I’ve now been in Holland for over a week, and I’ve been enjoying my stay thoroughly. It was great to meet Dirk’s family last weekend, and check out where he is from. Not surprisingly, his family is wonderful. They were so warm and welcoming to me that rather than make me miss my own family more, I just felt at home. PLUS, there is an old windmill practically in their front yard. I know Holland and windmills go together like Canada and maple syrup, but I really enjoyed all the colourful, old windmills spread out around the towns. The weather was beautiful on Saturday so Dirk gave me a tour of Zeeland. It was a nice change of pace to be out in the country after spending a week in London. Sunday was not such beautiful weather, so we spent the day lounging and eating, apart from taking the dogs on a walk.
Modern windmills
The windmill near the Hundersmarck home.
The week has been great as well. The weather has, admittedly, been miserable. Every morning I peak out my curtains and hope for sun, and almost every morning, it is gray. There are intermittent patches of blue sky, and even some sunshine from time to time, but it has been mostly gray and often rainy. However, the company makes up for the weather (Dirk’s housemates are great too, which has made my stay that much better). We’ve gone on a couple long bike rides, we’ve eaten Oliebollen (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oliebol) and Dutch pancakes (much like crepes) and bread with chocolate sprinkles, we’ve cooked dinners and drank wine, we’ve gone out for pizza and sushi and Belgian beer, and listened to live jazz. We’ve checked out the market and biked home with the goods, and we’ve sat on the (amazing) couch watching Dutch reality TV or Toy Story 3 or Two and a Half Men while catching up and cursing the rain. And we hunted the mouse that had been living in the apartment for the last few weeks. It was a long battle, but we recently came out victorious.
To top that all off, yesterday we went to see Sinterklaas on his way through Rotterdam. Sinterklaas is, of course, the Dutch version of Santa Claus. However, he visits on December 5, leaving candy and small gifts in the children’s shoes, and he rides a white horse and has a sidekick called Black Pete (who is black from chimney soot). Also, Sinterklaas looks a lot like the Pope to me – the Pope with a very long white beard. It was fun to see him in all his regal glory, surrounded by his sooty sidekicks.
Sinterklaas!
This week I’ll go to Amsterdam for a few days, and then on to Spain. I’ve yet to sort of all the details in the middle, but I’ll be meeting up with Andrea and Danielle in Madrid on the 29th. Hopefully there will be a little bit more sunshine there. However, I still have several days left in Holland. Maybe tomorrow when I peak outside, I’ll see some sun.
Sending more love from Rotterdam!
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