A long row to hoe

Beth and I are currently training for the Amsterdam Marathon in October and there are plenty of places nearby to get in a long run. Aside from the National Dunes Park, this trail complex is my favorite. It's very close to home and has a bunch of different lenght loop options...and Sage can come along because there isn't much road frontage and a good portion of it is "loslooplaats"...dogs run free.

It was one of the first trails that we found when we moved to Haarlem last August. I remember looking across the polder at the trees in the distance and thinking - "One of these days I want to run the whole way around there." Now, I have to go around more than once for one of my longer training runs.

BTW - it's also the same polder that the infamous "tipped" sheep was found on.

Nog een jaar!

Today marks our 1 year anniversary of living in Holland. When we talked with the Americans who rented our house the previous year, they spoke of all the great places that they had seen in Europe during their one year stay. Now that our first year here is over, we can’t imagine how they could have possibly crammed in everything that they did in only one year.

Beth and I have taken a somewhat different approach. As you all know, we love to travel and want to see everything that Europe has to offer, but we’re also really immersing ourselves in the enjoyment of daily life here in Haarlem. And we are making what feel like life long new friends in the process.

To celebrate our 1 year anniversary, we went camping with some of these new friends in the Ardennes Mountains in Belgium. It was Sages first time camping and the weather forecast was not good – thunderstorms and rain. It was also “Black Weekend” here in Holland. This is the weekend that marks the beginning of the August holiday season when what seems like 90% of the 16,000,000 Dutch people pack up caravans (campers) and head for Belgium, France, and Spain for the entire month. The roads are typically jammed for 3 solid days. Think 4th of July beach traffic on steroids – “Here come da Dutch!”

With all this stacked against us, it was with more than a little apprehension that we packed up the cars and headed for a campground along the banks of the Ourthe river just outside the medieval village of La Roche.

But, as we rolled out of Haarlem on Saturday morning, the weather broke and while the traffic was certainly heavy, it never backed up and in fact thinned to “normal” as we approached the Belgium border.

I’ve posted some pictures from the weekend.

Cheers!

Look familiar? The Ardennes really reminded us of the Appalachians.

La Roche

La Roche is a quaint little river village nestled into the mountains. This isn't the best picture of the village, but you can just see the 11th century ruins in the background and of course the Sherman tank in the foreground. La Roche was occupied by the Germans for most of WWII - a lot of "Battle of the Bulge" history is close by.

La Roche-river

The Ourthe river through La Roche - it's a kayaker mecca down stream and a canoer mecca up stream.

Navigator?

How does she always end up with the map?

Camping spot

Not exactly the Sawtooth wilderness backcountry, but not bad.

Morning walk

Bundled up for a cool morning walk with the dogs.

Hiking

The trails were very well marked and you often had to get onto these small little forest roads to make a trail connection. BTW - it was mountain biker heaven in the Ardennes!

Provocative

Do you remember the Bickey Burger sign that I posted from Antwerpen? You thought I was kidding about the provocative Belgium signs....this was our campground....a good choice!

Balancing Act

For such a small country The Netherlands packs quite an economic punch. Its pretty amazing to see how they balance the needs of industry with their love of open space and nature - you are never far from either.

To date, none of our visitors have taken me up on the offer to drive to the beach at Wijk aan Zee. They see the large factories, powerplants, and aluminum smelters on the horizon and kind of turn up their nose a bit. In reality, the industry is very well integrated into a quant little beach resort town - strange, but true. A drive past the smelter even reveals an outdoor industrial mondern art garden. Very cool! I'll hit it on the bike one of these days with the camera and post some pics - along with the WWII Nazi submarine base that still exists in the channel harbor.

Three country chicks

We had a little vacation back in the US in July and met up with Katie and Jody on the property in Western Maryland. A good 'ol country time was had by all - 4-wheelin', Kabota'n, Schmoorin' by the fire, and swimming in the river. Yeeeeehaaawww!

Special thanks to Wynona for the pictures ;-)

They all drive like this

Jody and Beth

Katie and Beth

Weeds on the randweg

"Why don't they ever cut those weeds on the side of the road?"

