, there are generally two of us when we go shopping and we can't bag our groceries fast enough before the next person's stuff starts flying at us. One time we even ended up home with a random bag of bread. No idea how that happened. But these Europeans are so skilled they can do it all, with one person, before the next person gets up to start scanning their items. Kelly and I need some serious practice (which we are slowly getting).

I do believe those are the biggest things that I miss, and am thankful we have in the U.S. I guess things can always change, but if they do change by the time I get back to the United States, at least I'll have some practice!!!!

Eww

Today's post is for Karla, my natural born Dutch friend.

As Kelly and I left for work this morning it was grey, foggy, and misty. It was gross. Granted, it was 5C outside, which is warmer than it has been since we've gotten here, it was still gross. I miss the sun! I can deal with cold, but this grey, dreary weather is the pits. I know exactly what Karla is thinking...BUT IT'S GREEN! I realize that the fields are green and it is nice to see a bit of color...but it still doesn't trump the sun. It was also the exact same grey color on our drive home, only more mist. Still yucky. Monday's are bad enough as is, the weather didn't help much.

On the brighter side, we have become semi-successful Europeans. We walk to the grocery shop at least once a week for food. It's nice to have fresh food, and our fridge is too small for us to stock up. We also went to the Doener place around the corner. I have been craving one for the last 2 years. It was great! As an exchange student, I used to get one every Wed. on my way home from school. They are a great, cheap meal. It made my Monday. That was the high light of the day. I hope tomorrow's weather is better!

A Day on the Beach

Welcome to Zandvoort. It is a beach town that is only 15 minutes away. Very nice. Kelly and I decided to go check it out. We wanted to see it in the winter with snow. Well there wasn't a lot of snow left, but you can see little patches of it. It was windy and cold but sunny. The most sun we have seen since moving here. It is a cute town with lots of shops and restauraunts. It was a pretty happenin' place today, a cold Sunday in January, I can only imagine what it is like on a warm weekend in the summer. We will have to come check it out!

I was a little jealous Kelly has the cute ear warmer. My ears were a bit cold today, but I lived. It was exciting to have a reason to wear our sunglasses. Zandvoort is the closest beach town to Amsterdam which is what makes it so popular. It is also home to the largest nude beach in Holland. We didn't venture down that way, but something tells me there probably wasn't anyone there today. It was a warm 5C (41F).

Kelly hasn't had a Dutch pancake yet so there was a little restauraunt right by the beach. After strolling around a bit seeing what else is around, we decided on the pancake place. It was small and cute and decked out in a pirate fashion with cannons and all. There were also a TON of kids there. They have a little play land for the kids with little cars they can ride and push with their feet. Well I guess small children don't understand a limited play space so there were kids on cars doing laps around the restauraunt. They better be happy I'm not in charge, I might have eliminated a few of the "wonderful" children. Anyways, the above picture is my ham and cheese pancake.

Kelly decided to get the chicken satay. I have never had satay before so that was neat to be able to try it with the peanut sauce. We definitely shared so we got the best of both worlds and still had plenty of left overs. We also had a great little bowl of onion soup to warm us up a bit. Besides their service being terribly slow, it was a great meal!

After our huge dinner we needed to walk around. That is when we were able to check out the town, the shops, and all of the cute cafes and other restauraunts that were around. We found a few we want to check out on our next trip. It is so close, we will definitely have to take advantage of it more often. We also found some restauraunts on our way there we want to check out. It's a good thing that Kelly and I have very similar eating preferences...and the fact that we like everything! We finshed out our day by watching the sun set at the beach. Can't ask for more!

We weren't entirely sure where we parked our car but we found it with no major problems. The fun part came though, trying to pay for parking. We found the machine and it was 13 Euro for the day. We get up to the machine, put our card in, and go to put money in. Turns out that the machine doesn't accept bills, only change. We don't know how to get the ticket back out of the machine, there is a line forming behind me, everyone staring at me wondering why I can't figure out the simple machine. Kelly got change from a cashier and we finally got the ticket paid and went back to our waiting car. A fun (cold) day on the beach!!

I'm Now Poor...But Not Hungry!

This is a giant stoopwafel. They are my FAVORITE! It’s basically syrup sandwiched between two very thing waffles. It’s a little slice of heaven. This is the biggest stroopwafle I have ever seen. I think I am in love.

Kelly and I went down to Delft for the day. I have some very good family friends that live there. That’s to put it lightly. Either way, I wanted Kelly to meet them and to see the beautiful little city. We got their daughter and their exchange student from Pennsylvania to take us around the city. It was fun to meet another American braving the Dutch world and doing a great job learning the language! I can relate! The weather wasn't great and we ended up getting rained out before our tour got too complicated, but it was still enjoyable.

