Kerstdag II

By 11:30 Christmas Eve, a sea of crumpled wrapping paper and an empty bottle of wine were all that were left of our quiet evening at home.

The big question this year was who could get Sage the best toy. Last year turned into a brutal conflict when I got Sage a really cool dead plastic chicken that squeaked when you tugged it. Beth got her some sissy-queer little pink and purple elephant. Well, I don't know what came over my tough little hunting dog, but Sage went for the elephant.

This year, I got her a softer (and alive) version of the same chicken theme, although you can still see the target on its chest. Beth opted for another cutesy holiday toy with this stretchy Santa Clause.

And the winner is…..

0-2, no more chickens please.

We stumbled on this naked recreation area on our annual Christmas day hike. We decided to explore it a bit because we figured that since it was cold and overcast outside no one would be "recreating" in the nude today. I don’t know what we expected to find in such a place…volleyball, tennis, dodgeball…but we were a little disappointed to learn that naked recreators do the same thing that non-naked recreators do….walk paths, sunbath, and swim. Somehow, it has lost its allure.

Relaxing on a bench in the naked field.

We also explored the village of Weesp just outside Amsterdam. Lot's of canals and decorated beautifully for the holidays. Worth a stop!


We hope that you and your families have a great holiday season! We’re off to visit friends in sunny Spain for the new year. No updates till we get back in early January.

Cheers!

Mecca

I tagged along with Beth on her trip down to Mecca (Waldorf, Germany) last week. The Christmas markets were in full swing and even though we were both fighting the remnants of our first winter colds, we had a great time out and about on the towns.


The old city gate and bridge of Heidelberg.


Heidelberg Castle, shrouded in mist and brooding over the city. The mountains and forests in the background provided some great hiking for me while Beth spent the day at the office down in Waldorf.


The castle ruins, up close and personal. This complex was destroyed during the 30 Years War with France.


Christmas market on one of the many squares. The Hot Mulled Wine and Bratwurst were excellent!



Viable city streets. Even in Germany, which seems to value the automobile almost as much as America, they've managed to keep their downtowns intact.



View of Heidelberg from the castle. You can see the mass of shoppers snaking through the city by the old church. It was a great holiday atmosphere.



I had to snap a photo in the local downtown Heidelberg dog park (on the Neckar River). This was a typically spazmotic young German Shorthaired Pointer and would have given Sage a serious run for her money.




Impressed by the city walls of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. This 13th century city was incredibly intact. We were amazed that they still let you walk the ramparts. I can imagine that it is completely overrun by tourists in the summer time, but with the mediocre weather and mid-week visit we practically had the place to ourselves. It was decorated beautifully for Christmas.




Fairy Tale entry gate to Rothenburg ob der Tauber.



Walking around this walled city was surreal. It felt like we were inside a fake, Disney World diorama.



We also hit lesser known Dinkelsbuhl about 20 minutes south of Rothenburg and almost liked it better. Outside the wall, looking in, it felt authentically medevial with grazing goats and small garden plots.




But inside the walls were the most brilliantly painted half-timbered houses. What amazed me the most was the breadth of the streets. It felt so "un-Dutch". They had gone to all the trouble of erecting a wall around the city (back in the 14th century), you would think that real estate inside the wall would be at a premium. To have a street that can easily accommodate modern day traffic and parking was pretty amazing and not at all typical of what we've seen in the old cities of other countries. Why did they need all that space on the roads back then?

Going up!

Our neighbors across the street are building up their third floor, so this massive crane moved onto the street last week to help get materials up to the roof. You see these cranes frequently around Haarlem for all kinds of building projects. A lot of the time they are used to lift materials right over top of the houses and down into the back yard.

We’re going to have to order one next spring for when we redevelop our back garden. We’re putting in a new flagstone patio, a built in BBQ and fire-pit, and a couple of new trees.

The operator of this crane was top-notch. He manipulated the hydraulic arm like it was an extension of his body. Pretty cool to watch!

