Hey, I'm back!

First, you choose which midi file you want to hear, just hit the play button on the one you want.  These are only a tiiiiny sample of the GREAT Dutch music I have and heard there.  I have spent the many days sifting through over 800 pictures trying to pick out the main ones to show you parts of this trip...parts of the Netherlands and my beautiful friends there.  This is a different page than my other pictures pages, this will be sort of a tour of my experiences there, with links to pictures as I talk about the subject.  It's a VERY long page!  And, as I've mentioned before, I'm WAY not a good photographer, so what you see is what you get, haha.  Most links (pictures) take between 10 and 20 seconds to load (I'm using a 56k modem) but I'll warn you if there is a link with lots of pictures that may take about a minute...at least that's the longest one I've tested.

I'll start with leaving Houston on a KLM flight. I was surprised to find at least half or three quarters of the other passengers apparently going on to India and the rest sort of mixed countries. I sat surrounded by a giant Romanian family so the whole way I heard a mixture of Romanian, Hindi, and a tiny bit of  English. In fact, the only Dutch I heard at all was when I overheard the flight attendants talking amongst themselves. And the TV's were in English with Dutch subtitles. The flight was a bit over 9 hours, straight through, the only little bit of turbulence we had was about 45 minutes over Ireland.

We arrived at Schipol (skipole) which is the airport in Amsterdam. Getting off the plane I had no clue what to do or where to go, this was my first trip out of the U.S....so I just started following the signs for baggage pickup, figuring if I was supposed to stop for something, I'd find out automatically. The passenger area is completely separated from the public, so Martien couldn't be right there when I walked off the plane. I did go through a passport check, the guy was really nice and friendly, basically just stamping my passport and saying to have a great stay.

Then I went on through to the baggage pickup area. It was just like ours with big circles of conveyers but with a wall of Customs lines on one side, and then a giant wall of glass beyond which were the people waiting for folks, and I mean JAMMED up against the window, hundreds of them. It was pretty funny because I wasn't nervous at all, figuring Mart would find me eventually. But about ten steps into that area I felt a pull and looked up straight across the room and saw him looking straight at me. So we waived and I signaled that I would get a cart and get my luggage, which I did.

Then, I felt like I should declare at least the bottle of whiskey I was bringing rather than risk problems right away. There were biiiig lines at the "nothing to declare" areas but hardly anyone at the "declare" area, so I walked up to one of them and there was just a bunch of guys chatting and having laughs. One of them asked if he could help me and I said "I think I'm supposed to declare something". He asked what it was and I said a bottle of whiskey and he just laughed, smiled, said have a great visit, and waved me on through. They were extremely nice and I could have brought in probably anything!

By the time I had gotten all my luggage and gone through that, the crowd outside had gotten huge, but again, as soon as I went out, I sort of felt where to look and voila, Mart was ahead of me and to the left. It took a few minutes to get through the crows, 'cause folks were just stopped meeting their friends and family and not moving...and I did have two giant suitcases.  But we made it and so after Martien and I hugged hello, I handed over the cart to him and we wallllllked through that giant airport to outside. It was sunny and cool outside, which felt great since it was already very hot here in Texas. We stopped on the way to the parking garage so he could call his mom who was at his house watching the boys. You can see that picture HERE.

Then we got the luggage loaded, and drove on out of Amsterdam, heading north. It was not a nervous feeling at all, meeting this most special person in my life after three years of talking online, on the phone, and in letters, it felt GREAT, very comfortable, just the most perfectly natural feeling like we did this all the time.  It was more like I had been gone for a while and had come home again.  We just kept laughing and had the hugest grins in our faces. We stopped at a gas station, Texaco, haha, which surprised me for some reason 'cause that's a very common station here, on the way to get something to drink and you can see that station HERE.

When we got to the house, about 10:30 their time, in the morning, I got to meet Martien and Simone's adorable sons, Roy the oldest and Geoffrey, and Mart's mom, Sjaan (shaun), who is in incredible physical shape (all that bike riding?) and who is one of most fun moms you can imagine. Simone works out of the home so I didn't meet her until later that evening.  You'll see some pictures of her later, she's beautiful, just what you imagine as a Dutch woman, and is also a very sweet woman who made me feel right at home.  When we first got to the house, I first took a shower and changed clothes, to just freshen up and also because the weather was a bit warmer than for what I was wearing. You never knew what the weather was going to do there, they always tell me it's so cold and rainy but nearly the entire time I was there the weather was sunny and warm and just perfect!  But, then we took a few pictures and hopped in the car with the boys to do a little driving. We drove out to a little lake where Mart's VERY cool dad, Tinus (teenus...short for Martinus just like Mart's name), and a cousin of his were carp fishing. This is a big sport there, the carp are huge, and they catch them, take a picture, and let them go again, a pretty great  way to fish don't you think?  Near this little lake was the first house I saw with a reed roof.  These roofs are seen all over the country, but they're very expensive and a fire danger too so it's more common to see tile roofs.  You can see what I mean HERE.

