Jonathan and Marissa zijn in Nederland

Leif and Marissa

By now you know that Leiden is a great place to live. Canals, bicycles, windmills...everything you could want in a Dutch city. But it still can't keep us from feeling a little homesick. Luckily Kurt's cousin, Jonathan and his girlfriend, Marissa were in Europe for a wedding and decided to make a side trip to see us!
 They arrived last Saturday around 1 o'clock, somewhat tired but ready for a tourist adventure. We roused the kids from their naps, rented a boat, and took them for a canal tour. You may remember from a previous post that we did the same with Lars and Sam when they were here at the end of July. Unfortunately the weather was a little less agreeable this time and we ended up a little soggy. In spite of the rain I think everyone enjoyed it. We promise to take any of our visitors on this tour but, hurry, from what we have heard the fall gets quite rainy.
  On Sunday we woke up bright and early thanks to our one year old alarm clock child and caught a train into Amsterdam. It was a bit rainy still so we dutifully donned our rain gear. Unbeknownst to us we would end up just carrying it around the rest of the absolutely gorgeous day.

Marissa, Elephant, and Jon

From the train station we walked to the Amsterdam Zoo (aka Natura Artis Magistra). Admission was a bit pricey but it was a well manicured zoo with a wide variety of animals and some grand old buildings. I tried not to make my guilty feelings evident (Kurt has warned me about passing guilt onto the kids) but some of the habitats seemed a little on the small side; The zoo is 175 years old and ideas have changed since then about the rights of animals and humans. That being said we did get to see a lot of animals really close up (Sorry, animals!). The butterfly house was particularly awesome- as we walked through a sweet smelling greenhouse filled with plants, all manner of butterflies flited around us like erratic fairies. Leif tried desperately to convince the butterflies to land on him but to no avail. For lunch we ate at a cafe opposite the giraffe habitat. While they wrapped their purple tongues around some hay we enjoyed some surprisingly reasonably priced fare. Unfortunately, Kurt spilled almost his entire cappuccino defending Leif's saucijzenbroodje from a cheeky pigeon.
   We were unsure at this point how much more we could push the kids. Klaus had taken a 20 minute nap in the stroller when we first arrived at the zoo but both he and Leif were looking a bit glassy-eyed as we wrapped up our time with the animals. The plan was always that Jon and Marissa would stay in Amsterdam all day but that we would return home early according to the kid's needs. J and M were planning to go to the Anne Frank house but other than that their plans were pretty loose. We decided to walk them to the Vondelpark, a large metro park in the southern part of the city. On the way both boys took naps so we felt comfortable stopping for a snack at the Blue Teahouse, a 1930's teahouse located in the Vondelpark. It felt wonderfully European even though we ate chips and salsa. From there we took temporarily parted ways with Jon and Marissa and took the train home. 
  Everyone was a bit worn out on Monday so we decided to stay in Leiden. We really wanted Jon and Marissa to experience biking in the Netherlands so we convinced them to rent a bicycle. I gave my bike to Marissa and, in true Dutch style, I sat on the luggage rack of Kurt's bike. With the kids in the bike trailer we all set off for Leiden's Rijksmuseum van Oudheden (see video). This gem of a museum houses the Netherlands's antiquities collection. I knew about this museum but I was not prepared for how awesome it is. The collection is amazing with several Egyptian mummies, countless pieces of black/red figure Greek pottery, an impressive statue of Emperor Trajan, and an entire late Egyptian temple. As always, we did not get to spend as much time there as we would have liked but luckily it is right here is Leiden and we have museum passes. 
After nap we biked around the city some more and then took Jon and Marissa to the Burcht. We picked up some Indian food at India Way Tandoori Restaurant for dinner. It was the first Indian place that we have tried in Leiden and I think we can stop looking for our regular Indian place. We have found it! The food was fabulous and the waiter was very friendly and really accommodating (I'm a pesky pescatarian and Marissa is gluten intolerant).
  This morning we sadly said good-bye to Jon and Marissa. Fortunately since we return to the U.S. right around Christmas we will get to see them almost as soon as we return. Hooray!

