tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6694712285144689672024-02-18T20:50:50.746-08:00Six Months. The Netherlands. Two kids. Het is goed, hé?Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.comBlogger27125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-70358100709889739532013-12-18T10:26:00.001-08:002013-12-18T10:26:16.061-08:00Home again home again jiggety jig<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Last night in Leiden</td></tr>
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Well our grand adventure has come to a close. Our last week in Leiden was hectic and fun. We had good-bye dinners most every night of the week with the various friends we had made in town. Kurt had about three send-offs from the lab which he said was very gratifying. The kids and I scurried around returning our residence permits and library books, finding homes for excess toys and food, and buying all manner of gifts to bring home. I spent the rest of the week weeding our stuff and packing. As you may recall we brought four suitcases, two large backpacks, a pac n play and a bike trailer with us to Leiden. I stuffed the suitcases and backpacks until they were bursting. I even had to deconstruct the frame for one of the paintings I bought in order to fit it in. Luckily we were able to distribute the weight so that none of the bags exceeded our 50lb limit (one was exactly 50). We ended up selling off the bike trailer to some friends. I was initially resistant to the idea but, as Kurt explained, it would have cost $50 to take it on the plane, we sold it for $40 and a new one in the U.S. costs $90. So essentially we will get another one for free and it will be a lot less hassle than lugging the old one to the airport.<br />
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On our last night in Leiden we headed to the markt to try out the ice skating rink that was set up in a floating barge in the canal. When I say "we" I really mean Kurt and the kids (my legs are not the same length and skating doesn't work for me). When I say "Kurt and the kids" I really mean that Kurt skated with the kids in his arms as skating doesn't really work for them either. The atmosphere was festive and it was the perfect way to say good-bye to such a great city. We ate dinner at Jackets to use up the free jacket coupon that we had earned for being frequent customers. It was tasty as always.<br />
<i> Pingu</i>, and Kurt and I watched <i>Oblivion</i>. It was a good film for a flight- not something I would want to devote precious movie time to at home but entertaining enough.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jasper and the boys at Schiphol Airport</td></tr>
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The taxi arrived right on time Saturday morning. Jasper, our landlord's brother, graciously helped us get everything into the cab and accompanied us to the airport. We got there early enough that the check in line was reasonable and so we had plenty of time to shop for tulips to bring home. We had read in our guide book that only the tulips sold at the airport were approved for U.S. export (they require a special seal). We said our goodbyes to Jasper and proceeded through security. Kurt got pulled over because he forgot to take the multi-tool out of his carry-on bag. We handed it over to the authorities and went on our merry way (although Kurt was less than merry). We had lunch at the airport and boarded the first flight to Iceland. Klaus napped, Leif watched<br />
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The first flight was delayed somewhat but we made our connection just fine with time to spare for customs, a light dinner, some run around time for the kids, and a bathroom break. This last one proved somewhat problematic for me; the woman's restroom smelled so bad I was literally gagging and felt sick to my stomach for the whole 8 hour flight. It didn't help that Klaus could not seem to get comfortable and was doing flip flops in my lap with his elbows uncannily finding my stomach. After some ginger ale I felt much better and Klaus eventually fell asleep. Both boys slept through landing but woke up when we tried to get off the plane. They mostly held it together through the passport control line but towards the end Klaus was on the floor crying. Some sweet woman let us cut in front of her and saved us and the rest of the people in line from the agony of a crying and desperately tired 17th month-old. At the baggage claim we engaged a porter with a large cart and started piling up the suitcases (when we got home I realized we forgot the pac n play. argh!). The porter lead us through customs. We had to go through a special section because we had checked on the form that we had visited a farm during our time in Holland (the Kinder Boederij as it is called is a great free 'petting' farm in Leiden. We went twice!). It ended up not being an issue. Customs just wanted to make sure we would not be visiting an U.S. farms any time soon.<br />
In the arrivals area, we were greeted by my fabulous in-laws who were somewhat the worse for wear due to the winter weather they had to brave to get to Dulles. Luckily it was just raining by the time we got there and the drive home was a little slow but uneventful. When we got home we open the door to find a huge welcome home sign installed by our neighbors Jane and Damon and a crate of food from our friends Sam and Josef. It felt so nice to have been missed. <br />
For the last few days we have been unpacking, decorating for Christmas, and trying very hard to get the boys over their jet lag (they keep waking up at 3 am ready to go for the day! argh!). Kurt is currently in Canada retrieving our cat, Orange, from his cross boarder adventure. I am sure he is sad to leave the attentions of Nick and Abby but I will be happy to see him even if he is not happy to see me.<br />
<b> Closing thoughts: </b><br />
Despite my high hopes I totally failed to learn Dutch in any sort of useful capacity. Other than interactions with cashiers and wait staff the amount of Dutch I learned was not nearly enough to trump the Dutch people's command of English. You win this round Nederlanders! Sigh.<br />
<b>Things I will miss about Nederland: (besides all the friends we made)</b><br />
Bike lanes!<br />
Trains<br />
Canals<br />
The museums and the museum card that got me into all of them for 40 euro for a year.<br />
La Trappe Dubbel<br />
Hagelslag (sprinkles that one consumes on bread. I won't miss the taste so much as the quirky nature of it)<br />
tofu (some of the best I have had)<br />
Hendo's fries<br />
2,000 km of nearby coastline and dunes to match<br />
Windmills<br />
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<b>Things I have missed at home in Gettysburg:</b><br />
Family and friends<br />
FASH<br />
salad dressing (The Dutch and I do not agree on salad dressings)<br />
having a microwave<br />
having a freezer in the kitchen<br />
having a bathroom on the second floor<br />
cheap diner food<br />
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It is good to be home. Dag, Nederlands! Het was pretigg kennis met u te maken! </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Our klompen</td></tr>
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Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-41992547706361410212013-12-04T06:35:00.003-08:002013-12-04T06:35:43.616-08:00Reverse Thanksgiving- Bringing the New World to the Old World A belated Happy Thanksgiving to you all! Before you start feeling bad for us poor expats stuck in a non-Thanksgiving country around Thanksgiving let me reassure you that we rocked Thanksgiving Nederland-style. <div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_eYguvtwYkRysDJUrmiBZZotx7U-AyfBdLWW8uxl4qTDPHAIdDJh44QKeEQX1e0ffADjEldd9XH61GyX5ol73NHFh4WQOxyp86DqskUCNUzCBL8ht4VAK9q5wA2JpTxlFGLSgENuES7AS/s1600/DSC06614.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_eYguvtwYkRysDJUrmiBZZotx7U-AyfBdLWW8uxl4qTDPHAIdDJh44QKeEQX1e0ffADjEldd9XH61GyX5ol73NHFh4WQOxyp86DqskUCNUzCBL8ht4VAK9q5wA2JpTxlFGLSgENuES7AS/s200/DSC06614.JPG" width="150" /></a> Our good friends, Carrie and Richard Russel, who are on sabbatical in Scotland, hopped a plane over the channel with their adorable kids, Henry and Beatrice. They arrived on Wednesday afternoon and we immediately took them for a walk downtown. The market was just ending but we caught the waffel guy before he closed up and introduced the Russel family to fresh warm stroopwaffels. We then herded our sticky brood up the 40 steps to the Burcht, successfully completing our goal of taking all our guests to our favorite spot in Leiden.</div>
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For dinner we ordered in a vegetarian rijsttafel from our go-to Indonesian place, Surakarta. After waiting around for the delivery guy for about a half hour Kurt realized that he had received a text from the place saying that our order would take 1 to 1.5 hours. The bedtime clock was ticking so we hurried up and made the kids some food. Thanks to our slow eaters we were still at the table when the take-out arrived and even the kids tried some. All the adults enjoyed it but the kids only seemed to like the sweet topping (we are still not sure exactly what it is). Go figure!</div>
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Since the Russels are Jewish we also celebrated the first night of Hanukkah. Leif and Klaus are always up for holidays which include chocolate and presents and Kurt and I are always up for festivity but due to Kurt's passive Jewish heritage we don't really know how to celebrate Hanukkah. Lucky for us the Russels know what they are doing. Also lucky for us Carrie was able to find a menorah and candles in the UK; I haven't seen any in the stores around here which I'm not sure is a reflection of a low Jewish population as much as the fact that the Dutch do not seem to be interested in commerce. There isn't a whole lot to buy for anything any where. </div>
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Thanksgiving morning we had planned to borrow our friend's bakfiets (a bicycle with a large wooden box on the front for hauling kids and groceries) so that the whole crew could take a ride around town. Unfortunately our friend's baby got sick and had to go to the doctor so the plans fell through. Instead we briefly attended an American Thanksgiving service at Pieters Kerk, an old cathedral where the Pilgrims just happened to worship when they lived here. The kids sat for all of two minutes before they were up running around. We prepared to leave but one of the event organizers begged us to stay assuring us that it was a family service and it was to be expected. So we stayed for about a half hour more and the kids ran around the empty area sectioned off for protestant services while the adults listened to a few of the speakers. We left after a stirring rendition of America the Beautiful and headed home for nap and dinner prep. </div>
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While Klaus and Henry napped and Kurt cooked the rest of us went to the Pilgrim Museum (finally! and it was free that day!) Contrary to previous reports I though it was thoroughly enjoyable. None of the actual pilgrims are known to have lived in the 12th century building but it is chock full of items from the era and gives a good sense of what life would have been like for the Pilgrims. The rooms were small and dark with one hearth for heating and cooking. There was a small bed built into the wall where adults would have slept in a semi reclined position (it was thought to be better for the adult body).There was also an inhouse (as opposed to an outhouse) but rather than leading to a sewer it collected in a cistern under the floor. When it was excavated the museum found all sorts of small ceramic catholic icons that must have been dumped there during the protestant reformation. The curator of the museum was very sweet; Almost as soon as Leif and Beatrice stepped in he was handing them all sorts of period clothing to wear. It was a surprisingly hands-on museum for a place stuffed with antiques. The kids got to sit in a 800 year old chair and Bea got to wear a 400 year old headpiece. </div>
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Now on to the feast! Kurt pulled off an amazing meal for cooking in a small kitchen with little more than a cook-top and easy bake oven. Since turkey isn't common here, he made chicken (made no difference to pescatarian me) which everyone seemed to enjoy. At my request he re-created his mother's patented stuffing balls. There was also corn, mashed taters, rolls, green bean casserole(also me), cranberry sauce, sweet taters, and pumpkin pie. Everyone ate their fill and we had enough for lunch the next day. I had made hats for everyone but no one wanted to be the pilgrims so we had a table of Wampanoags. </div>
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On Friday we escorted the Russels to the Oude Rijksmuseum, the Netherland's antiquities museum. I am really going to miss this one when we go. It is a world-class collection with a talented museum staff. The top floor, a permanent exhibit which explores the history of the Netherlands, is especially great. It is brilliantly set-up to appeal to both kids and adults. For the kids there are hidden "bedrooms" scattered about the exhibit where they can climb into all manner of beds from throughout time. Leif's favorite was the viking bed. For adults the exhibit is informative but not overwhelming with a wide selection of artifacts.</div>
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Friday night we indulged in some greasy food from Hendos claiming that it was fulfilling the Hanukkah custom of eating food prepared in oil. After putting the kids to bed we tried to coax Carrie and Richard into watching a holiday flick (which is what Kurt and I always do on black friday) but we failed and ended up introducing them to pbs' new Sherlock. </div>
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On Saturday we squeezed in a trip to the Saturday market before the Russels had to catch their plane. Carrie and Richard boldly tasted the raw herring and the kids munched on kaas stangels (cheese sticks), strawberries and suiker waffels. </div>
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An all around fabulous Thanksgiving! Take that Pilgrims! The old world still has some charms.</div>
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Thanks, Russells! We will miss you state-side! Come home soon!</div>
Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-290702887152200192013-11-23T05:56:00.001-08:002013-11-23T05:58:53.070-08:00Sinterklaas is coming to town. <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk-cWuwXK31EStCElD-TAoeLHIq3EbcsEbXIsh7nPkyjteciZfC4pUjAq2jjjYwQwzk0qLAQZGvLv8Eb3f0Ec6-c4oeeFSUYQUbSs5CRQQ_KFyK8yg0eA1uH5vvRZGMytuojRiulXaUPO1/s1600/DSC06608.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhk-cWuwXK31EStCElD-TAoeLHIq3EbcsEbXIsh7nPkyjteciZfC4pUjAq2jjjYwQwzk0qLAQZGvLv8Eb3f0Ec6-c4oeeFSUYQUbSs5CRQQ_KFyK8yg0eA1uH5vvRZGMytuojRiulXaUPO1/s200/DSC06608.JPG" width="200" /></a>So those of you that are fans of David Sedaris have probably heard a little about this before but for the rest of you here is your introduction to Sinterklaas, the dutch version of Santa Claus (actually you really should hear it from Sedaris too if you have time <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NYdpte1W0vk">Six to Eight Black Men</a> ). So like Santa, Sinterklaas is a version of Saint Nicholas, the patron saint of children and sailors. He brings gifts to good children, dresses in red and white, and enters your house by chimney. Unlike Santa, Sinter leaves gifts on December 6 (Saint Nicholas day), lives in Spain, and travels by boat and by horse. And instead of elves he has African slaves as helpers. Well former slaves. They are called Zwart Piets and are usually played by white people in black face. They are supposed to be somewhat mischievous and idiotic and probably the most prominent display of racism in the Netherlands. From the smiling Zwart Piet decorations hanging up in all the stores one could be lulled into the belief that yes in the past the piets were looked down upon but now they are a charming effort at incorporating diversity into the holiday. But I have been assured that that is not true and that its racist origins persist. <br />
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Kurt and I are of the mindset of 'when in Rome do as the Romans do' so we have talked to the boys about Sinterklaas (we told Leif he was Santa's cousin) and we plan to give them little gifts on the 6th. There is another component of the Sinterklaas tradition which is the arrival of Sinterklaas in the Netherlands in late November. There is a huge ceremony and everyone gathers to watch the boat come in. Today Sinterklaas arrived in Leiden and we took the boys to go see the spectacle. I was prepared to be horrified by the Zwart Piets and to silently judge all of the Dutch people around me. The truth is it was a very festive gathering. All the children were dressed as zwart piets (some in even in black face which was still disturbing) but I saw no animosity toward the Zwart Piets. The kids loved them as much as Sinterklaas himself. So I am going to go naively out on a limb and give the dutch the benefit of the doubt that they have given up their racist ideas and have come to embrace this character as their equal and as a cherished part of their holiday.<br />
Klaus enjoyed dancing to the music and watching the Zwart Piet acrobats. Leif said his favorite part was the woman on stage singing the (awful) songs about Sinterklaas. They both enjoyed the gobs of kruidnoten (little gingerbread cookies) handed out by the Zwart Piets and the free balloons. Surprisingly Leif was not impressed by this:<br />