One of the things that was strange to me is that it's daylight there from about 5:30 in the morning until almost midnight or eleven. They pay for it in the winter when it's only light from about 7 in the morning til 4 in the afternoon. But most mornings we got up between 7 and 9 and went to sleep about 2 to 3 in the morning.  Hey, we were both on vacation, Martien and I, and trying to pack as much into three weeks as we could!

The drive to their nearest beach is short, about 15 minutes at the most. We went there several times, either for the guys to have kite fights, or just to enjoy the beach. You park on one side of the dike, climb up lots and lots of stairs, down the other side, and then walk to the end of the dike to a sand beach (lots of climbing stairs and walking in that country!...not like here at all). And the sea side of the dike is always very windy and can be extremely cold, as it was the first time we went. After that, it was only windy but pleasant. I should say something here about Germans. Many many many Germans vacation at the beach there, either camping on the other side of the dike in campgrounds or in hotels. And I have to say that every German I saw was actually pretty rude for some reason.  I know not all Germans are that way, I know some extremely nice and friendly Germans, and I wonder if it's a cultural thing and they don't UNDERSTAND that this behavior is considered rude. They cut in lines, a few times they stared very nastily at us for no reason we could tell, they interrupted when someone else would get service in a shop, etc. It's no wonder, besides the whole WWII occupation/murder thing, that the Dutch people fairly can't stand them and gouge them on tourist prices. But the absolute WEIRDEST thing I ever saw was at the beach. The German tourists dig holes. Big holes. And then they sit in them. And, by god, those are THEIR holes! If you come the next day and are near one of these craters, they will come up and yell that it is THEIRS! The beach is covered with these crater things and it looks like it's been bombed. Everyone there I asked about it said, yes, that's what Germans do, but nobody could explain WHY. Once in a while they will use a bulldozer to smooth the beach back over but the next day they're at it again. Weird.

Anyway, I went to Jos and Ingrid's home and finally met them too. Jos was the first person I ever talked to on Internet, ever, over three years ago now. It was wonderful to meet them in person finally. Then Jos, Mart, and I went to the beach with their kites. They're very good at it and you see lots of kites there. But Mart and Jos have these sort of dogfights trying to bring down each others kites. I never realized that it's a dangerous thing until one time Mart's kite was coming down, accidentally and suddenly, and went crazy and crashed into Jos's leg, literally taking out a nickle sized piece of flesh, through jeans. I suspect it really could kill you if it hit you in the head. You can see Mart and Jos flying kites HERE, on that first cold cold day we went to the beach. Mart's brother, Antonio (they call him Ton, as in tone) came later while we were there. He's a bit younger, about 11 years younger than Mart, and a little wild on the outside but a sweetheart on the inside I found.  On the beach there is a little cantina where we could get cokes or beers and you can see Jos there HERE. It was a little cold but just fine that first time I went there, until we started that long walk back....into what HAD to be gale force winds that were just freezing cold. I literally couldn't see, because my eyes were tearing so much. That's never happened to me in my whole life! So I just walked really close behind Martien, so he could block the wind some. Incredible.

Now, as y'all may know, all these people are really into music. Mart and Jos, and Jos's brother Wim, and a drummer named Chris (I'm guessing I'm spelling his name wrong, they don't spell them like we do) form one band called The Jojes (yo yays). They have one CD out and are working on more songs. They work out of a little studio which is wayyyy out in the country. You can see them at this studio in these next pics. Martien is singing (great hair, hunh?), and in one is playing guitar (which he doesn't really do in this band, he sings in this one), Wim is on bass and Chris at drums, and one is Jos playing guitar.  See them HERE.

Next, I should tell you about Martien's best friend, Stephan. He's this incredible guy, very quiet but one of the coolest people I know, and next to Martinus...well, he's just an amazing friend.  He's a helicopter pilot and takes crews to and from oil rigs in the North Sea. He arranged for us to go with him on a flight, WAY cool! We had to put on these yellow survival suits and watch a video before we could go. The suits were totally enclosed, they had feet already in them and you then put on your shoes over these. The wrists and neck were sort of sealed with rubber gasket things (man, I don't know how y'all guys can stand to wear neckties...that sucked). And then at the helicopter you had to also put on a floatation vest thing. AND it was quite loud so we had earplugs too. You can see Stephan and the helicopter things HERE.

