Pannenkoeken

We made a trip this morning to the Boerderij Meerzicht (Meerzicht Farmhouse). It is only a few miles from our house, but it's literally a world away. It's located in the Amsterdamse Bos (Amsterdam Woods), which is a gigantic park right outside the city. There is a 2000 meter lake that was built for the 1928 Olympic Games where crew events took place.

Boerderij Meerzicht is well known for its delicious pancakes and it definitely lived up to our expectations! The boerderij buildings have thatched rooves and were extremely charming. We were able to sit outside since the weather was pretty mild today. Dan ordered the cherry and powdered sugar pancake and I ordered the bacon and apple pancakes. We shared these with Liliane. As you can see from the pictures, they were gigantic! Service was extremely quick, which made it ideal for people, like us, with children.

In addition, the restaurant had a small zoo with peacocks, chickens and a pony. The playground was also fun. I've included a picture of the playground with interesting things that I hadn't seen at a playground. In the foreground, there's an activity where children stand on a stabilized tire and run. There is a small zipline in the background. At the front of the restaurant, there was a Caterpillar-type sand mover that kids could play with.

And I don't think I've mentioned the love of dogs here in Holland. We saw a bunch yesterday in Gouda. Today, there were a lot of dogs inside the restaurant at the boerderij. And for those owners who forgot to bring canine snacks, the broederij has a vending machine for dog treats. With all the dogs, Liliane is in heaven!

Gouda ya do

Today we made our first (of many I'm sure) excursions out of our new home city. The Skoda zipped us down the A2 past Utrecht to the unbustling cheesetropolis of Gouda. For those of you thinking 'Gooooooodah', please replace the 'G' with a guttural noise from the back of your throat and the 'oo' with an 'ow'. Now you are speaking Dutch (the post-title only makes sense if pronounced in Nederlands).

After parking (I'll reserve an entire post for this phenomenon) near the canal, we ventured into the town market. Not surprisingly, there were several vendors offering an assortment of giant cheese wheels. The prices were pretty good, so we did purchase some Oude Kaas--yum. We strolled about the town for a bit, enjoying the unseasonable warmth. Clearly we packed a bit of Arizona in our bags (or 'most of Arizona in our bags' you may think as you look at our departure photos). We took our lunch at a cafe inside a bakery, happily nabbing a stroopwaffel sample to placate Liliane's cookie penchant on the way out.

Gouda was a very pleasant city, with interesting architecture throughout. A nice place to go to get the small town feel of the Netherlands. We didn't get to tour the Sint Janskerk, though it may be worth a visit if we pass through again. You can view some more pictures here.