Keeping Busy in the Midst of Busy Season

You may have picked up on a theme of many of our adventures over here.  It starts with b and ends with eer.  Or, bier, as the Dutch would say.  For some reason, we get into a lot of situations where we like to drink beer.  I think it's just that there are so many new places to go and beers to taste.  I like to see it as our way of experiencing a new culture (over and over again).  So, when our fellow expat friends invited us to a Beer Advertising museum, we jumped at the chance to go.

Last Sunday, we headed to the Bierreclame Museum in Breda, a town about 40 minutes west of Eindhoven.  We began the day with lunch at a cafe and lots of great story swapping about our lives in the Netherlands. It never ceases to amaze me how pervasive culture is from one country to another.  There we were, 7 people from 4 different US states, but still having a very common experience as an expat living in the Netherlands.  Many of their trials and tribulations (i.e. where's the real hot sauce?) are so similar.  

After lunch, we headed over to the museum.  It was quite the place.  My words won't do it justice, so here's some photos:

Pretty nifty, right?  This place was covered floor to ceiling with various beer paraphernalia.    The place also doubled as a bar, so of course we needed to partake.

Mine's the red beauty in the middle.

And here's some shots of the crew:

Photo credit goes to Mindy on this one, I scammed it from her blog.

Thanks for hanging, ya'll!  We had a great time.  

Last weekend also consisted of a lovely dinner at the home of one of Todd's co-workers. Michiel and Kim (along with little ones Benthe and Boaz) invited us to share a meal.  And quite the meal it was. Props to Kim for being an amazing chef.   They even provided us with our first raw herring experience.  Herring is a very traditional Dutch food, that should be consumed like this:

I promise the Dutch don't actually dress like this now.

Kim and Michiel took it easy on us first timers though, and we ate the herring in smaller pieces on a cracker with onions.   I actually didn't mind it as much as I thought I would. I might even try it again.  Maybe the real way next time.  After a great meal, we were served another Dutch delight, poffertjes.  

Imagine this with warm apples.

Kim whipped them up with baked apples and powdered sugar.  Served warm.  I need that recipe.  Deeee-licious.  Thanks for the great evening Kim and Michiel!  

In current events, some of you, especially those residing in Holland, MI, may have heard that Queen Beatrix is abdicating the throne to her son Willem-Alexander.  Big news over here. It will be interesting to see how this all goes down.  I'll be sure to keep you in the loop.  We are planning to go up to Amsterdam for Queen's Day (which we hear is one big party on the streets), and that is the day she will officially hand over the crown.  Although, will it be a different crown since there will now be a king? Or are crowns unisex?  Whatever the case, I find it quite exciting to be here while all this is happening.  It's probably not quite the worldwide sensation that it would be if this was happening in the UK, but still a pretty big deal.

A Day in Dordrecht

Yesterday I took advantage of the whole having-more-free-time-thing and went on a day trip to another Dutch city.   I met up with a fellow expat partner, Mindy.  If you remember from awhile ago, we had visited Mindy and her husband Brad at their home in the Hague.  We chose to visit a city that's between the Hague and Eindhoven, called Dordrecht.  The city was great, and it was even better to be able to swap stories of expat life.

I was late to the party, since the train I was supposed to take was cancelled. I had arrived at the train station just in time to hop on, but then saw a notice scrolling along the bottom of the screen saying something in Dutch about my train.  Turns out it was broken or they just didn't feel like running it, so I had to figure out another way to get to Dordrecht.  Luckily, one of the employees told me how to do some city hopping to get there.  Two transfers and 45 minutes late, I finally made my way there.  Mindy had smartly not waited in the freezing cold weather, so we met up at a cozy cafe.  We sat there for a bit and then headed out to see the city.  Here's a few shots of the pretty canals:

We went to the Dordrecht Museum to admire some artwork, and then headed to lunch.  For lunch, we happened upon a very cute little spot called Centre Ville.  At that point we were a little chilly so anyplace would have worked that had heat, but we were lucky to find a very cute place. Here's some pics of the inside:

We ate some delicious sandwiches and frites with mayo and then set off to check out something crazy.  The crazy something is a life size version of Noah's Ark.   It was constructed based on the exact specifications listed in the Bible.  We had to walk a ways to check out the massive boat sitting in the river, but it was very cool to see.

The small sign on the door, say "Free Ark WIFI".  A tad different from the original.

See. I told you it was crazy. Unfortunately, the place was closed.  So we didn't get a chance to check out the inside. Apparently you can walk around in there and part of it is built to look like the original ark. And they also host weddings and corporate outings and such.  Very interesting indeed.

We then took a bus back into town, walked a bit and again settled in at another cafe.  Are you sensing a theme?  It was just too cold to be outside for too long.  It was a great day, and ended with a very easy direct shot train ride home.  Thanks for hanging out Mindy!

Let's Go Around This House Together

It's about time I did an official house tour!  We love our home here, and I can't wait to show it to you in all its glory.  I shot this video with our iPad, and I in no way profess to be skilled with filming, so please bear with me.  Also, please bear with my annoying voice.  Bleh.  How can you people stand talking to me?

