highlights from our family visits

27 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by anythingamy in Dutch Culture, expat life, Travel

We hosted family over the last few weeks and it was a blast! We love playing tour guide, experiencing something new, sharing meals and chatting about our favorite topic — the differences between Europe and America. I’m going to boil down the last three weeks into some daily highlights.

6 – 8 April

Els & Frans (cousins) came for a weekend visit. On Saturday, we had a nice walk on one of our favorite trails in Valkenburg and took a relaxing break at a gezellig café along the way. We showed them around Valkenburg a bit and had lunch at one of the many restaurants there. It was the first warm sunny day of spring! It was nice to be able to sit in our garden at home that evening. We attended the Kom en Zie church in Schinnen Sunday morning. The people there are super friendly and the place was full. The worship was mostly in Dutch, but the songs were familiar to me so I tried to sing the Dutch words (projected on the wall). The speaker was enthusiastic and kept my attention even though I didn’t understand most of what he was saying. Els helped by giving me some translation. It was another pleasant weather day, so we had a barbecue lunch in the garden and enjoyed the sun. It was such a nice visit!

14 – 18 April

Kathryn arrived on 14 April to spend her spring break with us. On Sunday, we dragged her out of bed to go to a surprise destination in Belgium. We arrived at Pairi Daiza around 11:30. Pairi Daiza is an amazing zoo and we absolutely loved it! We stayed until closing because there was so much to see and do there. Kathryn and I ooooed and awwwed over the pandas and kualas. The pandas weren’t allowed outside because of mating season, but we saw them through glass. Dick got a kick out of the gorillas and all of the monkeys were very entertaining. The baby orangutan was super cute. There were a lot of exotic birds and unusual animals that we’ve never seen up close before — like ant eaters and hyenas. The entire landscape of this zoo seemed very natural and balanced.

Dick took Kathryn to Eindhoven University of Technology for her very first college visit. They did a campus tour with a current chemical engineering student and learned a lot about the program there. Kathryn is excited about the possibility of studying abroad, though it will likely be limited to a semester away from an American university. Lots to consider on that front! We’re happy that she loves it here. Dick and Kathryn also did a day trip to Bonn to see Drachenburg, cherry trees in bloom and Beethoven’s birthplace.

19 April – Sunny Day #1

Jared and Michelle arrived after spending a few days in London. We picked them up in Eindhoven and then headed to Gouda. I was so happy to see them and hug them! We haven’t been together since New Year 2017. We caught the end of the Gouda Cheese Market and picked up a few things at the green market. Our picnic lunch spot was along a canal. After a little shopping and browsing, we drove out to Kinderdijk where we saw the windmills backdropped by blue skies (first time we’ve been there in fair weather). I think Jared & Michelle brought some Florida weather with them!

We spent two nights at an Airbnb along the Reeuwijksche Plassen, which is a beautiful area of lakes and dikes. The cottage was just built this past year and was really nice and comfy. It was such a nice spot to hang out!

20 April – Sunny Day #2

Some old bikes were provided at the bnb so we took a scenic ride in the Plassen. The bikes were a bit clunky, but we had fun. We saw nesting swans and baby geese along the way. We made our way to the Keukenhof later in the morning. The flower gardens were jaw dropping again this year and we enjoyed sharing this wonderful place with Jared, Michelle and Kathryn. Jared took over 200 pics! After we were satisfied that we had seen everything, we drove to Zandvoort. We enjoyed some seafood at a restaurant on the beach with a nice view of the North Sea. Some of us dipped toes into the water, but Kathryn didn’t want to get sand in her shoes and I’m good with remembering past experiences. 😉

21 April – Sunny Day #3

We were ready to leave the Airbnb by 9:00 to drive to a station to catch the train into Amsterdam. This was Kathryn’s departure day, but she really wanted to see Amsterdam before she left. By the time we got into the city, however, she and Dick had to turn right around to head back to the train station and get to the airport. 😑 Jared, Michelle and I did the canal tour, had a coffee break at the Rijksmuseum garden and then walked to the Albert Cuyp Market. We had our lunch snacks there and bought a few items. Dick met up with us later and we went to the Flower Market. In the meantime, I received a message from the airbnb host that Dick had left a pair of shoes behind. We eventually decided to stay in Amsterdam a bit longer than planned so we could pick up the shoes in Utrecht on the way home. I gave the host a very good review! We had planned to go to the top of the A’DAM and do the swings, but decided the cost wasn’t worth it. We went to the top of the library instead. Jared wanted to try pizza for dinner, even though we warned him that Dutch pizza is not that great. 😌 He found a decently rated pizzeria and it was pretty good. We took the ferry across the IJ and watched the sunset behind the iamsterdam sign before catching a train back to our car. Back to Oirsbeek!

