Great weekend in Den Bosch

Thanks to our friends Lex and Maria, who we met here at Marina Westerdok in September (see our blog post from that time), we just spent a wonderful weekend in 's Hertogenbosch (or Den Bosch as it is commonly called). They invited us to join them for one of the winter regattas that their yacht club has.

We, including Märzen, took the train from Amsterdam to Den Bosch, where Maria met us at the station. The train trip only took an hour, and Märzen behaved very well. She spent part of the trip in her Sherpa bag sleeping, but mostly she sat on my lap on top of the bag.

After we had coffee with Lex and Maria at their house, the four of us went downtown to see the sights and try a Bossche bol, a famous dessert that, by definition, is only available in Den Bosch. It’s a huge creampuff sort of thing filled with whipped cream and covered in dark chocolate. We had ours with coffee sitting across the street from the St. John’s Cathedral, which we visited next. (To get a better idea about what a Bossche bol is, you can enter it in Google. When I tried it, I got several articles and pictures.)

In the evening Maria prepared a feast of different kinds of stompot, which is potatoes mashed together with various vegetables. When the potatoes are mashed with carrots and onions, it’s a unique variety of stompot called hutspot. Besides the hutspot, Maria served a stompot with boerenkool (curly kale) and one with sauerkraut and pineapple. In my previous experience, stompot was served with smoked sausage called rookworst, and Maria had that, but she also served some other sausages and fried Dutch bacon. The Dutch bacon really doesn’t translate. John says it’s sliced pork belly; it isn’t cured at all. Anyway, it was delicious!

Sunday was the regatta. After a nice breakfast we went to the yacht club. Every member helps with the work of maintaining the club, as well as paying dues, and it’s a very nice facility. We sailed on 32-foot boat whose owner, Goos, lived in Wisconsin for a couple of years when he was a boy. There wasn’t a lot of wind, but it didn’t rain (except for a few sprinkles) and it wasn’t too cold, so the race was just right as far as we were concerned. After three times around the course on the lake, we finished sixth, not last, and enjoyed some wonderful soup and a salad at the clubhouse after.

The photo shows Lex at the helm during the race with Goos running the main sheet and starboard jib sheet. I had the port jib sheet. Maria is on the foredeck where she helped the jib across in the light air.

In between eating and sailing, we had several interesting conversations with Lex and Maria about the differences in the way things are in the Netherlands and the U.S., and of course, we also talked about politics. It was all enormously gezellig, a Dutch word I may have used before. There really isn’t a direct translation. It’s something like warm and friendly and cozy. We feel really lucky to have been welcomed into the home of this very kind Dutch couple and to have experienced a real Dutch weekend.

Summer time officially ended

It’s been fall here for weeks now, and it has definitely felt like it. Yet, summer time officially ended over the weekend. Summer time is what the Dutch and others in Europe call the time shift that the U.S. calls daylight savings time. So for a week, or however long the U.S. remains on daylight savings time now, we are one hour closer to you.

Last week I rode my bike to my Dutch conversation class. It was my first time using it for real transportation, and I have to admit that it was a little scary. The Dutch all ride so fast and there are so many people on bikes! So even though I was on a bike path most of the way, there was lots of traffic. I’m not sure the class is all that helpful. There’s usually only one native speaker to work with the various small groups, and since I used to be fluent in Dutch, my Dutch is stronger than that of most of the other participants. Still, it’s fun to get out, so I’m going to keep it up.

I’m making an effort, too, to speak Dutch with Dutch people. Most are patient. Some even seem a little relieved not to have to speak English. The Moroccan corner butcher is an example. When I went in to get some lamb shanks the other day, I asked him for recommendations on preparation. He quickly said his English wasn’t very good and asked about speaking French. We wisely continued in Dutch. The lamb shanks turned out great, and we had a lamb ragout with penne pasta for dinner last night. Yum.

The photo above is one I borrowed off of the Internet. It shows the store where we do our normal shopping on the left. The initials "AH" stand for Albert Heijn. The gray weather in the photo looks like what we're having lately, but it must be really early in the morning because the street and sidewalks are so empty. Normally they're jammed.

