Keukenhof, Clogs and Cheese...

It was an absolutely beautiful day today. The temperature got into the low 80's and the sky was blue. It was fantastic. Jess had a soccer game in Germany, Russ went on a motorcycle ride in Belgium, and Brandon and I went on a trip with KB to the Netherlands (Holland). That's not something I get to say every day, but things have been a little out of the ordinary since we moved over here. I'm good with that. Even though we went to Keukenhof Gardens just a few weeks ago, we were off to see it again. We actually had this trip planned before the other one, but decided to do both, because the first trip included a visit to Noah's Ark, and this one included the clog and cheese factories. The flowers were as gorgeous as ever. The only down side to the visit were the crowds. Today is the busiest day of the season at the Gardens, because it's the day of the Flower Parade. (It's basically the Netherlands' version of the Rose Bowl Parade.) We didn't stay for the parade, but the Gardens were packed! If you want to visit them, I would suggest that you check the schedule and avoid Flower Parade Day. Brandon and I had seen most of the Gardens on the last visit, so today was more about checking out the interesting places that we had missed. We came across this little tunnel made of sticks, winding through the trees, and Brandon went in to check it out. It was a tight fit, but very cool. This was the main thing that we were looking for...the hedge maze. It was really fun. The hedges are taller than they look. There is no way you can see over them, so you have to wind your way around in it until you reach the platform in the middle. Then you can climb up and get this view. We had a lot of fun in there. I think this was my favorite color combination in the entire Gardens. It was absolutely beautiful in real life. Soon, it was time to find our way back to the bus and head on to the next destination.On the way out, I noticed this lovely couple. Mr. and Mrs. Rabbit had found a quiet little corner of the garden, and were enjoying a dance. Ahhhh, love is in the air. Most people would assume that these crowds were lining up outside of Keukenhof Gardens to see the parade. This is not the case. I have it on good authority that they had heard the rumor that a world famous blogger was inside the park, and they were hoping to catch a glimpse of her. Yes, I waved at them as we passed by. I could tell that it meant a lot to them. Our next stop was at the Simonehoeve, a cheese farm and clog factory in the Netherlands. We learned some pretty cool stuff about how cheese is made, and even got to taste a LOT of samples. A few cheeses ended up coming home with me. If you are feeling adventurous, order some of their smoked cheese from their website. It's delicious! Then we went next door to the Clog Factory. They demonstrated how they make clogs. Again, very cool! It's fascinating to see how they clogs are formed. We got to see the process, beginning with a chunk of wood and ending with a completed clog. The fellow giving the demonstration was a lot of fun, too. This is what the clog looks like after the first stage. Next, they drill away the inside. The final product...glorious wooden clogs!

LOTS of clogs, in fact. You can get them to actually wear, but I only got a little pair to put on a shelf. Let's face it, how many times have you said, "Hmmm, I wish I had a pair of wooden shoes to wear to the mall today!" Yep. Me, neither. By the way, in case you were wondering, the rounded toed clogs were worn by farmers to protect their feet from heavy farm equipment. The pointed toed clogs were worn by fishermen, and their nets were hooked onto the tips of their shoes to help hold them while they worked. The pointed toed shoes were also worn by the women, because they were very helpful when kicking husbands in the tail when they misbehaved. The man at the shoe factory told us this. I believe him. He would make this stuff up.

Guitars, Teenagers and Brad Paisley

The hubby told me that I could pick out anything that I wanted for my Anniversary gift last month. This could have gotten him into lots of trouble, but I behaved myself and chose something that has always held a great fascination for me. I wanted a guitar. After weeks of research and shopping locally and online, I ended up at a tiny music shop in a nearby town and purchased this little beauty. (Little is rhetorical. Guitars are actually a lot bigger than they look on TV!) I have an old book that teaches you the basics in guitar playing, so I've been practicing with that. After a couple of weeks of "playing", I have sore fingertips, knowledge of the basic notes and a few chords, and still can't play any real songs. I'm OK with this. I know that it takes time. Of course, the fact that the Teenager went to school and came home playing an entire song stings a little. It's only 3 or 4 chords, but you can recognize the tune. (Darn those guitar playing friends of hers!) I console myself with the thought that her mind is still young and pliable, while mine is maybe just a little bit dusty, but at least I know the notes! Then Jess pointed out that most songs are chords anyway, so she doesn't really need to learn individual notes right now. Fine. I'll just go do some research and watch Brad Paisley music videos all afternoon. It's not like I WANT to watch him, but it's just something I have to do for the sake of my art. Some day, I'll learn a song. Until then, I have a message for the Teenager...knowledge is power, baby, and if someone needs me to point out a "C" note on the guitar, then I'm their gal!