I just talked online to Stephan, just this minute, and he reviewed this page.  And now he's convinced me to put in another little thing we did.  One night, Martinus and I went to Stephan's BEAUTIFUL home.  It was a little cool that night, but perfect with stars and clear skies and the moon, so we sat outside in the backyard.  And while I found the backyard very charming, Stephan and his family just moved there a few months ago and he's now beginning the process of redesigning it, but from the sound of it what he'll end up with is incredible.  Okay, I'm drifting.  Well, Stephan and I shared some (lots) tequila and Martien was enjoying whiskey (Glenlivet apparently is the ONLY way to go if you like whiskey).  I think I remember Stephan drinking beer also.  I had brought Stephan a Texas-sized shotglass and I remember at some point making him go halves with me because I could not do an entire shot from that big glass.  Martien had arranged for Stephan to build a fire in this very cool little...well, it's sort of a wrought iron fire holder that was just perfect!  And...well...we had a really GREAT time that evening, with a fire and a cool night and stars overhead and wonderful company.  There are definitely other little things that I remember of that night which will make my memories something to treasure.  But it was shocking to me that none of us got sick from the amount we drank, and I am not quite sure how Mart and I got back to his house. I really don't drink very often and that was the most hard liquor I've had in yeeeears!  Thank goodness it's only a few blocks and we walked!  I do remember thinking I would rather just lay down on one of their couches than to maneuver the spiral staircase at Mart and Simone's home, and a while later I remember Mart covering me up with his duster coat (western style, you know the kind?).  And I remember he stayed up the whole night in the living room with me.  It was some national prank night where kids wake up and wrap houses at dawn and such things and some folks keep an eye out all night for those who would prefer vandalism.  Anyway, there you go Stephan, of course I didn't forget that night, but now it's here for you.  To see a better picture of Stephan, click HERE.

Next, you know that Martien is a tattoo artist, and has his own supply business. He also has invented a new style of machine and sells this along with inks and all the other supplies necessary.  He usually has one or two customers a night to tattoo in his home studio and at a...sort of an eclectic shop in Schagen on Friday afternoons too.  He didn't schedule any customers while I was there, except for one...Rob. Rob is a police officer, and Mart's been working on a fabulous back piece for him for maybe a year now.  Martien created the entire piece himself, drew the design himself just out of his head...he's an artist like I've never seen. I saw the first sketches before there were any tattoos and so Mart scheduled the final tattooing on this piece for when I was there, so I got to see this one from beginning to end! It was fascinating to watch, there was no apparent pain and no blood, only a slight redness of the skin which faded in a few minutes, amazing...and I know that is Mart's skill, because here there is lots of pain and blood for these horrible quality things. Anyway, you can see some of this work HERE.

Now, for Amsterdam. It's about half the size of Houston, a large city, so the people part, the 'big city' part was not different to me but the buildings, the feel of it, that was really an experience.  Sjaan and I took a trip on the train into Amsterdam and spent the day. It was my first time on a train and was lots of fun. We visited Madame Toussaud's Wax Museum which was fascinating and a tiny bit creepy with some of the figures because you honestly couldn't tell some of them were not real humans. Then we wanted something for lunch but didn't know what. So we just followed our nose and found this great little fish deli thing in a tiny alley and I had my first herring ever!  There are several kinds of herring there, and this one was called something like panneherring and was excellent! It was sort of the texture of a filet of tuna fish but sort of a sweet flavor.  Then we did lots and lots of shopping, just wandering through the alleys and streets. We decided then to take a canal cruise which was incredible too to see all the different types of architecture. After that we stopped for fries, which I only saw served with mayonnaise (though Mart promises me he sometimes eats them with ketchup and others do to). Then we went back to Central Station and caught the train home to Schagen. I thought Amsterdam was charming, but it wasn't my favorite place there. But we were perfectly safe there though I thought Martien was gonna have kittens over me going there without him. He kept warning me of the dangers and begging his mom to not let go of me or let me get lost, like I just fell off the turnip truck, right? But he's such a sweetheart and it was nice that he was so worried. He couldn't come because Sjaan said it was ONLY for her and me, our day out. Oh, and on the way to the museum, we crossed this big square. There was a large crowd gathered around and we went to see what was there. It was a group of...something North African? Indian?, where they wore turbans. And they were playing music and one guy was breathing fire. Really cool! You can see all this HERE...there are 15 pictures and it takes my pc about a full minute to load.

For some general things I saw there.... The traffic rules are much more complicated than ours and then when you throw bicycles into the mix it's even more complex. For example, sometimes without any signs at all, you're supposed to stop and let the traffic from the right in, even though they're turning onto YOUR road. Also, you never quite know when the traffic is one way or two if there is more than one lane. They use white dashes like we do, but don't change it to yellow when it's two way, really confusing. You can see this HERE. This is a two way road, see the oncoming traffic? By the way, Schagen is the name of the town where the Brantenaar's live.

Also, you really do occasionally see folks wearing klumpen (wooden shoes) for real. Martien wore them as a child and still wears them when he's outside at the house, like in the backyard, and you can see his HERE. I bought a pair too, that actually fit and I find myself wearing them around the house now just for the fun of it.