Reality Check

We’ve been having some brilliant fall weather this week, so I saddled up the bike, strapped on my camera and went for a nice ride out into the dunes.

It wasn’t a hard ride today, but more of a slow meandering cruise. It was quiet and peaceful and crisp, so when I happened along this small memorial, I decided to stop and sit for a while. It isn’t the first cold granite marker that I’ve seen while wandering among the dunes - unfortunately, they are almost common along this part of the coast. The inscription on this one is short and simple. A brief slogan about freedom, then nothing more than a date and the number of dead.

1945. 9 Bodies.

The memorial doesn’t say who the people were or why they were killed. Dutch Resistance Fighters? Jews? Gypsies? Gays? In some respects, it really doesn’t matter.

As I sat, I replayed in my head any one of the grainy black and white films that could have captured the events that led to these memorials being placed here. We’ve all seen these films, it doesn’t matter which era, or war, or conflict, or police action that they are from. They are all abstract footage that we quickly and simply label as ‘terrible’ or ‘horrific’, then we move on.

But today, I sat in the grass on the edge of this small depression and allowed myself to think about what happened here and what is happening somewhere else in the world today. For a brief minute, it actually felt real to me.

Funny how that can happen - if you let it.

Hillbillies

Beth and I spent the last three weeks on holiday in America. I have to admit that I wasn’t really looking forward to it this time around. Our agenda for the trip was jam-packed and I worried that it would turn into a near constant scramble to get from point A to point B in time to visit person C and get task D accomplished before needing to purchase item E and then visit person F and on and on and on. What weighed on me most was our goal for shutting down the house in Maryland for winter. The frantic memories of doing that job last year still taunted me and kept my planning off balance.

But aside from Beth’s little “schedule me another 5 minutes at work” incident at the airport on the way in, the trip couldn’t have been better. We started out up in Williamsport with Beth’s family to celebrate her pap’s birthday. We think he’s 92 - they didn’t keep very good records up on North Mountain back in those days and no one seems to know for sure. Both pap and Virgetta are doing great and as always we enjoyed their old fashioned hospitality, cooking and storytelling - even though someone or something always ends up shot by the end of the story ;-) Happy birthday Pap and Aunt Mandy!

We also spent a few nights with my family in Ligonier. Meg, Timm, and Terri all stopped over and we got out for some nice walks around the property with Sam and the boys. Steve and Jen moved to Philadelphia and were unable to join us, but we still managed a few traditional “Glasstetter” evenings of great food and stimulating conversation where we solve all the world’s problems. Then both Beth’s and my parents joined us at the house in Maryland for a few evenings where we celebrated an early Thanksgiving, complete with turkey, cranberry sauce, and apple pie. My mom cleaned up at a cutthroat game of dominos and we finally got the wood pile cut that the renters left behind over a year ago.

On any trip back to the States, no matter how short or how long, we can always count on good visits with our families. As usual, we were not disappointed this time around and had a great time with everyone.

But the unexpected pleasure of this trip was the time that Beth and I spent alone at our old house up in the mountains. We stocked up the fridge, filled the wine rack, fired up the hot tub, cancelled our planned construction project and just kicked back to relax. Once we were settled in, we only ventured outside the gate to our property one time the entire vacation. Gezellig.

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The forest is crawling with deer this year, more than we have ever seen on our land. We enjoyed filling the feeder with corn and watching them every morning from the hot tub and every evening by the fire.

The new Sage-Mobile

Everyone around town came to know the old white Subaru as the "Sage-Mobile". It was a very distinctive car here in Holland...we have only seen one other Subaru Outback Wagon in the two years that we've lived here. Throw an extended roof-rack on top and the Sage-Mobile was unmistakable.

Friends would beep and wave when they saw us drive by and many would SMS me as soon as they saw that the Subie was parked in front of any one of our local parks, wanting to join us for a walk. What started out as an icon that immediately marked us as Expat Americans, over time turned into something that identified us uniquely as Dan and Beth.

But now all that has changed. We picked up the new Audi A4 last weekend and will be sending the Subaru off to greener pastures.