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<br />Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-6704029392067440262013-11-12T06:52:00.000-08:002016-03-13T18:05:23.313-07:00There and back again <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">York Minster</td></tr>
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Our last days in England were spent in York and London. We drove to York after our day at Warwick Castle. We were again rushing to get on the road so that the kids could nap in the car. The parking lot at our Warwick accommodations was the smallest parking lot known to man with an even smaller exit. Kurt had to do some ridiculous number of turns to maneuver the car out (think of that scene in Austin Powers where he gets the golf cart stuck between two walls). Anyway by the time he go the car out to the road his nerves were a little frayed. He quickly typed York into the GPS and we set off.<br />
We had been speeding along for two hours, wondering when we would start seeing signs for York, when we realized that we had selected the wrong York from the GPS menu. Fortunately we were not going entirely the wrong direction but it did add an hour and a half to our drive time. When we finally arrived we settled into our comfy B&B, Amber House. I liked all the places we stayed on our trip (well except for the hostel in Bath) but I think I liked this place the best. Winning features included a claw foot bath tub and the option for a vegetarian full English breakfast.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Little Viking</td></tr>
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York itself was lovely and our first day there the weather was just perfect- 60s and sunny sunny sunny. On Lars and Sam's recommendation we checked out the Jorvic Viking Centre. York was built upon an ancient viking settlement called Jorvic. Some of the ruins of Jorvic were uncovered in the 70s and preserved under what is now the museum. In the first room of the museum a clear glass floor lets you walk over top of the foundations of several buildings from Jorvic. There are also some of the millions of viking artifacts that they have uncovered on display. Next you hop into a roller coaster type car and float through a recreated Viking city complete with smells. See video. Next were some more displays on viking life and craftsmanship and a few skeletons that they had unearthed nearby. Owing to Kurt's viking heritage we went a little crazy in the gift shop. I thought Leif would be impressed by the ride but he treated it with as much disinterest as he did the rest of the place.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">On the York walls</td></tr>
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For lunch we bought some pies at the open air market and at them in the plaza outside the York Minster, a huge, opulent cathedral. After settling the boys down for a nap back at the B&B I went out and walked around the city. I found a post office and sent back the hand towel we had accidentally stolen from the first place we stayed at. I also was finally able to find a replacement pair of shoes for Klaus. There is an adorable medieval section of York called "the shambles" where the streets are still sized for carts and the crooked buildings lean into each other and over the street. Felt like being on a Harry Potter set. When the kids woke up we took a stroll around the city walls which are almost entirely preserved. Then we ate dinner at a vegetarian place called El Piano. Rick Steves had recommended the place but we only found it to be ok.<br />
In the morning we had planned to tour the inside of the York Minster before heading off on the long drive to London. For a rainy morning we were surprised at the crowd headed into the Minster. Unfortunately for us that crowd was there to actually attend a service and because the church was actually going to be used as a church tourists were not allowed in. It was probably all for the best since the ride to London was really long.<br />
Actually we weren't even driving to London directly- we had to drop the car off at Southend Airport and then take the train in. We were unable to pawn off the car seats that we had bought on the car rental guy so in addition to our luggage we had to carry two lard car seats. Despite this, my economical husband refused to get a taxi from the train station to the hotel. We loaded up Leif's spot on the stroller with the baby bed and car seats and Leif road on the back of the wheeled suitcase as Kurt pulled it. After about an hours walk we stumbled into the Dockside Hotel. As we started checking in Leif started freaking out and we finally got it out of him that he needed to use the potty. I'm sure we scared the quiet man at reception but he showed us to our room anyway. Kurt had scored this hotel room on Expedia for the ridiculous price of $90/night including breakfast. That is really unheard of in London. Now, granted, we were in the East end but the hotel is five minutes walk from a tube station and bus stop.<br />
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On Saturday we took the bus into Trafalgar Square where we were greeted by an unwelcome side: a giant NFL sign. There was a NFL rally going on. Apparently American football is trying to find an audience in our sister nation. I was pissed. I didn't want to see something so American while I was on my England romance. Anywho we signed up for the Original Tour Double Decker bus tour. We sat up on top of course :) The tours are set up so that you can hop on and off at various stops. We got off at Buckingham Palace and watched the guards march around for a bit. But other than that we just sat back, listened to the tour guide and ate peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. At around one I headed back to the hotel room with the kids and Kurt went to see a production of Les Miserables. He said it was good although as Kurt usually does he had lots of critiques.<br />
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On Sunday we tried to beat the crowd to the British Museum but it was already packed by the time we got there. We breezed past the Rosetta Stone and headed straight to the Parthenon Marbles. For some reason I had thought the pediment sculptures were a bit better preserved so I was rather disappointed at their fragmented condition. For lunch we ate at a pub called Shakespeare's Head. I was again annoyed by the NFL clad table next to us but I enjoyed my vegetarian sausages none the less. Since Kurt had gone out the afternoon before it was my turn. I scurried over to the National Gallery to see their collection of northern Renaissance works. Luckily for me most people prefer the Italian Renaissance so the Dutch rooms are not quite as crowded. I saw Van Eyke's <i>Arnolfini Wedding Portrait </i>(It was just as sumptuous as I had hoped) and Holbein's <i>The Ambassadors</i> (much larger than I imagined and so full of detail!). After that I walked down to the houses of Parliament and Big Ben.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kurt and Leif playing football wiht Big Ben</td></tr>
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At 6 we had planned to meet up at Westminster Abbey to hear a free organ concert. Due to a misunderstood text I assumed that Kurt had aborted the idea of coming and so I went in and sat down. Westminster was much smaller than I had imagined which only made the huge organ all that much more bone rattling. The concert was only a half house but it was enough of a chance to sit and contemplate the beauty of the church. When I walked out I was greeted by my smiling family. They had made it after all but had been seated in the back. Kurt had bargained for Leif's cooperation in attending the concert and so we now had to find him a place to play with the new football (rugby ball) that we had gotten him. Right across the road from Westminster was a patch of grass with a great view of the now illuminated Big Ben. Kurt and Leif played their version of football while Klaus rolled around in the leaves. At one point some Spanish tourists asked me to take their picture. I picked up Klaus so that he wouldn't toddle away while I did so. Before I knew it the tourists had taken him out of my arms and were posing with him for the picture. So somewhere in a Spanish scrap book there is a picture of my son with a group of total strangers standing in front of Big Ben. Perfect for out last night in England<br />
The trip home turned out to be somewhat eventful. On our last night England was scheduled to get hit with the worst storm it had seen in 10 years. We heard the rain and wind all night but it did not seem too terrible. At breakfast, the news reports said that all flights were cancelled due to the storm. Luckily for us we were taking the train home. Unfortunately for us parts of the London Tube were also shut down due to storm debris. What should have been a 30 minute tube ride to St Pancras Intl Train Station turned out to be double that but we did make it onto the train. In Belgium, also hit with the same storm, things were a bit worse. Trains were being cancelled and redirected left and right. I'm not sure how many different trains we rode that day but we eventually got back to Leiden, albeit 4 hours later than planned. We did meet some great people on the train and, while I was sad to leave England behind, it made me realize how much I really like the Dutch as well. Everyone is so friendly and so willing to laugh here.<br />
Anyway thus concludes our trip to England. Shew!Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-79552115010385146192013-11-05T05:01:00.001-08:002013-11-05T05:01:25.228-08:00England Part 2<br />
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In our last episode we visited Stonehenge, Dartmoor, and Tintagel. These sites draw big crowds in the summer months but not as much in October giving us the feeling that we had the country to ourselves. We had really settled in to this tranquil tourism which made the hustle and bustle of Bath a bit disappointing. Bath is a gorgeous city built on top of a Roman settlement and some natural hot springs and made mostly of 1700s homogeneous looking buildings of golden "Bath " stone. It is popular with international and domestic tourists alike making it a bit of a party town. It is also really expensive; The only reasonable housing deal I could find was a private room in the YMCA with a bathroom down the hall. It felt like being in college again only with kids (not something I recommend). It was fine really but I wouldn't have wanted to stay there for more than one night. They did have laundry facilities which I was grateful for as Klaus' car seat still smelled like vomit. After settling in at the Y, we enjoyed Cornish pasties for dinner and then took a walk around town, darting around several tourists who were already obviously drunk.<br />
The Klaus alarm clock got us all up too early for the YMCA's free breakfast. So we decided to pack everything up and take it to the car which was stowed in a nearby mall's underground parking garage (parking is also really expensive). Since we wanted to do it in one trip, everyone had to carry something. Even Klaus had to hold his lovie, a stuffed tiger we call Hobbes.<br />
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After breakfast we toured the Roman Baths, an amazing bath/temple complex that was uncovered in the center of town in the 1700s. The hot spring that inspired the the bath's location still bubbles up and fills the pools that the Romans dug. The audio tour was free and wonderfully informative but unfortunately the kids only let us listen to a fourth of it.<br />
After the Roman Baths we tagged along on on one of the free walking tours put on by The Mayor's Corps of Honorary Guides. Our tour guide, Andrew, was very entertaining and had a superb delivery. He made us like Bath inspite of our initial bad impression.<br />
After a picnic lunch outside the Bath Abbey we raced back to the car, both to get our tired lads off to their nap but also to avoid an impending storm. We made it into the car before the skys opened up but we were still pelted with Klaus' tears as we proved to be too late for him. To comfort him I shuffled through the bags in the back seat to retrieve Hobbes. It did not take long to discover that Hobbes was not there. As I began to think back about it I realized that I didn't remember seeing him in Klaus' hands when we packed the car early that morning. Which meant that he must have dropped it on the walk to the car. I don't know who was more upset, Klaus or me- As a child I once lost my cherished "blanky" in a grocery store so losing a lovie is a very traumatic thought for me. At the same time I also realized the Klaus was missing a shoe. I wanted Kurt to turn the car around but between the crowds and the rain there was no way we were going to find either Hobbes or the shoe. Plus we needed to get going so that the boys could nap in the car. So we left bath one shoe and one tiger lighter.<br />
Our next destination was Oxford for the boys first college visit...Just kidding. Kurt and I are huge fans of<br />
<i>Inspector Morse </i>and <i>Inspector Lewis</i>, two mystery series set in Oxford. While the murders in the show are grisly the setting is beautiful and we wanted to see it for ourselves. We stayed at a great B&B called Park House, where the inn keeper Kathryn dug out a huge bag of trains for the boys to play with. They loved her instantly. The only problem was that there was no wifi and I was still holding on to some hope that we could find Hobbes or at least order a replacement. The thought of it made me really anxious the entire time we were in Oxford.<br />
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After reading about it in our guide book and seeing it in <i>Inspector Lewis, </i>I really wanted to go punting in Oxford. Even though it was raining Kurt and the boys graciously complied. A 'punt' in this case is not the football move but rather a type of flat bottomed canal boat that is pushed along using a long metal poll (think Venice). We arrive at the boat house just as the men running it had decided not to open that day because of the rain. With my best pitiful tourist performance and my cute child props I convinced them to rent us a punt. We explored the canal for only about an hour as it was pretty hard work for Kurt and also we were hoping to make it to another free walking tour.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Klaus picking out his seat in the<br /> Balliol dining hall</td></tr>
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We missed the walking tour but it was probably for the best. I'm not sure the kids would have put up with another one. So instead we walked around Balliol College (Oxford is made up of 38 autonomous colleges) founded in 1263 making it the oldest college in the University. Not many of the buildings admitted tourists but I recognized a few of the quads from <i>Inspector Lewis.</i> Leif and Klaus were unimpressed. That's ok- international tuition is 50 grand.<br />
For lunch we went to an Itsu, a chain of restaurants serving fresh healthy Asian inspired food- totally awesome! Then the boys and I took a nap at the B&B while Kurt walked around more of Oxford. We met up for dinner at a pub called the Eagle and Child which boasts Tolkien and C.S. Lewis as former patrons.<br />
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In the morning we bid farewell to Kathryn and then drove 10 miles to Blenheim Palace, the country home of the Duke of Marlborough. Imagine a mini (although not too mini) Versailles. The Palace was impressive even at the breeze-through pace at which I saw it; Leif and Klaus were not willing to suffer another tour so Kurt and I took turns walking through the grand salons, dining rooms, and library. Luckily for the childed- tourist, the palace also offered a play garden complete with maze and giant chess set and a fun train/tram that took you there. Our two weary little travelers perked up in this more child-friendly environment and we had a grand time there before driving an hour to Warwick. <br />
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Warwick, is home to Warwick Castle where Edward II's lover Piers Gaveston was imprisoned and executed in 1312. Despite its dubious history it is now a rather fun amusement park. There are no rides or anything but parts of the castle are set up with walk-through displays and several live shows. We saw the great hall and state rooms which provided a lovely view of the river Avon as it passes very near the castle's base. We also walked through the "Kingmaker" exhibit where very life-like wax figures prepare for a battle in tableau. The "Secrets and Scandals" exhibit was similarly set up. Leif was a bit wary of the wax figures but I think he enjoyed seeing all the different rooms. After touring the castle a bit we headed out to the grounds to see a real trebuchet launch. Warwick boasts a life-size wooden wheel trebuchet that, as impressive as it seems to us today, must have been terrifyingly impressive at its inception. I am in love with the past but it is seeing things like this that make me happy that I live in the age that I do. Life sucked back then.We were also really impressed the birds of prey show. The castle has a collection of trained falcons, eagles, and buzzards. The falconer assured us that all of the birds were bread in captivity so we could watch their amazing swoops and dives without feeling too guilty. We ended our day with a walk along the castle walls and then walked back to the car enjoying some tea and scones along the way. How wonderfully British!<br />