A Beautiful Day For A Bike Ride

Mother Nature is spoiling us with all of these beautiful days. It makes it extremely hard to stay in the house and take care of those menial tasks like cleaning and laundry. It's absolutely gorgeous. Russ went in to work late today, so when he asked me if I wanted to keep him company on his jog along the canal at noon, I jumped at the chance. No, I didn't jog, too. I'd already done that at the gym this morning, so I took my lovely limo (Belgian bike) along for a ride. Sunshine brings the bikers out in droves in these parts. It's quite the social scene. I don't mean one or two bikes, here and there. I'm talking about groups of 15 or 20 bikers, and just about any age you can think of. They travel together, stopping along the way to greet other friends that they run into. They always seem to end up at a neighborhood pub, sitting outside in the fabulous sunshine, sipping a beer or coffee and watching people passing by. Did I mention that this is a VERY social country? (These people never sit home and do nothing. It's just not in their nature.) Anyway, Russ and I were cruising along the canal near our house, with Russ running at a steady pace in front, and me following along on the cruiser, both of us greeting the locals as we pass. A barge was slowly cruising up the water way toward us. We've been here almost a year now, but I still find barges fascinating, so I was checking it out. It was fully loaded, and riding low in the water. The captain waved as he passed by, and I returned the greeting, and then I noticed something very interesting at the back of the boat. These barges are essentially houses on the water. They have little apartments built into them, and it's common to see bikes or small cars loaded onto the back of them. This guy not only had a car on the back, but he was washing it as they chugged down the canal. How cool is that? I knew I should have brought my camera with me. On the way back, we came upon a group of gray haired gentlemen, sitting on a bench near the canal and shooting the breeze with each other. They seemed to find us very entertaining. They tried to tell Russ to trade places with me, and let me run while he enjoyed a leisurely bike ride. They were talking in Dutch, but with hand gestures, we figured it out pretty quickly. Even with the language barrier, they were pretty funny, and had us laughing on our journey home. Just another perfect day in paradise...Hope yours was just as great.

UFC, Baby!

Russ has been following UFC for...well...a decade. For those of you who have been living under a rock for the last 10 years, UFC stands for the Ultimate Fighting Championship. It's all about mixed martial arts. It's one of those manly things. The kind of sport that makes you grunt like Tim "The Tool Man" Taylor. Some of the UFC fighters were kind enough to make the rounds of some overseas bases and put on a little demonstration. Today, they ended up near us at Brunsuum in The Netherlands. There was never any doubt...Russ and Brandon had to go. The guys answered some questions from the audience, and shared some entertaining stories about fighting. Then the fellas started their demonstration. They did some sparing, as well as ground work. They guys were joking about about showing us what a real choke out looks like, but they played nice. They demonstrated a lot of different moves. It was really cool to see these things in real life.

Here's a lovely pic of Mike "Quick" Swick and Big Daddy Russ. (OK, the nickname Big Daddy might not be terribly intimidating, but it was given with love.) After the demonstration, the guys signed autographs. Brandon jumped right in there, and got to meet all of the fighters. Here is Eban Kaneshiro. Mike "Quick" Swick signed it next, but he signs as quickly as he hits, and I didn't get a picture of it.This is Ed "Short Fuse" Herman.Here is Chris "The Crippler" Leban. Then we have Kyle Kingsbury.

