We landed safely in Holland around
1:00 pm on Thursday April 3, 2014. Our flights went smoothly with only a half
hour delay added to our four hour layover at the Dublin airport due to heavy
fog. We passed the time by having an Irish breakfast, coffee, Irish crème
whisky samples, tasting chocolates and chatting with a couple from Ireland on
their way to Italy and Spain. We turned our watches ahead five hours, exchanged
our dollars in for euros and went through customs where our suntan lotion was
confiscated.
At the
immense Schiphol airport we were welcomed with displays of tulips and delftware
that lines the shelves of airport shops. After claiming our luggage, we found our way
to the Avis car rental kiosk to pick up a car I had reserved earlier. A young man in his thirties who spoke English
with a strong Dutch accent handed me the keys to a small plum colored mini car.
Cliff piled the luggage in the small trunk.
After getting in the car, the first thing I looked for was the GPS, but
it was nowhere to be found. I went back to the desk to ask where the GPS was in
the car. They forgot to give it me. I had to make a second trip back to the
Avis office to have the gadget changed from European to English. I programmed
the address of the Bed and Breakfast in DeZilk, Holland and was ready to go
until I turned on the car reached down to put the car in drive and discovered
that it was a standard. I hadn’t driven
a standard car in over ten years, but after a few stalls and jumps, engaging
the clutch and shifting the gears came back to me. Just like riding a bike, you
never forget.
Due to
studying the road map before leaving for our trip I had an idea in what direction
we were traveling, but it was nerve wracking driving on a four lane
highway with foreign traffic signs, a standard car and the driving speed in
kilometers an hour. My brain had a hard
time adjusting to a 100 kph instead of 60 mph.
I relied on the flow of traffic to gauge my speed and muddled through
the road signs. The biggest challenge came when the women’s voice on the GPS
said “at the next round about turn left and take the second exit.” In a matter of minutes I came to an island of
grass with two lanes of traffic encircling it. The exits were unmarked narrow
roads, like spokes on a wheel, so I had to count “one, two, three” as I
navigated around the round-about. There is a ‘round-about’ wherever a road
intersects.
The GPS navigated
us to the Tulpenzicht Bed and Breakfast, where we met our host who speaks
German and a little English. We were
delighted to see that the B&B with contemporary furniture, laminate flooring,
colorful Dutch wall hangings and a modern kitchen with an induction stove and
oven depicted the pictures on the website.
My brother Jack, who is familiar with Holland forewarned me about the high
price of meals in the country and he was right.
One simple meal of cod, french fries and small salad at a conservative
restaurant cost 46 Eruos. I sure was glad to have the kitchen included in the
B&B.
After unloading
our luggage at the B&B we headed to the nearby town of Lisse to stock up on
a few groceries. We found a market,
strictly by accident, with a nice selection of food. I headed to the produce
aisle leaving Cliff alone to get the cart. When I turned to ask him what kind
of cheese we should buy he was struggling to free a cart from the rack. He was confused as to why he had to insert a fifty
cent euro to free a shopping cart until he realized it was a deposit that
eliminated having to hire people to return the carts to the store. We stocked up
on cheese, lunch meat, herring, and black licorice. When we checked out Cliff
asked what he could put the groceries in. The cashier told him something in
Dutch, but he couldn’t understand her. I
looked down and seen heavy plastic bags for twenty euro cents. After thirty
hours without sleep and a crash course in European driving and shopping, we
were both ready for a good night’s sleep.
On Friday
after a hearty breakfast of whole grain bread, croissants, fruit, yogurt,
granola, fresh squeezed orange juice, soft boiled eggs, lunch meat and cheese,
Cliff made sandwiches from the leftovers for our lunch. Jack arrived at 10:00
am and had coffee while we chatted for a few minutes. We tasted the black
licorice and were disappointed that it wasn’t salty.
Jack read the label and told me it was German licorice. After a cup of coffee we hit the road. Jack sat in the front seat of the
rental car and gave me European driver lessons while en route to a Clara
Maria’s cheese and wooden shoe making factory.
Cliff enjoyed seeing how wood shoes are made and found a hand tool and
spoon gouges that that he doesn’t have. We sampled wild onion, mustard, whiskey, cumin
and nut cheese, stocked up on souvenirs and then had lunch at a picnic table next to
the house.
Next we
traveled north through the town of Gouda (that the Dutch pronounce howda) and
then to the only Delft potter factory in Holland. We arrived at 4:30 pm just as
the shop was closing. The owners were gracious enough to give us a quick tour
of the small factory housed in a three story brick building. It was fascinating to learn about the tedious
process of making expensive Delft pottery. The Dutch women who explained the
process to us, has a daughter who is in college and will be attending Penn
State University for a semester. We invited her daughter to visit us when she is
in Pennsylvania.
When we returned to the B&B in the evening
I made tortellini, sautéed Italian vegetables and German beef sausage. It was a
challenge getting the induction oven to work until we realized that the heating
elements wouldn’t turn on with certain pans. I was grateful that my friend Mary
Lisa gave me an adaptor for my computer and hair dryer. After checking my email
we went for a leisurely walk in the area and enjoyed the sunset, beautifully
landscaped homes and fields of fragrant purple hyacinths, yellow daffodils and pink
tulips.
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