22 April – Sunny Day #4

Sunday was a more relaxed day. We slept in, scrounged up some breakfast and hung out. In the afternoon, we took a long drive into Maastricht via Belgium because of road works detours. We started our tour at the park, walking along the old wall. I wanted to see the D’Artagnan monument in a park we haven’t seen before, but the park was all dug up and fenced off. We found some yummy gelato along the way, so all was good. We ticked off some of our favorite places on the tour and we decided to have a barbecue dinner back at home.

23 April – Sunny Day #5

It was a little cooler on Monday, but still sunny! Dick had some work to do, so Michelle, Jared and I drove to Antwerp. We hit some traffic going in, but had just enough time to make it to the 11:30 free walking tour. I took a wrong turn on our walk in and we happened upon a neighborhood of Hasidic Jews — which happened to be very close to the long row of diamond jewelry shops. The tour guide provided us with some interesting stories about the history of Antwerp, though her sense of humor kinda fell flat due to her awkward English. We went searching for frites and waffles after the tour and a visit to the cathedral (I wanted to see the Ruben altarpieces). A swing by the gorgeous train station completed our trip and we got out of town before the worst of rush hour traffic hit.

24 April – partially sunny day

Today was Germany day. We drove to Monshau first because I wanted our guests to see one of the many quaint German towns full of half-timber houses. They were also interested in seeing the glass shop there. We watched some glass making and Dick volunteered to do some glass blowing. Yay! We strolled through town and had lunch on the square even though it was a little chilly for the Floridians. Michelle and I bought some bags at a really reasonable hand bag store. From there, we travelled on to Cologne. Our first stop was the Lindt Chocolate Museum, which is a lot of fun. Since we weren’t going to make it for the walking tour, Dick and I pointed out some of the sights we knew. The Dom is the highlight and never ceases to amaze. Michelle was in awe. After we spent some time there, we backtracked to a restaurant we selected on the way in and enjoyed some authentic German food and Kölsch. Yum!

25 April

Alas, the weather was more like normal with a bit of rain and cooler temps. Let’s be thankful for that streak of summer weather! We had another relaxed morning and Dick made crepes for our late breakfast. He had to run to a meeting, so the rest of us did a bit of shopping at Jumbo and a bike ride around Oirsbeek. In the afternoon, we went to Hoensbroek Castle. Since I’ve been through the castle multiple times, I let Jared & Michelle do the tour while I did some reading in the courtyard. The English guide was unfortunately sold out, so they had to make do with French. 😬 I was kicking myself for not bringing the English guide that we had at home. 😝 I gave them the ‘what you can see from here’ tour of JFCBS and then we circled back home. Our dinner was barbecue spare ribs and raclette. Yes, we mixed American and Swiss cuisine and it was delicious! We tried a raclette melter for the first time and it works really well. Wonder if we can get the nicely sized slices Swiss cheese in the states? Dick insisted that we have vlaai for dessert, but we had also promised to go to our local gelato place . . . so we had both!

26 April

Early morning goodbye at the airport. 😢 We loved our time with son and daughter-in-law! It was a bit easier to say goodbye to them and Kathryn because we plan to see them all soon. It’s bittersweet for us, though. It’s all going by so fast and I just want to slow down these last weeks!

Easter in Copenhagen

13 Friday Apr 2018

Posted by anythingamy in Travel

≈ Leave a comment

The “holy days” of Easter — Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday are national holidays in much of Europe including Denmark. I had Good Friday and Easter Monday as holidays, which gave me a four day weekend. Since a small percentage of Danes attend church services (estimate of 10%), this holiday period is observed as family time. Most retail shops are closed, but museum, entertainment venues and many restaurants remain open.