          

Museum de Lakenhal and Gouda

We had no visitors this week nor did we visit anyone else but the boys and I (well, probably mostly just I) were still keen to do some touristy stuff. On Tuesday we check out Leiden's own Museum de Lakenhal. I had always known about this museum which houses Leiden's art collection but I guess I was saving it for a rainy day. But... it hasn't rained much this summer so I said the heck with it and just went.
 The building itself used to be the the place where cloth makers brought their products to be inspected and weighed. While most of it has been updated for use as a museum they have left several rooms untouched. While touring one such room Leif exclaimed that we should 'do this to our house' referring to the oak paneled walls, gilded wallpapers, delftware tiled fireplace, and leaded windows. The boy has good taste.
  In its art collection are the works of several well-known Leiden artists including Lucas van Leyden, Jan Steen, and Rembrant van Rijn. The Rembrant is a very early work by the artist and lacked his signature chiaroscuro style. I would not have been able to pick it out as one of his. The placard said that it was the earliest solo signed work of his existing oeuvre. The Lucas van Leyden Last Judgement triptych, which originally hung in Leiden's Pieter's Kerk, is enormous and impressive. Trying to explain the iconography to a three-year-old was a bit challenging; one side of the painting displays a Boschian style hell filled with grotesque demons and fire. Luckily Leif was more interested in the reason that there were so many naked people in the work. I began telling him my whole spiel about how the human body is beautiful and how often in this time period souls were depicted as naked people and how people come into the world naked and so forth. He seemed to consider this information and then said "It was probably hot outside."
  The Lakenhal is pretty small and manageable but, even so, we did not see the everything (kids!). Luckily with the museum pass we purchased when we first arrive, entry is free so I look forward to spending some rainy mornings there in the Fall.  

On Thursday we went to Gouda (pronounced more like 'Howda') to see it's famous cheese market. It is a pretty touristy affair complete with giant wheels of cheese, horse drawn wagons, and actors in wooden shoes.  As in ages past, the market only happens on Thursdays from June to August. I was hoping to take some of our visitors there but no one was here on a Thursday and time is running out. Since we had no other plans and the weather was nice I decided that this was the week to go. I got the kids up, dressed and fed them, and then husseled to the train station to catch the 9:08 to Gouda. The ride was about 35 minutes so we arrived right on time for the 10:00 market.
  As promised giant orange wheels of cheese were laid out on blankets in front of the waag. In the good ole days farmers brought their cheeses here to be graded by officials and then sold in this customary set of haggeling hand slaps (see video). It was unclear to me if any of the people putting on the show were real farmers or officials but it was entertaining none the less. We watched for a bit, got a free piece of cheese and then walked around the rest of the market.

  Right off the market is the longest church in the Netherlands, Sint Janskerk. As seen from above, it is in the typical cross shape of the churches of the period but the nave is unusually long. It is also famous for its stained glass windows and boasts that they comprise 50% of all the 16th century stained glass in the Netherlands. They were enormous and impressive. The compositions were so busy that they really deserved to be studied. Unfortunately I had to make sure that my two fellow tourists didn't harm themselves as they careened around the large stone pillars and an unforgiving flag stone floor. Needless to say my attention was a bit frayed.
 
Our church tour ended abruptly when Leif decided that picking his nose was more interesting than the impossibly large colorful windows all around us. I really don't care if Leif picks his nose but sometimes he goes too far and gives himself a nose bleed. Wanting to avoid that possibility seeing as we were a train ride away from home I told him to stop picking it. He immediately melted into a full-on tantrum. Since his third birthday, Leif has been doing this more and more frequently. To try to curb this behavior I usually double down on whatever I am try to get him to do. Like I said I really don't care if he picks his nose but, since he threw a fit, I had stand firm in my directive. After a minute or so, not wanted to disturb the other tourists who had also paid 4.50 Euro to see the place, I dragged him out of the church while his screams of "I want to pick my nose!" echoed around the vaulted ceilings.

