A Week at a Time: April 16-22, 2011

I began last week by wrapping up the visit with my in-laws. Since I've already discussed their visit in a previous entry, I'll once again try to keep the repetition to a minimum. The entire week was characterized by beautiful, sunny weather, which I absolutely loved (and am still enjoying). I just checked the forecast for the rest of this current week, and it looks like a little bit of a cold front will be hitting us soon. I guess the record highs can't last forever, but at least I feel like I've made the most of them by spending plenty of time outside.

On Saturday, after watching Mr. Traveler's baseball game with his parents, we walked past a little pond where a mama duck was trying hard to keep her babies safe. She hid them in the underbrush along the side of the pond as we approached, but as we got even closer, she changed plans and headed for the center of the water. In the following picture, I captured the babies trying to stay as close as possible as they made their escape.

Apr 16 - Not So Ugly Ducklings

On Monday, we went in to Amsterdam, visited the Rijksmuseum, and took a canal cruise. I took this picture midway through the day in Dam Square.

Apr 17 - Pigeons

On Monday, at the botanical gardens with the in-laws, I snapped this shot looking up through the trees. I loved the patterns the tree seemed to make in the twists and turns of its branches.

Apr 18 - Patterns

On Tuesday morning, I dropped my in-laws off at Schiphol airport and did a little window shopping at the mall. After dinner, Mr. Traveler and I went for a walk to Wilhelmina Park. Many groups of family and friends were scattered through the park, enjoying barbecues, games of football, and bottles of wine. It was just such a beautiful sight, seeing so many happy people out and appreciating the weather.

Apr 19 - Spring Time

I spent most of the day on Wednesday catching up on my online reading and journaling about the events of the past week. I also ran to the grocery store and picked up ingredients to make a roasted vegetable salad with goat cheese before Mr. Traveler headed off to baseball practice. A few months back, I took a picture of a car with a crocodile/alligator on the side. Although I didn't walk around to verify, I assume that the photo below shows the other side of the same vehicle.

Apr 20 - Other Side

On Thursday, I spent the afternoon in the park, reading and soaking up the sun (lathered in sunscreen, of course). Laying on a blanket in the grass, I realized how much one's perspective changes so close to the ground, and I took this picture of my side view.

Apr 21 - Grass

Friday, Mr. Traveler had the day off for Easter Friday, so we took advantage of the holiday and headed to Alkmaar to the cheese festival. I've already discussed the event, but here is a picture I didn't share yet of the grounds of the cheese market post event (when the tables and chairs had already been pulled out for lunch).

Apr 22 - After

A Week at a Time: April 9-15, 2011

Every time I go to update the "A Week at a Time" it seems like I've fallen behind. I hate to make excuses, but the weather has just been so beautiful that I haven't wanted to spend much time inside on my computer. The same goes for today, but I'm waiting for my breakfast to digest before going on a jog.

Anyway, Saturday (April 8), Mr. Traveler and I set out for a little adventure in Doorn, including a picnic and a visit to Huis Doorn, where Kaiser Wilhelm II from Germany fled after WWI. The visit to the old mansion was interesting, because the property was seized after WWII and most of the decorations and possessions were preserved. However, we did have to endure a tour in Dutch since there are no unguided visits. Unfortunately, there was no photography allowed in the Huis, but you can check out their Web site linked above for a few pictures. Instead, I took this picture of a magnolia tree just as we wrapped up our picnic.

Apr 9 - Magnolia Blooms in Doorn

On Sunday, Mr. Traveler had a baseball game out of town, and I stuck around the house. I ended up with a random picture for the day. Can you guess what is is?

Apr 10 - Wat is Dat?

If you said a glove with a glass much inside, you are exactly right. We took the glasses on our picnic, but I didn't want them just rattling around in the bag, so I devised these little carrying cases. The day after our picnic, I found the glasses still in tact in our bag, waiting to be washed.

