Farm ville

Two hours and three train transfers later we travelled from Enschede to Bergen Op Zoom, the closest city to my uncle's farm. So our farm life began.  Well, it wasn't really a  "farm life" for we did not live the life of farmers: hard work all day long.  We lived on the farm, but had a very relaxing and labour-free stay.   For those who thought (as I did) that there was no such thing as a middle of nowhere in Holland, there is. I mean, in relation to the distance, Netherland's nowhere isn't nearly as isolated as the Canadian nowhere but it's still secluded.  Just to give you an idea, we were about a 20min. bike ride from the nearest village {Tholen} which is about a 20 minutes bus ride to Bergen Op Zoom, the nearest city. If you google it, you'll see that Tholen is one of the many small villages found on one of the Zeeland islands.  Despite the fact that we were a far ways from the beaten tourist track, time passed by very quickly and we got to bond with small-town locals and farmers alike. My uncle {being a long time farmer} took us to the places and pubs where farmers and small-townies like to debate about the regular topics: crops, profit; business, politics, weather.  Chris and I have developped the useful skill of following conversations with the few words that we catch. 

I heart Tholen.

  

The farm cantine, where the coffee breaks take place during the day and the drinking takes place at night.  Those are grape vines hanging up there...a good midnight munch.

This is our suite. Next door is my uncle's house.

Doing my routine stretches in our room. Is this good for the spine? I don't know. It's more of a habit.

Typical dutch: steep staircases.  This makes for a dangerous trek down the stairs to the bathroom at 3 am.  I think steep-stair-climbing is a skill acquired through experience.  Chris and I have no experience with them.  My 3 year old cousin can climb these stairs with a toy tractor in one hand and a teddy bear in the other.  I, on the other hand, need to focus.

Yoohoo ! Big sister is watching !

Typical dutch : platter toilets (aka shelving toilets).  These I don't get. It's like pooing on a platter and then flushing it off into the little well.  Pros: close and intimate stool examination. Cons: does nothing for the smell and can make your bathroom experience awkward and embarrassing, even if you're alone.  It also raises a few sanitary questions.

 So my (Renee) Dutch family consists of Rien, Pauline, Sjors (3), Illeen (6 months) and my two older cousins Nicole and Marc who are our age.  Sjors (which is the dutch version of George) has more energy than Chris and I combined.  Nevertheless, a happy happy kid who kept us on our toes with his games, play and songs. As for Illeen (pronouned Elaine), a perfect baby.  I think we heard her cry once or twice and she can hang out in her crib for hours, content, playing by herself.  Sometimes I'd forget she was in the room until I heard a few googoo gagas.  You could backpack the world with her.

The Veraart family

One night, my two cousins, Marc and Nicole, invited us to a farm party that one of their life-long friends (Annette) was throwing to celebrate her college graduation.  We asked if we needed to bring anything and they said nada (except for our dancing shoes and smiles). Our idea of a farm party was a big bondfire in a  field, with people drinking beers, throwing in palets to keep the fire going.  Their idea of a dutch farm party is renting a bar (free booze) having food laid out (she even had a hot buffet) and a DJ mixing tunes from, his turntables, ahem, I mean MacBook.  Elite farm party indeed.  I asked our cousins if this party would cost Annette an arm and a leg and they said that she would actully make profit from the gifts she received fro, guests.  In Manitoba, they call them "socials";

Thanks for the good time Annette !

Chris and my cousin Marc and his girlfriend Debbie (is she strangling him or is that a big hug? We'll say it's a big hug)

In total, there were 6 Veraart cousins at the party.  This is very wierd for me because the only other Veraarts in Canada are from my family.  As for this area, there's an abundance ! VERAARTS RULE ! (slip on a banana peel)

Chris and I with my cousin Nicole and her boyfriend Carlo.  Carlo has a bullmastiff that weighs more than Chris.  The dog stepped on my toe :-(

We also spent some time in Rotterdam, the most modern city in Holland.  The reason the city is so modern is because it was virtually flattened by WWII and they had to rebuild everything.   The city has exceptional architecture.  Actually all of Holland does.  I give credit to the Dutch for architectural skill.