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I'm not sure when I will get around to writing part three of out trip. Kurt and I are participating in NaNoWriMo (national novel writing month) and it is sucking up all of my spare time. Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-27485468990462556732013-10-30T06:40:00.005-07:002013-10-30T06:40:35.668-07:00This blessed plot, this earth, this realm, this England. I think I have gushed in this blog several times about how much I love all things English; tea, t.v., literature, drama, actors, landscape, architecture, history- pass it all my way. Well we just returned from an Anglophile's dream vacation- a 10-day driving tour of Shakespeare's "demi-paradise". Unfortunately I found the country of my dreams to be very close to reality, allowing my infatuation to hit swooning level. Oh England! I know "My county tis of thee" is a knock off of "God save the Queen" but I don't know the lyrics to that one...anyways..of thee I sing! <br />
The trip we planned was probably not the best for the kids (but at this point their idea of a dream vacation is to stay home and do the same things that we always do with a sprinkling of treats and presents). The plan was to tour something in the morning and then, in the afternoon, drive to a new location while the boys nap in the car. I guess it has been too long for Klaus to remember spending significant time in the car and he was less than amicable to the idea. So, while we forced him to go through with the plan, he agreed to only sleep for forty minutes and then cry for the rest of it. Deal.<br />
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We saw Stonehenge, Dartmoor, Tintagel, Bath, Oxford, Warwick, York, and London. The trip was too long to cover in one post so I will break it into three. We will start with Stonehenge, Dartmoor, and Tintagel.<br />
Kurt and I formulated the trip itinerary more or less on the advice of travel writer, Rick Steves ("My buddy, Rick" as a fellow hosteler in Gimmelwald called him) although we disagreed with him totally on our first stop, Stonehenge. Steves recommends Avebury, another prehistoric site, that does not draw stifling crowds of tourists and where you can actually walk up and touch the stones (Stonehenge is roped off and you can't get right up to it anymore.) I still really wanted to see Stonehenge and so I overrode Steves on this and I could not be happier that I did. As impressive as the site and its construction sounds in books and film, it is staggering in person. The sarsens are so much bigger than one would consider movable objects which makes the sheer audacity of these ancient Britians so endearing.<br />
After stopping at Stonehenge we had a disgustingly eventful drive to Dartmoor. Let me back up a little. We flew into London's Southend airport. The airport is nicely situated far from London traffic and is cheaper to fly to than Heathrow. We had a rental car reservation set-up complete with car seats. The reservation was a bit cryptic about the car seat rental fees but we figured it couldn't be too much. Normally the things are old, dirty and barely safe. So we were a bit shocked when the car rental guy said that it would be 10 pounds a day per car seat- we were planning to use them for 9 days so 180 pounds or $289 dollars- just to rent them! We balked at the cost and the guy, who was actually pretty sympathetic, suggested that we go to a store around the corner to see if we could pick up seats for cheaper. Turned out to be a great suggestion- we got two decent seats for 68 pounds. We had no plan for getting rid of them at the end of the trip but it was still the obvious choice.<br />
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Anyway- on with the story. Klaus hadn't eaten a very good breakfast but I chalked it up to all the excitement over the plane ride. When we stopped for lunch I tried to force a few bites down his throat but he was having none of it. Klaus is normally a pretty good eater so I should have been more concerned. I guess I was a bit preoccupied with Leif who was throwing a fit about eating his own lunch ( a burger and fries- what is wrong with this kid? At his age I would have inhaled it!) so when Klaus vomited all over the parking lot it came as a bit of a shock. Luckily we were not in the car yet but it did get on our clothes. We cleaned up the best we could and drove to Stonehenge. Klaus seemed fine as he toddled around the grassy plane of the neolithic site and I didn't think anymore of it. But when we got back in the car to drive to our B&B, 2 hours away, he began to fuss and cry. It got so bad that we had to stop the car. Just as I was about to get him out of the seat he threw up all over himself, me, and the brand new car seat. I used up nearly all our baby wipes cleaning him up by the side of the road. For the rest of the ride I sat wedged between the two car seats, smelling of vomit and rubbing my son's head to help him settle. Luckily our B&B, Yarrow Lodge in Bovey Tracey, was run by the sweetest couple, Hanneke (who is from the Netherlands) and Phil, who helped us get cleaned up, made us tea and dinner, and sent us happily to cozy beds.<br />
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The next day we embarked on a driving tour of Dartmoor National Park as recommended by Rick Steves. We traveled narrow roads lined by stone walls hidden beneath scraggly hedges (at one point we got stopped by a few cows on the road) and passed though adorable villages composed of only a handful of thatched roofed houses. We drove up and down the sheep dotted moors and marvelled at the green purple and gold landscape. We made stops at Haytor, Post Bridge, and Scorhill Stone Circle.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Top of Haytor</td></tr>
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Haytor is natural granite deposit that pokes out of the top of one of the moors and offers a great view of the surrounding countryside. We hiked up to the top but unfortunately our view was blocked by the fog. The wind was intense so we tried to find shelter on the leeward side only to stumble across a herd of wild horses who had the same idea. We decided to leave them to it and skipped down the hill back into the car. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Klaus at Scorhill</td></tr>
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We ate lunch at the East Dart Inn in Post Bridge after checking out the two bridges in town, one of which dates from the middle ages. After that we coaxed the boys back into the car and drove to Scorhill, another neolithic stone circle. The rocks are not nearly as large as the ones at Stonehenge but the mystery of the place is just as intriguing. The ring sits down in a vast valley with no sign of human habitation in sight. We were the only ones there at the time which made it even more solitary and tranquil. Leif and Klaus enjoyed tumbling off of one of the fallen stones while Kurt and I made wild speculations about the purpose of the site.<br />
After that we drove to the Cornishman Inn in Tintagel. Despite the driving wind the boys and I enjoyed the Inn's playground while Kurt rounded up some dinner. The innkeeper put us in a room far from the bar where a band was to provide the night's entertainment. We didn't hear a thing and we all slept well.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUIBy99QGG-ITdc3MtcpmD5p_1jqKCkFjTlw56MaNrKoAJfOz9mV94QcnqBb1KAcjyPkQsekRgrlDmj-khAWbQf0pIdzzMzb1lE_eS7p9JsvSpiQ61mGpdutzCSwtxr-uOtPBj4EsIxzr/s1600/DSC06235.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyUIBy99QGG-ITdc3MtcpmD5p_1jqKCkFjTlw56MaNrKoAJfOz9mV94QcnqBb1KAcjyPkQsekRgrlDmj-khAWbQf0pIdzzMzb1lE_eS7p9JsvSpiQ61mGpdutzCSwtxr-uOtPBj4EsIxzr/s200/DSC06235.JPG" width="200" /></a>In the morning we toured the ruins that lent the town its name. Tintagel (pronounced Tind-ta-jel) according to folklore, was the home of King Arthur. There are layers of ruins on the site that span the dark ages to the 19th century. The peninsula is rocky and steep and offers a great view of the Cornish coast. One can walk all around it and even though it via a cave ("Merlin's Cave") hollowed out by the sea. The boys could not climb the uneven, often slippery, stairs of the site so Kurt and I certainly got a workout carrying them but we had a good time exploring. Later Kurt said that if there was one thing he had to cut it would have been Tintagel but I disagreed. True its connection to King Arthur and even the existence of a King Arthur is up for debate but I still thought it was a great look at England's past, which is charmingly a mixture of fact and fiction.<br />
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Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-81323078707256485562013-10-14T07:23:00.002-07:002013-10-14T07:23:59.513-07:00In-laws and In Bruge<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1zRHQ8c6o1BWSZXDBI_4uSI4EiEgMIfUJAyxi-n6q_TtIoegnfu1QXmLHYWdRvWc19nI1jOT18ZKN3gZE8y7Y1Sjao-xdjlkahB6iNrM8ztqpOj_OHCnmuhWD26q1O22t9Am8hM1tx-5T/s1600/DSC05925.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1zRHQ8c6o1BWSZXDBI_4uSI4EiEgMIfUJAyxi-n6q_TtIoegnfu1QXmLHYWdRvWc19nI1jOT18ZKN3gZE8y7Y1Sjao-xdjlkahB6iNrM8ztqpOj_OHCnmuhWD26q1O22t9Am8hM1tx-5T/s200/DSC05925.JPG" width="150" /></a> Warning! This is a looooong post.<br />
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As you may remember from my previous post, my in-laws were scheduled to visit the day after our friend Janel left. They arrived according to plan and, just like Lars and Sam, they hit the ground running. Kurt took them downtown for a small tour and some drinks at Annie's (one of the boat bars near the markt). They boys and I met up with them after nap and we took them up to the Burcht before heading home for a dinner of Indonesian take-out.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyaGTRhzlY8EUeBA-hUQ1DSqfw8710RXBGRH0xWao_K8C6soEGDo9GaxIY7fMfpX7UaHdKrW0_RmIf30GHdpBJl7WPBRxFOk8D4s7LEb1wvOAqXs2aTY4spzFsWH9M1IK52-akbG-7hBYV/s1600/DSC05938.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyaGTRhzlY8EUeBA-hUQ1DSqfw8710RXBGRH0xWao_K8C6soEGDo9GaxIY7fMfpX7UaHdKrW0_RmIf30GHdpBJl7WPBRxFOk8D4s7LEb1wvOAqXs2aTY4spzFsWH9M1IK52-akbG-7hBYV/s200/DSC05938.JPG" width="150" /></a> The weather for the next day was predicted to be gorgeous so we rented a boat in the morning and went on a canal tour. The sky was crystal blue without a hint of humidity. We puttered around the lakes and canals until it was time to get the boys home for nap. While the kids and I slept Kurt,Dale, and Erik went to a few of the old churches and the antiquities museum. That evening my in-laws graciously ate Hendos take-out while we went out for another anniversary date.<br />
On Saturday we took Dale and Erik to the market so that they could experience its atmosphere and sample some of it's tasty treats. Erik was easily convinced to try the raw herring and onions although Dale abstained.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKLo34S7rZXNUnmXjVRRGh3YSPhfJh-kHfGWad-Iz7U-TCEvrvFUxu7RpjAEuSPFZb7znjqsVFnQl65l4H7GduNRiNo12HXn5byM9igwzjPdXF5qWUxIWPxmp73_dE2gxvDvhPOquSY3qr/s1600/DSC05962.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKLo34S7rZXNUnmXjVRRGh3YSPhfJh-kHfGWad-Iz7U-TCEvrvFUxu7RpjAEuSPFZb7znjqsVFnQl65l4H7GduNRiNo12HXn5byM9igwzjPdXF5qWUxIWPxmp73_dE2gxvDvhPOquSY3qr/s320/DSC05962.JPG" width="320" /></a> Dale had accidentally made their rental car reservation for a day earlier than was needed so she and Erik had to pick it up on Sunday morning. Kurt really wanted his parents to see the dunes so we agreed to bike there and have them drive to meet us there after they picked up the car. Once again the weather was fantastic with clear blue skies. The sun is getting lower and lower in the sky so its rays always seem to be at a glorious angle that makes everything look golden. We meet at the Meyendel boerderij, a small "petting(?) farm" with a visitors center that dispenses information about the dunes. From there we hiked to the beach and had a picnic lunch on the silky sand. No matter how careful you try to be if you have a picnic on the beach you have to accept the fact that you will ingest a certain amount of sand. After lunch the Andresen-Buehrers headed home while the Andresen-Lindens drove around Den Haag.<br />
When we met up again later that evening we went to a restaurant that Kurt and I have been eyeing for sometime because of its outdoor seating area that you can drive your boat up to. Appropriately enough it is called Doc 2. We enjoyed drinks and bruschetta out on the dock and then went inside for dinner as the sun set. I don't remember what the others had but I had mushrooms in cream sauce on toast. Heel lekker!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0fcus7NT_SLUF87euYLO5d4g-3GyOOE_Su5n9UgIg4pstptln0L_83hwmc7HkdYCtKF1MoCf8RCAa49cIGO5hrK2M-nNRDYKqloIxStYZ338YVxfUcKHhjbpS_H8wTvACCj03ROEkBUij/s1600/DSC06049.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0fcus7NT_SLUF87euYLO5d4g-3GyOOE_Su5n9UgIg4pstptln0L_83hwmc7HkdYCtKF1MoCf8RCAa49cIGO5hrK2M-nNRDYKqloIxStYZ338YVxfUcKHhjbpS_H8wTvACCj03ROEkBUij/s320/DSC06049.JPG" width="240" /></a>The next day we all set off for Bruges, Belgium. If you have never heard of Bruges and you don't mind a bit of onscreen violence, rent the movie <i>In Bruges</i> and you will get a good eyeful of the town. Bruges was an economic center in Flanders (now Belgium) in the 15th and 16th centuries so the town is full of opulent churches and state buildings. Somewhere in the 1600s the canal, which provided their access to the sea, silted up and choked off the city's economic life-blood. Thus the town is one of the most perfectly preserved medieval cities in Europe. It is getting a bit touristy but it is so much fun to visit that you can't pass it up. This was actually the second time that Kurt and I have gone. We visited there on at 2009 backpacking trip. We did not have kids at the time but we were also living on post-doc/admin salaries so the trip was a bit austere and we did not get to do everything one can do in Bruges. So when Dale and Erik mentioned that they might like to see it we offered to go along.<br />
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We found a great 17th century house to rent called <i>De Hoedenmaker</i> (The Hat Maker) that was only a 10 minute walk to the town center. It had three rooms, two bathrooms, a kitchen, and a quaint little garden. We all fit in there comfortably and it was much cheaper and nicer than getting two hotel rooms. Plus they had a dvd copy of <i>In Bruges</i>! We made Dale and Erik watch it the first night we were there and it is probably the first movie that we have recommended to them that they actually liked.<br />
Since the boys had napped in the car on the way down we were able to spend a good potion of the afternoon sightseeing. At first, we tried in vain to find a Flemish restaurant that they owner of <i>De Hoedenmaker</i> recommended. We were all a bit hungry and grumpy which made the search for the place that much more miserable. Finally we gave up and ate at the next cafe that we came upon. After that, as requested by Dale, we headed to <i>Chocolate Row</i>, a street lined with chocolate shops. If Leif had any sort of fat on him I'm sure he would have had a heart-attack from his excitement. We walked in and out of the shops buying any truffles that caught our fancy.<br />
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After our chocolate binge we waddled back to the town square and jumped aboard one of the waiting buggies for a charming horse-drawn tour around town. Our tour guide was a sweetest Belgian girl you will ever meet (unfortunately I can't remember her name) with a great delivery and a straw hat. Although the tour was only 30 minutes it was good time and gave us a few ideas of what to visit the next day.<br />
After a mildly successful night's sleep, we headed to the Groeninge Museum. In 2009 Kurt and I opted for the Hospital Museum over this one in order to see Memling's <a href="http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/webmuseum/catherineMemling1479.jpg"><i>Mystic Marriage of St Catherine</i> </a>alter piece. It was a tough decision because the Groeninge houses Van Eyke's <i><a href="http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/Jan_Van_Eyck_La_Madone_au_Chanoine_Van_der_Paele_1434.jpg">The Madonna with Canon van der Paele</a></i> with its eye popping brocaded velvets and palpable metalwork. Luckily we were now in Bruges again! I'm not sure that anyone else enjoyed the museum but I drooled enough for all of us. Oh Van Eyke! I love you!<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzaA1xuTtLUMaw9PyHdPglYLG40wkSeVWFdX7gfjq3z075b5cevCZgrdQ9HtRlUItcJo6YDWjI1FM6he8quu-DnBj4ArUy4rB03i7EzQyi8emgm8FKRL8W1qKC6b5xQXkx7H6MtY2HjwFi/s1600/DSC06034.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzaA1xuTtLUMaw9PyHdPglYLG40wkSeVWFdX7gfjq3z075b5cevCZgrdQ9HtRlUItcJo6YDWjI1FM6he8quu-DnBj4ArUy4rB03i7EzQyi8emgm8FKRL8W1qKC6b5xQXkx7H6MtY2HjwFi/s200/DSC06034.JPG" width="150" /></a> The Groeninge is pretty small so we had time to climb the 366 stairs of the Belfort before lunch. As well as a great view of the city, tourists get to see the inner workings of the bell towers bells and have the stability of their ear drums tested by its 47 bells. Neither Leif nor Klaus were big fans of the actual bells but they seemed to like the view and incredibly narrow staircase.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxyBj9ehZ7obprPC_QXLfn3F4IIEpMAbhCN-ed_aUeqQ4-WbCWy0364ZPW-Vcxo3P1vUZbjRvnZpfSWo2J9GN9JayaBZzM8113KO0cEWEQnKendlbttAomGbyVDaUzm0FK3WWdkn-jO4Vg/s1600/DSC06043.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxyBj9ehZ7obprPC_QXLfn3F4IIEpMAbhCN-ed_aUeqQ4-WbCWy0364ZPW-Vcxo3P1vUZbjRvnZpfSWo2J9GN9JayaBZzM8113KO0cEWEQnKendlbttAomGbyVDaUzm0FK3WWdkn-jO4Vg/s200/DSC06043.JPG" width="200" /></a> That afternoon, while the boys napped, Dale and I toured the Basilica of the Holy Blood. A tourist attraction even in its own time, this small ornate basilica houses a relic that is believed to be the blood of Christ, brought back from the crusades by a Flemish count. Unfortunately the relic was not on display when we visited but we enjoyed the intense opulence of the place.<br />
