livin' the dutch life

livin' the dutch life

after the ajax win on friday, paul and wendy invited me out to experience some traditional dutch life outside of amsterdam. they picked me up saturday morning and whisked me off to volendam - a fairly small village about half an hour north of amsterdam on the inner bay. the town was so ridiculously cute… i almost can't stand it.

of course, as we drove to volendam, the rain started again… and again… and then cleared up! and then rained again. but i was still pretty positive - clearly the rain would not get in our way!

until it does, of course. and it did get in our way - just about as soon as we parked the car and started walking through town, the rain returned. it was time to head inside. we found a souvenir shop, and the rain gave me plenty of time to dither on my souvenir choices :) (thank you paul and wendy for your patience with me!)

this bird is not happy.

soon enough, though, it became clear that the rain wasn't really going to lighten up. so we head next door to the cafe for some coffee and apple cake, and omg the dutch apple cake with whipped cream could not be more perfect. so. good. also pretty perfect to watch the few poor souls trying to brave the rain struggle against the wind and rain and failed umbrellas. it was so lovely to be inside :) even the birdies were hiding from the rain!

can't even tell you how perfect this was in the midst of a rainstorm.

after our coffee break, we headed to the next part of the adventure! one of the best parts of volendam is the traditional dress - and who can pass up the chance to wear the dress as well? clearly, we had to do it.

i wish i could wear this every day. including the wooden shoes.

yup. we did it.

fortunately or unfortunately, weather was pretty crazy - and pretty much determined our fate throughout the rest of the day. we walked around outside when it wasn't pouring, hid inside when it was. we had seafood snack for lunch, picked up our pictures, and after picking up some snacks hit the road to try for sunnier skies!

first, though, we found a new friend :)

and paul found a cow.

well, we did find some sun! plus a few more downpours. it's such a weird feeling to be in a place that is so flat, and the clouds just roll in, drop lots of rain, and keep rolling. so different from seattle. but the beach - my first time at the north sea! - was just lovely. it actually reminded me a lot of atlantic city, with the beach bars and lots of resort-like places to rent chairs and beach gear. the sky was fantastic. we played on the beach, jumped in the sand, played frisbee! a ridiculously awesome late summer afternoon at the beach. thankfully, one of those bars along the beach was able to provide us much-needed liquid refreshment, and we could sit and watch the storm roll in.

apparently, there's a sand sculpture festival?
miffy on the beach!
(dick bruna was a pretty famous graphic designer from dutchland. and also created miffy.)

the sun! we were so happy to see the sun!

it's also my first time at the north sea :)

we got to play some frisbee, though the wind was pretty vicious.

and i found a playground!

and then super crazy black clouds!
and white clouds?
and sun?
crazy.

i think that means it's time for a beer.

this sky was so unbelievable.

… and then the storm started rolling in, and we were happy to get back on the road to our pancake dinner! i hadn't had the pannekoken before, but it was so. good. like a giant swedish pancake with mushrooms and just. so good. and of course another beer. (this time a palm. pal-um. who knew that had two syllables?)

by the end of the evening, i came home overcome with my day in dutch life - and so grateful to have the chance to get to know wendy and paul and get a sense of real life in the netherlands… not just the tourist side. it's so great to feel like this is not just a random foreign country with lots of crazy bikes, as many argentinian steakhouses as museums (and that's a bzillion), and ridiculously polite people. (though be careful, because politie is dutch for police. i really just want the police to be happy and polite. it makes me so happy.)

in any case, it also makes me happy to be here, and feeling… not at home, but at least comfortable. it is good.

from cats to ostriches to ajax

the rain continues.

one might think that would stop us, but one would be wrong. one doesn't understand that many of us live in seattle and cannot be scared by mere rain drops or lightning or thunder or torrential downpours! hahaha.

(ha.)

thankfully, the rain let up by about 11 and by noon i was on my way adventuring! first up, after a nice wander through the albert cuyp market (oh how i love markets!), was a stop at the katten kabinet - a museum that is exactly what it sounds like. a museum dedicated to the depiction of cats in art - as i'm in a bit of kitten-withdrawal, it was a necessary start. i'd thought it was part of the museumkaart, but apparently not - but i figured it would be a worthwhile investment. it was certainly an experience... more cat art than i'd ever imagined. but i found a kitten sleeping in a chair, and now i've seen the kattenkabinet, so there we go. awesome.




after the cats, i took my pear-mango-mint smoothie (this is just dying for some rum, omg. alex we must make these.) and wandered along the canal down toward my afternoon destination of brouwerie 't ij. the brewery didn't open till 3, though, so i had some time for wandering... and boy, did i make use of that museumkaart this time. first, the willet-holthuysen museum - an old canal house that has been preserved as of about 1900 - and then on to the rembrandt huis. yeah, that's actually rembrandt's house. apparently they did an inventory of his house when he died, and they've managed to recreate it pretty spectacularly. it's huge - and totally evocative.

his painting studio

crazy stairs! i thought the ones at my hotel were steep? these are crazy.