This is a picture of the New Church. It is only 700 years old compared to the Old Church which is 800 years old. These Europeans! I absolutely love stained glass. This picture doesn't quite demonstrate the beauty, but definitely the size of the windows. I liked the more subtle colors. Prince William of Orange is buried in this church as well as many of the other royal family members.

This is the Delft town hall. Gorgeous building. Note the grey sky. It seems to be this country's favorite winter time color.

The houses/buildings surrounding the square. I just love the traditional architecture!

This is our friend's youngest daughter, me, and their exchange student from Pennsylvania on a cute bridge over a typical, quaint Dutch canal.

Kelly and I on the street. We have very few pictures of us together so we took the opportunity of having friends around to get one of us together. Very cute!


Our morning started with a visit to the Royal Delft pottery factory. Below is a picture of their sign in the front of the entry room. The design is their unique signature that is on each of their hand painted pieces of work.

Ok, Delft Blue pottery: A very traditional form of pottery. The blue color is their signature style but they also have other colors as well as black. They have a very long history starting in 1697. They also make dishes for the royal family. Every piece is hand painted, initialed, and numbered. Each design is only in production for a limited time which makes all of their pieces very unique. Kelly and I took a tour of their factory and spent quite a long time enjoying their gift shop. Damage was done. I'm now poor. I enjoyed every minute though! The above picture is of a man hand painting a giant pot. To his right you can see the picture of which he is painting from. The type of ceramic they use is very porous so the paint is immediately absorbed and no mistakes can be corrected. They have to study for 7 years before they can become master painters. It's an amazing talent!

This is a painter at work. He is working on a giant pot, I would never have the patience! You can see the picture to his right that he is copying. I don't know how they do that! I guess thats why they need 7 years to learn.

This is wall of some of their Christmas plates that they create each year. Every year is something different. We didn't find the oldest plate on the wall, but they covered 3 walls so I know they have been doing it awhile.

This is me in front of a GIANT Delft Blue tile wall. The picture copied from one of Rembrandt's paintings. Their craftsmanship is amazing!

I had to get a picture of the Delft blue cow. Granted, the cow is not porcelain, but on the cow's head is the Royal Delft blue signature.

At the end of the tour there is an amazing gift shop. Kelly and I spent a few hours in there and walked out with our credit cards melting in our purse. We definitely put them to use! The lady who checked us out actually hand painted the plate that I bought for my mother. I thought that was a very neat touch. I should have gotten a picture of her with the plate, but I didn't think that fast. Next time!

Our Town

Kelly and I were finally able to venture out yesterday during daylight hours. It was a blast! We finally got to see our cute town for everything that it had. And boy did it smell good!! ALL of the stores were open, as well as little flower stands and donut shops that we didn't even know existed. There was a stand that sells oliebolin and Kelly had never tried one so we split one. She's hooked. Oliebolin is a giant donut hole type treat that is traditional for the Dutch New Years, often times covered in some form of sugar and having nothing, apple, or rasins inside.

A picture of some traditional houses and the flower stand.

We were also able to bo a bit of shopping for a few things we still need. I had to get new black boots because my feet were freezing in my flats. That mission was accomplished as well as a new pair of running shoes bought. The funny story with this is that it was at a running store and the guy who was helping me started asking me how much I run and what not. Well considering I didn't bring any running shoes with me, I tried to play it cool and be like "Oh, about 3 times a week usually, but I haven't ran in awhile." So he finds a pair of shoes and I try them on and, of course, like them. He then asks if I want to try them out on the treadmill. Now, I've read about "test driving" shoes in magazines, but this was the first time I've been offered this. Not wanting to reveal my lack of running knowledge I try to play it cool and agree to this test run. I climb on and he cranks the speed up to 8. Now the first thing that goes through my mind is 8mph. My mind starts racing with how horrible its going to be that I, the cool, awesome runner that I am, cannot run 8 mph how embarrasing its going to be run I crash through the shelf behind me. After these thoughts of total destruction, I realize that I'm in Europe and it probably means 8 kmh. So I thouht I should ask before I crash through anything and sure enough, it was in kmh and I didn't crash through any walls. Close call though!

The main street right by our apartment (also the street with the bank, very important!)

A pretty building on the square. I have no idea what it is, but pretty none the less!

The church in the city center. Haven't been inside yet, but it looks beautiful!

After shopping and running around around all day trying to finish up our loose ends, we were both exhausted. We decided a glass of fine would fix everything. We found a really neat wine bar with gold walls and decided that was the perfect place. It was so cute! The wine was amazing too! The ambiance was wonderful. A great date spot if I ever find my dutch prince :) We also wanted some food and we had seen a tapas bar so we went in serach of that. We finally found it and it was great! We were able to get a bunch of little different things that we split. Not too much food, but super tasty! That place is definitely on our "return to" list!

All of our different tapas. Calamari, meatballs and tomatoes, patatas bravas, kroketten with spinach and cheese, chicken with garlic, and empanadas.