Before dinner we had time for a quick canal tour. Kurt and I were worried that it would be a bit redundant seeing as we already had the perfect tour by carriage the day before. But, once again, the tour guide was charming and the weather was beautiful. The boat was full of other happy tourists and we all chuckled together and admired the time traveling effect of Bruges.<br />
For dinner we carried our high chair the 30 feet from the rental to a restuarant called Tom's Diner. The name is somewhat misleading to an American audience (entrees started at 16 Euro and don't include hamburgers or fries) but we had read the menu outside before going in so we knew what we were getting into. Our table was in its own tiny cubby separated from the larger dining area by a curtain and overlooking the downstairs portion of the restaurant. The candel lit atmosphere was cozy and the food with its artistic presentation was great. <br />
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In the morning we bid farwell to my in-laws as they set out for the rest of their European tour. Before heading back to Leiden, we thought we would check out some of Bruges fine old churches. Unfortunately the Church of Our Lady, which houses a Michalangelo original, was closed for repairs until November. Saint Salvator's catherdral was open, however, and so we were not totally thwarted in out tourism efforts. Unlike in the Netherlands, these churches are still Catholic and have maintained much of their intense decoration. A feast for the eyes.<br />
At home in Leiden, we were greated by the beginnings of the 3 October Festival. This festival commemorates the unsuccessful siege of Lieden by the Spanish in the 1570s. I'm just going to come out and say it: I was hugely dissapointed with the whole thing. I was expecting something a little more old worldly; I had read about how the town hall still gives out herring and white bread to the people of Leiden as it had done after the siege. And about the hutspot (carrot/potato mash) that the towns people found in the Spanish camps after they had left. From the tour book descriptions I had expected a Renaissance fair style celebration. But 3 October is really just a huge version of the Gettysburg fireman's carnival. There is no history left in it. It is all about over priced rides and games and terrible/delicious fried foods. Oh Europe can't you see we only love you for idealized versions of your past? Why do you have to gravitate towards silly commercial stuff just like we do at home?<br />
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Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-74037258746269069302013-10-05T05:23:00.002-07:002013-10-05T05:23:56.814-07:00We hebben het heel drukWhew! We have had a crazy couple of weeks. In quick succession we were visited by Gena and Tim, our friend Janel, and Kurt's parents. Plus this week is '3 October', a huge festival commemorating the 1574 siege of Leiden by the Spanish. To prevent the loss of your attention before you reach the end of one long post I am going to split this update into two posts.<br />
On Friday September 20th 9:30 am, my big sis and her hubby glided into Schiphol Airport and the boys and I went to meet them at the train station. I had estimated that they would get to Leiden at about 10:15 but I totally forgot to account for the fact that they would have to go through customs once they got in. So the boys and I enjoyed an hour of people watching and croissant nibbling at the train station. Which only made it all the sweeter when our eyes finally landed on two familiar faces; Gena and Tim made it safely with all their luggage (as opposed to the Spanish honeymoon where their luggage caught up with them about a week later).<br />
After lunch and nap we took them into the city to see the Burcht (the old citadel) as we have done with everyone who has visited us. Kurt, who had been on an outting with his lab colleagues, joined us for a dinner of homemade Indonesian food and together we mapped out our adventure for Saturday. Kurt highly recommended a trip to the sand dunes (the same trip he had done that day) but I wanted to take them to see Teylingen castle which we had learned about from Open Monument Weekend. So we compromised: We did both.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gena and Tim on the dune trail</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Teylingen</td></tr>
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In the morning Gena and Tim rented bikes, we packed some food and water, and set out on an hour long ride to the sand dunes beyond Wassenaar. The dunes were made from centuries of sand blown in by the North Sea winds. They are vegetated with scrub brush and short trees and are, in a word, amazing. The government has marked these dunes for preservation and has crisscrossed them with horse and bike trails. We stopped for a seaside picnic lunch at De Gouden Bal which kindly had a swing set for Leif and Klaus to climb around before we tossed them back in the trailer for another hour ride to the castle. The boys took a nap as we pedaled through towns and fields until finally off in the distance we spotted the red brick tower of Teylingen. This 13th century castle ruin, while roofless, still has a complete circular castle wall and a water filled moat. At the time we visited, there just happened to be a group of archers practicing in the grassy inner courtyard. The twang and swish of the bow and arrows added to the medieval ambiance of the place. We walked around the tower ruins and then sat in the grass and watched the archers while snacking on leftover picnic food. The castle staff seemed very pleased that we had made the effort to visit. And so were we. It was a very idyllic afternoon. In all we pedaled 30 miles that day. For most of it Gena had a hard time keeping up with the rest of us. She figured it was just because she did not bike as often as Tim, Kurt and I. But, when we got home, we discovered that the back tire on her bike was flat, so actually she had been working twice as hard as the rest of us. Poor Gene's bad luck follows her ever to Europe. Sorry, Suess!<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stadsmolen</td></tr>
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Sunday just happened to be Molen Dag (Windmill Day) in Leiden. Leiden has 9 existing windmills but not all of them are open to the public on a regular basis. Since Gena and Tim still had their bike rentals we hopped on our bikes, estimating that we could hit three windmills before nap time. The first one we hit was the 1856 Stadsmolen, an adorable brick based windmill near our house in a sadly rather commercial area. This is what is know as a poldermolen which means that it is used to pump water to the right place. These windmills were essential to the Dutch fight to claim their land from the sea. They were used to pump water into canals so that the land could be dried out and used for farming. Amazingly we were allowed to go up into the molen while it was working and see all the wooden gears turning with the wind. There is a cute living space on the ground floor with a small fireplace. It was very quaint and very dutch. <br />
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Then we headed over to the largest windmill in Leiden, Molen De Valk. This was and still is a flour mill on the edge of the city's outter canal. There used to be windmills lining the entire canal but now only this one and one that was rebuild in the 80s are all that remain. A three story living space where the mill owner's family lived creates the bottom part of the windmill. Above that is five levels of mill workings, giving the whole windmill a towering height. Leif and Klaus were getting a bit sleepy and petulant as we reached the top floors so we took a few quick pictures of the city view and then headed home for lunch.<br />
When we got the boys down for nap, Tim, Gena, and I went back out to the last windmill, Molen de Put. This mill is the 1980s replica of a mill that was built in 1619. It is located just across the canal from the spot where Rembrant was born. He was sure to have seen the construction of the original in his lifetime. To get inside one has to climb a ladder-like staircase. Since it was later in the day the crowds had grown, adding to the challenge of seeing the mill. We saw the inside but did not linger too long.<br />
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When the boys woke up we rented a boat and did a canal tour. Unfortunately the weather had turned a bit rainy. We had to return the boat before sunset. The thick clouds pushed sunset up to about 7 so we didn't get a chance to take the boat out to the lakes. We puttered about the canals in town and munched on bread and cheese, olives and beer.<br />
On Monday, we (minus Kurt who had to go back to work) hopped a train to Delft. We headed straight to the crooked tower of Oude Kerk where Leif and Klaus engaged in their favorite old-church activity: prancing over the uneven stone floors. To set the tone, the church was playing some organ music over a few scattered speakers. During one particularly melancholy song, Leif turned to me and said "I'm happy. I'm happy." before bursting into tears. This occasionally happens with Leif and sad music and he is a bit inconsolable until the song ends. I'm not sure that Gena and Tim really got their fill of the church but they graciously went with us to get some lunch in the square where there was no sad music. After lunch we toured Niewe Kerk and then the boys and I headed home for nap. Gena and Tim came home later that afternoon and we all had dinner together.<br />
When we got the boys to bed, my sweet sister and her husband sent Kurt and I out for drinks and dessert to celebrate our anniversary. I almost fooled the waitress into thinking I spoke Dutch until she asked if we wanted an extra spoon for the creme brule. Rats! Fail!<br />
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On Tuesday morning we took Gena and Tim to the Museum Boerhaave, the science and medicine museum. Gene enjoyed seeing the old medical equipment and the boys again enjoyed the Christian Huygens exhibit. After lunch we sadly bid farwell to our guests and sent them off to Amsterdam and beyond.<br />
To come down off the high of our visit with Tim and Gena, we fortunately had a short visit with our friend Janel from Colgate. When the conference she had been attending in Amsterdam ended, she took the train to Leiden and hung out with us for an evening. We made her dinner and took her to the Burcht. It had been quite a while since we had seen Janel last so we had a lot to chat about. The boys loved her instantly and there were some misty eyes when we walked her to the train station in the morning.<br />
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Whew! Stay tuned for the second half of our busy fantastic 2 weeks of visitors!... <br />
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<br />Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-13465454791380521142013-09-16T05:46:00.000-07:002013-09-16T05:46:16.413-07:00Open Monument Weekend<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9LoXwF0dZUJvBY8z_Gd0HogDmFT_Jh7IiZURlF41PY9pXsCqk1qK2bRpNWSEtV91de9JoSuQdfti9p7CI4bdHD3YOT20vC5JMB-dHy_4cH3w8ZfXOLVXD2k-VNnUjVmez3Q-rakX1loKc/s1600/DSC05739.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9LoXwF0dZUJvBY8z_Gd0HogDmFT_Jh7IiZURlF41PY9pXsCqk1qK2bRpNWSEtV91de9JoSuQdfti9p7CI4bdHD3YOT20vC5JMB-dHy_4cH3w8ZfXOLVXD2k-VNnUjVmez3Q-rakX1loKc/s200/DSC05739.JPG" width="150" /></a>This past weekend was Open Monument Weekend in the Netherlands. In this country-wide event historical buildings that are not normally open to the public, throw open their doors and invite any and all in to walk around free of charge. We tried our best to participate but were mostly thwarted in our efforts. Most of the monuments were only open from 12-5. Since Leif and Klaus's nap time is 1-4 we were hard pressed to make it to even the ones in town. We really wanted to see Heman Boerhaave's and Christiaan Huygens homes since we had just learned so much about them from the Boerhaave Museum but they were both too far away to make it work with naptime.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgch3njKukb57ZiMbOW64SS1aO6IX51r8rZcC_R8MMWAiRNHTwx84l_SHF8-kyH8xuXiXBHE2edfJY5LuxEB9yqibUYVRC7xIbe30GFC-bKH0OQLpLWfOzMK5vB7spx4EKNe9CtD2aap5Wl/s1600/DSC05738.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgch3njKukb57ZiMbOW64SS1aO6IX51r8rZcC_R8MMWAiRNHTwx84l_SHF8-kyH8xuXiXBHE2edfJY5LuxEB9yqibUYVRC7xIbe30GFC-bKH0OQLpLWfOzMK5vB7spx4EKNe9CtD2aap5Wl/s200/DSC05738.JPG" width="150" /></a> After nap on Saturday we did make it to one of the homes on the Rapenburg, a beautiful street which follows one of the canals and boasts some of the grand old homes from the golden age. The house is a now an office building and very little of the original ornament remains. The facade was still impressive but the interior was a bit disappointing.<br />
On Sunday a few buildings opened at 10 which is how we got to see the Regentenkamer of the Merman Burg. This "courtyard" as it is called was a home for widows and single women beginning in the 1600s. Now it is all apartments but the governor's room still remains in tact and displays a fine collection of portraits of the former governors of the courtyard. The room is for rent for small parties and dinners. Any one want to go in on it with us? You might not be able to tell from the pictures but that is velvet damask on the walls. Velvet damask!!<br />
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Also Klaus has almost join the ranks of the bipedal: <br />
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On the whole he still prefers crawling but he is getting there. Should I buy him wellies for our England trip? or knee pads?<br />
Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-66002791535300004542013-09-10T04:44:00.002-07:002013-09-10T04:44:37.597-07:00Buyers remorse and the coolest museum in Leiden<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8X7v-IPSAGcUpNb6iU6hd109dnWQhXyQTSxVo26GhMaD6VeJLy5zI7cg37cCys9lLDjDCo-ttWjgn_UjmhLlLJ-XAH_E9H7sTgtDa1kS-qRki1hyphenhyphenraCbyZiaCloNupg_8XithKJtx6yPO/s1600/DSC05723.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj8X7v-IPSAGcUpNb6iU6hd109dnWQhXyQTSxVo26GhMaD6VeJLy5zI7cg37cCys9lLDjDCo-ttWjgn_UjmhLlLJ-XAH_E9H7sTgtDa1kS-qRki1hyphenhyphenraCbyZiaCloNupg_8XithKJtx6yPO/s320/DSC05723.JPG" width="320" /></a> In my post about Klaus's birthday I described my intentions to get his first year pictures taken at a corny Sears-type portrait studio. I have had success!...well kind of. I ended up taking Leif and Klaus to one of those pop-up photography studios in the lobby of a local grocery store. The deal is that the photo shoot costs only 2.50 Euro and that entitles you to one free 5x7 photo. Your free photo and an optional photo package can be picked up 2 weeks later at the same grocery store. You do not get to choose the photos or sizes for the optional package but you can pick and choose among what they come up with. I was willing to take a chance on this. The photographer was incredibly nice and, while the Klaus wasn't on his best photo shoot behavior, I was pretty sure she had gotten some good shots. Last Wednesday I excitedly went to the grocery to get our pictures. And all afternoon I beat myself up over how stupid I had been.The photos came out ok but the photo studio picked out mostly ones of Leif for the optional package. I guess I should have told the photographer that I was mostly interested in getting photos of Klaus. So you say "Ok just don't buy them." But for whatever reason (I should never make decisions right before lunch) I bought all 7 sheets. So you say "Ok seven sheets. That can't be too much especially since the package is advertised as 50% off the real price." The package was 99 Euro ($130). The instant I bought them I knew I had made a mistake. I asked the woman if I could order more pictures of Klaus (there are not enough in the original package to give as Christmas gifts to the grandparents and great grandparents). She gave me a code where I could go online and see the rest of the photos and order more. Here is where I started to feel a bit scammed- there were better pictures of Klaus in the online photo bank that they had not printed and included in the photo package. So you say "Ok just order some of those" Well you do not get the 50% price when you order them online. My motherly guilt was so stifling that I was ready to plunk down another $87 to get the photos I thought Klaus deserved. But sanity kicked in- I've been scammed so I feel justified in copying the photos I bought on my photo printer when we get home. Take that Kids Profi Portrait! So you say "Juls, aren't you an artist? Shouldn't you be sympathetic to this modern method of portraiture? You liked the photographer. Don't you want her to be able to make a living this way? This is the cost of it." Arrgh! Ok ok. I will buy some more. Just don't tell Kurt.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr and Dr Andrsen's discount home surgery</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mermaid Klaus</td></tr>