On Monday, I went to the IWCU coffee morning at the V&D cafe in Utrecht. I enjoyed seeing some new and familiar faces around the table. At the event, I mentioned to one of the ladies that I didn't think I was coming to the Bookworms meeting that evening since I hadn't received the email with the list of short stories we were supposed to read. She encouraged me to come anyway; there were only two short stories, and they were both only a couple pages, so I could read through them when I got there. I send Mr. Traveler an email letting him know my plan, and I had dinner on the table when he got home so we could eat together before my meeting. I took the following picture on my walk to the Bookworms meeting in Zeist. I just couldn't get over the bright blue sky and the pretty shades of green.

Apr 11 - Zeist

On Tuesday, it was time to get busy and prepare for our next set of guests. I caught up on the laundry, made sure the sheets were clean and ready for the air mattress, and did a little bit of tidying up. As I was cooking lunch, I noticed that one of the onions had an unusual shape, and decided that it was a good enough subject for my photo of the day.

Apr 12 - Heart Shaped Onion

Wednesday, it was time to pick up my in-laws at the airport. Mr. Traveler worked from home until it was time for us to head into Amsterdam. As we started to plan out their activities for the week, I took this uninspired picture of my guidebook.

Apr 13 - Guide Book

I've already talked about the week with Mr. Traveler's parents, so I'll try not to repeat too much in the next couple descriptions. On Thursday, we spend the day in Utrecht, where I took this picture of a very colorful bike handlebar.

Apr 14 - Colorful Handlebars

Finally, on Friday, after a morning in Delft, we ended up in the beautiful Keukenhof gardens. I let Mr. Traveler play with our SLR since he wasn't too thrilled with the combination of a pottery museum and gardens for the day's activities, but I still ended up with some decent shots on my point and shoot. The picture below is one of several I took in the gardens.

Apr 15 - Keukenhof

Cheese is Great, But Sometimes Overrated

On Friday, Mr. Traveler and I checked another "must see" off our list with a visit to the Alkmaar Cheese Market. We read about the market back in November, but it only runs from April to September, so we had to wait a while before making our visit. Then, we had to figure out a time that Mr. Traveler was available on a Friday morning. He was off for Good Friday, so we decided to finally make the hour long trip to Alkmaar.

There were piles of cheese in old fashion wagons.

 Women and men dressed in traditional costumes.

 And lots and lots of cheese.

Sounds pretty fun, huh? Well, we took all these pictures by raising the camera above people's heads. So instead of all that above, what we saw looked more like this:

That's right! The back of people's heads. We did get a few sneak peeks of the cheese, and I'm really not sure it would have been all that interesting even if we could have seen what was going on. Either way it was a let down. I guess it was just a little touristy for my taste.

After we'd had enough of the pushing and shoving crowd, we visited the Biermuseum (which explained the historical brewing process) and the Kaasmuseum (which had information about the production of cheese). Both were free with our Museumkaart, and we even got a free sample at the cheese museum. We then had lunch at a lovely little restaurant outside of the main tourist area.

Although the cheese market was definitely not all we thought it would be, once the day was over, I did feel like we'd had a nice outing. If nothing else, the weather cooperated and we got out of the house!

Visitors, Take Two

On Tuesday morning, after a week of wonderful weather and new adventures, I dropped our second set of visitors, my in-laws, off at Schiphol Airport. After they were successfully through security, I hopped on the train back to Utrecht and reflected on their week in Europe.

Mr. Traveler and Parents in Amsterdam

Before they arrived, I worried about selecting the perfect activities for Mr. Traveler's parents. They hadn't taken a real vacation in ages, because they own their own business. In addition, my mother-in-law had never been to Europe before, so I knew that she was apprehensive about leaving her comfort zone. Since this trip was such a unique opportunity for them, I wanted it to be perfect. I sent a list of possible sites and activities, in the hope that they would decide on a few "must see" spots. They mentioned that they'd like to visit Keukenhof, but other than that left the planning up to us.

