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In April, Some Guy’s Hat returned to the Netherlands to visit Volendam, home of milkmaids and fish and whatever else I’ll read about in the three books I purchased (after I learn to read Dutch).
Highlights from the trip:
We dressed appropriately
I spotted an elderly woman in Volendam actually wearing her traditional dress, sans hat, while shopping; I was only able to snap a shot from the back.
A couple stopped what they were doing, stood two feet from me, and watched, perplexed, as I staged this shot:
We visited the town museum and its…cigar band murals??
We made my child sleep on the floor in a European hotel that did not respond with the information “We only have rooms with one bed” when told we were bringing a child.
I begged for an answer from this guy:
I didn’t have to ask this one, as he clearly had somewhere to be:
We biked the tulip fields (some also abloom with daffodils and hyacinth).
We visited beautiful Keukenhof Gardens (but the experience of biking through the amazing bulb growers’ fields should be added to the itinerary of anyone visiting).
I did not push my daughter into a pond at Keukenhof despite obvious temptation.
I assumed this yellow flower learned to play hide and seek from my child:
I stood in giant clogs
I stood in more giant clogs
I ate amazing shrimp every day, as well as this creation, which tasted like they had managed to solidify water into strings of mush and then sprinkle it with cinnamon to give you the illusion that you were not eating water. Water. It tasted like water.
Paul: What’s it taste like?
Me: WATER!
Paul: Water??
Me: Water! Try it.
(Paul tries it)
Me: What’s it taste like?
Paul, astonished: WATER!
Me to Sequoia: Wanna try it?
Sequoia: No.
We passed these shutters everywhere:
Kari: If I could take home anything as a souvenir, I’d like to take home a shutter.
Paul: What kind of shutter?
Kari: The shutters on all the houses.
Paul: I hadn’t noticed.
A bird shit on my husband’s bike seat. No doubt a direct result of his inability to notice shutters.
We tasted cheese. I explained to a concerned Sequoia that the shop was comfortable trusting that no one was going to walk off with the giant wheels of cheese they left outside on display.
We were surprised by the beauty of the Netherlands’ Nationaal Park Zuid-Kennemerland, on the North Sea,
where a detour got the best of us and we took a 15-kilometer 9-kilometer hike.
after we weren’t even sure we were at the right parking lot.
SGH crossed Volendam off the list and now leaves me to research, chronicle, learn Dutch, read, write, edit. Damn hat gets to have all the fun.