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Enough of that. I want to tell you about the coolest museum in Leiden.<b> The Museum Boerhaave</b>, is the Dutch National Museum of Science and Medicine. It is located in central Leiden in the 15th century Caecilia Nunnery/Hospital. We had not visited it until now because we figured an early science and medicine museum would probably not be all that interesting to children. Some time ago the museum must have figured this out as well and they have made some of the most awesome kid centered exhibits ever. As we expected, there is a very adult section of the museum containing old inventions and medical supplies displayed in glass cabinets with labels. But there is also <i>Treasure Island</i>, an interactive exhibit for kids age 8-12 that looks like it was designed by Terry Gilliam (of Monty Python fame) and Edward Gorey. Everything was in Dutch at a higher level than Kurt or I can read yet but it was still very entertaining. The exhibit is all about exploration and early science and was inspired by the Dutch Golden Age. There were lots of bizarre devices that made taxidermied animals move, the stem of a ship complete with figure head (well minus the head- see photo), a sea filled with sea monsters, and cabinets displaying old medical devices. There was a section on celestial navigation and several computer stations where you had to answer questions in order to earn stamps on your map (luckily you did not have to answer the questions right on the first try).<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik_j05-DTxX3fafWnTzMYFHkmKhgXuIVaJCtTuqWd04l9iobP9TNr1TSxbKIe1h_AUX-A4EVwsNdiOzHf5LSuiVqD5NdhfymmDRxbvD_HMYpBj4A7b3knYXBYd9T6mlypTUNGo9TO0zAuL/s1600/DSC05698.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik_j05-DTxX3fafWnTzMYFHkmKhgXuIVaJCtTuqWd04l9iobP9TNr1TSxbKIe1h_AUX-A4EVwsNdiOzHf5LSuiVqD5NdhfymmDRxbvD_HMYpBj4A7b3knYXBYd9T6mlypTUNGo9TO0zAuL/s200/DSC05698.JPG" width="150" /></a> Outside, in the building's fabulous courtyard, are several interactive displays that teach physics principles but are also just plain fun. Luckily Kurt was there to explain them. Otherwise I would have just assumed they were sculptures that I didn't understand.<br />
Up stairs is the <i>Vindingrijk </i>(Resourceful), an interactive exhibit that demonstrates the inventions and observations of Christiaan Huygens, a Golden Age mathematician and philosopher who studied at Leiden University. Among other things, Huygens developed the pendulum clock, an early projector, a microscope, and the leaf spring carriage. In the exhibit kids can play with/in a pendulum clock, a gear wall, a marble run wall, a rocket ship, and a Huygens style telescope, projector and microscope. There is also a gigantic Rube Goldberg type tower were kids can crank up a bucket of balls to the top and then watch them dribble down to the bottom in a series of complicated tubes and drops. Surrounding the exhibit are banners of drawings from Huygens sketchbooks that very much resemble DaVinci's journals. Huygens appears to have been of a similar mind to the great artist and inventor. Unfortunately the exhibit only runs until the end of Octomber but I can't wait to see what they have next!<br />
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Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-9070901140118918472013-09-02T06:21:00.004-07:002013-09-02T06:21:47.727-07:00Volkenkunde, Nordwijk, bouncy castles, oh my! Hello everyone! Sorry yes I know- There was no blog post last week from your favorite ex-pat family. I apologize. I was excitedly busy planning our mid-October trip to England (yay for totally off-season non tropical vacations!) and decided to comb the web for great deals on B&Bs rather than report to you on a relatively quiet week.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0wb6jdTvRRELfePzgv-iZ32Y85uzyfDQANQZUFivXXZ8e5OPq0lsD5hOtnKy-dLtJAdWSlr3Yxy25MK1IHuBDkfFORQT2tuTOdwib4-L0mtzcdDREvG1NYP17SH1VsRgm9nTrpcslG5Zh/s1600/DSC05639.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0wb6jdTvRRELfePzgv-iZ32Y85uzyfDQANQZUFivXXZ8e5OPq0lsD5hOtnKy-dLtJAdWSlr3Yxy25MK1IHuBDkfFORQT2tuTOdwib4-L0mtzcdDREvG1NYP17SH1VsRgm9nTrpcslG5Zh/s320/DSC05639.JPG" width="320" /></a> You didn't miss much. Kurt worked and the kids and I followed our typical regimen of morning outting followed by lunch, nap, afternoon park time, dinner, and bed. On Satuday we went to the market on the markt and on Sunday we took advantage of the city of Leiden's generosity toward its children- a totally free bouncy castle fun park. It was all part of the week of back-to-school prep that happens here just as in the US (even though their summer break is considerably shorter). Several of the inflatable contraptions had a water element and despite the low 70s temps a lot of kids were jumping in but not my little Norsemen. They were content to bounce in the comfort of dry pants.<br />
On Sunday night we briefly visited the ZomerJam festival that was set up in the park across the canal from our apartment. There was a graffiti art contest, basketball, skateboarding, and breakdancing competititions. Leif especially enjoyed the breakdancing and he and Kurt have been studying you-tube videos and testing out some moves ever since. The festival was supposed to end at 11 p.m. but I was pretty skeptical that this would happen given the number of water bongs I saw and the Grolsch truck parked in the middle. But to my surprise the bells tolled 11 and the music shut off. Done and done.<br />
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This past weekend we were in the mood to do something touristy so we visited the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, the ethnology museum here in Leiden. We didn't get the stay very long (naptime was looming) but we quickly perused their collection of Native American, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese collections of artifacts and artwork. They also have collections from Oceania, Africa and Asia which we plan to go back and see later. It is a quiet museum with soft music, low light and a generally calming atmosphere. I would like to spend more time there especially as it made me realize how inadequate my knowledge of non-western art is. I couldn't really explain much to Leif and consequently he was probably even more disinterested than he would be normally.<br />
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On Sunday we realized that it was September already and that we had never made it to the other nearby beach town of Nordwijk. As we pedaled the 40 minutes to get there we were hoping against hope that it would feel warm and summery there. Our hope was derailed utterly by a cold grey windy beach. But the kids, as kids do, tried to make the best of it. Leif and Klaus still dug in the sand, ran away from the waves, and picked up seashells. Leif had a particularly liked chasing the sea foam blobs when the wind caught them. We marveled at all of the kitesurfers skittering around the waves and wondered if their wetsuits could really keep out the chill.<br />
After about an hour of having our ears battered by the cold north sea wind we walked around Nordwijk a bit. It is much the same as Katwijk; a little built up but still quiet and not overly commercial. We found the main drag- a pedestrian only street with all the same stores that seem to be in every Dutch town (Hema, Zeeman, etc). It all felt very familiar and it dawned on me that this coming Saturday will mark the halfway point of our time here. It now gets dark at around 8:30-a stark contrast from the 10:30 sunset a few months ago. There is a chill in the air and fall is creeping in. I am sad and relieved at the same time. <br />
Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-12010411630726804912013-08-20T13:42:00.000-07:002013-08-20T13:53:46.436-07:00Jonathan and Marissa zijn in Nederland<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnty99o4qvaje-OzgDSQu6cIxiftgm91vqHGQoNsK7tV8fSkxPLSuXGpHu_4tyqFKKmPFNMRX1mc6APEsCLDKDFgXOilgRVHfOCc4HfLOAB7L9Nch_tZxoIhTRSGcOUGtmfqpTAwHv0xE/s1600/DSC05584.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJnty99o4qvaje-OzgDSQu6cIxiftgm91vqHGQoNsK7tV8fSkxPLSuXGpHu_4tyqFKKmPFNMRX1mc6APEsCLDKDFgXOilgRVHfOCc4HfLOAB7L9Nch_tZxoIhTRSGcOUGtmfqpTAwHv0xE/s200/DSC05584.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Leif and Marissa</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: black;">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!</span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"> 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. </span><br />
<span style="background-color: black;"> 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.</span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: black;">Marissa, Elephant, and Jon</span></td></tr>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wrnOe80rOLWdSpBlKavL0yu0dtjkvOR00XlFLru_9GrlM5I866nVAhAZm8DN70zTLQiIOSIxUhzg_Gl5pbvA3CzSnZvgZG1fSAJTl1Hs_le-VuTZFPsEf5IzKmJz3rq0i0XyrVbZONdQ/s1600/DSC05618.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black;"><img border="0" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2wrnOe80rOLWdSpBlKavL0yu0dtjkvOR00XlFLru_9GrlM5I866nVAhAZm8DN70zTLQiIOSIxUhzg_Gl5pbvA3CzSnZvgZG1fSAJTl1Hs_le-VuTZFPsEf5IzKmJz3rq0i0XyrVbZONdQ/s200/DSC05618.JPG" width="200" /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOIMCmIRiE4BEwLk7UJ0spGlG9QLigdTZKkhl3fIh3JoNYsleBl-zE5MjrvzuUq8TaHmBdkItvM5ZeB6HGamg27EujaEDLrU2hBziNz2nLhDihbiIW_P3p4JemHryuP06ICkXZRrh25v9Z/s1600/DSC05624.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="background-color: black;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOIMCmIRiE4BEwLk7UJ0spGlG9QLigdTZKkhl3fIh3JoNYsleBl-zE5MjrvzuUq8TaHmBdkItvM5ZeB6HGamg27EujaEDLrU2hBziNz2nLhDihbiIW_P3p4JemHryuP06ICkXZRrh25v9Z/s200/DSC05624.JPG" width="150" /></span></a><br />
<span style="background-color: black;">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 defendi<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">ng Leif's <span style="line-height: 19.1875px;">saucijzenbroodje from a cheeky pigeon.</span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 19.1875px;"> 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. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 19.1875px;"> 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. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 19.1875px;">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).</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: black; line-height: 19.1875px;"> 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!</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 19.1875px;"> </span></span>Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-32537379278128173822013-08-12T06:09:00.001-07:002013-08-12T06:20:16.881-07:00Museum de Lakenhal and GoudaWe 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.<br />
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.<br />
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."<br />
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. <br />
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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.<br />
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.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdZziZWrsW7ZQKn1bL5OsElpsDpcHCTOKt0KP8I5pdvZNwdTaJK1BMSfzLiVzdPj0AWmLMEk6qvC-NId-rm6_LTHlgbW0GT8BOUJQZ8tWdVv3_jnqwBBlNmfS06EP2WkFuujCZe2J_L3sz/s1600/DSC05563.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdZziZWrsW7ZQKn1bL5OsElpsDpcHCTOKt0KP8I5pdvZNwdTaJK1BMSfzLiVzdPj0AWmLMEk6qvC-NId-rm6_LTHlgbW0GT8BOUJQZ8tWdVv3_jnqwBBlNmfS06EP2WkFuujCZe2J_L3sz/s200/DSC05563.JPG" width="150" /></a> 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.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieai0PZnV7KlLG7csMvQy9ILEPjEtv2_8MuXYrZvx_v018p1JI8ClEstER8IwYOx4kLsP-JZ1JdOa8C17ZFIAKaMFmVNhCOy02x1Aky6Rwz_IPFceuW05MUfDHTzTllfZc7Xak0NpEGpTN/s1600/DSC05555.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieai0PZnV7KlLG7csMvQy9ILEPjEtv2_8MuXYrZvx_v018p1JI8ClEstER8IwYOx4kLsP-JZ1JdOa8C17ZFIAKaMFmVNhCOy02x1Aky6Rwz_IPFceuW05MUfDHTzTllfZc7Xak0NpEGpTN/s200/DSC05555.JPG" width="150" /></a>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.<br />
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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.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Train!</td></tr>
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Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-73500813398469470782013-08-05T12:58:00.002-07:002013-08-05T12:58:52.893-07:00We gaan naar to Rijsel (Lille) Road trip to France!!!<br />
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? <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Grant and Caroline- the most adorable <br />couple you will ever meet</td></tr>
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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(?).<br />
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.<br />
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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.<br />
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. <br />
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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. <iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.blogger.com/video.g?token=AD6v5dwL9SU0aNOsF28DBNMZZVijXGZRtXjFOBw1FLu7AymX9zC2VDoEU3D1Dk_48K1_BSX1pZd38peoYFn5_-kURQ' class='b-hbp-video b-uploaded' frameborder='0'></iframe>. </div>
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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.<br />
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!<br />
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Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-78783626219754429432013-07-31T13:52:00.002-07:002014-04-05T18:28:23.283-07:00Lars en Sam in Nederland My anxious audience, I know what you are thinking: "Monday has come and gone and there is no new post from my favorite semi-travel/bumbling-parenting blog. How can it be?" Sorry, guys! But not to worry! The kids are down for their naps and I am ready to fill you in on our fun (but exhausting) week. We had back to back visits with Kurt's brother Lars and his lovely wife Sam and our friends Grant and Caroline. I think I will cover our rendezvous with Grant and Caroline in next week's post. I don't want to overwhelm you with semi-travel and bumbling parenting information.<br />
Last Wednesday, Lars and Sam arrived! And then immediately went out for coffee. These two are professional overseas travelers; They commit to pushing through the jet lag from the very start but it means that they can't slow down lest biology take hold. Since the kids were napping, Kurt took Sam and Lars downtown to keep them awake. They grabbed some coffee and then stopped at the Pilgrim Museum near the market in Leiden. The Plymouth Colony Pilgrims briefly lived in Leiden before setting out for the 'New World'. The medieval building in which the museum is housed has a collection of pilgrim artifacts and period furniture but it is not where the pilgrims lived (although there is some indication that one or more of them set foot there). The hours for this museum align pretty well with nap-time so I'm not sure that I will ever get to see it. I will probably make a special effort at Thanksgiving even though Lars and Sam were not overly impressed with it.<br />
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While Lars and Sam tried to enjoy the museum, Kurt biked to Botenverhurr van Egmond and rented an adorable little motorboat. He then traveled Leiden's many canals and picked up Lars and Sam near the market and the boys and me right out in front of our apartment. It felt pretty posh I must say. For the next five hours we motored around the canals and up through a series of lakes just north of Leiden. We enjoyed a few beers and a picnic dinner on board. The weather could not have been more perfect. I think it will stand as one of the top experiences of this whole sabbatical.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The crew of the charter ship Marco. A motley bunch.</td></tr>
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The next few days was a study in the contrasts between life before and after kids, the childed and the childless. On Thursday we accompanied Lars and Sam to Amsterdam and on Friday, Delft. These were both locations that Kurt and I toured in our 2009 childless European backpack trip. While both times I trekked around with heavy, over-stuffed bags this time it was filled with snacks, wipes, and diapers (actually there were probably a fair amount of snacks the first time) instead of clothing, toiletries, and guidebooks. <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rijks Museum cappucino</td></tr>
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In Amsterdam we headed to the Rijks Museum which was no longer under construction as it had been in 2009 (although the train station still was). On our previous trip I'm sure I spent hours meticulously reading every placard even though, with the renovation, the display was very much reduced. This time I did a quick breeze through the Gallery of Honor (where the Vermeers, Halses, and Rembrants are) and then changed a dirty diaper in the Great Hall and chased Leif and Klaus around the mosaicked floor. After about 40 minutes the boys were suggesting in their own persistent and special way that it was lunch time. Since we had really just arrived at the museum, I suggested that we bite the bullet and get lunch at the pricey museum cafe (a stark contrast to the sensible picnic in the nearby Vondelpark that Kurt and I enjoyed in our youth). The food was delicious. Afterward Kurt and Leif checked out the ship and airplane models, Lars and Sam toured the period rooms, and I successfully got Klaus to take a nap while I puttered around the medieval collection. At this point we were undecided as to when we would head back home. We had always planned to leave earlier then Lars and Sam but I was foolishly hoping we could get the boys to nap on the go so that we could see a little more. After the Rijks we started to walk to the Amsterdam Museum. It was hot and Leif had a bit of a meltdown on the way there so we parted ways and headed for the train station. Actually I was somewhat relieved as my feet were killing me...just like they were in 2009 after the museum. I guess I really only had a half day of touring in me then too. Lars and Sam on the other hand went on to conquer the Amsterdam Museum and the Ann Frank house. They did not get home until after I went to bed.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nieuwe Kerk with boys, Lars and stroller</td></tr>