While this was originally frustrating to me, I realized I was projecting my own travel style on everyone. I am a planner by nature (although I have let myself enjoy more spontaneous activities since arriving in Utrecht), so I was surprised that they hadn't researched any of the activities. However, the more I thought about it, the more I realized that doing so might seem overwhelming or intimidating to someone who is not used to traveling and who hasn't lived abroad. In addition, while I might have said, "We really just wanted to see you guys," to someone to be polite, they genuinely meant it. It's a pretty awesome feeling to know that someone wants to visit with you more than they want to see all of the exciting things to see in a new country. Finally, while my travel style involves cramming in activities to make the most of my trip, this method of traveling can be quite exhausting to some people. Realizing these things, allowed me to relax and not worry as much about planning the perfect activities or fitting as much as possible into each day.

Still, I felt it was very important that they did see a good sampling of the Netherlands (or at least our little area) for a few reasons. First, it would allow them to understand both the challenges and excitement that being here entails. Second, it would provide another common bond between us and them, something we can talk about when we return home. And finally, it just seemed like a waste to travel this far and not at least see some of the major sites.

Since I didn't get a whole lot of input regarding desired activities, I opted to pick a few on my own and then listen to both the verbal and nonverbal feedback. For example, I planned a day in Delft and Keukenhof and then ran the idea past everyone. Everyone seemed to think it was doable and at least somewhat interesting, so I proceeded with the plan. I also revamped some of our plans to include more bus rides and less walking when I realized that the walking was a little tiresome and painful for people that are not used to walking everywhere.

Once I adapted to our guests' needs (with a little pushing on my part to at least see a few more things than they were planning to), I was able to relax and just enjoy our time together.

So what did we do during their week in Utrecht? Well, Wednesday they got here late in the afternoon, so we just visited and discussed plans for the week. Thursday, we spent the day in Utrecht so they could get their feet wet (only figuratively -- we had no rain for their entire visit) and see where we live. We walked along the Oudegracht, ate lunch at the cafe in the V&D department store (so they could see the city from above), toured the Domkerk, and visited a few of the many antique shops.

Friday, we had our most rigidly planned day so that we could fit in both a trip to Delft and to the Keukenhof. We visited the pottery factory, walked around Delft, and ate lunch outside. I think everyone's favorite part of the day was walking through the gardens at the Keukenhof. What a beautiful sight!

The pictures don't do it justice!

Saturday, Mr. Traveler had a baseball game, so we once again stuck around Utrecht, but the visitors and I  squeezed in a trip to the Spoorwegmuseum in the morning before the game. Mr. Traveler's father seemed to really enjoy this museum, but soon it was time to head off to the game. Mr. Traveler's parents really enjoyed getting to see him play baseball for the first time in 10+ years and kept commenting that his mannerisms on the field hadn't changed a bit.

Sunday, we opted to go to Amsterdam. As Mr. Traveler said, "You can't come to the Netherlands and not visit Amsterdam!" We didn't pack the day too full, though, and just visited the Rijksmuseum and took a canal boat tour. We hadn't done either thing before, so it was a good opportunity for all of us to experience something new together.

Inside the Canal Cruise Boat

Finally, on Monday, the in-laws had mentioned that they didn't want to try to fit too much in so they would be well rested for their day of travel. While Mr. Traveler headed to work, the rest of us went to the post office to mail off the last minute postcards. At this point I almost lost Mr. Traveler's parents because the doors on the bus closed behind me and they were left stuck inside. Luckily, a kind fellow passenger informed the bus driver, who dropped them off just a little ways down the street. Reunited (and more aware of the need to get off the bus quickly), we mailed the postcards and then hopped on another bus to the botanical gardens at Utrecht University, where we enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the gardens. We wrapped up their trip with homemade pizza and a fun night of Apples to Apples.

While I was initially worried about creating the perfect trip for Mr. Traveler's parents and cramming in as many sites as possible, I found that at the end of the week, spending time together (as they had said all along) and not the perfect itinerary was the most important and enjoyable part of their visit. 

2011 Dutch Open

Two weekends ago, I played the Dutch Open, the largest (for at least this year) disc golf tournament in the Netherlands. I signed up in January, was put on a waiting list, and found out in February that I'd made the cut to play the tournament. The tournament was in Bergschenhoek, a bit outside of Rotterdam and not very accessible via public transportation. However, since the tournament Web site indicated there were dorm style accommodations on site, I didn't worry too much about transportation or booking a hotel room, figuring I could walk or bike from Rotterdam and that the dorm rooms wouldn't go too quickly.