After autographs, we had a little time for some pics, so we took advantage of it. My Men Folk are very happy campers. They had a great time meeting some real UFC fighters. It's crazy to play the UFC game on the PS3, watch UFC on TV and the Internet, and then actually get to MEET some of these fighters. It still doesn't seem real. I told Jess that this picture just makes me nervous. My Princess is surrounded by a bunch of tough looking guys. I do think it's funny that all of the guys seemed to smile a lot more in this picture than they did in the other ones with Russ and Brandon. Thanks to all of the fellas for taking time out of their training and fighting, to come over here and meet our military friends and family. We really appreciate it. Dana White should be very proud of them, too, because they were a really nice group of guys. Except maybe when you are fighting them for a championship belt. Then it's every man for himself!

Kids, Kip and Kangaroos

I must say, this week has turned out pretty interesting so far. The title of this entry alone, should clue you in to that. I'll start with the kids. Yesterday afternoon, Brandon and I were upstairs in the office, and the doorbell rang. I peeked out the upstairs window to see who had come calling, and there stood two teenage girls, maybe 15 or 16 years old. Normally, the only unexpected visitors to our house are selling something, or raising money for something. If they speak English, we almost always end up buying or donating to whatever it is. (I came home to a big box of speculoos cookies one day because a cute little girl had knocked on the door selling them. I can't complain, because when I opened the door to a fireman, I bought the calendar. I'm just saying.) Anyhoo, I opened the door to see what was up. After the obligatory request for the English version, here's the gist of what the girls wanted: They said that they were part of a youth group, and had walked 32.8 kilometers that day (that's around 20 miles), and ended up in our town. They were wondering if I would put them up for the night. Hmmmmmm. Now let me see if I understand this...two young girls walked 20 miles, knocked on a strangers door and asked if they could sleep there. I politely declined, and sent them on their merry way, knocking on the neighbors doors and requesting lodging. Jess said that when she came home on the bus a couple of hours later, there were lots of boys and girls out in the centrum of town, walking around and pointing at things like tourists. Sometimes I don't understand European traditions. There is no way Jess would be allowed to do this. And I have little desire to turn my home into a hostel, even if the kids are associated with a church. Strange. Still, I did think about it the rest of the night, and felt guilty for turning them away. Such is life. The kip is a little easier to explain. Although I have resisted the Belgian tradition owning chickens (kip), my friends are jumping on the bandwagon wholeheartedly. Chickens are very popular here because you not only get a garbage disposal, but you get the added bonus of fresh eggs. (They don't have garbage disposals in their kitchens here, and you have to pay by weight to throw away food waste and trash, so it adds up big time.) For the meager price of around 1.50 Euro, you, too, can get your own baby chick. Throw in the heat lamp and plastic tub to raise them in, and you can call yourself a Belgian. Once the chickens are big enough, you invest anywhere from 80 - 350 Euro for a snappy little chicken coop, and then fence them into their private pen in your back yard. It does add up, but for those who've always wanted to live on a farm, I can see the appeal. I almost fell for it myself, but the voice of reason (that would be Russ) reminded me that there is a lot of upkeep involved, not to mention replacing the lawn when it's time to move. Then you have to find a "babysitter" for those times that you are out of town. So, instead of being a proud chicken owner, I get to visit my friends and admire theirs. That's what I did this morning. I stopped by Denise's house on my way to the gym, and cooed and sighed over the two newest and tiniest members of their family. They really are cute. (Don't need a chicken. Don't need a chicken. Don't need a chicken...) That brings me to the third topic of today's entry...kangaroos. Remember back in January, and I mentioned that I got a strange phone call from Denise? It seems that she had looked out her back door, and saw a man carrying a kangaroo out of her yard by the tail. Poor Denise, she took a lot of ribbing for that one. We figured she had been nipping on too much of that famous Belgian beer. Well, today, after my visit with tiny kips, she took me across the street and pointed at her neighbors back yard. Well, I'll be...those ARE kangaroos. A whole bunch of them, to be exact. Apparently he raises them. You can own just about any kind of pet you want in Belgium, no special permits required. Unfortunately, they are a tad camera shy, and this was the best picture that I could come up with. Still, it does provide proof that Denise is not insane, so it has served it's purpose. Well, atleast on the subject of kangaroos. I hope your week is full of interesting things, as well. The kangaroos send their regards.