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Delft was much the same. In the morning, we toured the two churches that Kurt and I had seen before, the will-o-the-wisp inspired Nieuwe Kerk and the leaning Oude Kerk. They were still just as awesome (although unfortunately Nieuwe Kerk was under some construction). I was able to correct one regret that I from our first trip- I bought a 1740s delft tile from this adorable antique store just off the square. Alternatively, I did repeat another regret which was to not go up into the Nieuwe Kerk tower. I'll blame it on the kids this time. The weather was a bit rainy so it was not a great day to sit at a cafe all afternoon as we had done in 2009. Not that the boys would have allowed that anyway. At around noon we headed home and Lars and Sam continued to Den Haag where they spent the rest of the day.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Klaus and Vermeer<br />
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On Friday night, I put the kids to bed and then Sam and I went out to the one of Leiden's many canal floating bars. I shook off my responsible parent-self and stayed out until 1 or so and got silly drunk. It was a nice end to the few days of stark contrast to my younger days. Thanks, Sam!<br />
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Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-20038303710225667382013-07-22T05:50:00.000-07:002013-07-22T05:50:06.187-07:00Verjaardag<br />
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This week we celebrated Klaus's first birthday. Being a younger sibling myself, I am always concerned with making sure that we do at least as much for Klaus as we did for Leif at the same age. When we began planning this sabbatical one of my first thoughts was the Klaus would spend his first birthday here. I was a bit conflicted about it. For Leif's first birthday we had his portrait taken at Sears and we had a huge party with family and friends at our house. I was a bit worried about not being able to provide the same for Klaus in Holland since we have no friends or family here and also there is no Sears. Logic however prevailed; Would I really give up 6 months in Europe to avoid a future guilt trip that my child may or may not impose? Obviously I went with no. <br />
So I have already failed to have his portrait taken. I know that studio portrait photos are silly and campy. But my parents took us when we were kids and it always made me feel special. I am not talking about professional artsy places. I am referring to a JCPenney or Sears type department store portrait studio. The ones with giant plastic numbers and ridiculous fake backdrops with snow scenes or quiet meadows. These photos are a must for any future family nostalgic giggle-fest.<br />
I had planned to take Klaus to Sears before we left (I was just going to accept that fact that in 10 years I won't remember how Klaus differed from 10 months to 12 months) but when I went to make the appointment I was greeted with a web page that simply said that all Sears Portrait Studios are closed for business. Curse you, digital age! I was disappointed but tried to think of it positively; now I would have a grand adventure to embark on in a foreign land.<br />
When we got here, following my rule of researching before making any moves in the commercial sector, I asked the Leiden Expat web group if any one knew of any places of the Sears portrait studio level. One person suggested the V&D which is a department store in Leiden. Unfortunately it is currently under construction so it was hard to tell if there ever was a portrait studio but I can tell you there is not one right now. Another person suggested AH but I could not figure out what she was talking about. Still another person offered up her husband's photography credentials. The samples of his work on his website were gorgeous and definitely not what I was looking for. I resolved to keep searching.<br />
At a routine trip to the grocery we stumbled across what seemed to be a pop up photography studio advertising kids portraiture. It was perfect! White backdrop with a wicker chair and teddy bears. Totally the amount of shmaltze I was looking for. There were several people waiting so I decided to get the groceries first. Bad plan- there were even more people waiting afterward. I looked at the sign I thought that I understood that this happened every Wednesday. Since Klaus really wasn't wearing his finest I figured I should just try back another day. Another bad move. Upon later research I discovered that this pop up studio travels around all of the Netherlands often stopping in shopping centers and grocery stores (Albert Heine is a grocery here. This is what the expat meant when she said 'AH'). So my current plan is to just wait until it comes around again. I was willing to have Klaus's picture taken two months prior to his first birthday so I will also be willing to pretend that he is the same at 14 months as he is at 12.<br />
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While we have so far failed at the portrait, we did pull off a pretty good party. We rounded up a motley crew of the people we have met here so far- Jasper, a few people from the research group, and a very nice couple from Texas that I met at the playgroup. It was not as many people as we had had at Leif's party but I think the space to people ratio was equivalent. My family joined the party briefly via google hangout. We grilled up some sausages and veggie sausages and made some pasta salad. Kurt pulled off a delicious chocolate cake despite not having been able to find any cocoa powder (It took us a month and a half to find baking soda here. We had to get it from the British foods store. Apparently the Dutch don't bake much. Or a least not the way we do). There were balloons (thanks, Jasper!) and decorations. I had really wanted a sign that said "Happy Birthday" in Dutch but all the stores sell signs that just say "Happy Birthday" in English (stand up for yourselves, Nederlanders!). I finally found one that read "Hartelijk Gefeliciteerd" but that really translates to 'congratulations'. I went with it anyway.<br />
We had a great time and it seemed like everyone else did too. Hopefully when Klaus is older he will be impressed with our efforts.<br />
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<br />Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-78311726214758606262013-07-16T05:35:00.000-07:002013-07-16T05:35:03.286-07:00An introduction to the Dutch Healthcare System This week we had our first introduction to the Dutch Healthcare system. No worries- it was not because of an emergency (unless you consider living with children as a constant emergency).<br />
Unlike many European countries the Dutch healthcare system is not completely socialized. It is more like the Massachusetts model were everyone is required to buy insurance. As part of the visa process we actually had to show that coming into the country we would be covered by some sort of health insurance. Because so many professors go abroad, Gettysburg College provides a health insurance plan that we can use while we are here ( a Cadillac healthcare plan if I have ever heard one.) So we were able to check that box rather easily. Hurah!<br />
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When we arrived I began looking for a general practitioner (a huisarts as they are called here) right away since kids have a habit of getting ill at the most inconvenient of times. In some of the literature about Leiden that the University provided, it recommended a few doctors that spoke English and that were used to dealing with expats. I contacted their office to see if they were accepting new patients and to see if they would be able to cover the vaccinations that Klaus will need while we are here. They replied that they could and asked us to register online. The registry took a little translating but we eventually got it figured out. The practice is a quick bike ride from our house and there is even a drop in time slated for every week. Seems like it will work out perfectly.<br />
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Meanwhile I had gotten several letters- one from the Centrum voor Jeugd en Gezin (CJG) and two from the Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu. The latter requested the vaccine certificates of both of the boys. All I had brought was a handwritten list of Klaus's. Luckily one of our pediatricians in Gettysburg had given me his email address in case I needed to ask a question while we were here. I hurried up and asked him to email the records to me. He replied quickly but must have misunderstood and only sent Klaus's records. There was a deadline for when I had to send in the records so I had to get them soon. I was worried about abusing the privilege of the email address so I tried to walk a fine line between respecting the pediatrician's time and spurring him to action. I spaced out my emails in an effort to not be annoying. In the end he got it to me but not before the deadline. I had to check the box on the form indicating that I did not posses Leif's records. So far I have not heard anything back from the Rijksinsinstituut.<br />
The letter from the CJG said that they knew we had just moved to the area and it gave us their contact information in case we would like to use their services. It gave no indication of what their services were. Upon going to their website it said that the CJG can "answer all of your questions about parenting and growing." So, great, I figured it was just a public help office. I kept the letter but didn't figure I would be contacting them while we are here.<br />
About three weeks later I received another letter. This time it said that they were going to come to our house on July 12 at 9:30. Woah! Wait. What? So I emailed the contact person on the letter and asked what this was all about. "I didn't make this appointment....I don't understand why you are coming to the house...We are not citizens..etc." She must have been laughing at this clueless American when she read it. She wrote back to me and politely assured me that this is how it is done in the Netherlands. Previously I said that people have to pay for insurance here, right? That is only for people over 18. Kids get free healthcare here. Whats more the government really takes charge of it. They won't let any kids fall through the cracks even two non citizens that are only here for 6 months. When a child is born in the Netherlands the CJG does several home visits to help the parents adjust to life with a baby and also to check out the home to give tips on how to make it a safe environment for a child. Since we just moved here the CJG was required to visit our home to do the same.<br />
So last Friday a very nice woman named Anja came to visit us. I had been a little anxious about it since we have done very little childproofing as it is not our house. I actually had some sparks of conservative thought- "how dare they come into my home and tell me how to raise my kids". But it really was not like that. We just sort of sat and had a friendly chat. She explained a little more about the healthcare system and the CJG; Kids get all of their regular check-ups and vaccinations at the CJG office. They only go to the huisarts when they are sick (this made me wonder why the huisarts office did not mention this when I asked them about vaccinations...might have saved me from looking so foolish...anyway...). At the end Anya said "And you have an appointment at the office for next Tuesday at 10:20." Ok then. Conservatives would not do well here.<br />
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We dutifully went to our appointment today. We were almost late due to a flat bike tire but I booked it there with the stroller and we arrived right on time. I tried to check-in in dutch but the woman could see that I was not following and she began speaking in English (fail!). She weighed and measured the kids both of whom fell in the average category on the Dutch charts (way to blend in guys!). Then we were taken to the exam room by a doctor who was very nice but whose name I never got. Before we even came in it was clear that he had been researching the U.S. vaccination schedule. The schedules are pretty similar but not the same. Together with the list that our home pediatrician gave me we figured out what they could give Klaus and what might have to wait until we get home (turns out that the Dutch do not vaccinate for Hep A or chicken pox). He tested Leif with a few games and gave him an eye test. Klaus got a the standard baby tests (hip check and so forth...doctor comment on his circumcision...apparently that is not done very often here) and two shots. We thanked the doctor and were sent back out to the waiting room. Before we were allowed to leave I had to make Klaus' 14 month appointment. The Netherlands watches out for its children. Even temporary ones. <br />
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Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-29535487663749990322013-07-07T12:35:00.001-07:002013-07-07T12:35:02.717-07:00First House Guests This week we welcomed our first house guests, Sam and Charlotte Brandauer (who we know from Gettysburg but who were coming from Copenhagen). But, unfortunately thanks to some airline difficulties, it was for a lot less time than we were hoping for.<br />
On Monday morning the kids reluctantly let me clean the house. I told them that as a reward they would get to play with Charlotte when she arrived that afternoon. Sam estimated that they would make it to Leiden around 1:30. At noon I noticed that there was a voice message on my phone. It was from Sam from earlier that morning. Due to some technical difficulties with the plane the flight had been cancelled and they would not be able to get another flight until the next morning. We were disappointed to say the least; I've been enjoying it here but I was excited to see a familiar face and I think Leif was as well (to Klaus not many faces are familiar yet). Plus all my cleaning would but undone by then. Leif pouted for a bit but he is a surprising optimist sometimes; all afternoon he would say things like "Tomorrow we will show this to Charlotte" or "Tomorrow we will play this with Charlotte."<br />
Tuesday morning, again with my Leif-Klaus shadow, I cleaned the house (admittedly not as thoroughly as I had done the day before). At around 9:30 my phone rang- it was Sam again. Their plane was not cancelled this time but it was going to be delayed. Apparently the captain's seat broke (it was at this point that I went back to the flight itinerary that Sam had forwarded to me and made a mental note not to ever fly on Scandinavian Airlines). Eventually the plane did take off and Sam and Charlotte arrived at our house around noon, almost 24 hours after they originally planned to. <br />
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After a brief nap-time (only Klaus and Sam actually napped) we headed out on a little tour of Leiden. First to Haarlemerstraat, a pedestrian only street lined with mostly clothing and cell phone shops. We exchanged some klompen slippers that we had gotten for Charlotte for a larger size and then continued on to the Burcht, the old city citadel. Leif and Charlotte enjoyed running around the old structure and Sam got a little view of the city. After that we had planned to meet Kurt at the indoor beach (see my last post) but it was closed. Instead we seated ourselves at an outdoor cafe and had a few drinks and appetizers. If we were true Europeans this probably would have lasted for hours but since we are not and since we had young children with us (two of which needed a nap) we stayed for about 40 minutes. <br />
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On Wednesday we took Sam and Charlotte to the Naturalis. There seemed to be some sort of septic issue happening and the whole museum had a bit of a poop smell (yes I have two young children and I use the word 'poop' frequently) but none-the-less the kids had a good time feeding the animatronic animals, exploring the sensory room, and looking at the fossils and preserved animals. After lunch we wrestled the kids down for their naps and then spent a quiet evening at home.<br />
On Thursday we sadly said good-bye to Charlotte and Sam. Ironically it was the 4th of July but none of us seemed to remember even though we are all Americans. So needless to say we did nothing to celebrate the 4th of July on the actual 4th of July. Feeling as though we let our homeland down we decided to celebrate the 4th this weekend. We don't have any American friends here but we know a Belgian and an Italian who have lived in the U.S. so we invited them over for some American style burgers and fries. They brought Amstel Light (the Bud Light of Holland) and apple pie (with a lemon chiffon top layer but close enough). Oh America. I try to hide it but I do miss you.Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-43482648270618111962013-07-01T04:30:00.000-07:002013-07-07T12:39:57.511-07:00One down. Five more to go.Woah it is July 1! On Wednesday we will have been in the Netherlands for a month. One month down. Five more to go. This month was all about settling in. I hope to bring you more riveting adventures in the months to come as we get more confident in our living abroad skills.<br />