Erasmus bridge.

Cube apartments.  I still don't get how they work.

In Rotterdam we met with an old friend of Chris' ( Nikki Mead) whom he hasn't seen in a very long time.  It was REALLY nice talking fast (and with slang!) to another fellow Canadian.

Nikki, Chris and I

Now that we have been in Holland for a month, the place has really started growing on us.  The lush green fields, the old architecture, the cafes, the windmills, the cozy pubs, the friendly people. 

Chris contemplating the big questions in life: Is this latte 1 % or 2% milk?

Yeah, this is good. Real good (La Chouette)

Typical dutch : windmills.  There are more in the south and they really are majestic things.  Most of them are retired but you'll see the odd one still running.  We got to climb into this one. 

Inside

The works behind crushing wheat.  Want the details?  Facebook Chris.

Chris and I are slowly collecting more and more stuff but we've been really good at only buying the essentials. Like speakers.

Our brand new Phillips stereo system.  Okay, so we've downgraded a little but these guys really make our day sometimes, like in awkward dorm rooms.

And now it's time to go to Antwerp Belgium for a few days and then head south. Sad to leave the Nederlands but happy to see something new. Tot ziens Nederlands! You've been so good to us.  Thanks for everything !

E-towns of Holland-Eibergen and Enschede

"Welcome to Eibergen : Nice to be here"  Population: 16 600

For the last couple of weeks we have been living in Eibergen, a small dutch farming town, spending some good quilty time with my family (Chris') in Eibergen.  It's a very nice small town in the Eastern part of Holland, literally a 5 minute drive from the German border.  It's been a very lovely and relaxing stay to say the least.  Here'we've been able to experience the countryside of Holland.  For those who thought (as I did) that the Netherlands, being that it is such a small country, is one crowded city after another, you've thought wrong.  There is a vast country side with fields, prairies, hills and a lot of the stuff you find in middle Canada.  I've found that most of the country side revolves around livestock...especially dairy cows and sheep.  Lots of dairy cows. 

MOO !  Check out all that land with forest behind it!  Who knew!

Biking on the fietspad (bike highways).  They actually have signs with maps every so often telling you what fietspad you are on and how many kms you have until you are at the next town.  

We have been staying at my cousins (Chris') house mostly.  It's a very beutiful and spacious place  with a huge fish pond, full of koi fish, in the back yard.  Bertus and Inez are two of the most wonderful people you will ever meet.  Funny, witty, laid-back and full of conversation.  They also have a wonderful longhaired pointer dog named Luna.  She does a lot of laying, sleeping and snoring but at 9 years old who can blame the ol' girl.  They also have two kids Imka and Yoris, who have been a pleasure to talk to as well  Thanks Imka your bed is very nice!

One day we decided to go check out a cheese farm.  A gouda cheese farm of course.  Is there any other kind of cheese?  We saw how much time and work it takes to make Gouda cheese.  They had rooms and rooms full of cheese that they were aging.  Oh, and you can't just leave the oversized cheese "pucks'' on the shelf.  They need to be dusted and turned over every other day.  They also had a little resturant and walking trails on their farm as well as a dutch putting course (put a stick in a wooden clog and tada! you've got a dutch gold club). 

                                                   A big tubba milk, curdling to make cheese

Cheese please !

That's a lot of cheese to dust and turn over

While we were at the farm we had a nice coffee and enjoyed a DELICIOUS pannenkuchen (which is not what I get when I order Pannenkuchen at home, but even better).  It's also nice just to go for walks and check out the houses.  They have so much character and although some of them are newly built they still have that old european look with ceramic roofing and bricks, brick and more bricks.  They must have perfected the brick industry because EVERYTHING is made from brick..houses, roads, sidewalks, fences. The third little piggy had a lot of influence in the Netherlands.  

Happy happy happy ! (actually, Chris and I AREN'T laughing together.  He is laughing at me, because I was posing)

This is the cute and quaint farm restaurant.

