Going Dutch!

When in Microsoft, I got to go to Europe on one of our company trips. That was in 1997. The downside was that while we were there, our currency crisis hit us very hard and we watched our currency drop while in Holland. While we got a little richer with all the currency we held, it was a damper on our holidays but still...what a trip!

While I said Europe, we actually went to Holland and Germany la. We could take our spouses with us and my wife and I took our second honeymoon (of course if you ask her, we still haven't gone on our honeymoon yet. All those trips we took were either company trips or with other family members so it doesn't count).

Mikey was only 4 months old when we decided not to miss this trip. It was the hardest thing we had to do and leaving our children is still one of the hardest things we had to do. Hence, we haven't taken any trips without our kids since then, unless it was a single trip, which means at least one of us stays with the kids. I think we spent more money and time calling back then shopping in Holland.

We first landed in Amsterdam exiting the new and modern Schipol Airport (for 1997 la). We then tasted our first Dutch food and it was absolutely horrible. I am convinced that we were shortchanged by our tour guide. We had pea and ham soup which looked as if a duck got very sick in it and salt in the sea exploded and got siphoned to my single bowl of soup!

Every day breakfast was about a zillion versions of ham and a few million varieties of bread. EVERY MORNING!! One of my friends brought mee in a cup and after the first week, it never smelled so good! However, apart from that first meal and EVERY breakfast, other meals were not too bad. We had Chinese (which was ok) and a few Indonesian meals. In case you forgot your history, the Dutch colonized Indonesia until 1946 and there are many Indonesians in Holland as with Surinamese and other Caribbean country folks.

Amsterdam was really cool! Old buildings and lots and lots of sex-related stuff, like the famous red-light district and a sex museum! People are really cool about it. I accidentally walked into one of those aquariums and the lady was very nonchalant and helpful. I told her it was an accident and I thought it was a restaurant and my wife was with me. She answered in a matter-of-fact voice saying, "Well if we include your wife, it will extra.". Well to hell with that! Charge me extra!!! I stormed out, my heart beating faster than a hummingbird's wings!!

The Dutch were also VERY friendly. When we were in Rotterdam, we were put up in a suburb so that our hotel was cheaper. So a bunch of us decided to take a train to town for the night. When we got to the train station, the ticket kiosk was either in Flemish or German (who knows??). So we looked hopelessly lost and was staring at it when a boy of about 13 who was stoned from marijuana came to ask if we needed help.

He was so bloody stoned, he couldn't really talk properly or understand us and went to ask someone else. Even when they are stoned, they try to help. This GORGEOUS girl comes to us and helps us all buy tickets. We took the train with her and one of my buddies tried to chat her up. We told her we were looking for a watering hole and asked for directions. She decided it was too much trouble to tell us and decided to show us. We thought it was only polite we bought her a drink and she followed 6 total strangers to the street with bars and we had a great time. She left with some guy she met there. I hope she is all right!! Anyway, I thought that was so cool of her.

There are a lot of cool stuff in Holland but some things that stuck with me:-

1) Amsterdam was really old and very 16th century, so much history! There was a sex museum for goodness sake!!

2) Protecting the North Sea from flooding the whole country is a engineering miracle.

3) There is a town called Volendam by the sea which was SOOOO quaint, it was like a painting come to life. The roads were for pedestrians only and food was actually good!

4) In Madurodam, we have the Land of Lilliputian. Lilliput is the town of small people that Gulliver ended up in the book "Gulliver's Travel". If you don't know that book, GOOGLE IT! Everything was the miniature of a real building.

5) There was a town outside Rotterdam where everything was colonial 18th century Dutch. We learned to churn butter, make cheese, ride a unicycle, reel in the boat into the boat house and had colonial food. We also did archery and visited old buildings like the barber and apothecary.

6) Alkmaar had one of the best experience you can get by being in a market....a cheese market. It was great.

7) Unfortunately when we were there, it was not tulip season so we only saw tulips at a flower exchange!

8) There was a town we passed by called Amstelveen which my god-brother Alex thought was a really cool swear word. We have been using that to swear whenever in front of our kids.

9) The canals were also used as streets and there are many boathouses along the canals.

10) Lots of marijuana places very covertly names as "Koffee Places" or "Kofi House" (not that we tried...really la!)

11) Visit Coster Diamonds, one of the world's most well known diamond establishment and TOTALLY out of my league! (Note : Don't bring any women there!!!)

12) Castles and Windmills showed so much history and culture...also a GREAT place to play hide and seek.

I will share more on Germany next and if you write me a confidential note with enough "encouragement", I may remember the name of that nice lady at the aquarium.