One thing that seemed strange or inefficient to me is their parking garages. When we would go into Alkmaar for shopping or at the parking garage at Schipol, you push a button to get a ticket and then you park, just like here. But, when you're ready to leave, you've got to go find a pay machine and then go to your car and leave. Here, you drive your car down to the street and pay at a booth as you leave.  You can see one of these machines HERE.

The people were alllllll very friendly and comfortable when out and about. One thing I knew ahead of time was that "thank you" is "dank je wel" (or "dank U wel" if it's someone older) or if you want the shorter version for just "thanks" it's "bedankt". But what I didn't know is that when you hand someone anything or when they hand you something, you're supposed to say "please" which is "alstublieft" or "alstu" (which sounds like asha) for short. It was a bit hard to get used to always saying that when you handed clerks your money and I found myself always saying thank you before I could remember to say the Dutch things, just automatic. And when passing someone on the streets they usually say "dag" which is like "good day" and you're supposed to say it back. Also, when saying bye you can use "dag" or "tot ziens" (see you again), or "mazzel" (like the Jewish saying), or most often "doei" (bye).

The country looks very much like the flatter parts of Texas, but softer or less wild. Lots of cows (all the milk kind either brown/white or black/white Jersey style, I didn't see any beef kind like angus, brangus, longhorns, or that kind we have here), horses, sheep, and goats. And of course windmills all over the place, both the traditional kind with reed roofs or the new kind. It all looks similar to here but for the windmills and the shapes of the houses and canals. You can see lots of this HERE...7 pictures and about 30 seconds to load.

Their grocery stores are very much the same as ours except the cashiers sit instead of stand. We went to three or four different kinds of stores but the pictures are from one of the better ones. There are also special shops for bread, meat, fish, etc. but you can get these in the grocery stores too. See HERE for a couple of shots.

We did lots of shopping in Alkmaar and Simone and I spent actually an entire day there just for the two of us. This is where I bought tons of  cheese, in a little shop that you have to hold your breath when you first walk in, haha. I didn't get any pics of that shop though, somehow!  But you can see parts of Alkmaar HERE.

The gas prices there are outrageous. I worked it out from litres to gallons and from guilders to dollars and they're paying something like $6 per gallon, can you imagine? You can see their prices (at a Gulf station, remember those?, we used to have them but don't anymore) HERE.

One day all of us, Simone, Mart, I, and the boys went to something called Klimmenduin (or close to that) which is Climbing Dune. It's this huge dune (in fact, ALL their sand dunes are gigantic) that is a small forest and then sand down one steep part. It's a very steep climb, and the forest feels like east Texas, but once you're at the top it's an incredible view over a forest and in the distance you can see the North Sea. Then you can sift down from the top on this small mountain of sand just like at a beach, where Roy was in sand heaven, hahaha, he LOVES playing in sand though it's not Geoff's cup of tea. Afterwards, I remembered that a friend of mine wanted a picture of a phone booth (don't ask why), so you can see all of this HERE...8 pictures and about 50 seconds.

On another day, Simone, Mart, I and Geoffrey went to tour a castle. It's called Kasteel Radboud and is about 1100 years old I believe, something in the 900's...very cool. And though I didn't get any pictures of them, this castle had the most HUGE carp I've ever seen in my whole life in the moat.  People feed them bread and they were literally pushing the ducks up out of the water to get it, incredible!  You can see the castle HERE...about 40 seconds. On the way there, we stopped at a little snack cafe that we went to frequently. We always got frikandels there, which are a sort of hotdog (but the meat is a little different texture, something between a sausage and a hotdog and it always has some kind of sauce with it). Mart and I always got an Indonesian spicy peanut sauce and Simone and the boys always got a 'special' which is mayonnaise, ketchup (about the only time I saw it) and fresh chopped onions...yes, the children there eat raw onions and every other kind of veggie. You can see these and Simone and Geoffrey at that cafe HERE. After the castle, we stopped and bought.....yes, EELS! They're smoked, and they call them "paling" (pauling), and they're absolutely delicious...I was shocked because I would have never thought I'd enjoy eels...yuck...but they were killer! I have pics of the process HERE.

Another thing I found interesting was to go with Simone to her line dancing class. Yeah, really line dancing, Texas style. They rent the back room of a bar in Schagerbrug (where Jos and Ingrid live) once a week.  Although their selection of country music was a little limited and lots of people were wearing what we would consider motorcycle boots and only a few real western boots it was a lot of fun and they were really into the spirit of it. It was very cool to me to see people halfway across the world really loving things we just take for granted here, you know?  You can see it HERE.