We've also been staying with Luco and Ria, Chris'other relatives.  They have also been great.  Ria is very knowledgeable on what there is to do in the East Netherlans and Luco, a man of little words, is very generous, gentle yet with a sense of humor.  They also have a beautiful garden.  Gardens are also valued in the Netherlands and ALOT of work is put into them (why else would Holland be the country of tulips!)

                             Striking a pose with Ria and Luco in their garden, which is also BEAUTIFUL !

Ria brought us out to see the Ammersoyen castle in mid-south of the Netherlands.  It is the oldest castle in the Netherlands with a moat and all.  It even has a suspending bridge and a dungeon.  Gee. It's over 700 years old and during these many centuries, people living in the castle would simply use the moat as a waste disposal.  The moat was eventually filled in, and then recently, due to restoration project they redug the moat only to find old treasures dating back almost a millenium.  Perty cool ! 

 The castle with its moat.  CANNONBALL ! (sploooosh !)

 Chris' took this picture just as I fell back and almost fell in the well 50 m below.  Thankgoodness he thought fast, threw the camera down and came to my rescue.  I was hanging with one hand while the other was hanging down, holding on to the shoe that slipped off my foot.  Chris and I were hanging on to each other with all our might screaming "don't let go ! I won't let go if you don't !" Chris and I managed to get enough strength and momentum swinging me back and forth until I was able to flip my legs back up and hang on to the ledge, upside down, with my legs hooked on the inside.  Then, I was able to push my upper half up and jump back in the room.  It was all very dramatic.  It's true, I swear !!!!

                            This is the dungeon.  How nice ! They even have wood stumps to sit on ! They had a latch door from the upstairs room so that the prisoner-to-be would fall to his fate in the dungeon.  "Have a nice....fall! (open latch, bad guy falls) Mwahahahahaha! "

Some of the things they found in the moat.  Some of these things are more than 700 years old.  Box on the left is full of little tobacco pipes.  They also found hundreds of stone balls of varying sizes, for the catapults of course.

Another thing worth mentioning about the tourist sites in the country-side is that they don't cater to English speaking tourists (being that they stick around Amsterdam).  So, unless you speak dutch or german....it's a lot of looking and guessing.  Nevertheless, kudos to the dutch for they can all speak english and are happy to do so to help us out. 

Now for the food.  Being that we have been around the locals we've had the opportunity to cook, eat and splurge on dutch food.  They love their cheese.  It's a staple, especially for breakfest.  Breakfest is coffee, bread and Gouda with a little Chocoladehagel or what Canadians might call chocolate sprinkles (or muisjas) on bread with butter.  Don't forget the butter (butter is also on everything).  Or, if we go out for breakfest, we'll have pannenkuchen, a thin pancake with whatever you want on it.

Chris' breakfest.  Bread, butter, gouda, chocoladehagel and coffee.  

Fortunetly, I've had the opportunity to learn some Dutch cooking thanks to Chef Bertus.  He's taught me the recipe for Stamppot Woertels: a veggie dish consisting of mushing potatoes with carrots (woertels) and onions.  It was quick and delicious and they have so many different kinds of Stamppot that you can make, Endive Stamppot, Kale Stamppot, Sourkraut Stamppot.  From what I know, Dutch cuisine has a very important and essential secret to its preperation: mush, mush, mush (or mix mix mix).  This being said, they mush (or mix) many ingredients and have MANY mashed and one-pan dishes (which are very delicious nonetheless !)

                                                     Cooking Dutch cuisine with Chef Bertus.

                                         Stamppot Woertels, the picture DOES not do it any justice. D-lish !

   

As for Dutch treats, I could write a book explaining the variety and our love for them.  First of all, there's the vla. If God bled, it would be vla.  It's a heavenly mix (I think, from what my palet says) of half pudding, half yogourt and you can get chocolate, strawberry, vanilla, whipped....etc. Vla makes me want to have dessert after breakfest, lunch and dinner.  And a midnight treat.  Other treats include chocolates, waffles, gingersnaps, licorice and the list goes on.

