statcounter

#####################################################

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

Lekker Weer!

We’ve had some of the finest weather on the planet this past week here in Holland - warm sunny days with rich blue skies that give way to fresh salty breezes ushered in across the dunes with the evening shadows. So what do the Dutch do with such nice weather? Well, if you aren’t inclined to lying naked on the beach in Zandvoort, then your best alternative is to join in on the fun with something like this annual bike/beer fest.

The bars of Haarlem hold this little gem of a festival every spring to welcome in the season’s bock beer. Once you’ve signed up, you get a little orange bike flag which indicates that you’ve paid, although I think it is used more to indicate to the other bikers/drivers/walkers to be careful around you because you have been drinking large volumes of beer since around noon. You also get a map of all the bars on the tour (about 15 spread across three towns and 20 kilometers) and spend the rest of the day biking between them to sample the beers, eat pub food, and menace the sober bikers. Great fun!





Stacked up at a pub in Bloemendaal.

This contraption does qualify as a bike! You can get 14 people pedaling these mobile kegs, with one bartender of course. I see them around town occasionally. They are pretty slow moving, but I guess that speed is not really the point, toch?


How do you get to the next bar? Just follow the weaving flags.

Tuesday, April 10, 2007

Den Haag

We took a little day trip down to Den Haag (The Hague) last weekend to enjoy the spring weather. We spent most of the time in the city parks and surrounding Wandelparks because we took Sage along, but we also got a chance to walk into the main square and get a quick feel for the city. While the people seemed to lack the warmth of The Dutch that we’re used to here in North Holland, the city was beautiful and we’ve already decided to go back for a more in depth visit.

Haagsebos - This enormous park in the middle of the city was great for walking.

Country Estates - We quickly found out that this now public forest park was once for the private estates and hunting grounds of Dutch royalty/elite.

The 13th century Binnenhof is the seat of the Dutch government. It is beautifully situated in the heart of the city.

A different perspective on the same building shows the ultra-modern sky scrapers that are springing up around the central train station. This intermingling of old and new is classic Dutch.


Sage in the city. She was able to tune out the trolley and focus really, really hard on the pigeons that had just landed in front of us.