And speaking of western boots, I'll tell you now about the Zwarte Markt (black market). It's a collection of about 30+ buildings in a town called Beverwijk and is sort of like a giant flea market though only one section is actually second hand or antique things. And it's divided into groups such as pottery, computers, clothing, etc. One section is called the Turkish or Oriental Market. There is a large population in the Netherlands from Turkey and also from North Africa, especially Morocco. And mannnnn, it smelled SOOOOOO great in there from all the different spices! We had lunch there, some kebabs and such, and bought dates and other types of candies. I went there twice. The first time was with Simone and Martien, we were looking specifically for western boots for both of them but only found a pair for Simone, along with a couple of western wear items for her classes. But, while we were there, Mart HAD to take us to this swordsmith. For about two years he's been longing after this one particular Highlander sword there, made in Spain, but in a Japanese or Chinese style. In fact, if you've seen Highlander 3 it's that sword that Christopher Lambert gets, the exact same sword model. And this was like the third sword he'd shown me while I was there, so guess what? I talked to Simone and we decided to make a trip back to the black market with Sjaan and get the sword as an early birthday present for Martien. I was really afraid he'd buy one between now and September so I wanted to give it to him before I left and it was really fun, I think he really loved it, haha. He nearly bought the sword that day at the market but Simone and I did some quick thinking and talked him out of it saying he had just bought a special order bicycle the week before And no, I didn't get any pics of his bike somehow but it's beautiful. I did get a sort of blurry picture of the sword though, and you can see it HERE.

One day Mart rented a Cessna for an hour so we could go flying. He flies for a hobby but isn't licensed so a pilot goes along. It was a brrrrrrand new Skyhawk and it still smelled like a new car even, and had leather seats and everything, it was GREAT! And once we were up, the pilot let Martien fly and we flew around Schagen and also out to the beach we always went to. In Schagen, you'll see their famous church and also you can see Mart and Simone's house. For the house, look in the bottom right corner for the playground. Their house is behind the tree in sort of the center of the playground. At the beach, you can see the little white building, that is the cantina we went to several times, and you can see the dike we walked from to get there. You can see all this HERE..6 pictures and about 30 seconds.

I already mentioned the Jojes, but Martien is also in another band, just for jamming, not for serious. All the guys, Ted, Theo, and Cees (Case), have regular jobs but get together on Tuesdays at a recording studio to just play their stress out and it's incredible to watch! They just....play! Ted is the lead guitar, Theo is also guitar, Mart is bass (his forte), and Cees is drums. One of them will just start playing music out of his head, not necessarily a real song, and the others just jam in on their own, making it all up as they go, I've never seen or heard anything like it, they're VERY good, and because it's not for real they have a BLAST! Sometimes they will also switch around on each others instruments and you'll see a picture of Mart playing drums but I didn't get any of him playing Theo's guitar. You can see them HERE.

Martien also plays a lot of music at home. He has....I think it's four guitars and one bass though he's reeeeally close to buying another guitar we looked at. One is a twelve string, one is Spanish, one is a mix of acoustic and electric and one is electric. I think I also saw keyboards and he HAD bagpipes but he gave those to me, HAHAHA! But it was SO cool there because at any time of the day he'd pick up something and just play and sing for an hour or so and mannnn, it was like heaven to see that in real life. And anytime someone popped by, they'd grab a guitar and start playing and singing too, and I mean really nearly anyone, Stephan, Wim, Jos, anyone. GRRRREAT! I only got one pic of Mart playing at home and it was in his studio. It's the third floor (all the houses have a sort of room/attic on the third floor) and it's where he does his tattoo business and computing etc. You can see this HERE.

On another day, Sjaan and Mart and I made a long drive to the very south of the country. We visited a town they used to vacation in, and the HUGE American cemetery there for WWII soldiers killed, which was very moving and we all cried. Then we drove a little into Belgium and to a place called Drielandenpunt (three lands point) where you can stand in the Netherlands, Germany, and Belgium at once. There is a big observation tower there and Sjaan and I went up into it and walked out onto the outside platform to take pictures and depending on the direction you looked, you looked into the three different countries, cool hunh? Mart didn't go up with us because he doesn't like heights very much and it's a good thing he didn't because he would have FREAKED out because when you stepped out onto the platform, the flooring was grates and you could see down through it instead of just out over the railing. The countryside in this part of the Netherlands was different from the rest, it was rolling hills instead of all flat and it was very picturesque. And because it's so close to Belgium, there is a lot of French influence, we even saw a chateau and I was finally able to actually easily understand more of the language and the signs in French, haha. You can see all this HERE.

Now I'll tell you a little about Spider. His name is Jurgen (yer-hen if you can't say the throat G thing) and he's another close close friend of Mart's and another really cool guy. He owns a tattoo shop in Harlingen (yeah Harlingen, just like ours but said completely different!). The front part of the shop is sort of a head shop and with lots of Harley Davidson things. Harlingen is in the northern part of the country, in an area called Friesland (freezelond) and it's a bit different than the rest of the country. It's VERY close to the sea and the people are different too. They even have their own version of Dutch which is QUITE different and they even spell things differently. But Harlingen is a BEAUTIFUL town. This is also the only place I saw weed for sale, actually just laying out on a counter. Mart and I went there with his dad, Tinus. You can see all of this HERE...8 pictures, 45 seconds.

