Castles and Windmills

So, I've been here for more than a month and no one has asked me about the windmills and castles.  They're out there for sure.  Staying close to home, I went to Wijk Bij Duurstede which is only about 20 minutes outside of Utrecht.  There's a cute town square and because it was Saturday, the town was busy and crowded.  Having a decent weather day certainly helped.

We found a place to park and headed toward the windmill at the end of town.  I'm not sure if this one is a working mill but it was cool to actually stand underneath it.  There are something like 1600 working windmills throughout the Netherlands.  That's the old school variety.  The new energy generating ones dot the landscape as well.

The other site to see is the Duurstede Castle.  This one has it's origins back in the 13th century and there's a structure still standing!  The main castle was added during the 1500s.  We didn't get there in time for an inside tour but the grounds where the castle stands complete with moat are impressive.  I hope to get back can photograph this site at night.

Duurstede Castle

Venice of the North

Bruges, Belgium

Well, I'm falling behind a bit.  Last weekend was our first 'sleepover' in the city of Bruges, Belgium.  Known as the the Venice of the North, Bruges is the best preserved medieval city in all of Europe.  History of Bruges dates back to the 4th century but most of it's current architecture dates from the time it became a merchant trade town in the 12-15th centuries.  That's right, it's current architecture!  I am constantly amazed at the age of the structures I encounter and these buildings are still in use.

We stayed at a wonderful little hotel, Hotel Ter Duinen.  I highly recommend this place.  Small, quaint with very helpful and friendly service and located just outside the 'noisy' center of Bruge.  We felt like the location was more a neighborhood.  The breakfast the next morning was also great as we sat by the window overlooking a canal.

The best word to describe Bruge is simply charming.  Some think it's a bit touristy but we found it fun to explore the city and it's history.  The main square, which is impressive and reminds me of Brussels, and is bustling with people includes the tall belfry and the Church of our Lady.

But the real fun we had in this city can be summed up in three words, waffles, chocolate and beer!  Waffles with your favorite topping are like street food.  The shops will sell from their storefront to people passing by and they are really good!  While there are many chocolate shops, only a few actually make their own chocolate on the premises.  The Chocolate Line was recommended and it didn't disappoint.  Just standing inside the store you get a big wonderful whiff of chocolate.  Lastly, we went to the Half Moon Brouwerij for a tour of their beer making process with a nice sample at the end of the tour.  We ended the day at Spinola and had one of the best meals to date since arriving to Europe.

Gouda and Den Haag

Another weekend for exploring.  We went to The Hague this weekend but on the way we stopped in Gouda.  Yes, like the cheese but the Dutch don’t pronounce it the way we think.  In Dutch G’s are pronounced like a guttural ‘Ch’ similar to the sound you hear in German and Yiddish.  Also, the ‘ou’ in Gouda is pronounced like the ‘ou’ in out.  So Gouda in Dutch rhymes with Chowda.

Anyway, Gouda is a really cute typically Dutch town with a central square and wonderful churches and architecture.  The town has it’s share of small windy streets and canals.  But the Saturday morning market is wonderful.  Meats, Cheeses, fruits and vegetables are standard fair but our favorite was this little bread and pasty stand.  We shared an apple turnover and I have to say it’s probably the best thing I’ve eaten in the last two weeks.  I won’t even bother to ask how much butter went into a single pastry . . . better I don’t know.

Gouda, NL

We left Gouda for Den Haag.  It’s a much bigger city and for our first visit, we focused on the palace and surrounding grounds.  It’s is certainly impressive and history of Dutch government and the Binnenhof were amazing.  The palace is surrounded by water on one side.   That ‘one side’ looks to be about 2-3 football fields long!  We’ll visit Den Haag again now that we know our way around a little better.

The palace in Den Haag, NL

Speaking Another Language

A really great thing about the Netherlands, or at least here in Utrecht and Amsterdam, is that most people speak english.  This is good since my Dutch is almost non-existant.  However, I find enough similarity between Dutch and German that I recognize many words but sentence structure escapes me right now.  But there’s another language here that requires just as much study.  It’s called the metric system.  Roads are measured in kilometers, gas/drinks in liters, and food such as meat and cheese in kilograms.  Then there’s conversion of US dollars to Euros to get a sense of my overall cost.  So, when in the grocery store and you want to buy a pound of meat for dinner you're looking for something that’s just over 450 grams (453.592 gms to be exact).  Then you factor in the price (Euros/Kg) and convert to the dollar just to get a sense of price/lb.  Same with gas which is quite expensive here.  1.50 Euros/Liter x 3.785 Liters/gal x 1.3 dollars/euro = $7.38/gal.  Hmmm, Maybe I should just leave the calculator alone!

It's All Relative

Well, all good things must come to an end.  My work permit arrived and so it was off to do what I came here for . . . so posting to this blog daily just won't happen!

That doesn’t mean I can’t find evening time to go out and shoot a little.  So far there’s been more rain than sun but when the sun comes out, it’s wonderful.  First, it’s quite a bit warmer than Milwaukee, especially now as the temp there dips below zero Farenheit.  Here it actually cooled down a bit but still reached a relatively balmy 40F.  We’re settling into routines and I think I found my preferred route to the office although as the temperatures climb, I’ll consider biking to work not on my racing bike but on a Dutch classic.  I hear there are shops where you can find a second hand bike.  Just as well as bike trading (stealing) is part of the folk lore here.  It’s been said that if you’re standing in front of a group of cyclists and say, ‘Hey that’s my bike’, half of those people will drop the bike they’re on and walk away!