                                                            Mmmm....hail to the vla. Another thing that I thought was different in terms of food is the fast food.  Like any developed country, fast food is available on every corner.  There are some differences, however.  For example, they LOVE mayo.  Especially on fries.  Order some "patate frites" and you will get a big cone of fries drowning in mayo.  Also, not only do they have the fast food joints, but the extra-fast food joints known as "Da Muur" (the wall).  It really is a wall-like vending machines full of little "windows" you can open and grab what you want for food.  Burgers, schnitzels, bratwurst...they have it all.  For 1.80 € you can choose any "mystery" meal they have behind the doors.  Behind door number one....

                                                                      Chicken burgers !

                          Chris lives life on the edge and goes for a....fried stick-like snack.

                              Renee: "What's in there? Is it meat?"   Chris: "Don't know and don't know".

                                       '                  Eeny, meeny, miney, moe !

We also had the chance to go Pitch n' Putting (Chris was in heaven!) with regular golf clubs and not dutch clubs.  It was a lot of fun and the day was beautiful.  Chris got to drive his cousin Yoris' BMW back home.  Pretty perfect !

Chris driving Yoris' BMW.  Thank goodness for the Tom Tom (GPS) !

Being that football (soccer) is what makes the world go round in Europe, people watch football any chance they get.  They even had an Indoor Soccer Police Tournament in this small town with over 42 countries participating.  It was exactly that : teams of police officers. They even had one Canadian team....from Edmonton !  They didn't do that well, but really, they had to play teams like Bresil and Hungary. But hey.....we're REALLY good at hockey right?! right?!

The big city nearby is Enschede and we went there a few times. We mostly visited with more cousins, the wonderful Celeste and Jan Wiebe. who also brought us an hour out to Germany to do some shopping. Got to see some German achitecture (which seems a bit darker and more dreary then on the D-side) and street meat: Bratwurst !

A spooky German cathedral

                                        An even spookier art display. Edward Scissorhands would appreciate it.

On another day trip, we got to visit with Chris' other cousins, Mireille and Yassir and their two beautiful children (5 and 3 years old).  Mireille is a vice-principal at an elementary school and I had the opportunity to go spend a few hours with her and help with her English lesson.  The students asked me questions in English about Canada life and I answered in English.  The first question I got was from this smiling platinum blond boy who was sitting smack in the front.  The first question : "Waaaasssssuuuup !" and the WHOLE class (including me) burst out laughing.  Kids are alike, no matter where you go.  It was nice to be around kids again though.  It was rejuvenating.

 Afterwards, we got to hang out with Mireille's family.  The children and us both had, what we thought was  a huge obstacle that got in the way of bonding with them: the language barrier.  The kids only spoke Dutch and us English.  After hanging out for a day, however, we saw how language isn't all that important.  Yes, the kids would talk to us in Dutch, even after knowing we didnt understand a word, but imagination shares the same language and when you're playing with kids, it's all imagination.  So, sooner or later, the little boy had a leash around my hand and from what I understood (or from my perception of our play),  I was a horse and he was putting me back in the pen and feeding me Woertels (carrots).  That's the word that I understood anyway..and the neigh sound a horse makes.


Slowly, we have been learning the language with everybody helping with the G's sounds and the R's.  Also, the combination of vowels does not sound anything like what it would in the English language.  That really screws us up.  Inez is a school teacher so she has been wonderful, always helping with every oppertunity there has  been for correction.  We have been really good at catching words that we recognize and also at guessing what certain things mean.   


So today is our last day in Enschede.  Tomorrow we are on the train to Bergen Op Zoom, another small city in south, to visit with the Veraart side.  We've loved our time in the E-towns and are lavishing the opportunity we have to visit family and really live a dutch life.  Tot ziens ! (see you later!) 