We had lunch at the harbor, and Mart got his usual Dutch shrimp whose name I can't remember. They're unlike the shrimp we have here. They are tiny tiny tiny, smaller than popcorn shrimp, and the flavor is WAY more intense than any we have. Tinus had fried mussels and I had some kind of filet which was excellent.  I should say my favorite thing there, besides the eels, was something called kibbeling, which is chunks of trout I think which are battered and fried and GREAT! Roy and I shared these a few times, the best were at this little shop in some town whose name I can't remember (maybe Schoorl?) but I think it's where the Climbing Dune is.  Anyway, you can see the shrimp HERE.

And when we left Harlingen, we drove to Leeuwarden so I could get a few pictures of there for a friend here who talks on internet with a friend who lives there. I only include here a picture of a cow, though I have lots more from there. The cow is actually bronze but someone painted it orange! This is because on my first Friday there, the HUGE european football (soccer) championship games began and the Netherlands was hosting them. The whole country lost it's mind and everything was red, white, and blue and/or orange. People decorated their houses with everything you can imagine and they also dyed their hair orange, you name it and you saw it...even this poor cow. You can see it HERE.

On the drive home, we had to go on the main dike that was built to close off what used to be the Zuider Zee (South Sea) to make it into a lake which is now called the Isselmeer. We stopped at one point to take a picture so you can see both at once. The left side is the Isselmeer and the right side is the North Sea. Look HERE for it.

Antonio (Martien's brother) has this wonderful partner, Mirjam (Miriam).  She is one of the nicest people I've ever ever ever met!  She had her 23rd birthday while I was there. And since I wanted to take everyone out for one dinner, we chose her birthday to celebrate it too. We went, the whole family except for Geoffrey who stayed with Simone's sister, to a steakhouse belonging to a customer of Mart's and it was VERY good. We had everything from fish to chicken to steak. And something I noticed when we went to restaurants there is that they automatically serve a vegetable selection with every meal, and it always includes french fries, sauteed new potatoes (sort of, more like slices of potatoes), broccoli, applesauce, and sometimes other things. My friend, Karl (the original Mr. Potato Head), would be in heaven there, two or three kinds of potatoes at every meal! They also eat soup at the beginning of every meal (yuck). Hahaha, and that reminds me....they got a big kick out of watching what mixture of things I wanted. I found that Martien and I basically eat the same things, we both put sambal (sort of a chili paste) on almost everything, or salsa if available (we ran out in a couple of weeks of the medium-heat Pace I brought).  Most of the family just die when they saw us putting hot stuff on our rice (they call their fried rice "nasi") or on herring sandwiches etc. But THEIR salsa is NOOOOOTTTTTT hot at all, not even like mild Pace. I thought it was just as strange that they use nutmeg on their cauliflower, and I mean I saw that in three different homes, very different than here. We ate a lot of Chinese that Mart cooked at home or that we picked up and also some really great Indonesian, which is reminiscent of our Indian food, excellent but nothing was quite spiced enough so we HAD to help it along. The other things that were very common were kaas soufles, krokets, and of course frikandel. The kaas soufles are sort of like breaded fried cheese puff pocket things and krokets are...well, like crab cakes but not with crab but chicken ("kip") or other meats or no meat at all. Oh, and they call their ice cream cones "icees"...that confused me the first couple of times because an Icee to me is that stuff at 7-11. The other thing I found hard to understand is that most places there actually charge for a glass of water...in the Netherlands!  Isn't that strange?  A place with SO MUCH water and they charge for it?  When here in Texas, where water can get very scarce it just comes automatically with your meals?  Anyway, I'm drifting here, I want to show you some pictures of the family and at that dinner. You can see them HERE...7 pictures and about 50 seconds.

And I should mention candy and cookies, 'cause they are sort of famous for them, yes?  Well, they have some the world's BEST chocolate, but I don't recall a single person actually eating any, funny isn't it?  What they mostly eat for candy is something called drop (said like drope), which is....well, sort of a licorice flavor but not quite...even if you don't like licorice you'd like drop.  It comes in all kinds of shapes, little animals, houses, coins, everything, and it's not VERY sweet.  The two other kinds of candy I saw very very common there are any kind of marshmallowy thing, all colors and shapes.  And also something they call winegums which is what we would call gummybears...just in all different shapes again.

As for cookies, or they may say cakes, again they aren't oversweet and come in about any style you can imagine!  What I found really fascinating is that apparently each town has sort of it's own style of cookie for which it is famous, and you can buy decorated tins of that town with their cookie in it...cool!  I found that they ate, as a snack, way more cookies than candies.