It’s another short plane ride to Copenhagen (1.5 hrs) and this time the best flight deal was out of Brussels (we have 7 airport options within a two hour radius). We left Thursday after work and arrived around 8pm. We stayed at an economy hotel in Vesterbro, which was a great location close to the train station and an easy walk into the heart of the city.

It was cold all weekend with temps in the low 30s, but Friday was sunny and a good day to be outside. We took the high speed train across the Oresundbron bridge to Malmo, Sweden in the morning and spent a few hours there. We explored two nice squares, St. Peter’s Church and Malmo Castle. The castle is not very pretty on the outside, but the museum inside had some interesting exhibits. One of the exhibits was a private perfume collection on loan. We found lunch at a funky cafe that was also a music store.

When we got back to Copenhagen, our plan to visit the Botanical Garden struck out because it was closed. We hit a couple of other sites on our list instead. I had scored a half-off dinner at a restaurant via TripAdvisor/The Fork and we had a really nice meal there. Copenhagen is a pricey city and we tried to make our euros stretch!

On Saturday morning we picked up Copenhagen Cards that would pay our way into all the attractions we would visit and also cover public transport cost for 48 hrs. First up was a canal tour. It was 0/32 degrees, but thankfully the boat was covered and heated. Well, I was thankful. Dick decided to sit outside for “a better view”. The windows were kinda dirty, so maybe he was right. Like Amsterdam, the canal tour was a great way to see a lot of Copenhagen. I love how the old and new architecture blend in this city.

Saturday was the only day that the shops were open, so I insisted on some shopping! Dick was less than thrilled. One of my must stops was A.C. Perch’s tea shop. I waited in line for about a half hour to get in (while Dick wandered around). The shop is tiny and quaint! It was worth the wait. After that, we climbed the Round Tower and got some good views of the city. I was hoping for smorrebrod for lunch, but the restaurant I selected was closed. We settled for a Danish hotdog from a street vendor. We caught an English tour of the Queen’s reception rooms at Christianborg in the afternoon and had time to browse through the royal stables there as well. My work colleagues recommended a southwestern restaurant called Llama and that’s where we had dinner. I was a little annoyed that we had to sit at the bar, but the food was really good.

We went to an Easter service at St. Albans Church. It’s an English Anglican Church that was built with the patronage of the Prince and Princess of Wales (the Prince was the future King Edward VII of England). Princess Alexandra was the daughter of King Christian IX. The church is pretty and looks like it belongs in an English countryside. The service was a little too high for my taste, but I guess it was a cultural experience.

The Danish Design museum was a short walk from St. Albans, but then we had to wait 40 min outside to get in. May I remind you that it was cold! This was a pretty cool museum and there was a whole room dedicated to Danish chairs. I noticed that they served smorrebrod at the cafe and that took care of our mid-afternoon hunger. We went to Amalienborg, the royal residence, after that and did the “Easter” tour. There really wasn’t much about Easter in the tour, but it was a good overview of the royal family and how they ended up living at this castle. We had enough time left to take a look at Frederiks church, which is Lutheran and the Queen’s church. After a break at our hotel and some dinner, we went to Tivoli. It’s an old amusement park and garden right in the city. I guess it has a certain charm, but we found it to be overpriced and not that interesting — and it was a little too cold to do any rides.

So we really liked Copenhagen and maybe we’ll go back sometime when the weather is warm and we can explore more of Denmark. It wasn’t an entirely peaceful trip, however. I think there were some underlying stuff that didn’t allow us to completely relax and go with the flow. Dick and I have a different pace and way of experiencing things, which it requires patience and understanding in the best of circumstances. We had a lot on our minds this time. Dick’s father was very ill in the hospital and this was worrying us (he’s much better now and back home). It’s also been difficult to be in the moment when can’t help but think about what’s ahead. I’ve been applying for jobs, nailing down temporary housing and keeping tabs on the real estate market. We’ve been thinking A LOT about everything that needs to get done in the next two months. Our next period will be hosting family and we’re really looking forward to that!

train trip to Hamburg

05 Thursday Apr 2018

Posted by anythingamy in Germany, Travel

≈ Leave a comment

I found out a couple of weeks ago that I would have an unexpected day off on March 26th. The base would be on stand down to take a breather from a recent exercise. A long weekend to fill! What to do? What to do?