Boats, bikes, boobs and blunt

It's good to find a comfort zone.  It's something we've been lacking for the first few days of our trip sleeping from place to place without really knowing who will be sleeping next to us, where (or what) we'll eat for our next meal and what kind of bed we'll be sleeping in.  With that being said, finding this boat was a saving grace for us and made us feel settled and grounded.  It's a little houseboat owned by a very chilled, yet eccentric guy named Jonas and his ducks.  Being a little ways away from the Amsterdam hustle bustle it was quiet, quiant and a "homeboat" as we like to call it.

 Chris and I on the houseboat. There's whole neighbourhoods of these on canals.

 These are a few of our neighbours.  The sky was pink last night.

 The ducks that greeted us in the morning. We named them Duckus the Quack and Winston.

Duckus looking into the kitchen : "Yeah you! Give me that toast you're eating!"

 Cooking in our small (yet highly efficient) kitchen.

Amsterdam is a beautiful city with amazing architecture. And bikes.  Lots of bikes.  Everyone rides them.  Actually, anything that goes from A-B can be driven on the sidewalks (except for cars).  We've seen bikes, scooters, quads and even asian Tuk-Tuks on the sidewalk.  We rented a couple of bikes so that we could get around like the locals.  Nonetheless, bíking in packs takes practice, especially with only one bike rule: don't stop.  On the first day I almost hit three pedestrians, two fellow bikers and I got my tire stuck in the tram track.  Despite my mode of transportation, I did NOT look like a local.  Chris was a much better rider than me but we were both a little intimidated by the packs of cyclists.

This is my bike "Sparta"

This is Chris' bike "Cop Killer" (the rental number was 187)

Locals like to bring out their creativity via bike decor.

Amsterdam had me at it's architecture and canals.  We had a habit of bumping into things, my head up, looking at the most beautiful archs and peaks and window shutters and....we did not fall into any polluted canals, phew.

Chris promised to build me a house like this.  Now it's in print.

We saw our share of museums (Van Gogh, Rembrandt, Anne Frank House) cafes and coffee shops.  Now, there is something very precise and different from a coffee shop and a cafe.  You will both find them everywhere in Amsterdam.  In a cafe you order your coffee, latte or other expensive hot drink to dicuss things like the meaning of life or to prove your advanced state of enlightenment.  Okay, and just relax and talk.  A coffee shop, however is a place where you buy and smoke weed. They actually have menus where you can buy different kinds of grass or hash ranging from €6 to €70 a gram.  Sheesh ! Yes, you can also get coffee there and other cold drinks, but it's pretty much just a hot-boxed place to smoke.  No alcohol or tobacco allowed !

This is my fake stoner face at a coffee shop.

This is Chris' authentic stoner face at a coffeeshop.

The nightlife is beautiful here.  It seems like the nightlife here has many faces.  The most netorious one being the Red Light District, with prostitutes, big and small, dancing (or sitting on a stool, chewing on gum, bored out of their mind) behind glass doors with the big red lights over top, waiting for their next customer. Erotic shops and "Sex Pubs" are everywhere too, awaiting those who have come to Amsterdam to take advantage of dutch tolerance.

 Then there's the pub and coffee shop life, where drinkers and smokers meet. It's where you can legally do both...even on the streets.  I'll never forget that guy who ran out of the pub saying "Oh my God ! Feels like I'm having a heart-attack!"  I felt bad for the poor paranoid.

And then there's the beautiful and calm nightlife where you can walk between lit up bridges and admire the swans and ducks swimming in canals who are admiring us on the streets.  Boats are slowly moving through and I almost expect an accordion player to start playing "That's Amore"  before I realize that this is Amsterdam and not Venice.  Hmmm.....romance.

And Amsterdam is a beautiful place.  Did I say that already?  Really, it's not as crazy as I thought it would be.  Yes, everything is legalized but dutch people certainly aren't that much into it and the place has SO MUCH more than just that.   I felt really safe walking around alone and didn't feel any threat of being harassed.  I mean, if guys are looking for it, they can find it in the district.  You know a city's left a good impression when you could stay a while longer.  This morning, Chris and I slouched all the way to the trains station, waving good bye to our homeboat as the train passed by, destined (and looking forward to) the dutch country side of Enschede.