We ordered the Audi on-line at Beth's company auto leasing website over four months ago. It is a smart site that controls who is logged in and what they are allowed to order. We were like kids in a candy shop as we kept adding options or upgrading things on the car. Our only self-imposed criteria was that the car had to be German, just in case she ever drives it down to HQ in Heidelberg. The web site never refused anything that we asked for and both of our jaws dropped when we saw the final price tag of what we had built.

Beth's company is paying for everything, including the taxes, ongoing maintenance, insurance, and gasoline...yes, even gasoline. It was a deal that we just couldn't pass up.

We're a bit sad to see the ol' Subaru go. It had its share of problems, but all-in-all it was a pretty good car. Audi A4's are a dime a dozen over here, so we're no longer instantly recognizable when driving it around Haarlem. But, come to think of it, maybe that's a good thing.

Sauna Season

When we first walked past the big old, brick building tucked into our North Haarlem neighborhood two years ago, we thought that it was some sort of a museum. There were two bike racks out in front of the building and it had a small, clean reception area behind sliding glass doors. There were no signs, but I wasn’t speaking or reading any Dutch back then anyhow, so a sign would not have made any difference.

The place remained a curiosity for the next few months. We had no idea what it could be. Then one evening, after the days had grown shorter and it was already dark when we walked by the old building, we saw lights on in one of the windows behind a thick hedgerow. We were still a bit timid in our new surroundings, but our curiosity was peaked so we pushed through the shrubbery for a quick look. We saw a large room with a massive central fireplace surrounded by overstuffed couches and pillows. To the left of the fireplace room was a cozy dining area and behind it we could see a very comfortable looking bar. There were people lounging around, drinking wine or coffee. A few were eating meals. Everyone was in bath robes.

A couple of weeks later we were chatting with one of our new friends in the park. Marjolein is Dutch, but had grown up in America until she was 18 years old. We asked her about the old building.

“Sauna Van Egmond!” she said excitedly in answer to our question. “It’s one of my favorites! Would you like to go sometime?”

“Sure,” we said, not knowing exactly what a sauna was, but wanting to experience everything we could in our new country.

“You know that it’s all naked, right?” she asked cautiously. “You only wear your robe when you are in the restaurant. I know that Americans don’t usually like that.”

I looked at Beth with questioning eyes. We’ve always gone in the buff into our own hot tub, even when we have friends over. But that is still a private setting. She shrugged back to me, putting the response in my court.

Well, you know me, so we made a reservation three weeks later and the rest is, so to speak, history. We love the sauna! We go every 5 or 6 weeks and have been to several nice ones in and around Haarlem, but Sauna Van Egmond remains our favorite. Sweating it out in the Eucalyptus Turkish Steam bath or meditating under the stars in the Asian spice room always seems to put us squarely back into balance. In between the hot therapies, we plunge into the artic pool or jump under the jungle shower in the outside courtyard.

Our initial trepidation about nakedness seems so ridiculous now. Attitudes are very different about it over here. Nakedness is not about hard bodies and schoolyard snickering and you don’t go to the sauna for sexual gratification. Here, nakedness doesn’t automatically mean sexuality.

Think about that for a minute. That idea alone can lift a lot of societal crap from your back.

And let’s face it, in all honesty most people don’t look very good without clothes on anyway. Which I think is the point of being naked in the first place. You go to the sauna to immerse yourself in luxurious relaxation. And in my opinion, you have to shed the burdens, and stigmas, and social class of your outside world in order to really do that. Clothes are a great place to start.

Fall mountains

Sage and I picked Beth up at Schiphol airport on her way back from New York last Friday and headed down to the Ardennes Mountains in Belgium for a long weekend. The trip started out a little rough when we got stuck in massive traffic jam in Maastricht and then took a wrong turn in Luik and ended up downtown at the height of rush hour - what a nightmare! Luik (or Liege for you French speakers) is a rats nest of poorly signed tunnels and bridges and traffic circles. When I finally stopped and asked for directions, it took a French truck driver and a Belgium college student to figure out how to get where we needed to go. I spoke Dutch with her, she translated to French for the truck driver, then gave me his response back in Dutch. Yikes! But we made it…

It is amazing how quickly the congestion of civilization dissolves once you get outside of Luik. By the time that we were pulling into our holiday rental on the outskirts of the microscopic village of Harre, we were both smiling again. Here are some pictures from the trip.






