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Wednesday, October 25, 2006

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.

Thursday, October 19, 2006

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.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

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…