A couple weeks before the tournament, I emailed the organization responsible for the dorm rooms. I quickly got a response, but it wasn't what I was expecting. Another group was using the park that weekend, and the dorms were unavailable. I sat on the news a few days before deciding to look around for a ride. Luckily, one of the other players lives fairly close to Utrecht and was willing to give me a lift back and forth each day.

The misinformation about the dorms was only one of several problems to follow in the organization of the tournament. Information was promised and not sent (including maps of the courses) until the very last minute. Two courses were advertised, but since the park was actually triple booked, we ended up with a single course at a slightly different location. (I guess it's good I wasn't able to book the dorm bed!) The schedule was published only days before the actual tournament with a mandatory player's meeting added on Friday evening. With the last minute notice, many people (including me) couldn't rearrange their schedules to make it to the meeting. The tournament headquarters was quite a distance from the course, which meant I never even made it to that location. There were also some complaints expressed about the speed of publishing results and lack of organization on site.

Despite these challenges, however, there were several really awesome things about the tournament. The first was that I got to play with disc golfers from several different countries (Finland, Switzerland, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Holland), all of whom were very kind and shared my enthusiasm for the sport. Most of these players were also extremely talented. It was so fun to watch everyone throw!

Player from Sweden

Second, even though the tournament planners had to make a last minute switch and set up a new temporary course in only a few days, the course was challenging and fun to play. I heard some complaints from better players about the lack of variety in the course, but I thought it was far better and more varied than any other course I've played in the Netherlands.

Pictures of the Course

I felt that I played pretty well all weekend, and I managed to keep myself from mentally melting down when I started to make mistakes. I also was pretty proud of myself for being able to play my own game, and not worry about how well other players were doing or how far they were throwing. This is normally a huge weakness in my game, so it was nice to be able to focus on myself and play at my own pace. I played consistently through the first couple of rounds. Even though I did have some rough holes, I had strong ones that I felt made up for the mistakes. The third round, I didn't play quite as well, but I was feeling the effects of a full day of disc golf in the sun and wind.

Beautiful Weather

After the third round, I checked the scores and realized that despite not playing as well in the previous round, I was still tied for 4th, which meant a sudden death playoff to decide who went on to the finals. The first hole, I played strongly, with the best score I had had on the hole the entire weekend. The next hole we played was an island hole. I came up short by about a foot and had to play from the drop zone. I had a nice shot at the basket, but ended up right below the pole hole. My opponent made it into the island, but missed her put. I ended up with a 4 on the hole, so her 3 took her into the finals.

Although it would have been fun to play in the final round, I was happy just watching from the sidelines. It gave me the opportunity to relax, observe the other players, and take some pictures.

Crowd Watching the Finals

While there were some logistics issues with the Dutch Open, I felt that the team of tournament directors really tried their best to make sure that everyone had a good time. The tournament could have been more organized, but that comes with more experience, and I think they will probably get there if everyone gives them a chance.  Once I got to the tournament, though, I tried not to let any of that bother me, and I just enjoyed the amazing weather and getting to play with some great disc golfers.

A Week at a Time: April 2-8, 2011

I'm still playing catch up on my Week at a Time entries but hope to have you all caught up soon. I also still owe you an entry on the Dutch Open. I'm hoping to get caught up soon, but with company coming in tomorrow, I won't make any promises.

Anyway, on Saturday (April 2), pretty much my entire day was spent in Bergschenhoek at the Dutch Open. I took the following picture on hole 17. I started on the same hole each of my 3 rounds of the tournament.

Apr 2 - Dutch Open

Sunday, I once again spent much of my day at the disc golf tournament. I took this next picture at the start of the final round. The woman pictured (Lydie H from Norway) ended up winning the tournament. Later in the evening, Mr. Traveler and I went out for dinner as my brother and sister-in-law were still sightseeing in The Hague and I was too worn out to cook.

Apr 3 - Dutch Open Women's Champion

The Monday after a two day tournament, I typically spend the majority of the day resting and recuperating. With only one full day left to spend with our company, though, there was no time for rest. We rode out to the pancake house and enjoyed our brunch on the patio.