The Randweg is Haarlem's little bypass road that runs along a canal not too far from our house. This spring, the median strip of the randweg and the banks of the canal were filled with tulips and daffodils. It was a beautiful route that we went out of our way to see anytime that we found ourselves in the car. But as the summer heat and sun wilted those flowers, they were slowly overgrown with towering thistles and thickets of tangled "weeds". The once scenic roadway started looking more than a little shabby.

It seems there was a slight change while we were on holiday in the states because this was the scene that greeted us on our bike ride yesterday. We should have known better than to question the Dutch on anything to do with flowers. The "weeds" are now bursting with color and the randweg is again one of the most scenic drives in Haarlem.

Tough Day

A rare moment of relaxation after a busy day in Holland.

Now that the mid-summer heat is in full swing and it's been 3 months since I semi-retired, some of you have asked what a typical day in "The Summer of Dan" looks like. So I put together this little journal. Remember, these are "typical" activities. They vary pretty wildly and no two days seem to be the same.

07:00 AM – Wake-up at first alarm. Make coffee. Let animals out. Do exercises. Read email.
07:30 AM – Take coffee up to wake up Beth. Do dishes, clean kitchen.
08:00 AM – Eat breakfast with Beth.
08:15 AM – Walk to Zannenpark with Sage. Play with Nikos, Roxie, Max, etc.
Talk politics, work (theirs, not mine), etc. with friends in park.
09:00 AM Return to house. Write the great American/Dutch novel.
11:00 AM Get on the “cruiser bike” and do some grocery shopping. If it’s Monday or Thursday, go to open air market in the city center.
11:45 AM Lunch.
12:15 PM Drive to Caprera and do the rounds with Sage in the doggy park….rain or shine.
01:00 PM Stretch, put water, towel, and book into the backpack, load the MP3 Player and head to the dunes on the mountain bike for some hard riding.
02:00 PM Spread towel on the beach at Bloemendale. Catch some rays. Watch people. Read book. Listen to surf or MP3.
03:30 PM Hard bike ride home. This time on the bikelanes of the zeeweg….a faster route.
04:00 PM Check email. Do homework for Dutch lessons. Lessons are Monday and Wednesday, so schedule changes on those days.
05:00 PM Clean the house and backyard for a BBQ that we are having with friends tomorrow evening. We entertain, or are entertained at least twice a week. Adjust schedule accordingly.
05:45 PM Check in on Beth. Start dinner.
06:30 PM Eat dinner with Beth.
07:15 PM Beth and I walk with Sage to Zannenpark. Play with Diesel, Herda, Jolie. Talk with friends.
08:30 PM Drive to Bloemendale and run on the trails through the dunes with Beth. Sage isn't allowed in dunes...she stays home.
09:45 PM Back home. Have a beer in the back yard on the patio. (Remember, it’s still light out in Holland at 9:45 in July!)
10:00 PM Shower, put on jammies.
10:30 PM Open bottle of wine. Sit and talk.
11:15 PM Walk Sage.
11:30 PM Pet treats and Bedtime.

Repeat until April 1, 2007.

Paris

The "Left Bank". This was the area of the city that Hemmingway and other noted writers haunted. Les Deux Maggots is just around the corner in this photo.

I can’t believe that we’ve lived in Europe for almost a year and have only recently taken the high speed train down to Paris. After 4 nights in the heart of the French capital, I can understand the allure and energy that has drawn so many artists, writers, intellectuals, and free thinkers here to sit with like-minded compatriots in a sidewalk café on a quiet square tucked into an hopelessly picturesque quarter of the city.

While I didn’t enjoy the standard tourist sites (I rarely do), I found exploring the less tour-bus trammeled areas of Paris fascinating and beautiful. The following pictures are from our visit. Hope you enjoy!

Sacre Coeur

Another favorite area of the city. Once you got away from the throngs of tourists, "real" scenes like this quickly emerged.

Picnic on the banks of the Seine

With Notre Dame framed by the setting sun, Parisians flock to the banks of the Seine with a bottle of wine, a baquette of bread and a chunk of cheese to enjoy the cool evening.