  Leif sobered up pretty quickly outside. We grabbed some sandwiches to eat on the train and headed back to the station. Our timing was perfect and we were able to jump on a train headed to Leiden immediately. Since I had the stroller, I had to enter the train doors that are handicap accessible. We found some seats just inside the doors and sat down to eat our lunch as the train lurched out of the station. I noticed a few odd stares from my fellow riders but I just chalked it up to the fact that I was spooning out baby food on a train. It was only when we pulled into the station that I noticed the signage on the walls indicating that this was a silent train car. In retrospect we had not been very loud as we mostly sat eating our food but I'm sure we were not completely silent. Oh well.

Train!

We gaan naar to Rijsel (Lille)

  Road trip to France!!!
 After two months of nothing by bikes and trains I expected to feel strange sitting in a car again. I guess 31 years of automoting is not easily forgotten. I almost wished that continental Europe drove on the left side so that it would feel new and exciting. It was too normal and comfortable feeling. The car didn't even feel that small (except for the fact that there really was no trunk). And the boys loved it; comfy chairs, good views, snacks. We had planned to take the train but it was actually cheaper to rent a car for 3 days. Come on, Europe! If you can't make private transportation unappealing what chance have we got?

Grant and Caroline- the most adorable
couple you will ever meet

Anywho...this past week, after several we're coming/we're not coming emails, we met up with our friends Grant and Caroline in her hometown of Lille, France. Lille, or Rijsel as the Dutch call it, is a pretty sizable city about 3 hours south of Leiden, through Belgium. Grant and Caroline, who we met at Gettysburg, live in South Carolina so it is not as if this was our only chance to see them but we were really interested to get a tour of Lille from a real Lillutian(?).
   Caroline's parents, Francoise and Jean-Pierre, graciously let us stay in their beautiful 1920s townhouse. They really spoiled us actually; three multi-course meals a day, champagne, brioche, metro tickets, and they gave us their own bedroom to sleep in. They dug out some toys for Leif and Klaus and even let them crawl over some obviously antique pieces of furniture. And we had only just met them! I've never experienced such excessive hospitality. It was somewhat humbling. I feel like, in comparison, I've been a bad host to anyone who has stayed with us.
 

We arrive on Sunday at about noon. Unfortunately, we had forgotten to remind Grant and Caroline that I am a pescatarian so, to be a good house guest, I had lamb for lunch. Tasted good I guess. After lunch we went for a bit of a walk around town with Francoise's dog, Condi. Leif got to walk to dog which was terribly cute but also a great way to keep him from his normal dawdling. It was a bit warm so we sat for a while under the trees of a metropark where Caroline helped Leif talk his way into a soccer game with two local kids. We walked home through the Jardin de Geants, a beautifully sculpted garden with a great mix of plants, 'giant' themed sculptures, and water features.
  Monday morning, after a somewhat successful night all sleeping in the same room, we walked around downtown a bit. We tried to tour one of the old churches but it was closed so instead we check out a French department store with a fancy tea shop. If you ever visit France look for a Mariage Freres tea. I am actually not real fond of flavored teas but these freres have definitely turned my head. They are super floral and strong.

   In the afternoon we took the metro back downtown with the intention to go to the zoo. Public transportation still seems like a carnival ride to Leif so it was no surprise that after the metro wet his appetite for safe thrills, he was drawn like a magnet to the small amusement park adjacent to the zoo.  Since everyone seemed to feel slightly guilty visiting the zoo we pretty readily gave in to Leif's request. While Caroline ran into friend after friend Leif and Klaus enjoyed a few tokens worth of ride. The best was the one where Leif and Kurt got to ride a carousel horse through beautifully manicured equestrian jumping course. See video. . 

 

Before we jumped back in the car on Tuesday, we made another try for the zoo. It was actually very cute and no one seemed to feel as guilty as we thought we would. We witnessed the boa constrictor's breakfast and a bit of a scuffle between two rhinos. It was a bit intense to watch although I'm sure we were not nearly as worried as the zebras that shared the same habitat. We had lunch at the zoo food bar where there was quite an extensive menu that included crab salad and beer and wine. Oh France! You are awesome! Then we bid a sad farewell to Grant and Caroline and promised to visit them sometime soon in South Carolina.
  It was a great little trip all around. It was great to see Grant and Caroline, to meet her wonderful parents, and to take a break from my bad Dutch and try to use my bad French. J'aime l'Europe!