Drinks?  Well, hellooooo, BEER of course!  Hahaha, but for regular drinks, they have all the typical things we're accustomed to, Coke mainly (Dr. Pepper was available at stores but don't try to find it in any cafes).  They also have their own sodas which I've never heard of, some with unfortunate names such as whiz....and it's yellow!  There is also this curious thing called vla.  It's....well....it's not really a drink, not really a pudding, not really a yogurt, but sort of like a very very liquidy puddy I guess, and comes in milk cartons and in all kinds of flavors.  You actually eat it with a spoon but I suspect if you're just dying for it you could slurp it straight out of the carton, haha.  Oh, the other thing VERY different there IS the cartons.  They are...well, they are boxes, flat on the top, you know?  You have to pull up a folded-over corner and take off the tip which creates sort of a spout.  Pretty smart for shipping, but pretty awkward for the end-user, or at least I had a tough time getting used to it, sort of spilly.

Oh! McDonalds!!! Mart and Geoff and I went there nearly the last day because I knew folks here would want to know what it's like. It's basically the same menu except for the drinks and for a McKroket, which I described above and it's on a bun like a hamburger. Their drive through is called McDrive, just like Paulo said it's like in Portugal. You can see these HERE.

I should say that I visited several homes there, there are mannnny little stories not included in this journal, and met several friends of Martien and Simone.  And while the basic concept of the homes there is always the same...meaning three stories, an entrance hall from which you go either up stairs or through a door into the living room, and huge wall sized windows on the front and back of the living room (so you can see all the way through from the street), they are all also quite different in styles on the inside, the architecture I mean.  The other thing that just blew me away was how they...well, sort of redesign or build in and on their homes.  They all do this themselves, they don't seem to hire companies to come in and remodel, and it's all perfectly done!  This is especially evident in the yards, the backyards particularly.  They usually lay down stones or intricate brick patterns with places also for plants, LOTS of plants!  And they build ponds, decks, arbors, etc.  It's really astounding to me.  And everything was really beautiful, every town we visited.  Everything is kept very clean, which surprised me because of the age of many of these places, you know?  But the streets are clear, the buildings are kept in very good condition, and the yards are fantastic.  The only time I saw any littering was during a carnival that moved into town (for 9 days).  It was shocking to see people just throwing anything down on the ground, and Mirjam explained to me that it's not common or nice to do it, but people at these events expect a cleaning crew to come afterwards (which they do).

The interior of their homes is much more spacious than I anticipated, I expected to feel like a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs but it wasn't like that at all.  The kitchen areas and some of the bathrooms are very small and very efficient.  The items that struck me as quite quiiiiite different were the large appliances.  The ovens and stovetops are generally the same as here.  But the refrigerators?  There are some larger ones but it's quite common to see the dorm type, a little over two feet tall.  And I don't know if it's common but Mart and Simone have a separate freezer, about the same size as the fridge.  But it all works out great because it's a small town and you can quickly get fresh products as you need them.

The other things that were pretty different were the washers and dryers.  The washers take FOREVERRRRRR to do a load of clothes, and the loads are generally much smaller than what ours hold.  And while ours take about 15-20 minutes to wash a load, theirs take at least an hour or some even an hour and a half.  Really!  And they are generally front loading.  For drying, since their weather was just perfect while I was there, we were lucky enough to be able to hang the laundry outside to dry (don't you just love that fresh smell?).  The dryers also take a long long time to dry, but we didn't have to do that often.  Hahaha, for Simone, I should also talk a little here about ironing.  They iron everything, literally!  She explained that some Dutch people actually even iron their underclothes!  I think I left a very bad impression of how we handle that kind of thing.  I tried to explain that most people here iron things that are wrinkled, of course, but do NOT take it to the extent of ironing our undergarments or even tee-shirts unless they're badly wrinkled (the tee-shirts that is...I've never HEARD of ironing underclothes).

And, also, I forgot to mention where I stayed. The plan was for me to stay with Simone and Martien for the first week and then at his parents for the last two weeks. They had a very comfortable fold-up bed and we set it up in Roy's room because he had been inviting me for months to stay in his room. But after the first week, we were having such a great time they asked me to stay for another week or so there, so I did. Then I moved to his parents house for just the last few days. Sjaan and Tinus's house is the traditional kind of decorations and their backyard is absolutely FULL of flowers and statues and things.

Martien and Simone's house is also beautiful, modern and very much like our decorating here.  Their backyard is also full of plants and flowers, which you can see HERE.  They also have the sweetest dog you can imagine (Astrid) and they have two cats, Punky (said like poonkie) and Murphy.  Murphy is a way cool cat.  The other thing I just couldn't get over is how beautiful the whole town of Schagen is, most towns there are really beautiful, and different than what we see here, so many flowers and plants, just gorgeous!  There are some pictures of these things HERE (6 pictures, about 40 seconds) though I wish I'd gotten more.

