A Fijn Weekend

Volendam
Sunday, we decided to visit some tourist-trap towns. The first one was called Zaanse Schans. When we arrived, it was raining out. Both the girls were sleeping and I decided it wasn't worth the effort to interrupt their naps to visit the town. There were a lot of tiny buildings in which there were cheesemakers, clogmakers, etc.

Our next stop was the town of Volendam. Volendam was once a small fishing village. A water-engineering feat in the 1950s ended the fishing livelihood, so the town turned to tourism. Volendam is picturesque. Since all the buildings were along the sea, there was also fresh breeze. Every third shop was a place to get your picture taken in traditional Dutch clothing. Every other third shop sold poffertjes and coffee. And every other third shop sold souvenirs. You know, despite all the tourist-trappedness, I really liked it!


We stopped by a cheese factory on our way out of town. Besides cheese, this place also produced clogs. The guide explained the traditional way of cutting clogs. He then demonstrated how clogs are now mechanically made. I took some short videos, in case you ever wondered. The guide warned us of the noise, but not of the flying wood debris. And to give you an idea of the mark-ups, an 89-(euro)cent jar of mustard sold at this place for 5 euros!

Here are the videos:



This morning, as we were getting ready, I noticed someone outside my window. It was not the gutter-scraper who was here last month, but the window cleaner.

Everyday Elements 2

One common thing to eat here is herring. I had heard about how herring is sold by street vendors all over the place, but I didn't come across one until yesterday. I ordered a herring sandwich. It is served raw, with onions. It was really good and I'll have it again. I like sardines, sprats, and raw herring, but have always eaten them on crackers. So it struck me as strange to me to eat raw fish on bread.

Today I came across a conveyor in action. The conveyors are used to transport items into homes, rather than have the movers face uncertain and treacherous Dutch staircases. Since this has always been an issue, most Dutch buildings are built with large windows by which the items can enter. An alternative to the conveyor is a pulley system. You will see hooks at the top of most Dutch buildings to facilitate this. And in extreme cases, a crane. The other day, a giant crane came to our neighborhood and I suspect it brought a piano to an apartment across the street from a courtyard-facing window. I saw the movers move a piano in through a front door and then the crane immediately lowered the hook into the courtyard.

I have uploaded a video of the conveyor so you can see how it works.

Below find the crane and the piano.

Everyday Elements

Monday was a holiday here, so we went out to Rotterdam for a barbecue hosted by some new friends that we met through a friend from the University of Iowa. They were fantastic hosts and laid out a tasty spread. We all took a good walk towards the end of the day to the Kralinsge Bos, site of a 1970 music festival. The weather had been capricious all weekend, but our walk took the cake! It was gorgeous when we set off. When we got to the turnaround point, we looked up to see low, dark, gray clouds. We were suddenly pelted with hail that resembled tiny styrofoam balls. This lasted until we returned to our hosts' home and then it stopped. The drive back to Amsterdam was rainy, but otherwise uneventful.

Regarding a previous post, I received an inquiry about buskers. According to Merriam-Webster's online, a busker is "a person who entertains in a public place for donations." I have no idea if a permit is needed to do this. As I had mentioned in the post, I fantasized about doing this when in Montpellier. What my contribution to local color would have been remains in question, since I do not have any performing arts skills. Below are some pictures of buskers in Dam Square. One practical issue regarding busking was brought up to me by the owner of the English Bookshop in Montpellier. The change can become too heavy to transport.

I'm Dreaming of a White Chreaster....

Amelie receiving a Chreaster present.

So we woke up this morning to a city bathed in white snow. We feared it could malign our plans to go to a farm, but luckily it melted by 11:00AM. By noon, we were at the Kinderboerderij Bijlmerweide, which was about 15 minutes away. It is subsidized by the government and is run by volunteers.

We were greeted by all sorts of Easter bunnies and there were a bunch of activities for Liliane, some games, a tractor ride, an egg hunt. Liliane employed her animal sounds to a giant sow named Polly. We also saw an angora goat, some baby goats, peacocks, cattle, donkeys, chicks and chickens. There was a nice playground and although it was rather wet, Liliane took full advantage of it. The snow came and went a few times while there. After about two hours, we went home.