Updates from last week:<br />
I finally made it to the art supply store. I made the decision to bring only my brushes with me so I have not been able to paint for the last month as I have no paint. I am looking for a new direction in my art. I love landscapes and city scapes but I am aware that they are not the most creative thing that I could be doing. So I am hoping to spark my creativity with some constraints to butt up against. What better restraint could there be than limited supplies and the need to be able to pack everything up in a suitcase to take home. Ok so where is the nearest arts and crafts store? The Dutch are not big on large scale signage so sometimes it is hard to tell what is a retail store and what is simply a warehouse or office. I have found that the best way to avoid an embarrassing situation is to research any potential places of business on the internet before waltzing through the door. I got the name of this particular craft store from the expat web group that I joined. It was described as the closest thing to a Michaels or AC Moore that Leiden has. With the boys in tow I set off for what looked like a industrial part of the city. I was somewhat worried but confident in my web research. Upon entering the store we were received by a tiny showroom. Nothing like the size of a Michaels. It was more like your typical mom and pop art supply business. But one that was really concerned about theft: One of every item was displayed on a foam core board with an identifying number next to it (like a highly uninformative science fair). Customers walk around with clip boards and write down the numbers of any items that they want. Then they bring it to the counter where an employee goes back into the warehouse the retrieve the items. In this store's case I don't think that the system was really aimed at theft prevention but rather was the product of a lack of presentable retail space. Anywho I purchased some paint (only the primaries plus white and black- oooo constraints!) and enjoyed my unique shopping experience. Today I found a roll of wallpaper at junk store. I think it will be the perfect canvas. Now what to paint?<br />
The rest of the week was pretty typical. I've been taking the boys to a bilingual morning playgroup on Wednesdays. We usually go to the library at some point and also the park. Oh and we go the grocery at least 3 times a week. One highlight was the Leiden University Bio-Physics department barbecue. We enjoyed some great food on the university's dime (Euro dime I guess) and I got to meet some of the people that Kurt is working with. There was even one of those inflatable bouncy castle things for the kids to hop around in. The weather was great by dutch standards- 60s and not raining.<br />
On Saturday, Jasper (our landlord's brother) was kind enough to guide us around the Leiden Culinair Festival. In this summer tradition, a handful of Leiden restaurants set up booths in a central location and serve up some of their best dishes. We enjoyed some mackerel in a citrusy butter sauce with mashed potatoes, carrots, and green beans made by the local culinary school. And also a buttery noodle stir fry from a place called Woo Ping. Leif, who was a little sad and soggy after a ill-conceived jump in a puddle, enjoyed some ice cream from Maccioto.<br />
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There seemed to be quite a few other smaller festivals tacked on to the Culinair Festival complete with boat races, music, carnival rides, and Belgian beer. We actually started our tour with some witte beers at an "indoor beach"- a bar near the stadhuis filled it's floors with 6 inches of sand, put out a few buckets, beach chairs and kiddie pools and voila an exciting afternoon adventure for kids with thirsty parents and an ankle twisting excursion for the stilettoed after dark crowd. Klaus loved it. Leif was less impressed. In an attempt to amuse our serious child we headed to the carnival rides next. Leif rode the merry-go-round three times. When asked if he had fun he said yeah but only after a pause in which he really seemed to be weighing the question. This kid is hard to impress. Good luck, Holland.<br />
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<br />Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-19444021466932908612013-06-24T05:43:00.001-07:002013-07-07T12:40:21.617-07:00Katwijk aan ZeeHigh 70s in the Netherlands! Time to check out the beach!<br />
"Wow!" you say "In addition to its awesome canal network, prestigious university, and cool museums, Leiden is also coastal!" Well not quite. But the North Sea is within biking distance (if you adjust your idea of biking distance from an American point-of-view to a Dutch one). Beautiful and quaint Katwijk aan Zee is a mere 10 km 35-minute bike ride from the center of Leiden (unless you are hauling two toddlers in a bike trailer and you keep taking wrong turns- then it is about 45 minutes). And when I say that you can bike there I don't mean that you just point yourself in Katwijks direction and then try to muddle though traffic via sidewalks, parking lots, and highways. There are actual bike lanes the entire way there. Bike lanes that parallel highways! It is an amazing system. The lanes, like the road, always continue. They do not just drop off like they do in the US (if they even exist at all).<br />
Anyway Katwijk is an adorable little coastal town that I imagine looks something like coastal towns in the U.S. in the 1950s. It is touristy but still low rise and quiet. We biked right up to the sand, took off our shoes, and ran into the water. And then we ran right back out. Did I mention that it is the North Sea?!?!? The same sea that touches Norway? Yeah it was cold. Leif and I eventually warmed up to it but poor Klaus was not a fan. None the less we spent a very pleasant morning on the beach.<br />
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At around 12:30 we packed up our things. I knew the boys would never make it home for nap so I accepted that they would just take their naps in the trailer on the way home. What I didn't quite realize is that this would mean I would be biking in the noon-day sun. Most of the bike lanes were not shaded and by this time it was definitely in the low 80s. I gulped down a can of Fanta and a bottle of water before we left the beach to try to avoid impending dehydration. I made it to the out-skirts of Leiden alright but soon started to feel as if I was overheating. I've had heat stroke before and I remember the symptoms of it rather well. Have you ever been so hot that you felt your pulse in your head? If it was just me I would have continued on (hence why I have experienced heat stoke before) but I had a responsibility to the two sleeping little guys in the bike trailer not to faint in the middle of the road. So I pulled off the bike lane onto a shady patch of sidewalk near the bio science park. It was a really quiet part of the route and I didn't figure I would be in anyone's way as there was no one around. No sooner had I extracted the water thermos from the saddlebag than some pedestrian starts chastising me in Dutch for being on the sidewalk. I didn't really answer him figuring that he would notice my obviously red face (also I was having trouble forming words in English much less Dutch) and just let it go. But he kept talking while I chugged some water. Finally he said "no drinking here" in English. I looked at him and, with an American brashness that I don't often use, I poured myself some more water and drank it. He kept walking.<br />
We made it home soundly and sandy. I immediately tossed the boys in the bathtub, took a cold shower, and then vacuumed up all the sand. All in all a pleasant little trip.Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-72562015581797116812013-06-17T05:30:00.002-07:002013-06-17T05:30:52.492-07:00Slapen<div dir="ltr">
Another week has flown by and we are still in pretty good shape. Kurt put in a full work week and seems to be getting along with his colleagues rather well. The boys and I haven't had too much success making friends yet but we will work on that. We go on some sort of outting every morning. Mostly it has been to the grocery. Since we have no car and a very small kitchen and refrigerator frequent small trips to the market will probably be the norm. <br />
On Monday we were obliged to participate in some more government bureaucracy. This time we had to register at the Leiden Town Hall. The 'Stadhuis' as it is called has a fabulous 16th century exterior that lets you easily pretend you have traveled back in time (not so great for stroller access though). The interior was gutted by fire in 1929 but that has conveniently allowed the government to make it into a more useful modern space complete with a glass-ceilinged courtyard. While we were not thrilled to fill out another bit of paperwork at least we got to do it in a pleasant setting.<br /> Afterwards the boys and I checked out the library. It has a wonderful kids corner with lots of toys and games for the kids to use. Leif is already a bit bored with the small amount of toys and books that we were able to bring so this will be a great place for us to go play. Our landlord generously left us her library card so I picked up some kids books in English and Dutch. (I used the self-check out. Not quite sure if i did it right but no alarms went off when we left so hopefully 'alles is goed') So far Leif does not care for the Dutch books but Klaus likes them and it is helping me with my language skills a little. <br /> For father's day we went to the Naturalis Biodiversity Center. It is a great science museum within biking distance from our house. We bought a one-year museum pass there which is good for pretty much any museum in the Netherlands. There is so much for the kids to do there that I imagine, armed with our museum pass, we will go most every week.<br /> In other news: we have settled our sleep arrangement issues but we have broken our cardinal rule of parenting to do so: Leif is sharing a room with us. As you may recall from my last post this apartment is perfect except for the fact that it only has 2 bedrooms. The hope was that Leif and Klaus could share a room and that we would have the other one. Last week we tried several combinations at making that work. On Monday we put Klaus to bed at 7 and then tried to sneak Leif in at 8. When I opened the door Klaus immediately woke up and we spent the next hour trying to soothe both boys to bed. We tried this again on Tuesday hoping that it was just the jet-lag that made it so difficult the night before. This time we spent about an hour and a half soothing them to sleep. On Wednesday we tried putting them both to bed at the same time. Neither had gotten a good nap that day so they both fell asleep in about 40 minutes. We tried this again on Thursday and Friday with less success. As soon as one would quiet down the other would make some noise and wake the first one. I think they both made it to sleep at about 10:30. On Saturday we decided to let Leif fall asleep in our bed. At home in Gettysburg he enjoyed playing quietly in bed before falling asleep. I think he was a little resentful that we were not letting him do it anymore as it was keeping Klaus up. With him in our room he could play and make a little noise like he was used to at home. It worked like a charm. Leif drove his motorcycles around our big bed for about 30 minutes in bed and then fell asleep. When it was time for use to go to bed I just moved Leif to his bed in the other room. Everyone slept soundly until 6 am. Hooray! Problem solved!...until Sunday night... we tried this technique again and it failed in just about every way. As I tried to move Leif to his bed Klaus woke up and started crying. This woke Leif up and he started crying. At the same time the neighbor next door decided to blast some god-awful music (imagine a Yanni/Jimmy Buffet hybrid). Kurt shuffled Leif back into our room and tried to get him to calm down and I nursed Klaus back to sleep. At that point I made the executive decision not to try to get Leif back into the room with Klaus but just to let him sleep in our bed. Kurt opted for the couch and everyone tried to get back to sleep despite the music next door. After about 20 minutes Leif decided that he would rather get up and play. When I told him to go back to sleep he began to scream which of course woke Klaus back up. Kurt bolted upstairs to quiet Leif while I tried to quiet Klaus. I can't remember the specifics after that but I think we all got to sleep at around 2. Anywho as a result Klaus now has his own room and Leif sleeps on a mattress on the floor in our room. C'est la vie. We will just have to try to break him of the habit when we get home. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kurt beginning work on his DNA pulling experiments</td></tr>
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Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-78998403117902319552013-06-10T12:20:00.003-07:002013-07-07T12:40:52.900-07:00De eerste week It is Monday which means we have survived our first week in the Netherlands. If we had not it would have been a pretty clear endorsement of natural selection for it is really easy for an American to settle into Dutch society. It is a super cooshie landing. The Dutch are very friendly and accommodating and absolutely everyone speaks English (which has not encouraged me to test all the dutch I have leaned. More about that later.)<br />
Because we took a night flight we switched over to the time zone easily. We are still encountering a bit of sleep trouble due to the two bed room situation but I will tackle that in a later post. For now everyone is getting some sleep but probably not as much as we need. The 15 hours of daylight is not helping. We have darkened the boys' room with curtains but we keep forgetting to go to bed at the right time because it always seems too early. Hopefully we will get used to it soon.<br />
Anyway our first week was all about settling in. We reached the apartment at about 2 on Monday. Jasper, the landlord's brother showed us around and gave us the keys. He had left us some beautiful flowers and some stroopwafels as a welcome gift (made me feel bad for not doing anything of the sort for our renters. Oh well.).<br />
The apartment is wonderful. It has high ceilings, enormous windows, and an elegant wooden spiral staircase. The kitchen is a galley but the one side has a picture window which looks out onto the yard, making it feel larger than it is. There is one bathroom on the ground floor with a warm bath and luke-warm shower (I've only been taking baths). There is a shed in the yard that contains two bicycles and a washer dryer set. Up stairs are two size-able bedrooms. One overlooks the garden and the other has a great view of the canal across the street. We have really lucked out on the location of this place. Besides the canal, we are close to several parks, the downtown historic district, the shopping district, the train station, and the visitors center. Kurt's workplace is about a 10 minute bike ride but there are bike lanes the whole way. Actually there are bike lanes just about everywhere. It is awesome.<br />
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Our first outing was to the nearby grocery store. We had a great time trying to decode the ingredients of various products with our limited Dutch. It was pretty exciting to see all the new and different foods and really to have no idea what to expect. It felt very adventurous. Leif and Klaus were a bit less impressed. We ended up with some toddler puffs that were covered in paprika.<br />
On Tuesday we toured Kurt's new lab/office and did some more paperwork at the HR office. As we finished up the HR employee informed us that she had made an appointment for us at the immigration office in Den Hage on Wednesday at 1:30. I wanted to say "1:30?!?!? Are you nuts? That is nap time." but what I said was "Dankuwel." So Wednesday we took our first European train ride with the boys. As expected they both loved it. All the trains going to Den Hage were easily accessible for a stroller. The trains on the way home were not leading to some precarious double stroller high jinks. Everyone is ok but it made me wonder about disability accessibility laws in Europe.<br />
Kurt started work on Thursday and so the boys and I spent the morning scoping out various parks and playgrounds. There are a few good ones very close by. Now we just need some friends to share them with.<br />
On Thursday night we took a walk after dinner to the old city citadel. It has a great 360 degree view of the city and it is a pretty easy climb. While we were at the top we were pulled aside by a docent and camera man with the other tourists that were there at that time of the evening. The docent explained that they are putting together a grant proposal to get a giant map of the city installed in the citadel. They wanted a few pictures to put in the proposal. So Klaus and I will be featured listening to the docent with Kurt and Leif in the background looking out at the city. I'm not sure if the photo will be published anywhere else but I will let you know if we find a copy.<br />
So I must confess I have been too cowardly to use much Dutch this week. I really need to work on my vocab. I was able to respond when a woman on the train asked in dutch how old Klaus was. But that has been the extent of my success. I'm giving myself a pass until I get a few good nights of sleep.<br />
