More and More Visitors

So after Tabatha and Boyd flew home on Monday, May 31^st I had 4 days to recover and get my apartment ready Doris and her 2 friends to visit. They arrived on Thursday evening, June 3^rd and we didn't waste any time! We headed out into Haarlem for a brief walk around town so that the girls could get a lay of the land for their excursion to Amsterdam on Friday while I worked. It was so great to catch up with Doris and her friends. Doris and I were the two single gals as Katrin is married and Sabina is engaged. They are both with American soldiers who are currently in Iraq and they found out just before they came that their men were going to be home in 6 weeks which was several months earlier than originally thought. I have known Katrin for many years as she was an exchange student the same time Doris was. She lived in Georgia and her and Doris celebrated their German graduation together and we all went on a trip together. Stories were brought up from that fabulous vacation and we had many more laughs.

The girls had a busy day in Amsterdam on Friday and, from what I hear, did a TON of walking. We met back at my apartment and they took a break and we got ready to go back into the city for an evening out. We walked around Dam square, toured the ever famous red light district and just hung out and enjoyed the atmosphere for a few hours. We caught the last train home at 1:30 am and called it a decently early night. On Saturday I had to head to the airport bright and early to pick up Javan, my coworker. He and I worked pretty closely during my rotation in Houston and I was excited to see him again. He got check into his hotel and had a few hours to take a nap. The girls and I had planned to head to Delft and Den Haag (The Hague) to see the sights and help Annemiek celebrate her birthday. Javan sent me a message and let me know there was no way he was going to make the trip with us, he wanted to keep napping. We completely lucked out and the weather was amazing the entire weekend. So in addition to seeing The Hague, we had to stop by the beach at Scheveningen. We were only there for about an hour, but that was long enough to walk in the sand, take some pictures and eat an ice cream. It isn't a trip to the beach unless there is ice cream!! After we dusted off our feet, we headed to Delft to visit with Mark's family and celebrate Annemiek's birthday. I was a bad attendee, though, because I forgot her gift and it is still sitting on my table. I'll get it sent before I leave this country!! It was so nice to see all of the family - grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. We spent the evening talking and visiting the local bars and pubs here in Haarlem. It was great to see Doris again and spend some time with everyone.

They had to leave early Sunday as it is an 8 hour drive (with traffic). From what I heard, it was a decently uneventful drive which is always a great thing. The next time I'll be seeing Doris is for her brother's wedding in September when I make a crazy long weekend trip across the big pond to help her family celebrate the happy event. Until then, we've got to depend on emails!

Lazy Sunday

Sunday was a lazy day for me. I wanted to go to Amsterdam and visit the Rijksmuseum in the morning then head to Delft in the afternoon for a bbq but I never made it to Amsterdam. I was awake but it just seemed like so much effort and the weather wasn’t awesome and visiting a museum alone is a hard thing to get motivated for so I stayed in. I am slightly disappointed with myself, but we are all human and have our lapses.

On the train to Delft we drove by field after field of blooming tulips. They were so pretty!! I need to get out there and take some pictures. I don’t want to miss them but nobody here is too excited about them and I can’t distinguish it between their general lack of attention to tulips or the fact that they aren’t that good yet and will get better. I’m afraid I will miss something if I wait too long! I also have to get back to Keukenhof and see their blooming St. Basil’s Cathedral. I have seen it so much sans flowers I deserve to see it with flowers! I need to make sure I get my usage of my season pass I invested in. Only a few more weeks before the park closes on May 18. I also read you can rent bikes and tour around the surrounding area which sounds like a great idea except it is a tourist hot spot on the weekends and I’m not a fan of crowds, nor have any free weekends left.

Thursday starts the Queen’s night party which then transfers (I’m guessing seamlessly) into Queen’s day parties. I’m not sure if I will venture out on Thursday (to Amsterdam) alone. Maybe I’ll check out the situation locally around Haarlem. I’m sure they have something good going on as well. It seems most of the country does something. Friday, though, I have volunteered some people from work to meet up with me so I don’t have to hang out alone in the crowds. I was looking at the web page that lists all of the major “Pleins” or squares where things are happening and I can’t wait. One of the major one has live music for 10 straight hours with The Baseballs in the evening. I finally got a copy of their CD but they have primarily remade other songs but into a rockabilly format so it’s fun to have that spin on the #1 hits. It will be a busy day and a half with tons of walking and hopefully good weather.

On Saturday I am trying to get Ben, Mark’s brother, to come visit so we can go to the Beverwijk black market. He loves to go and I’m not a fan of attempting things by myself so I figured if I could enlist an “old pro” I might as well try. I might also kidnap him and drag him along with tulip field visits. I’m sure he would LOVE that. Don’t give him a heads up Gina! It’ll ruin the look of pain and torture on his face if I get the chance to capture him.