On the last night I was there, Mart and I went to the beach for one last time and we got some EXCELLENT shots of the sunset that really look like how it looked for real. The last two days were very warm, about 37 degrees which is 98 to us, can you believe it? And, keep in mind that only a few stores have AC, nobody has it in their homes or cars. But the weird thing is that their days START at the hottest time and gradually cool off through the afternoons, totally the opposite of ours. Anyway, you can see a couple of sunset shots HERE.

For the language, it was very cool because by the last week I could actually understand most of the conversations around me, it's close to English, they just put the accents differently on the words and you pick up quickly the main words so it's no problem. Nearly everyone there speaks perfect English, except for Mart's parents and we got by just fine because I understood enough of their Dutch and they understood enough of my English.  A couple of phrases I heard constantly, and we laughed a lot when I pointed out they said these all the time, were "lekker he?" meaning "nice, hunh?" and "heel mooie" or "heel lekker" meaning "very pretty" and "very nice".  Apparently their parrots are taught "lekker he" and they laughed very much when I would say "lekker he" because I say it like a parrot there, hahaha.

I also bought lots of little Delft items, they are everywhere!  It was very very difficult to not buy more, but I could only ship back so much.  Ha, though I already have a list of things I want them to send me that I wanted more of.  The other thing very common there are little silver spoons, such as for the sugar bowl.  They are very intricately designed and they actually USE them for this, rather than just for display like here.  So, I had to buy a few of course!

In case you make the trip, be warned that coming back into the US SUUUUCKS hugely, at least in Houston! It was the worst part of the whole trip except for the actual morning of having to say goodbye, that nearly killed me dead. But they overbooked the coach section of the KLM flight, so I did get to fly back first class, which was very nice though I cannot imagine paying the difference in cost for it, I know now I will never EVER do that.

In Houston, they divide you into two groups to go into two halves of this giant room to go through passport/customs declaration thingie. And I mean there were like three or four planeloads, big planeloads, of people jammed in there. There are about 30 booths, with about 4 open on each side, so the lines were incredible. And when I got to the front and went up to the guy, he was totally unfriendly and unsmiling, even nasty, and didn't say anything except to ask how long I'd been out of the country and why. He wrote a symbol on my declaration form (either because I was coming in from Amsterdam or because I was bringing edible things like some cheese or because he was just a jerk).

Then when I went to the baggage area and FINALLY dragged my suitcases out from under a three deep pile on the conveyer, I started heading to the exit control. And on the way, a woman officer stopped me, again with MAJOR attitude like I was completely a criminal and asked to see my form and asked me again how long I was out of the country and why and then she wrote something on it. Then ANOTHER guy stopped me and asked to see the form (all this within about 10 feet of each other, after he had just watched this woman give me the same routine, weird) and he wrote something on it. Then I get to the line at the gate and when I got to the front, THAT guy stopped me and got an envelope and told me to go get into a different line.  Allllllll these people were quite nasty about the whole process and MADE you feel totally like a drug dealer or like you were smuggling in diamonds or something. Their attitude was very much like they wished they could just be working down on the Mexican border shooting people, really jerks.  Then, in the other line they run the drug dogs back and forth, and then some OTHER guy comes through and looks at the same form, asking yet again how long I was out of the country and why.

Finally I get to the front of that line and they point me, again with huge attitude, to a station where there was the guy who goes through all your things. And this is the main place where they SHOULD be nasty, right? Where they actually put on gloves and make you empty out every tiny article. But THIS guy could have been from Mayberry R.F.D. on the Andy Griffith show and was very very friendly and nice, hahaha. He explained the process and he didn't make me empty out everything, he just lifted a few clothes and looked at what I had on the list. He helped me repack and rearrange what he had disturbed and zipped it all back up for me, helped me put it back on the luggage cart, and told me to have a nice day and welcome back, like a REAL Texan! But it was quite an annoying experience, not because they wanted to search my stuff but because of the attitude that went with it. Surely they can catch criminals with nice attitudes too, right?

And that about wraps it up. It was an incredible vacation and I finally got to meet some of my very best friends whom I've known for years and years. There are many more things I've probably forgotten to describe and I try not to think about the last day, the day I left. It was really awful having to leave the people and the country, it felt like I was leaving the place I should be, it was that natural feeling for me there.  I REALLY encourage the rest of y'all from the U.S. to visit Europe, especially those of y'all with friends or family who live there, it's a whooooole different perspective than what you think it will be.

The world is very small.

Click the wheel to go to my home port.

 All corked and bottled messages can be floated to shauna@texas.net.  

This page was last updated on 11/28/00
.