A bike and a haircut

After checking at several bike shops in the neighborhood, we finally found a good deal on a used bike for me to replace my stolen one. My new bike is a Batavus, a Dutch brand. It has a little rust and a few dings, but I hope that will just make it less attractive to thieves. It’s a three-speed, which is nice for getting up those big hills (dikes and bridges) and for speeding down the street. I haven’t been far on it yet, but the forecast is for a nice day tomorrow, and I hope John will join me for a bike ride. We’ve already had a neighbor ask for first chance at buying it when we leave in the spring.

In other news, John just got his annual haircut for 18€ at a place down the street. He looks like a new man. Andrew walked right past him without recognizing him. John’s last haircut was in San Diego before the start of the Baja Ha-Ha. We sure have been a lot of places since then.

The hunt for everyday food

We’ve been trying Dutch food regularly. Cheese is a staple, and we’ve sampled various kinds from the grocery stores, cheese stores, and cheese booths at different markets. Lately we’re favoring one of the cheese booths at the nearest market, which is only held on Wednesdays. The woman who runs it is very nice (she always gives us a taste before we buy), and she understands my Dutch. We’ve been experimenting with the various degrees of aging that is offered for Gouda-style boerenkaas to find our favorite. If you want to know more about boerenkaas, you can check out this brochure in English.

I’ve been introducing John to typically Dutch things to put the cheese (and other sandwich fillers) on. So far, he isn’t crazy about the Friesian roggebrood (a kind of pumpernickel), but he does like the cracker bread, especially when we can find it with sesame seeds. We’ve also been trying various kinds of bread, but we aren’t finding the bread from the stores as good as I remembered.

Of course, there’s also Dutch licorice in myriad varieties. I like the typical salty licorice. (It’s an acquired taste.) When I could find it in the States, I always bought the double-salted kind. Saturday at the market I bought my first DZ here (DZ stands for dubbel zout, which means double salt). Wow! When it’s this fresh, I think single salt will be enough for me. John has been trying varieties of sweet licorice, and Sjoerd has contributed a couple of standard types to John’s experience.

Some things that we haven’t found here, which were staples at home, are ham hocks, regular mozzarella (fresh is available), canned stock, and plain pizza crusts. John makes pizza dough, but not often since we haven’t found the right pizza cheese. He’s also been making homemade stock, but that's time consuming and adds a lot of humidity to the boat, something we really don't need here. For a long time we couldn’t find popcorn, but I spotted it in the market yesterday when we were looking for something else, so we have plenty of that now.

There are so many good things to eat here. It really isn’t a problem if we can’t find what we’re looking for. We just eat something else.

The photo is from somewhere on the Internet. It's of a cheese stand at the organic farmers' market that's held near here on Saturdays. John didn't have a photo of a kaasboer (cheese vendor).

Cruiser reunion

Yesterday David and Gunilla from Ventura stopped by to see us. David, single-handing on Ventura, was the informal coordinator of our mini-rally from Fort Lauderdale to the Azores and on to England/France. Gunilla flew to Horta to see David, and we met her there. They’ve put Ventura on the hard in Falmouth, England, and were driving home to Sweden. Next summer they’ll be sailing Ventura to Sweden. It was so much fun to see them and talk about places we’ve been and places we should visit while we’re still in northern Europe. We’ll be taking a serious look at going to Germany, Denmark, and Sweden before we stop in Norway and continue on to Scotland next summer. It sounds like a nice voyage.

In other news, Carrie and baby Zelma from Dandelion are visiting family in the States, so we took Andrew with us to the Democrats Abroad gathering on Saturday. It was fun to take him to a part of the city where he hadn’t been before (in the center near the main shopping and tourist area). There was a good turnout, so we couldn’t talk with everyone, but we did happen to meet a young woman who is a CIA-trained chef from Portland. She still has a house in Southeast and knows the Noble Rot people. So standing around chatting in the heart of Amsterdam were four Oregonians.

My Dutch is improving. I’ve started attending a weekly conversation class (free), and that’s pretty fun. I’ve also translated a recipe that John wanted from a Dutch cooking magazine that Marike brought us. And I finished the book (in Dutch) that I picked up in Costa Rica. Now on to the big bag of Dutch books that Anouk brought me.

The photo is from our 2004 trip. It's Museum Square. When we were there with David and Gunilla yesterday to visit the Van Gogh Museum, it was pouring down rain.