Bloemencorso 2010

Today was a busy day! I managed to sleep in (a little too much) and didn’t get my run in. Now, I was “motivated” to go this morning and enjoy the nice weather but I liked sleeping more. I did go to Delft to see Annemiek’s soccer game and spend some time with Mark’s family. Ton was busy making the garden pretty and planting some new flowers. They had beautiful tulips blooming in pink, orange, and purple. They are just such happy flowers! Gina (the Mom) is usually banned from all of her kid’s soccer games because they say she is bad luck and whenever she shows up they lose (even if they were winning when she got there). We decided that my positive, good luck appearance canceled out her bad luck. It was a great afternoon for a bike ride (to and from the game) and to sit out and enjoy the garden. We had dinner in their back yard in their newly painted chairs (Ton oiled the wood) and I was thoroughly amused with fish they have in their pond. Apparently, they are a liability though because the birds eat them so they only buy cheap ones. I never thought about that being a problem.

I ended up getting home around 8:30pm and I knew the flower parade was this weekend and supposed to arrive in Haarlem around 9 pm. I got on the internet quick and looked up the route. It all meant nothing to me so with the help of Google Maps I figured out the route and realized it went RIGHT BY my apartment. I figured I couldn’t miss this opportunity so I walked out my door and around the corner and saw the people starting to line up. I figured some ice cream would keep me busy the 20 minutes I waited but the line was out the door so I gave up on that idea and just found a spot. It was perfect! No big crowds, no crowding, and I was right up front. I admit, I left a bit early because my back was hurting and I had already been out there 1.5 hrs so I figured I had seen enough. From the sounds of the traffic, I only missed a few floats. I still managed plenty of pictures though!!! I hope you enjoy them. EVERYTHING is out of flowers. Building floats out of tissue paper for Homecoming was hard enough, I can’t imagine flowers!!

Leave it to the Dutch to have a band on bikes!

The first flower float, a giant tulip!

The theme at Keukenhof this year is "From Russia with Love." Nothing says it more than their flag/symbol made out of pretty flowers!

A pink windmill out of flowers. My new Dutch favorite.

A lady in the traditional dress with purple cows.

This is supposed to be the Dutch boy and girl kissing but I sort of missed it and got the boy. He looks a bit creepy but I had to include it out of principle.

The viking ship!

The head of the viking....coming at us with his hatchet!

The masquerades!

Ariel and her mermaid friend and the moving seahorses! They really rocked back and forth!

Can't go anywhere without your pink sheep.

Did you know the Tour de France starts in Rotterdam, the Netherlands? Neither did I. Here is the flower version!

She's Gone.....

The past few days have been busy and exciting. It is all, now, overshadowed by the fact that this morning I took Kelly to the airport. I hated having to take her, but I’m happy for her to be able to be with her family and Stu these next few months. She has a fantastic wedding to plan!! I’ll keep touring Europe (just alone) and she’ll keep me updated about her new exciting life in Houston.

Over the weekend Mom and I went to Keukenhof (again) and then to The Hague to see “The girl with the pearl earring.” The flowers were blooming even more so than last week when Kelly and I were there. I have taken PLENTY of pictures and will put them up soon. I forgot my camera today. After spending several hours ogling over the flowers we headed just down the road to The Hague. I am slowly learning my way around this country! We parked and headed to the Mauritshaus. They have an amazing collection. It is a smaller museum that used to be a house. Each corner of the building is a room which houses the pictures. They have 3 Vermeer paintings and I think one of my favorite is his townscape of Delft. He really is the painter of light! You can see a picture of the painting HERE.

Mom and I had fun wondering around the museum and hearing the histories of the paintings from the audio guide. After about 2 hours we were art-ed out and our parking meter was about to expire. We also had a dinner date with Kelly so we headed back. Mom was a bit put out by me that we didn’t go to the beach since we were so close but I told her we would go before she leaves. It’s not exactly warm around here but I guess it is beautiful to see.

On Sunday we headed to the Van Nieuwkoops’ for Erik’s confirmation at church. It was neat to go to such an old church. The royal family is buried in the church, dating back to 1584. The service was extra long due to the confirmation and the benches are of the true, medieval style of hard wood and straight backs. I can see why all of the children wanted to go off to Sunday school during the service. I expected the church to be cold since it is rather old but they had installed heaters under the benches so it warmed your legs and tush. It was quite a nice little treat. I will admit though, my upper body was a bit chilled and it was terribly early (and we just had our time change to make it worse) and I wanted to curl up and the floor and take a little nap. My mom and I had headphones so we got an English translation of the service which was nice to know what was going on, but it wasn’t the best translation ever done. We found it rather entertaining at times.