Upon return from the farm, Peter Cottontail had set up an Easter egg hunt for Liliane that consisted of three Kinder-brand chocolate eggs with prizes in the middle. She found two right away and one remains outstanding. For our Easter dinner, we will be having almond-encrusted turkey, petites pommes and green beans. Neither Dan nor I can take credit for preparing this meal, all thanks goes to our local supermarket, Albert Heijn. Dessert is Bonne Maman brand creme caramel.

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the elusive egg is not upon the books or in the mouth of the alligator (at far left). It is elsewhere in the picture.

Oranje Piet

Once a millenium, when a leap year coincides with misaligned intercontinental Daylight Savings and transatlantic relocation disrupts Yule time, Christmas and Easter fall on the same day. This day is, of course, called Chreaster. This year was a 'White Chreaster'.

Anyway, when this miracle occurs Santa and the Easter Bunny get into a huge legal battle over marketing rights and sales at Macy's. While they are distracted, their roles are subversively commandeered by the crafty and wily Oranje Piet. Oranje Piet is a master of disguise and a master of the obvious. He is the younger and more handsome brother of Orange Julius. In the off-season he enjoys watching 'Dancing with the Stars'. As his orangeness attests he is obviously Dutch. He is in no way affiliated with Black Piet. This year, due to the unexpected snowfall, he donned an orange fleece and protected his floppy bunny ears with a waterproof hot/cold Trader Joe's bag. Big pimpin' track pants are a standard accessory.

So while the children are sleeping (a difficult time to predict in this household), Oranje Piet flattens himself ala Flat Stanley and slides beneath the door. He then opens the door to bring in his sacks o' goodies which do not have the same magical flattening powers. Creeping silently down the hall, he noiselessy navigates into the children's room and places a bevy of presents beneath the Chreaster Tulips. When they awaken, the children are horrified to discover an overgrown rabbit man in an oversized tea-cozy hat prancing around the coffee table. But when they oversome that horror, they do notice the gifts! Opening commences with gusto. To the outside observer, one might suppose that the objective was to preserve the wrapping paper and obliterate the contents. When all that's left is the clean-up, Oranje Piet promptly flattens beneath the door and dashes off to the next household in his Skoda wagon. Yes, Piet is sporty and thrifty!

Until next Chreaster (999 years hence), we'll miss you Oranje Piet!

Henges and the trip Home

On Saturday, we set off from Swindon to look at henges. According to dictionary.com, a henge is "a Neolithic monument of the British Isles, consisting of a circular area enclosed by a bank and ditch and often containing additional features including one or more circles of upright stone or wood pillars: probably used for ritual purposes or for marking astronomical events, as solstices and equinoxes."

The first henge we went to was called Avebury. Avebury has quite a few more stones than Stonehenge and they are spread out over a much greater area on the countryside. It was just a matter of walking through a gate to get to the stones.

The next henge we visited was the world famous Stonehenge. It was pretty cool to actually see it. As I had been warned, however, the audioguide was rather annoying in its repetitive speculation as to the origins of the henge. Also, as Let's Go: Europe warned, the audiotour calls into question what is more haunting - the rocks themselves or the "bizarre march of tourists who stop suddenly to silently devote their attention to black handsets."

Afterwards, we drove to Salisbury. It was pouring when we arrived, which put to rest my desire to visit their Saturday market. We were further deterred by the 6 pound parking fee at the cathedral, so a look at its vaulting spire was enough. On our way back, we passed through Pewsey, where we saw a chalk horse carved into the hillside. It's one of the white horses of Wiltshire. We also passed through Marlborough, whose private (or "public" in British English) high school is the alma mater of Kate Middleton and of the wealthier personages on Seven Up! The architecture of Marlborough's main thoroughfare is just as I imagined 18th century England.



Upon return to Swindon, we went shopping at its Outlet Mall. They had a next store there, along with a Whittard's of Chelsea tea shop, so I was in heaven! Dan was able to find his favorite Gap trousers at the Gap outlet there, so I would say it was a successful trip. That night, we had fish 'n chips again from the same place as the previous Saturday night.

The trip home was fortunately uneventful. I've included two photos, however. The first is the road sign that says "Channel Tunnel." The French have always refused to acknowledge the name "English Channel" and refer to it as "La Manche" (the "sleeve"), as you can see from the previous photo last week. Also, I included a photo of vehicles boarding the train cars, to give a better idea of the transport. Basically, you enter through the train door and drive straight away to the front of the train.

Polling

I've been thinking of including polls to liven up the blog.

Here is my first one:

1.58:1 = no fun

Would somebody get this guy to say the "R" word?

