Richard and I have been having a great time here in Holland, its been a little exhausting but we are still enjoying ourselves. We are staying with his sister Katharine and her husband Andre and their two girls, Evie(6) and Pip(8). Their house is located in a village outside of Amsterdam- Kockengen although the nearest city is Utrecht. They have a beautiful house, lots of bright colors and oil cloth. Their living room looks out to lush green countryside with sheep and cows and they even have a dyke/canal right out back where we feed the ducks with the girls. Kockengen is a small village that is very family oriented and beautiful. They have lots of green farmland, cows, sheep, a grocery store, a butcher, a baker and a cheese man who comes every Wednesday.
The first day that I got here was the same day the Sinterklaas and his Zwarte Piets were to arrive to Kockengen. That evening the whole town (us included) went down to the town sqaure to wait the arrival of Sinterklaas. He came by boat down the canal. All the children dress with funny hats and paint their faces black- resembling Zwarte Piet. Christmas here isn't as big of an event as it is most else where- Sinterklaas's arrival up until Dec. 5th is the big "christmasy" holiday here- although Evie and Pip are lucky because "Father Christmas" comes all the way over from England on Christmas.
We have been very very lucky so far with the weather here. The first couple of days were perfect- cool but very clear and sunny (not their normal winter weather). On those days Richard and I tried to spend as much time outside as possible- visiting near by villages and outdoor markets with his sister Katharine and also bike riding. Besides biking to the near by school with his nieces, we spent one whole day biking between villages, even seeing a castle along the way (Kasteel de Haar). I think that we will be going back to the castle this week to go to an outdoor Christmas festival.
I have tasted lots of yummy food already and also not so yummy food. Holland has great cheese- a huge variety- cheese shops every where we go. They like their yogurt here too- selling it mainly in cardboard milk cartons. Evie and Pip made us pancakes for breakfast one morning, very thin- crepe like. The ham is also good here. My favorite foods by far though are sate (skewers of meat with peanut sauce), the frites (fries) with mayonnaise, and an apple pie crumble. I was not so keen about the raw herring served with onions (good taste just takes a little getting use to) and the Dutch sausage- which i was convinced was raw... We have been having fun eating supper with Katharine, Andre and the girls- who are very entertaining. Richard's sister is a great cook. Tonight we had herbed goat cheese on bread and roasted red bell pepper soup.
Yesterday Richard and I went to Amsterdam. Very wet, very rainy. We walked around the city, just getting a feel for all the old buildings and the canals. We also went to the Anne Frank museum- the annex where she and her family were hiding. After that we went to the Van Gogh museum and then to the red light district just for a peek- not as scummy as I thought it would be. Our trip to Amsterdam ment that we got to ride a bus and train there- my first train ride!
Today we dropped the girls off at school and then went into Utrecht with Andre to look at his store- he sells tons of oil cloth, nick nacks, and home goods. We also went to a pipe organ musuem and then had frites and a sandwhich down by the canal. This was our second trip into Utrecht- the first trip we visited an old cathedral, dating back to 1252 and climbed up to the tip top of the cathedral tower.
So far we have had a great time here in Holland, we love spending time with Katharine, Andre and the girls and having them show us what typical life is like in Holland (with a little bit of English mixed in). We are probably going to leave Holland on Saturday after the girls swimming graduation. Swimming classes are a big deal here since there are soo many canals and dykes- the kids start swimming early and even learn to swim in their clothes and rain coats in case they fall in a dyke.
So a few more days here, probably another visit to Amsterdam and a few more bike rides if the weather allows then off to Germany!