After the service everyone headed over to Ton and Gina’s (Erik’s parents) house for coffee and tart. There were so many people!! It was multiple generations and cousins and aunts and uncles and friends. It was a lot of fun to see all of the people and be able to put faces to names that we have heard from Mark about his family. They were all very nice and Mom and I had a very enjoyable Sunday. We were exhausted afterwards though! I met some great people and they invited me to visit them so even though Kelly is gone, I should have plenty of things to do and people to see.

After we got home from Delft, Kelly had made us reservations for Wilma and Albert, our favorite place. We thought it was appropriate for her “last supper.” She had the garlic butter steak, I had the spicy ribs, and Mom got the salmon. We all traded a bit and had a super tasty meal. I also learned that they have little portion of the ribs which is ½ of what is normally provided. A great discovery!! We all also had a bowl of French onion soup to start. That is the best soup! Kelly is determined to learn how to make it and I keep warning her I might move in if she isn’t careful. I’m sure the newlywed couple wouldn’t mind!

On the walk home we stopped at the newly opened ice cream shop. This place is always packed so we had to try it out. None of us needed it, or really had room for it, but we couldn’t let Kelly leave without one more taste of the country’s amazing treat. After that Kelly and I curled up on the couch to watch one last episode of Grey’s Anatomy together illegally over the internet before we called it a night.

I got Kelly to the airport this morning with no major incidences and she got all of her luggage check in and had no problems. I headed to work where I claimed a new desk so I wouldn’t have to sit in the office by myself. It’s interesting to be back in the middle of the office and around everyone. I now hear a lot more Dutch so maybe I’ll pick it up a bit faster! I also get control of the radios since it is on my desk and I threaten to make country CDs for everyone to listen too. I might be kicked out then!

The rest of the week Mom and I are going to be travelling so I’m not sure how much I’ll be updating the blog. I will do my best to figure out mobile blogger but I won’t make any promises. If anything, you will have so much to look forward to next week!!!

I hope everyone has a great Monday!!

Rotterdam

Saturday was a bit rough. I was looking forward to my tour of Rotterdam, but I had a small headache. In America, I think all college students have some form of aspirin/Advil on hand. In Holland, they apparently rough it. So I roughed it. Erik showed me the local ropes. He also helped me get my OV Chip Card so that I can use all forms of public transportation so we walked around down town to the local Albert Heijn (the grocery store). Their Albert Heijn is A LOT bigger than ours! It was so nice and wide open. They also had a great deli/bakery area where we bought fresh croissants filled with ham and cheese and a bottle of fresh juice and had breakfast watching the birds in the little plaza. After nourishing our bodies, we headed off on our day trek around the city.

***A brief history on Rotterdam: It is Europe’s largest port and it is the worlds 2nd busiest port after Shanghai which surpassed it in 2004. Rotterdam is the Netherlands second largest city behind Amsterdam followed by The Hague. On May 14, 1940 Rotterdam was blitzed by the Germans flattening the entire city. The only remaining structure which was reminiscent of the city’s medieval architecture was the Laurenskerk (Lauren’s Church). Up until this point in the war, the UK only bombed military targets. While they recognized that civilian lives would be lost, they tried what they could to keep them to a minimum. The day after the Rotterdam blitz, where a suspected 30,000 people died under the rubble, the Royal Air Force gave permission for their bombers to bomb any target that aided in the Germany’s survival regardless if they were civilian or not. These targets included oil plants and blast furnaces. ***

Erik took me by the local market that was selling everything from fresh fish to furniture to bike locks and razors. Anything you could possibly need, you could find on the market. It was fun to see, but I’m not a fan of big, pushy crowds so we just buzzed our way through there. There was a local church (the Laruenskerk) in Rotterdam that was the only building standing after the city was bombed in WWII. It was an impressive church and had that much more meaning knowing it survived being flattened by the war. After the market we came upon the famous cube houses that helped make Rotterdam’s modern architecture so prominent. I’m not sure how I would like to live in one of these. They were pretty mind-boggling staring up at them. It sort of made me dizzy. Here is a picture.



The next part of the tour included some of the old harbors. I don’t think these boats leave. Erik was saying that they have been converted into houses or restaurants and enjoy their lives in the safety of the harbor. The big white building in the back ground was Europe’s first sky scraper. Pretty small in today’s comparisons.


The below picture is part of Rotterdam’s sky line as well as their novel train stop. The roof looks like a flying saucer. There are also lots of cranes in the sky line. There is a ton of building being done on Rotterdam; new metro/train stations, sky scrapers, and apartments. I guess they are expecting big things out of the city.

The next picture is another old harbor. Around all of these old harbors are restaurants and cafes where one can sit out and enjoy the old pirate looking ships and good weather. I didn’t really want to sit outside; it was still quite chilly out. I can see the beauty of it though; I could have looked and dreamed about those ships too. I think one of them really used to be Captain Hooks!