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Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-25494937900165387462013-06-05T11:45:00.001-07:002013-06-05T11:45:18.141-07:00We zijn hier!<br />
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Above is a picture of the courtesy bags that I made for our flight to the Netherlands. As it turns out I should not have bothered; Both Leif and Klaus were excellent little flyers. I was worried at first. Both of them were super energetic at the airport- running/crawling all over the place. I was afraid that they would be too excited to sleep and would get all strung out. As we sat down in our seats, Klaus was doing flip flops in my arms to try to wiggle out of my grasp and onto the floor. I could feel the dread in the passengers around me. But not to worry- we settled Leif in with a few Bob the Builder and Dora the Explorer videos and Klaus fell asleep with a bottle of milk. Success! </div>
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Now for take off. We taxi to the runway. Leif is giggling with excitement, his nose glued to the window. Klaus is snuggled in my arms and softly snoring. </div>
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And then an announcement comes on. </div>
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It was given first in Icelandic (we were flying on IcelandAir). I don't know any Icelandic aside from takk (thanks to Sigur Ros) but I caught what sounded like the words "forty minutes". Then the announcement was given in English. Sure enough it was "forty minutes" - a forty minute delay in the take off time because of a storm in New York. Argh! Panic panic panic! Our connection time in Iceland was only an hour. What are we going to do with two already wigged-out kids if we miss our flight? Also we have a taxi reservation. Plus the landlord's brother is waiting for us at the apartment with keys and we have no way to contact him except to email his sister who is in Africa and hope that she can relay the message. Plus even if we somehow make the next flight there is no way that our luggage will make it. No no no! This delay cannot happen. I am about ready to pinch Klaus hoping that his screams will spurr the captain to take off or throw us off the plane and let me go home to my beautiful house and forget about this whole silly adventure.</div>
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Then a miracle of aviation happens! The plane actually takes off in forty minutes as promised. To ease the fears of anyone with a connecting flight, the captain announces that we will make it to Iceland before any departures are even scheduled to leave. </div>
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The rest of the flight was great. Klaus slept the whole time. Leif was easily convinced after several videos to lay down and go to sleep. I didn't sleep at all thanks to an ill-conceived dinner at Chipotle but I did enjoy snuggling with Klaus for 6+ hours. </div>
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The landing in Iceland was a bit bumpy but that made Leif love it all the more. He asked to go on another plane and we happily said yes. The plane let out on the tarmac (Classy, IcelandAir. Real classy) and we quickly shuffled inside to escape the wind and rain. We checked the boarding pass and followed the signs to our gate. When we reached the escalator there was a line. We waited our turn only to realize that the line wasn't actually moving. There was a gate across the escalator entrance. Perhaps it was the sleep deprivation but I couldn't seem to process the situation. "Why would someone put a gate there? And why are we all obeying it?" I started looking around for alternative roots. Kurt kept me in line and eventually some airline official removed the gate. We all proceeded upstairs and found out that the reason we were waiting was because the customs office had just opened. Oh no I forgot to factor in customs! We are going to miss our flight! Isn't there a special line for people who need to run to their next flight?!?!? With true Icelandic brevity the line moved along and we made it to our flight. </div>
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Again Klaus slept and Leif watched videos and napped. I didn't even bother handing out the courtesy bags I had made. These kids were not going to be a problem. </div>
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We landed at Amsterdam's Schipol Airport with no problem and proceeded to the baggage claim area where we picked up most of the baggage on the flight as it was all ours. We loaded up two carts and put the kids in the stroller and then struggled across the airport to the taxi service, patting ourselves on the back all the while for giving up our silly plan to take the train to Leiden. </div>
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After a quick drive we arrived at Maresingel 57 and were greeted by our landlord's brother. He helped us get all our luggage in and showed us around. The place is absolutely wonderful. I will write more about it later. </div>
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For now- we zijn hier!</div>
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Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-84205713126091098442013-05-18T11:01:00.000-07:002013-05-18T11:01:11.654-07:00Wat te brengen We are about two weeks out now from our departure date. We have visas, plane tickets, and renters for our house. Kurt is taking the cat up to Canada this weekend to the open arms of Nick Strazzabosco and Abby Scholer (thanks, guys!). The fish are scheduled to live with my in-laws(thanks, guys!). The plants are going to Luke and Pieta (thanks, guys!). The kids next door are going to mow the lawn (thanks, guys!). So aside from some serious household cleaning and organizing, we just have to pack.<br />
Makkelijk, eh? Easy, right? Well maybe but it is going to take some time.<br />
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Things to keep in mind:<br />
-We will be there for both warm and cold weather<br />
-The boys will inevitably grow<br />
-Clothing in Europe is expensive<br />
-Our income will still be in U.S. dollars<br />
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IcelandAir allows each ticketed passenger two 50 lbs checked-bags and one 22 lbs carry-on. Infants can have one 50 lb bag and a car seat or stroller. Pretty generous I think. In my estimation this is what we need for each person: a weeks worth of warm-weather clothes, a weeks worth of cold weather clothes, 2 pairs of pajamas, 2 sweaters or sweatshirts, a swim suit, a raincoat, and 2 pairs of shoes. For the boys only: a winter coat (Kurt and I will just layer) and 3 days worth of diapers. We will reserve one suitcase for toys and any other non-clothing items that we are bringing but that don't need to be in the carry-on.<br />
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Other things to keep in mind:<br />
- We are going to take the train from the airport to Leiden<br />
- We can walk from the train station to our Leiden apartment<br />
- Leif and Klaus cannot carry their own bags and, in fact, are more like baggage themselves<br />
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You might say "Why not take a cab or rent a car to mitigate these factors? " Perhaps we will but it doesn't seem in the European spirit. Public transport is so good there that we want to show our support from the outset. (Also it makes this post more interesting if there are more complicating factors plaguing our packing efforts.) The short of it is everything that we pack we need to be able to transport ourselves.<br />
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Ok so we are up to seven checked bags, 3 carry-ons, and a stroller. Add to that one pack n play, one two-seater bicycle trailer (packed in a box with a handle), and a small cooler filled with Kurt's medicine.<br />
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Here is our plan: Kurt and I still have backpacks from our previous European adventure. We have one large suitcase and we plan to buy 4 more. Kurt and I will each wear a backpack and a carry-on, and pull two suitcases piggy-backed one on top of the other. We have a double stroller- Klaus will ride in the front with the cooler on his little lap. Leif will give up his seat to the pack n play and a suitcase. In turn, Leif will pull a wheeled carry-on in his typical meandering way. I will push the stroller with my free hand and Kurt will struggle along with the boxed bicycle trailer. Perfect!<br />
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This is not going to work. Screw it. Let's rent a car. Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-669471228514468967.post-61942430453699664522013-04-30T05:27:00.000-07:002013-04-30T05:27:23.439-07:00Glimlachen is verboden<br />
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I meant this to be a weekly blog but, as any of you with young children know, I am worthless by the time I get the kids to sleep. I can't do much of anything but sink into the futon and watch the latest BBC mystery series that I've found on Netflix. With tea and biscuits of course.<br />
Anywho I would like to tell you about the long, frustrating, fascinating visa process. This bit of bureaucracy is like none I have ever encountered before. And I am sure I do not even know the whole process as Kurt and the Universiteit Leiden took care of a great deal of it. Since we are going to be staying for more that 90 days we can't just go on a passport visa; we need one that is more long term and thus the process is a bit longer.<br />
Back in September when we figured out that we would be undertaking this adventure I ordered several books off Amazon about emigrating to the Netherlands (I am always trying to hide my ignorance with information- it works sometimes). "Living and Working in Holland, Belgium, & Luxembourg: A survival Handbook" by Beverly Laflamme turned out to be a handy resource. It let us in on a little quirky requirement for getting a Visa to the Netherlands- the apostille. An apostille is supposed to be a certificate that certifies important documents like birth certificates and marriage licences. In reality it seemed to me to be little more than a regular piece of copy paper with a sticker on it. And the speed with which the documents were returned to me with the apostille made me skeptical that any real research was done to certify my documents. I suppose I should be grateful that the process was so easy and quick. All I had to do was send the documents to the right state office with a SASE and a check. But I guess I just wanted more ceremony for my $10 per document (did I mention I am cheap?).<br />
I mentioned earlier that we can not use just our passports to stay in the Netherlands for this length of time. But we still have to have passports. Kurt and I already had ours and they will not expire until long after we are home so we were set. Leif and Klaus however did not. We learned early on from friends (thanks Richard and Carrie!) that getting passport photos for infants can be a tricky business. At the time that I was endeavoring to get this all done, Klaus was only 4 months old and could barely hold his head up nevermind sitting. Since no external support can be visible in a passport photo (hand, pillow, vise, etc.) it is best to take an infant passport photo with the baby lying down and the camera positioned over them. There are not many places in Gettysburg to get passport photos. I only know of the post office and AAA. But neither of them will bother with infant photos. So we decided to take them ourselves. Leif was pretty easy. I am always coaching him to smile in pictures so I think he was relieved that I encouraged him to keep a neutral face for this one. For Klaus' photo I took him into the basement so that I could control the lighting a bit better. I laid him on a blanket under one of the can lights and unscrewed all the other lights so that they would not cast shadows on his face. I then had to hover over him to get a straight on shot being careful not to catch my own shadow in the picture. After about 20 photos (yay digital cameras!) I got one that would work. Fearing that I would not be able to get the biometrics just right I sent the digital files away to <a href="http://paspic.com/">paspic.com</a>. They made sure everything met the U.S. passport photo requirements and sent me a print out of 3 photos for each boy for $5/each. Not a bad deal (did I mention I am cheap?)<br />
Meanwhile Kurt was busy trading emails about visas with Yvonne Kerkhof, the extremely polite and helpful secretary of the biophysics department in Leiden. To our surprise (and seemingly to hers) it was going to cost around $3000 for visas for our family of four. While this was not prohibitively expensive it is an expense that we did not know about and it gave us a little pause. Since I am currently home with the kids, we are operating on a single income with a little sprinkling of money from my art. In short- three grand is a lot of money for us right now. Kurt relayed as much to Yvonne and she passed it on to Professor Van Noort. He and Kurt planned to meet in February at the annual Biophysical Society Conference and he suggested that they could discuss it then. So we waited in limbo until February rolled around. At the conference, Professor Van Noort graciously offered to pay some of the visa fees for us out of his own budget. I was not there but I can just imagine Kurt's grovelling and copious 'thank yous'. With this generous offer our plans were back on track! (On a sidenote- As we gathered all the documentation that we needed the Netherlands just happened to cut the cost of a visa by about two thirds. Thus Kurt's funds from Gettysburg College now cover all of our visa costs and Professor Van Noort is released from his offer.) <br />
From there the Universiteit Leiden initiated the visa process. Neither Kurt nor I really know what this all entailed but we dutifully scanned and sent all the documents that they requested. Luckily I had already acquired the apostilles so we were able to get everything to them almost as soon as they asked for it.<br />
About a month later they asked which Dutch Embassy we wanted to pick up the visas from. Since Gettysburg is only 1.5 hours from D.C. we, of course, requested that convenient option. But we couldn't just pick up the visas- we had to make an appointment during the embassy's office hours M-F 9:30-12:30 to get them. Actually since there are four of us we had to make two appointments. We were able to schedule the appointments online without much difficulty (apparently people are not clamoring to get to the Netherlands at this time of year).<br />
No indication was given to us about what happens at this appointment but we were told to bring all our documentation plus a passport like photo to meets these qualifications: <a href="http://www.netherlandsvac-ua.com/images/Annex_A-Photograph_Guidelines.pdf">Photograph Guidelines</a>. Feeling confident after my success with Leif and Klaus' passport photos I was ready to take on this challenge. But after reading several more websites about how particularly difficult these pictures are to get right, Kurt and I were feeling less confident ( I was particularly afraid of the rule that there can be no flash reflections on the face- my skin can often blind the unsuspecting onlooker if they pass at the wrong angle between me and the sun.). The consulate recommended a place in D.C. called Embassy Camera that is adept at their specific requirements. So we debated- should we take our own and hope that they will work and that we will only have to make one trip to D.C. or should we take two trips to D.C. and feel confident when we go to our visa appointments? We decided on the later even though the photos cost $20 each (did I mention that we are cheap?) Our neutral expression photos turned out great as you can see posted above. Cute, right? And it was pretty fun to take two trips to D.C. in one week. Although the traffic is abysmal at any time on Connecticut ave.<br />
April 25th (the day of our appointments) arrived. We woke up early, dressed in our best embassy visiting clothes, snapped the kids into their car seats and took off. The Dutch Embassy is actually located in a quiet neighborhood off Connecticut ave. It is a modest structure with a pleasant tulip-filled courtyard. Still not knowing what to expect, we were buzzed in and proceeded to the consular desk. For the next 40 minutes the boys and I played on the floor while Kurt passed documents back and forth with the woman behind the desk. Then she asked when we wanted to pick them up. As same day service is not available, Kurt agreed to pick them up on the upcoming Tuesday. "Ok" she said, "Goodbye." And that was it. No interview. No meeting with officials. We stood there wondering what we had made an appointment for. Yay bureaucracy! Again, "Why are you complaining?" you might ask. I dunno. Just expectations I guess.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCvYoYvWZgAVes8oQe9viRwypg9wtuKj7zN7IwTsoZoH2AWKJtLPP3rd0iUKA6AQPeDOTnAMzddfBSEPmwVPc4ajqnV6zfITOqvu-dBrAR49vV-lioImbdfD0ibBW6o0hx_3WuX0WxbX7j/s1600/DSC04882.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCvYoYvWZgAVes8oQe9viRwypg9wtuKj7zN7IwTsoZoH2AWKJtLPP3rd0iUKA6AQPeDOTnAMzddfBSEPmwVPc4ajqnV6zfITOqvu-dBrAR49vV-lioImbdfD0ibBW6o0hx_3WuX0WxbX7j/s320/DSC04882.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Kurt and the boys in the Dutch embassy's courtyard tulip chairs</td></tr>
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<br />Julshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10820864471643799960noreply@blogger.com2