In case you didn't know or haven't followed the blog for long, we are renting this house. It is located on a street called Zeelsterstraat.  Quick story about our street name.  People (of the Dutch variety) have asked where I live, and Zeelsterstraat is decently long (probably at least 1.5km), so a lot of people have heard of it.  However, for some reason, when I pronounce it in English, phonetically, saying Zeeeelsterstraat (you know, with a long E, like my name), this confuses them.  Seriously, I told a lady at my gym where I live and she gave me this look like, huh? Like I wasn't attempting to speak her language.  After a few beats, the light bulb went on and she said "Ohhh, Zeelsterstraat (said like Zelsterstraat, all Dutchified). I live on that street too!"  You live on my street and couldn't understand what I was trying to say?  Needless to say, I now forego the long E.

Our home is a typical Dutch row house.  It has 3 levels, but no basement. It has a long skinny yard.  We are especially lucky because we have a side alley through which we can access our backyard. This keeps us from needing to bring our bikes through the house to get them out back where we keep them.

But enough chatting, let's get on with the show!  Here's the video:

Hopefully you enjoyed getting to see where we live.  It will be hard to leave this house, it is very cozy and warm and right up our alley in terms of its design elements.  We really lucked out getting such a great place!  Have a great weekend everyone. 

Everything's Bigger in the USA

Well, the sun lasted for about 2.5 days here and now it has hidden itself again.  In it's place we have our second snow!  This morning, I hopped on my bike to head to my gym and was greeted with some fluffy stuff. It actually made for a beautiful bike ride:

Bike path bridge crossing over the river in Eindhoven, the Dommel.

So, although I did look like a walking snowflake upon my arrival at the gym, it was worth it.  And my old bike held up great in the not-so-plowed portions of my ride.  One of the cutest things though was watching many moms and dads pulling their kids on sleds to school. I guess that's what you're supposed to do when transporting them on your bike is too treacherous. All of the sleds (or are they called sleighs when they look like this?) were this cute, no joke:

Have the Dutch not heard of the plastic saucer??

In other random happenings, Todd and I went to a Mexican restaurant in Eindhoven last weekend.  Eindhoven is host to 2 Mexican places.  We tried one of them way back in September, and it was truly awful.  The spices were wrong, the sauce was weird.  It just really wasn't Mexican as we know it.  Now, I should qualify that statement by saying that I am talking about Mexican food at its most Americanized.  Think 'On the Border', or something similar (I know this isn't real Mexican food, but gosh, it tastes really darn good).

Therefore, with our standards set very low, we ventured out to the other Mexican place in town.  The interior looked promising:

Then, lo and behold, they brought out chips and salsa for us!  Mind you, it was the tiniest bit of chips and salsa that has ever been served, but, alas, it was free (as it should be).  But, seriously, look how many chips there are:

I also ordered a margarita.  Since the chips were tasting mighty fine, I had high hopes.  Perhaps I was wishing that my margarita would look like this:

Yeah, large. Grande.  So, I anxiously awaited my 7 Euro drink.  They brought it out in what is perhaps the tiniest margarita glass known to man.  We forgot to take a picture, but let me just say that it was smaller than the smallest wine glass I've seen.  Bummer.  It tasted pretty good (strong), but it didn't last long.

We both ordered enchiladas, and they were delicious, albeit small as well.  No doggies bags for us folks!  Alas, it did help us with our cravings, which means that I'm sure we'll go back. I'll just be sure to order a beer next time.

Sunshine and a Very Old City

The sun is shining bright in Eindhoven today.  It feels weird.  I honestly can't remember the last time we had sustained sunshine for more than about a half an hour.  After this year and a half, I have a feeling I'm going to be seasonally confused.  There are days where it feels like Spring here.  Then Fall the next.  Winter really hasn't shown up at all except for maybe 2 days in December.  Not that I'm complaining.  I really don't miss the snow that much, just sometimes when I think how pretty it is to look at.  

Todd is now entering into the throes of busy season. Bummer.  I may not have as many traveling experiences to share in the next couple of months, but we'll still try our best.  Last weekend, we did manage to take some time and check out a new city (new for us).  We went to a town called Nijmegen, which fights with Maastricht for the title of the oldest city in the country.  I suppose it's not exactly easy to keep things straight from over 2000 years ago.  Nijmegen did suffer a heavy dose of bombing during WWII, so it is not nearly as historically intact as Maastricht, but there were still some nice sites to check out.

We started in a park that has some old castle ruins...

We then made our way to the Fietsmuseum in town after trekking down one of the largest hills I've seen in Netherlands.  NL isn't exactly known for its rolling hills.  It was pretty fun to poke around in the bike museum that boasted a collection of lots of oldies but goodies.

This picture made us laugh.

Apparently the first bikes didn't have pedals? Who knew?

Looks comfy.

The bathrooms would have been a little tricky to figure out if you couldn't identify the correct bike style. Pretty subtle.

I can't imagine it's easy to ride one of these babies.

Chicago!

The owner of this two-wheeler biked across both Africa and South America carrying just the stuff shown here.

Hello, sir.

Is your arm OK, dude?

Following our biketastic museum visit, it was time to hit up a local brewery.  This building, the Commanderie of St. John (partially pictured), was built in 1196 and is the second oldest surviving building in the city.  It now houses the brewery, a restaurant, and a coffee shop (of the actual coffee variety).

We tried the sampler.

Later, we continued to explore the city, finding the main square and cathedral.

It was a nice little day trip that ended with dinner on the main square.  At dinner, we were seated next to a couple that had brought along their huge golden retriever who laid very nicely on the floor while they ate.  Todd and I debated what Jack would do under similar circumstances.  Maybe we'll have to try sometime.