Election year or not, there is a mysterious jinx that can only be broken if we admit that we sort of are in the midst of some type of financial down cycle.

Maybe then the exchange rate will allow us to buy American cheezburgers for less than Filet Mignon at home.

This is how "R"ocky feels about the devaluation of the dollar.

Subprimeoooooooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.

Booberry, however, remains unfazed by the whole situation...

Liliane is blissfully oblivious as well. Enjoy this clip of her rambling amongst the ruins.

The Week in Wiltshire

Monday and Tuesday were almost identical. I would drop Dan off, shop at Tesco, bring Liliane to the kiddy pool, put the girls down for their naps, pick Dan up, and eat dinner at curry place Picklejohns.

Wednesday - We met up with the wife of Dan's friend Simon - Tina. Tina and Simon have a daughter named Mara who is Liliane's age. We met up at a giant playcenter called Kidz About and the girls spent over four hours playing in a toddler zone and in a ball pavilion.

floating balls at the playcenter

Thursday - Back to Cardiff to see more of Karin. It was great to see Karin and Jacob again! In the morning, we hung out at her house and made Rice Krispie treats. In the afternoon, we went to Cafe Junior, which is a kid-friendly place, complete with a large play area, costumes and all sort of toys. What was very good about it is that the equipment was really nice. Everything was made of wood, not plastic. You also needed to be buzzed in, and pass through a gate, so this helped prevent runaway toddlers. Cafe Junior served all sorts of high quality tea and coffee, and really nice food. I wish they had something like this in Amsterdam. That night we met Tina, Simon, and Mara for dinner at Picklejohns.

Pictures with Karin and Jacob.


Friday - Met up with Tina and Mara for a German playgroup. The City of Swindon has a facility with all sorts of rooms that groups can reserve and use. The facility's toddler playroom was great. Liliane particulary enjoyed the German foksongs that were sung. Included were coffee and tea for the parents, and treats for the kids. It was only 50p per family!

Afterwards, Mara went home for a nap. Liliane, Amelie, and I headed out to Rove's Farm, which was only about 20 minutes away near the village of Sevenhampton. It was really fantastic and I hope something like this is in the vicinity of Amsterdam. Rove's Farm had all sorts of great features. Liliane played in a sand pit and toddler play area. Next, we all went on a tractor ride, where we were recruited for the "Teddy Bear Lunch." Afterwards, we went for storytime in a loft above a giant slide in the barn. Also in the barn were a jumping castle, haybale maze, and some farm animals. Liliane dropped out of the Teddy Bear Lunch after the story. The lunch set went on to the craft room. Outside, there was another play area, more farm animals, and a willow maze. The girls and I stopped at , we met at Tina and Simon's and ended up dining with them. Apparently, after hanging out so much with Mara (who is German-English bilingual), Liliane learned a new word, "nein." Oddly, though, this is not a word that I ever heard Mara utter.

A Welcome in Wales

On Sunday morning we set off for Cardiff, the capital of Wales. It is only about an hour's drive from Swindon. Wales is very scenic and maintains its cultural heritage even though it's been part of the United Kingdom for over 700 years. The Welsh language is even compulsory in schools.

In Cardiff, we first stopped by the home of a friend of mine from the University of Iowa named Karin. Karin and I had been out of touch for several years, so it was really fantastic to see her again! Karin is married to Andrew, and has a five-month-old son, Jacob, with whom Amelie had a play date. Dan and I brought a Dutch breakfast of poffertjes, pancakes, coffee and koffiemelk. Karin and Andrew rounded out the breakfast with hot cross buns, fruit, and tea. Liliane consumed what can only be described as a copious quantity of poffertjes.

After breakfast at Karin's, we drove to the nearby Caerphilly Castle. As soon as we parked and paid for the parking, a downpour began. We decided to stick it out and a few minutes later, the rain let up enough to go outside. Liliane was excited to run around the castle grounds. The moat was very wide and there were people fishing along its banks. Inside the castle, we encountered more medieval weaponry and a leaning tower that looked as if it could very well topple. As were were finishing our tour, a beautiful rainbow appeared on the horizon.

the rainbow

Liliane studies more medieval weaponry.

After the castle, we went to the Rhondda Heritage Park, which offered mine tours on which we could bring the girls. Unfortunately, we arrived 40 minutes before the next tour and the tour was scheduled to last an hour and a half. We knew that we would be pushing our luck, so we just looked at an exhibit there about a mining disaster and about life in the area in prosperous times.