We stayed in this old water mill that has been converted to a guesthouse. It’s right on the edge of a large forest and we could hike right out the back door.































A beautiful open hearth fireplace added to the ambiance. Dogs are allowed…but probably not up on the leather couch.



















The medieval village of Durbuy. A bit touristic, but worth a visit. You can see the float trip going down the river. Maybe we’ll bring the kayaks next time.





















The town of Stavelot is famous for some funky parade that they have every year where people dress up in white sheets and hoods and put on these gross long red noses. If you ask me, it looks a little creepy. The town is also the site of some of the worst Nazi atrocities during the Battle of the Buldge. The war memorial near the demolished monastery says that the US forces that fought here were from Fort Meade, Maryland. My uncle Joe was from Maryland and fought in the Battle of the Buldge. Does anyone from my family know if this is where he was stationed?






On the trail.















Wild Boars!










We had a pretty incredible experience out on the mountain one evening. We were walking off-trail along a small creek bed through a thick pine woods. It was getting a bit dark under the canopy when we heard a low rumble in the woods behind us. Sage went on full alert and Beth and I craned our necks expecting to see some deer.

It took me a minute to figure out what was ripping through the woods toward us. At first I thought that it was a pack of dogs, but as they got closer I recognized them. A herd of wild boar! Big, black, ugly fuckers. I don’t know much about these things, but I’ve heard stories of them killing dogs, so I grabbed Sage and we all stood as still and quietly as possible.

They must have caught wind of us because the main herd veered up the hill about 40 yards away from us. But a huge male, maybe a couple of hundred pounds, with big freaking tusks dropped below the rest of the herd and made what felt like a warning pass at us. He swung within 20 yards before bolting up the hill with the rest of them.

It was one of the coolest things that I have ever experienced out in the woods. Sage was completely freaked out and jumped at even the slightest sounds for the next three days.

We didn’t see them again for the rest of the trip, but we heard them every night out in the fields on the edge of the woods. It’s breeding season in the Ardennes and these things are horny little suckers. I had to wear earplugs one night it got so loud.




















We stumbled across this mud hole the next day. You can see the mud caked onto the sides of the trees where the boar rub after rolling in it.

Maybe next year I’ll come down when it’s open season…

Harvest

It seems like we’ve been doing a lot of celebrating the past few weeks. We spent a great evening over in the garden to celebrate the fall harvest. We’ve been loading up on berries, pears, and apples. We’ve got so much fruit that I’m thinking of bringing the apple-press over from the states for next year. There are still a few straggling zucchini’s, but we’ll have to wait another few weeks for the last of the veggies - the beets and Brussel sprouts.

























Beth was late (as usual) for the picnic and got locked out of the volkstuin by this medieval fashioned gate. I guess that they really, really don’t want people coming in to steal the vegetables.




















Hip young Dutch girl tries to teach old bald white guy how to rap….technically challenged wife tries to take picture.

Beth and I also celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary - nothing so exotic as last year in Singapore - and her 41st birthday with a quiet evening at home on Saturday night. Sorry, those pictures are posted only on the site for paying members.

September Summer and Grape Pie

Talk about extremes - this past July was the driest and hottest on record here in North Holland and August was one of the coolest and wettest. Now that September has rolled around the weather has settled into the “perfect” category with warm sunny days and crisp cool nights to usher in our favorite season. It’s a time for candles and wine, uncrowded beaches, fire pots on the terrace, and long walks in crunchy woods.