so after the rembrandt house, i was off and wandering again... through rembrandtplein, by the hermitage museum and the botanical gardens, the zoo - which is old enough that you can still walk by the fence and see the animals!

the ducks are forming a zone of containment for the flamingos. watch out, flamingos!
(eeeeevil ducks. eeeeeeeeeeeeevil ducks.)

betchya didn't expect to see this guy at the zoo, eh?

ok, so i survived the evil ducks and t-rex, and continued on my way. i knew there was a molen somewhere nearby, so clearly i had to find it and love it. it was also almost time for the brewery. i am suddenly torn. molen? brewery?! i decided i would go to the first one i found. deal. go with the flow, erica. it's all good.

and then, i see the molen from doom!

ok, not quite the molen of doom. but kind of. i told you it was raining.

and wait. what's that building to the side? can it be? the brouwerie! quite scrumptious, of the quasi-belgian variety. yum! also, my favorite part? the ij.p.a. (i've been having lots of issues with the dutch vowels. i can now always remember the ij is "eye"! haha! i love it. especially as it's "with extra hop.")

at the brewery, i tested some of their lovely beers, met a new dutch friend from whom i received all sorts of suggestions about other good dutch beer-selling establishments, and took a tour. where i actually felt quite proud of my beer-brewing knowledge! it was an exciting afternoon for erica. (also the brewery used to be a bath house for the city - perfect for brewing! easy to clean, lots of drains on the floors... i love the dutch practicality.) also! who doesn't love a brewery with an ostrich AND molen on the logo?!

after 't ij, i ran down to muiderpoort station and caught a train to the biljmer arena to meet up with alex's friends paul and wendy - former traveling friends from antarctica, who happen to live north of amsterdam. we missed seeing them when they visited vancouver a few months ago, but they were absolutely lovely and invited me to see the ajax game that night! clearly, i jumped on the chance - we may be going to see a netherlands national game next weekend in eindhoven, but an ajax game at home is not to be passed up... and was definitely a highlight of my trip so far. not only was the soccer exciting, the fans entertaining (on many levels), but i got to hang out with a couple super awesome new friends.

this. is a big. stadium.

ajax overhead! (named after the greek hero, seen above. this took me far too long to figure out. thank you, paul :)

so, the ajax fans like to show their firey team spirit. yup.
(what may not be clear at this point, though, is the closed roof of the arena... and the smoke that filled the arena for the rest of the night. thanks guys.)

so much fun! thank you paul and wendy!!

haarlem!

since about may, those of us on the trip have been pelting each other with suggestions for things to do in amsterdam, rotterdam, outside of the netherlands - all over. it's been pretty overwhelming to keep track of it all... and with everything else, i managed to forget about one of the best suggestions ever.

since haarlem is only a 10 minute train ride from amsterdam centraal, clearly this had to happen. after a much less wet walk down to meertens for thursday's guest lecture, i hopped on a tram to centraal and i was on my way to haarlem. a couple of the girls on the program had already been to haarlem last weekend, about which the general consensus was: this is exactly what i think a medieval dutch town should feel like. i couldn't wait.

and it's totally true - within minutes outside of amsterdam, the fields spread out and little houses and farms start to pop up, and suddenly we're in this town with small buildings - still tall, but not the crazy leaning houses of amsterdam - more trees, and a huge town square surrounded by cathedral and town halls and little cafes. it was just lovely.

haarlem has little back-alley "courtyards" all over the place.

cathedral of saint bavo

another view of the square, where i tried my first herring!

so, the friends who had been to haarlem earlier in the week told us about this windmill in haarlem that had burned down, then was restored not too long ago and was open for tours. clearly, we had to chase this windmill.

... and what a chase it turned out to be. we couldn't find it in the guidebook, then tried to find the info center for directions, then found everything EXCEPT the info center - including:

cheese shop! cheese shop!

count on me to find the purple flowers...

weird trees that require trellises for their branches? they're totally flat. it's weird.

puppy on the boat!

a very misleading sign.

eventually, we learned two things. haarlem signs lie. and open wifi networks are our savior.

after much wandering, we found the moten - windmille. it was definitely new, and not currently running when we got there, but very cool. i can't wait to go chase more moten!

on our way, we also found a rotating bridge! so cool.

so on our way back for the organ concert at the cathedral, we also found proof of why all the signs in alleys tell parents that they must hold their children's hand...

seriously creepy stuff.

and then, the cathedral. it was spectacular inside - very well maintained, and massive. huge high ceilings, lots of woodwork as well as the stones, and the windows were just gorgeous with the sun filtering inside. it was definitely a change from the dark gothic cathedrals in france, with so much sun and light paint.

plus, the organ itself was massive. nearly 300 years old, it was played by mendelssohn, handel, and even 10-year-old mozart. holy crap.


and look who i found! alex's parents made the trip out to haarlem, too, and we had a chance to visit again - and document our meeting this time! :)

all of that, and i even found my new favorite shoes. i call this trip a complete success!