We did a driveby of the Cardiff Castle and of the Cardiff Bay. Pictures I had seen before had not done the castle justice. The castle is immense, grandiose and is surrounded by a lovely park. If I go there one day, I will definitely plan to picnic nearby. The bay was nice, but there didn't seem to be a point from whence you could see the entire panorama. The view was blocked by some industrial warehouses, but you could still see England across the way and a cliff.

We were going to head back to Swindon, but we couldn't resist stopping back at Karin and Andrew's to see if they had any dinner plans. Andrew had just been toasting up some cardamom seeds for an African peanut-chicken soup when I knocked on the door. There was enough soup for us, but to supplement it, Karin ordered some vegetarian Indian appetizers. It was a delicious meal with great company!

Canterbury, but no Bunny Tails

Since we had built up some extra time, we decided to visit Canterbury to see the famed cathedral. Dan had purchased the navigational system that brought us there without the use of maps, which was good because we didn't have any. We got to a roundabout from which we could see the cathedral from a hill, looking quite imposing with its towers.

Outside the cathedral was a group of women who appeared to be on a "hen party" (bachelorette). They were all wearing bunny ears (and no tails) and dancing to the busker's music, which was rather entertaining. Decidedly, the people inside the cathedral were not nearly as boisterous. The light that hit the windows was pretty amazing and it is a beautiful structure.

We drove on and made it to Swindon by the early evening. We went shopping at a store called ASDA, which is owned by Wal-Mart, where we bought Liliane a new pair of faux pink Crocs. Dan then went and got us fish 'n chips for dinner and we then hit the hay.

It's not wrong, it's just not right

Madeline will probably report on exciting details from the trip itself, but here's a brief update on a topic of much anxiety over the past few weeks: driving on the left side of the road. I must admit I have been mostly terrified by the prospect of what would happen when we arrived in the greater Folkestone/Dover region after our Channel crossing.

To my surprise, it hasn't been all that bad! Some tips should you decide to attempt this:

• Each morning when I get in the car I recite a little mantra - "Dan, you are in England. Please stay on the left side of the road."
• Satellite Navigation systems rule. Our Garmin prevents us from getting lost and provides subtle reminders at roundabouts ("Stay left...") along with helpful graphics.
• When other vehicles are coming the other way, it's really not that hard to remember to stay out of their trajectory. The hardest part seems to be when there are no other cars around (e.g. parking lots and side streets).
• Even with the driver's wheel on the left side it isn't too difficult to see everything you need. The only near-impossible challenge would be attempting to pass on a 2-lane road. Way too risky for me!
• If you plan to go through toll booths (and there aren't many), bring a passenger. This also applies to drive-thrus I suppose. Should you not have a willing passenger, you may hire one at the border. Alternatively, you could put the car in park, remove your seatbelt, and lean waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay over. Be sure to give a silly grin so they know you are "not from 'round these here parts".
• There are rumors that left-drivered vehicles have headlights that 'dip' to the right (and vice versa). This could lead to unanticipated 'dazzling' (or dazing in our case) of oncoming traffic. This suggestion was debunked by those we questioned, and the purchase/application of black-out strips dismissed as sheer tomfoolery. If you have been caught in our cross-beam, please leave an informative comment to correct our brash continentality.

Enjoy and good luck!

Skoda-mobile has now been to 4 countries and one region desperately desiring to be a country. No word on its replacement.

A visit to the Mother Country

Dan was scheduled to work in Swindon, England, from March 10th through March 14th. The prospect of a week's uninterrupted supervision of the girls seemed a bit daunting, plus I love England, so I invited the girls and myself along. Swindon is in Western England and is close to such places as Salisbury, Bath, and Stonehenge.

We set off Saturday morning and, not including stops, made it to Calais, France, in 3 1/2 hours. We opted to cross the English Channel/La Manche with the Eurostar (Chunnel) train. We had been scheduled for the 1:20PM departure, but since we got to the entrance at 12:08, we were offered an earlier departure of 12:50. We followed the arrows to the train and drove on board. There were two other vehicles in our train car. The doors shut behind us and suddenly we realized we were moving. Since the train parts on the half hour, they were able to shuttle us onto the 12:20 train. We arrived in Folkestone, England, about a half hour later.

Below, are some pictures of our journey onto the Eurostar and a video leaving the train.