Visitors, Take One

This past week, we had our first set of visitors since arriving in the Netherlands last October. For some reason, no one wanted to come in the dead of winter. My brother and my sister-in-law flew in from Pittsburgh on a Wednesday and out the following Tuesday. (By the way, on a complete tangent, it is now hard for me to remember to capitalize the days of the week because it's not done in Dutch.)

I wrote out a loose agenda for the week including opening times of various museums and let our visitors take it from there. (Note: I would normally print an agenda like this, but our printer is out of ink. We purchased an ink cartridge from the store that said it works for our printer. Unfortunately, the printer company mislabeled the cartridges. We sent in a request for a replacement, but never heard back.)

Loose Agenda

On Wednesday, after we dropped off their luggage, we had lunch at the top of the V&D department store, took a walk along the Oudegracht, and visited the Domkerk.

Stained Glass Inside the Domkerk

After that, I dropped them off at the Centraal Museum and ran to the grocery store to get supplies for dinner. Over dinner, we discussed their plans for the following day. They decided they would spend the day in Amsterdam, exploring various museums.

On Thursday, I opted to stay home, as my brother and his wife are both avid and thorough museum goers, where I have more of a "passing glance" approach to museums. They had a few different places on their list, but I think of those they only made it to the Dutch Resistance Museum, which they claim was quite interesting and worth a visit. I'm adding it to my list of places to see before we go home. They spent the evening exploring the city, and I was in bed by the time they got home and Mr. Traveler returned from his overnight business trip in Stuttgart, Germany.

Friday, my brother, my sister-in-law, and I all made the trip to Delft, home of Royal Delft ceramics and pottery. For those unfamiliar with Royal Delft pottery, it is typically characterized by intricate blue designs on white ceramic, although, as we found out at the museum, there are several other varieties as well.

I liked how visitors could see the painters in action and actually walk through the factory. We found out that people have to train for a year to be able to paint even the most basic designs. The painters who paint the commemorate plates and intricate designs are master painters who had more than 10 years experience before being offered an apprenticeship. Considering the level of training and talent, it is not surprising that genuine Royal Delft pottery is quite pricey. 

Painter at Work

Workstation in the Factory

Visiting places throughout Europe, it continues to surprise me how close visitors can get to the action. In the case of this factory, visitors were asked to stay between yellow lines as they walked through the various stations. However, there was nothing to enforce this rule except common sense and decency, a big difference from in the States, where you would probably not be allowed in the factory at all. If you were, it would be with a guide, ropes denoting the area to stand, and many, many warning signs.

After we finished with our tour of the factory, we walked back into town, where we walked along the canals and took in the sites. We decided not to visit the churches, but it was amazing to see them from the outside.

Top of the New Church, Delft

We had dinner reservations for Friday evening, so after walking around in the center of town, we opted to head back. That night, we ate a huge dinner at Selamat Makan, an Indonesian restaurant. My sister-in-law had come with the suggestion to eat Indonesian Rijstafel (rice table) while they were in town. Basically, you order the rijstafel depending on how many people are at the table (in this case 4). Then, they bring out several different dishes for everyone to share family style (I think we had about 18 to 20). Mr. Traveler said it was like Thanksgiving dinner, Indonesian style.

Rijstafel

On Saturday and Sunday, I played in the Dutch Open (a story for a different day), but my brother and his wife continued their sightseeing on their own, spending one day at the Keukenhof  (big international flower display) and one in the Hague, visiting the Escher Museum (Mr. Traveler and I went back in January) and Madurodam (which contains miniatures of the major sites in the Netherlands).

Monday was their last full day in Utrecht, and they still hadn't ridden a bike, which they had decided was a mandatory part of visiting the Netherlands. We took the bikes out to Theehuis Rhijnauwen. You may remember me mentioning this pancake house before, because it's where we spent part of our Christmas celebrations in December. This time, the weather was much warmer, and we sat outside while eating our giant pancakes.

Dessert Pancake

The rest of the day, we relaxed around the house, transferred photos to our computers, and journaled until it was time to meet Mr. Traveler at Bert's Bierhuis. There, we picked up a few exclusive Trappists for my brother to try (his wife doesn't drink) and returned home for a beer tasting and a yummy dinner prepared by our guests (pita bread with taco fillings).

On Tuesday, it was already time for our guests to return to the States. It felt like they had just arrived, and yet they had seen so many things in the week that they were here. Now, we are looking forward to our next round of guests (Mr. Traveler's parents) who will arrive in less than a week!