Netherlands Tour: Week 1

So, we’re at it again in the Netherlands. This time, there was no hesitation deciding where to go. K and I already had Croatia on the brain so that was the first choice easy peasy. The second choice became clear after watching videos, like this on YouTube. Videos like these show you different beautiful places to travel. The Netherlands stood out to us because of the tulips, of course and the picturesque landscape, but for me, it was the canals. Like, this city called Geithoorn, a city with no streets. You have to get around by boat. They even have a boat stop like a bus stop. Oh yeah, I’m going to see that. I don’t care what K says, we’re going to … oh sorry … we’re supposed to be equal. If K wants to go, we will definitely see that interesting city. So, we had our second choice (the Netherlands), and made it happen.  

Acting as your Netherlands tour guide, I’ll jump right in with our first week’s fun. 

TOUR 1: ANOTHER BITES AND SITES

We met our guide Susan at the Central train station. We found out she’s originally from Cincinnati, OH and has been living here for over forty years. She is a war history buff who provided great insight on how Rotterdam was on fire for three days and in ruins due to the bombing by the Germans. She even had maps of the old city to show us how Rotterdam looked in 1940 compared to now. I have to laugh here because it was windy … a paper map. She would try to open the thing and of course it was difficult lol Anyway, Rotterdam does a great job of creatively commemorating these events by putting markers in the concrete of the streets, so you can see the area where the fire occurred. They also have stumble stones in front of homes where the Germans forcibly removed families during their occupation. 

The Food Tasting

Krokets, frites (fries), and herring. I’m sick just thinking about it. We stopped at a cool kind of fast-food joint by the Central train station. We both tried the krokets with frites. I hated it. I ordered it with beef. It was soft in the middle. It was fried hard outside but when I bit into it, this goo oozed out. Yuck! But I ate most of it. That kind of spoiled my appetite for the duration. Then, we walked to the Markthal a cool artsy building with shops and eateries. K ordered the herring. It’s typically served whole, but she decided to get it chopped up. I tried some of it and again wasn’t impressed. Kathy enjoyed both offerings, so maybe it’s me.   

The tour lasted a lot longer than the hour expected we got along great with Susan who seeming could walk forever.  We finally got to this statue of Santa with a butt plug (yes, that’s what they call it). It’s officially a Christmas tree but the artist implied it could be a butt plug as a commentary on consumption in the Western world. K then realized we were near our apartment, so we decided to bring our wonderful tour to an end.   

We did ride a bus that converted to a boat called the Splash Tour, but K thought it wasn’t worthy of a blog post. She felt it was underwhelming at best. I enjoyed it but it was a little overhyped. So, next is Geithoorn. I’m so excited.  

Peace!