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!)