Guest starring in this blog: my good friend Sarah. Rob and I had the pleasure of hosting Sarah for a week in May, then Sarah and I went for a girl’s week-away in London.
We started Sarah’s visit with a few days in Amsterdam. Sarah and I took a canal boat tour down the historic Dutch canal’s (and even cruised by my office on one of the poshest canals of course!). We went to the Heinekin Brewery Experience , and got to see the Heinekin horses that pull a famous company cart around town and experience “life as a beer bottle” ride. We each got 3 drink vouchers, after 1 attempt each at a beer , and 1 soda , we made some German guys happy with 2 free drink vouchers. We also saw the Van Gogh museum and the Red Light district, and the Amsterdam fashion street Kalver Straat.
Sarah was treated to an authentic , gourmet dinner of Dutch Pancakes by master-chef Rob, and enjoyed the hospitality of Hotel Kaptein for the week. She, I and Rob all went to the Dutch version of Disney Land, the Efteling Fairy Tale Park. We wandered through grottos life-size fairy tale cottages and castles, detailed dioramas with trains and (of course) wind mills. We went on an Arabian Nights themed ride that was strangely remeniscent of a certain pirate ride (Yo, Yo Ho anyone??). The one big difference of course is all the fairy tales were in Dutch, and little children looked at us strangely when we spoke English! We were amongst the only non-Dutch in the park!
Over the weekend, Rob, Sarah and I also went to the Keukenhof, the famous tulip garden exhibition spot. We did see many beautiful non-tulip flowers, and displays including the Queen’s flowered hats and award winning flowers. We missed the tulips though, and saw freshly cut stems in the tulip fields. Oh well, Sarah will have to come back next year for the tulips!
After a day at the gardens, Sarah got to see Rob’s home town, and enjoy a Dutch dinner with Jan, Nettie, Femke, Tomas and little Quinten. She was the first person from the US to see our new house (promise, pics of the new house very soon!!) and our old house.
Sarah and I also went to Delft (where I had studied for my language program), for an outdoor market and tour of the famous sights. She enjoyed a few more days of touring Amsterdam while I jealously sat in my office.
Then we jetted off to London for a fun filled week…tune in for the next blog entry for full details