Apr 4 - Pancakes!

Tuesday was an interesting day for public transportation. Before it was time for me to take our visitors to the train station, Mr. Traveler left for work and then returned home since his train wasn't running. On our way to the train station, the card readers on the bus weren't working, so we ended up getting to ride for free. Then, when we got to the train station, the next train to Schiphol was cancelled (a different issue from Mr. Traveler's commuter train). It all turned out okay, though; Mr. Traveler worked from home and my brother and his wife got on the next train and made it to the airport in time for their flight. I spent the rest of the day catching up on my rest and on the laundry. We finished the day with one of my favorite (and easiest) things to cook -- pizza.

Apr 5 - Fresh Ingredients

On Wednesday, I woke up with a scratchy throat and a sinus headache. I was determined to not let it keep me from getting out, though, so I took a decongestant and headed to IKEA in search of a rug for our living room. After having visitors, we decided to rearrange our living room slightly and decided a rug was a needed addition. I found a nice blue rug on sale, which can be seen in the picture below.

Apr 6 - The Cast of the Carpet

On Thursday, I was already feeling a little bit better, but decided to take it easy and spend the day around the house. I sent out a list of possible activities to our visitors and caught up on some emails. I also started researching flights for the cruise we are taking this summer and cooked some chicken tortilla soup.

Apr 7 - Tortilla Soup

Friday, I woke up feeling great without a hint of the sore throat that I'd had on Wednesday. It was a good thing, too, because I had signed up for the monthly IWCU walk. It ended up just being me and the organizer, but we had a great time. I think we walked for almost 4 hours with only a short break to eat our packed lunches. We left from Amerongen and walked through the forest. I took the following picture of the town just at the start of our walk.

Apr 8 - Amerongen

A Week at a Time: Mar 26 - Apr 1, 2011

It's now April 10th, so I'm a little behind on updating the Week at a Time posts. It seems like time is just flying by now that the weather is warmer, and I don't feel stuck inside.

Saturday (the 26th), I went to Mr. Traveler's baseball tournament. The weather has been great lately, but unfortunately the game fell on the one completely cold and cloudy day. I just stayed for one game and then made my way home and made myself a hot cup of tea. I took the following picture at the game; it's not that great, but my fingers were too cold to care about getting a better shot.

Mar 26 - Honkbal in the Cold

Sunday, Mr. Traveler and I went to the botanical gardens at Utrecht University, and showed up right on time for the bird show we didn't know was happening. Later that evening, we used a Groupon I bought a month or so ago for dinner at Kimono, a Japanese restaurant in Utrecht. The dinner consisted of several courses cooked on the table in front of us. Kimonos were provided to keep everyone's clothes clean. Even though we were seated at the table with several strangers, it was a fun night out.

Mar 27 - What a Hoot

On Monday, it was time to start getting ready for our first round of company. I ran to the store to buy a few essentials and forgot to take a picture until the day was nearly over. Luckily, I have plenty of books to provide material for a last minute picture. (If it were up to me, and money was not a consideration, I would definitely have a giant library in my house.)

Mar 28 - Bookshelf

Tuesday, the day before our company arrived, I finished up some laundry and cleaning. The trees outside our window were still flowering, though, and I couldn't resist leaning out of the window to admire them and snap this picture. It's kind of hard to tell in this size of the picture, but two of our neighborhood cats managed to make an appearance in the photo.

Mar 29 - Cherry Blossom

On Wednesday, it was time for my brother and his wife to arrive. I've already posted about their visit in another entry, so I'll keep the following descriptions more brief. The picture below was taken on our walk through the Domkerk on their tour of Utrecht.

Mar 30 - Glimpse of the Organ

On Thursday, while our visitors were out touring Amsterdam, I took this picture of another type of red light district: the one on our oven.

Mar 31 - Red Light

Friday, during our trip to Delft, I snapped several pictures. The one below depicts some unfinished tulip vases, a popular item in the Royal Delft product line.

Apr 1 - Tulip Vases

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!