Friday At Noah's Ark And Keukenhof Gardens, Holland

In the Netherlands, there is something really interesting hanging out in the canals. Look familiar? Yep, it's Noah's Ark. OK, it's a scaled down replica, but it's still really cool. They are in the process of building a true to size Ark, but for now, this is something you need to go and check out. Some friends of ours scheduled a bus trip to see it, so we boarded at 6:30 (ugh!) in the morning, and took off. Now, I'm sure that a lot of things come to mind when you think about Noah's Ark, but I'll tell you what I think about. It's the poem by Shel Silverstein, that was turned into a song by the Irish Rovers. I'm a product of my environment. I blame my Dad. Now 99.9% of the people who read this are scratching their heads right now and thinking "Irish Rovers? Who the heck are they?" My parents are the only ones who know, I'm sure. Go ahead. I'll give you a minute to google it. (You know you want to.) Now I'll ask you if you noticed something in the picture.....yep. Two male lions. Noah needs to be careful about these things. No more lions...but being the unusual family that they are, they have decided to adopt a baby deer. Not a couple to be left out of the newest fad, Mr. and Mr. Moose have also adopted. At least they decided to stay within their species. The Lord seen some sinning, and it gave Him pain. And He says, "Stand back, I'm going to make it rain." And He says, "Hey Noah, I'll tell you what to do. Build me a floating zoo, and take some of those green alligators, and long-necked geese, some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees, some cats and rats and elephants, but sure as you're born, the loveliest of all is the unicorn."Old Noah was there, and he answered the call. He finished up making the ark just as the rain started to fall. He marched up the animals, two by two, and he called out as they came through..."Hey Lord, I got green alligators and long-necked geese, some humpty backed camels and some chimpanzees, some cats and rats and elephants, but Lord I'm so forlorn, I just can't find no unicorns." Well, you get the gist of the story, but to find out what happened to those silly unicorns, you just have to google....Here's Noah himself, with some of his friends. This is the upper level of the Ark. It was really interesting to see, and quite frankly, I think it would make an awesome house boat. It also answered the age old question of they ate while they were at sea for a year...they had vending machines. Now it all makes sense, doesn't it. After the Ark, we went to Keukenhof Gardens in Holland. The Gardens are only open for a couple of months each year, during the blooming season, of course. It's amazing! Even with the late frost that we had this Spring, the flowers were blooming beautifully. This is an organ that someone made by hand. It was very impressive, and made beautiful music. We spent several hours wandering around the Gardens, but still didn't see it all. It's HUGE! I think I took about 1,000 pictures.Love the yellow and red together!This windmill was built in 1892, and was donated to the Gardens in 1957. They restored it and opened it up to the public in 2008. There is a great view from the top. Don't these remind you of peppermint candies?It's hard to tell from the picture, but these flowers were teal blue in the center and faded to a purplish blue toward the outside. I've never seen anything like these. They almost didn't seem real. I think I had to have a picture of each kind of tulip that they had. You also have to have the tourist picture wearing the clogs. Brandon was a good sport about it. The swans were pretty, but nasty, too. They were begging for bread, and whenever the ducks got too close to the food, the swans would pull out their tail feathers. Cranky old birds!I loved this little waterfall. All too quickly, it was getting late and time to board the bus to return home. It was a beautiful day at Keukenhof Gardens, and we hope to return there again. It's one of those places that's different each time you visit it. If you haven't been there, go quickly, because it closes the middle of May. If you don't make it by then...you'll have to wait until next March. I hope you enjoyed our adventures this week as much as we did. We are going to do absolutely nothing for the next couple of days. Then I'll see if I can find a castle to explore that doesn't require a 3 miles hike. The weather is great, and time is flying by so fast. There are lots more place to see in Europe. No telling where we will end up next... Happy Travels!