Friday evening we went over to our good friends Frank and Natasja for Tapas and catching up after their extended August holidays down in Spain. Frank and I also finally got to see the famous “Naked Cowboy”. The girls had made such a fuss about it when they saw him on Times Square in New York, but I have to say that I was a bit disappointed when I saw him in the movie. I always knew that Beth had a thing for Western PA machine shop kind of guys, but Natasja?

Saturday was a Renaissance Festival in central Haarlem. It was interesting to see this type of festival in a setting that was really here during the Renaissance. We had fun, but it just wasn’t what we’re used to for a Ren-Fest. I know that this will sound terrible - the real ugly American, but I like the Festivals back in the states better. The self contained villages that they’ve set up in PA or MD, the roasted turkey legs and beer, the jousting, and the shows are all much more festive than the real thing over here. Maybe we’ll try one of the bigger ones in France or Germany next year.

On Sunday we biked to the beach under perfect skies to soak up some sun. People were already disassembling their beach huts and covering them with tarps until the trucks come around to haul them back into storage. The beach bars will remain until early October, then they’ll be cleared out as well leaving the empty beaches for us locals and our dogs.

And Sunday evening was grilled salmon and grape pie on the back terrace with our good friend Esther. I made the salmon….Esther made the pie. It looks delicious, doesn’t it? When we all dug in, Beth and I looked up from our bowls, making subtle eye contact across the table and trying very hard to keep straight faces. Lucky for us, it was Esther who let out the first hardy “Oh my god!” with puckered lips and twisted neck. None of us have laughed that hard for a very, very, long time. Thanks Esther!

Hell-week in Holland

Damn! 16+ million is a lot of people for this little corner of Europe!

This week is tweener week, when most Dutch are back from their sunny holidays in Spain, France, and the Greek Isles but have not yet returned to work and school and their normal scheduled lives. It is the absolute worst time of the year to be in Holland.

Beth and I have been working (or not) remote for four years now and have gotten a bit spoiled by not having to participate in the daily 9-5 grind. The “not driving” part was a no brainer for us to quickly appreciate. Boise’s traffic hadn’t been all that bad, I actually used to bike to work , but after two years in Washington DC’s car oriented drive-me-to-the-next-strip-mall culture, we were more than happy to leave the suburban commuter lifestyle as far behind as possible.

But this week in Holland makes me appreciate the other beneficial aspects of working (or not) at home. Most days I almost enjoy grocery shopping or running an errand downtown to pick something up. I certainly enjoy the way that I have the bike paths through the dunes to myself or can walk in the dog parks knowing that only the ‘regulars’ will be there. I usually do all of these things before 5:00 PM because I know that once everyone gets off of work, it can be too much of a hassle or too crowded.

Welcome to hell-week. It’s a free-for-all out there and it ain’t a pretty sight. Screaming, hopped-up kids savoring their last week of freedom, stressed (although tanned) parents trying to cram a summer’s worth of shopping and home-improvement projects into five days, and woefully understaffed shops (hey, they get vacation too!) all combine to make life miserable here this week.

I can’t wait until everyone returns to work and I can finally relax.

Hammerdrills and Jazz

The past two weeks have found us busy with the new house and local summertime festivals. Most of the work on the house has been very enjoyable and it is great to finally be able to put our own tastes and personalities into a place again. The two years of renting certainly had it’s advantages and it didn’t bother me at all like I first might have imagined, but it is very nice to be getting back into ownership mode. In a way, working on this place is easy compared to the one back in Maryland. I’m sure that some of that is sheer volume…this house is less than half the size. But the simple, square rooms and the consistent 220V electric wiring are also much easier than back in the states. The hardest adjustment has been adapting to the stone and concrete construction. Other than the staircase and trim, there is virtually no wood in the place. This has allowed me to introduce a new skill into my handyman regimen - Hammerdrilling. Need to put a cable through the wall? Hammerdrill. Hang a picture? Hammerdrill. Put up the new toiletpaper holder? Hammerdrill. Anything that goes deeper than the quarter inch of plaster is going to need an industrial style machine that can blast its way through the solid rock….pretty cool!