Boat ride and rijsttafel

Anouk on the boat

Saturday was a beautiful day here — the sun was shining and it was actually warm — a perfect day for a boat ride. Lucky for us, Anouk and her parents (Jan and Ria) invited us to join them on their boat for the afternoon to be followed by rijsttafel in the city afterwards. In between we got to visit their home in Amstelveen.

Jan and Ria keep their boat, De Walrus, at Leimuiden on the Westeinderplas. For those who aren’t familiar with the country or area, the Westeinderplas is a large shallow lake south of Schiphol airport. De Walrus is a British-built motor boat that is mostly enclosed with a nice deck on the back. It’s very comfortable, and with the nice weather we were mostly on the rear deck except for Jan, who manned the helm inside, sometimes with company from John.

Jan at the helm

Shirlee and Ria on the deck

Nursery barge

Recreation islands

Jan took us out of the lake to the Ringvaart, a canal that is part of the staande mast route (standing mast route) linking Amsterdam and Rotterdam. There was quite a bit of traffic on the canal including some commercial barges like the one in the photo, which was moving containers of shrubs from a nursery. The town of Aalsmeer, which borders the lake and is bisected by the canal, is home to many nurseries and greenhouses. It hosts huge flower auctions of tulips and other flowers that are shipped all over the world from Schiphol, both as cut flowers and as bulbs.

Between the canal and the lake Jan and Ria pointed out little islands with docks. These are recreation islands. People from the city buy (or sometimes rent) them as a place to take their boats for a picnic or a weekend get-away. They aren’t allowed to sleep on the islands, but they can sleep on a boat moored at the island. Some were quite developed with picnic tables and playgrounds in addition to the docks, but others were left in their natural state, except that the weeds were cut.

As comfortable as it was on the boat, it also looked like it would be fun to ride a bike along the canal. The bike paths are very nice, and there are plenty of places to stop along the way. Unfortunately, my folding bike was stolen soon after we unloaded it from the boat. I didn’t even get to ride it. Yes, it was locked, but bicycle theft is rampant here. When I mentioned it to Anouk and her family, they said, “Welcome to Amsterdam.” On the website for Boom Chicago, an English-language theater here, the directions by bike read, “Bike to the Leidseplein. Lock bike nearby. See show. Replace stolen bike.”

After the boat ride, we drove to Anouk’s family home in Amstelveen where John got to see a Dutch house from the inside for the first time, and we met Anouk’s brother, Patrick, and their dog, Kai. Then it was back to Amsterdam and the Indonesian restaurant Tempo Doeloe for a wonderful rijsttafel. A rijsttafel is a dinner of many small dishes of varying spiciness. The idea is to start mild and work your way up. (I have to record the name of the restaurant because we couldn’t remember the last one we went to in 2004 with Jeffrey, Karan, and Esmeralda. It turns out that it was just next door, but I still don’t know its name.) The food and service and wonderful, but we couldn’t finish it all — except that I think we did manage to eat all of the dessert.

In all it was a wonderful afternoon and evening that we are sure to remember as one of the highlights of our stay here. Thank you so much, Jan, Ria and Anouk!

End of a sunny week

Mark your calendars: we just had a whole week without rain here! In fact, it may have been a few days more than a full week, but we have a 70% chance of rain tomorrow. We’ve enjoyed it while it lasted, going for walks and boat rides.

On our way home from our second dinghy tour last week, we spotted the sailboat Dandelion tied up along the canal where the boats who taking the “standing mast route” through Holland go. Dandelion is the boat that crossed the Atlantic as we were crossing from the Azores to France and that stopped in Cherbourg while we were there. The skipper, Andrew, grew up in Eugene. He’s now been joined by his wife and baby daughter. They were headed for Finland, but it’s late in the year to finish that voyage, so they’re going to spend the winter here at Marina Westerdok too.

We spent the first few days rafted up, which is always gezellig (an untranslatable Dutch word that means something like cozy, but now Dandelion has its own slip. In a few days we hope to move too to a slip that isn’t on the outside. The Dutch are very good boat handlers, but there’s lots of traffic in the canal, especially when the weather is nice, and it feels safer to be in an inside slip.

From a walk in Vondel Park

One of the canal boats

Another canal boat

At the farmers' market

Apparently there are no freight elevators here