The next picture is of Rotterdam’s statue De Verwoeste Stad (The Destroyed City). It was donated to the city from a private warehouse in the 1950’s I believe. It is supposed to represent the heart of the city being bombed, just as the heart of the statue is gone. A very interesting piece of art work-so many sculptures in cities nowadays don’t seem to portray the emotion or recognition that the artist says they do. This one, there isn’t too much to debate about.

After walking through the city we made our way towards the water way. There was an old maritime museum we passed as well as an old harbor museum we didn’t go into. The harbor museum looked neat though, and if I happen to go back, I might try to visit it. There was an old steam engine outside though that represented how freight used to be moved along the harbor ways from one ship to the next. I thought it was a cute train so I had to take a picture!

As we continued our walk, we came across the Walk of Fame. It is a knock off of Hollywood’s star studded walk but it was cute none the less. There were all sorts of famous people including the Tour de France star Jan Janssen. I was unaware that the Tour de France started in Rotterdam, but it does. All of the squares were different colors of pastel reds, yellows, greens, and blues. Jan’s square was yellow, just like his jersey color. Shrek’s square is green, like him. Evidence is in the below photo!

I had to take a picture of Johnny Cash’s square! It was the most American square I saw. Now, I didn’t exactly scour the path to find some, but his happened to be pretty prominent and therefore deserved a photo.

All of this walking had taken a toll on Erik and I so we decided it was time for a break. We stopped at the old Holland America cruise line office for a drink. The building is now called Hotel New York because that was where the cruise line ended, in New York. It was a fun café, and a very happening place. There was a nice pier/port area with grass and wide walk ways. Pictures of the rejuvenation efforts made this area look quite enjoyable during the warm summer months.

The below photo has several things I want to point out. First is the Erasmus bridge, nicknamed the Swan because of its bend in the pylon. It was built in 1996 and is a 2,600 ft cable bridge that connects the north and south sides of Rotterdam. The pylon is 453ft tall making it one of the tallest structures in Holland. Another interesting fact about the spot where this picture is taken is how the sidewalk/pier just ends. There are no signs, no fences, or armed guards, just the end of land and beginning of water. I don’t even know if there are ladders to get out if you fall in. Apparently, the Dutch are much smarter than the American’s in the fact they don’t need all sorts of signage to tell someone something so obvious. Their legal system is probably less busy with frivolous law suits also. I didn’t fall in. I used my brain to stop walking and realized the potential danger of swimming in the world’s 2nd largest harbor.

Some other tall buildings in Rotterdam:
• Rotterdam has the tallest residential building in the Netherlands: the Montevideo Tower (160 m (524 ft)).
• Rotterdam is also home to the tallest office building 'Delftse Poort' (160 m (520 ft)) which houses Nationale-Nederlanden insurance company, part of ING Group[13][14]
• The city also houses the 186 meters (610 ft) tall Euromast, which has long been a major tourist attraction. It was built in 1960, initially reaching a height of 101 meters (331 ft); in 1970, the Euromast was extended by 85 meters (279 ft) to its current height.


After our break and looking at the pretty harbor and watching taxi boats go back and forth as well as a tug boat pulling a crane, we headed back to Erik’s apartment so I could grab my things then catch the train back to Haarlem. I didn’t think it would be too difficult since there is a direct train. Well, the Netherlands are revamping several of the country’s main train stations and Delft happens to be one of them. So not only do these people have to worry about road construction, track construction is also pretty inconvenient. The lady told me I needed to catch a train to Gouda, and then switch direction of The Hague, then switch direction Haarlem. That seemed like a lot of work and a lot of switching. So we asked about a train to Amsterdam. Sure enough, there was one that left a few minutes later, a sprinter. Now when I think of a sprinter I think fast. I forgot to think short distances. This is exactly what the train does, goes fast between EVERY LITTLE STOP between Rotterdam and Amsterdam. It took longer than normal, but I didn’t have to change trains 3 times. So in Amsterdam I just jumped onto the next sprinter headed to Haarlem. Usually the train we take stops 3 times, once in Haarlem, Amsterdam Sloderdijk, and Amsterdam Centraal. This one stopped many more times, including the stop where Kelly and Stu got lost at. If they would have ridden one more stop they would have made it to the Central station. Hindsight is always 20/20.

I eventually made it home around 6:30 that evening, in time for dinner with Kelly and the girls at XO on the square. We all split a wonderful bottle of champagne celebrating their arrival and their week of excursions. On Monday they went to Brussels, Tuesday and Wednesday they are in Paris (returning tonight) and I believe they are headed to Germany tomorrow and Amsterdam on Friday. Their flight home is on Saturday where they will have one day of rest before school starts up again. They are going to need it with the schedule they are keeping!

Sunday was filled with an exciting trip to The Hague. Check in tomorrow for those adventures, big and small!

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!