We’ve also had time for some other types of fun. Joe came over from the states for a week and we did a lot of biking, spent a day in Amsterdam and hit the local food fair. But once again, the best by far has been Haarlem Jazz. This event has been going on for the past week and even though Beth and I are not big jazz fans, this festival has turned into one of our local favorites. The streets become one giant party scene where you can eat and drink as you wander between the 8 different bandstands set up in the old quarter of the city. We tend to gravitate to the Blues stage or even the Big Band music, but the best part is always just sitting with beer or glass of wine and watching the world go by.

I’m off to America next week and am trying to get into a two week update pattern for the blog. Enjoy the remnants of summer…damn, it went quick!

Here are a few more pics from the house.



Living Room



Kitchen and Dining Rooms

The Board Room (Beth's office)

Verhuizen

Wij zijn verhuizd!

It’s been a tough couple of weeks, but the move into the new house is finally complete. Well, “complete” might be a bit of a strong word. It’s still a bit of a mess and the trim is not yet back up in the living room and the hallways are not yet painted and some of the lights are not yet up and the pictures are not yet hung and you get the idea. But the beds are in and the kitchen is functional so we are now sleeping and eating meals here.

We have already done quite a bit of work to the place. The biggest job was ripping out the old hardwood flooring. The old owner had added on to the house in the back and had not done a very good job of matching up the old flooring inside. The new stuff came out pretty easily, but the old stuff that was probably laid back in the 1930’s was a complete bitch. I had to borrow a saw from a friend and start cutting grid patterns into the wood to get it to even consider budging in small chunks. There is still a large pile of scrap in the back yard. But the new hardwood turned out really good and we are happy that we put in the effort.

Here are a few pictures of the work in progress.

















The kitchen/dining area with the old floor and before any painting.


















Removing the old wood-burner. Damn! That stove pipe wasn’t attached!

















The living room. You can see the line in the old floor where he added on. Yes, we know that the awning is kind of ugly, but it is electric and can go in and out as needed. On a hot summer day with this sunny south-facing garden, it is a blessing…so we’re going to keep it.

















The newer hardwood came out in huge chunks (leaning against the wall), the older hardwood had to be cut out and stacked in the back garden.

















Lovely red walls with white trim and blue carpet. We couldn’t change the bedrooms fast enough.

















New hardwood floor and a fresh coat of paint can do wonders. The new kitchen goes in this fall.

Wallibi World

We dropped Sage off at the Dierenpension on Saturday so that we could devote all of our time in the next two weeks to the new house. But we didn’t get the keys until Monday, so we took advantage of our free day and did a trip over to an amusement park on Sunday with friends. We went to Wallibi World because it is known for its roller coasters. And after 6 hours of riding, we weren’t disappointed. Some of these things are starting to get a little bit crazy. We rode one that had an 80 degree drop from over 75 meters before slinging you into centrifugal funnel that whipped you onto your side. Another one spun you 6 times into brain-jarring corkscrews. On another, you rode in an open chair with your feet dangling through the loops and turns. But the absolute scariest of all was called Express. It started out with a bone-crushing launch that propelled you to nearly 50 miles per hour in under three seconds. It was an incredible feeling!
But that wasn’t the scary part. That didn’t come until the coaster rolled to a stop just before the station. We sat there. And sat there. And sat there. Did I mention that in order to survive the speed and upside down parts of the track on Express, you have a steel harness ratcheted tightly down across your shoulders and into a lock at your groin. It was like a straight jacket. And we were stuck that way for nearly 20 minutes. I can take just about any twist and turn that you throw at me, but I will admit that I’m a bit claustrophobic. It was not a pleasant experience for me, just sitting there locked into that seat. Breath in. Breath out.

But….in the end the trip was a huge success and we all came home with dizzy headaches to have a BBQ and drink beer in the back garden. Gezellig!

Sorry for the poor picture quality. I didn’t carry my camera with me (for obvious reasons) and only took a picture on the way out. Express is the Blue coaster and the green hill that you can see is the 80 degree drop that I mentioned. The coasters are in the distance…trust me…they are very high.