How about a train trip? Since we are doing a lot of flying and driving over the next two months, this seemed like the way to go. I plotted out a course on Google maps to a couple of locations and Hamburg won for the easiest and least expensive location to get to by rail. Along this route we could make stops at Münster (to) and Bremen (from).

We began the journey on Friday night from Sittard and stopped at Münster for the night. We had a yummy dinner at an old German pub in town. I had browsed the English menu online so I knew exactly what I was going to order — bratwurst with fried potatoes. I may have mentioned before that I love German food. 🙂 The German name for this dish translated to Münster Rosary (no idea why). I was a bit disappointed that the waitress got the order wrong and brought chicken instead of sausage, but it looked and tasted delicious so all was well. The waitress, who didn’t speak English, indicated that I got a little extra beer in my stein and there was no way I was going to complain anyway.

Münster is a charming city and we really enjoyed being there. The main attraction is the Peace Hall in the Rathaus where the Peace of Westphalia was signed to end the Thirty Years War. Unfortunately, the city hall was closed for renovations when we were there. Bummer. Oh well, nice architecture, good food, beer, pastries and coffee were enough for this visit. We had to catch a 1pm train to Hamburg.

After a 40 minute delay, we were on our way in a crowded intercity train. We had to stand for the first hour and then we hung out in the dining car for the rest of the trip. (Note to self: reserve seats next time.) Our hotel in Hamburg had a funky decor, which was a fun change from the norm. It was kinda in an inconvenient location, though. We did A LOT of walking in Hamburg! We walked about an hour and a half before we got to our dinner location. I didn’t think a reservation would be necessary for a 6pm dinner at an Indian restaurant, but I was wrong. Luckily, there was another Indian restaurant just down the street, which was much bigger and had tables available. We had a great meal there and my craving for Indian food was satisfied.

I tried to get tickets for a concert at the new Elbphilharmonie, but they were all sold out (in fact, all a scheduled concerts for the entire year are sold out). We decided to go to a classical guitar concert at Laishalle, the old concert hall, instead. The music was excellent and we assume that the musicians were engaging because the audience was really into what they were saying; they spoke in German and we didn’t get it. 😑 The concert was a bit too long for my stamina, but Dick loved it.

On Sunday, we did a free walking tour of the old part of Hamburg. Our tour guide was from Croatia. Expats can be very passionate about their adopted city! The tour ended at the harbor, which gave us the opportunity to see the Elbphilharmonie up close and then go up to its observation deck for a great view of the harbor. It’s an amazing building, but hard to believe that it cost 800 million euros to complete. 🤑

We had planned to see the miniature railroad museum after that. Who knew it was so popular and requires advance timed tickets?! Oh well, it was just a curiosity thing anyway. We’re not exactly railroad enthusiasts. We had some time to kill so we headed back to the city center. The weather was milder than it had been in months and lots of people were out enjoying the city.

We caught an evening train to Bremen. The Bremen Ratskeller was my choice for dinner because of its history and it did have an interesting ambience. They have an extensive wine list and I chose a nice Riesling from the Rhine valley. We were able to buy a bottle of it the next day. Bremen looks and feels very old and we loved that. We did a tour of the city hall on Monday and wow, that building is pretty impressive inside and out! The tour guide started the tour in German only, but after Dick told him we were English speakers he kindly started speaking in both languages. He also picked up on the fact that we had Nederland connections and made a couple of jokes about that. There was a lot to see in this small city, including a couple of very cute shopping streets. It was fun to just browse around. I had a windmill cafe spec’d out for lunch, but the menu was limited and expensive. On our way back to our hotel, we were offered a free sample of falafel from a small restaurant and it was pretty tasty. We decided to lunch there instead and the food was delicious! We made a stop at Hachez chocolate shop to pick up some Easter goodies and I detoured for a shopping fix at Galleria Kaufhof (my fave).