The Land of the Dutch!!

I'd have to say that one of my favorite parts of being in Europe and getting to travel is visiting the countries that I KNOW I have ancestors from. Being in Germany brought out the German roots just a little more (along with being mistaken for a German in Rome) and being in Holland had almost the exact same effect. The only problem was that I wasn't able to visit the Dutch cousins due to some technical difficulties. But next time! Next time I will find them. Our visit started with a train ride from Eindhoven up to Groningen.

Why were we visiting the virtually unheard-of city of Groningen? (Which, by the way, is pronouced with a hawkingish h-sound at the beginning) Well, that would be because Southern Adventist University was doing an orchestra tour through Belgium and Holland and their concerts in Groningen were the ones that Brittany and I could make it to. And we wanted to see Emily.

And even that was pushing it a little as we were skipping a Friday of classes the weekend before quarter finals. But no worries. I'm pretty sure we both did fine on our tests afterwards. Anywho, back to Holland. We made it safely into Groningen, despite missing one train connection. We just took the next train headed in the same direction and all was fine. After lunch in the train station, we decided that it was time to find the church for the performance that night, before wandering around Groningen, taking in the sights. It was at this point that I realized that I had not remembered to print out directions to the church. Nor did I remember the name of the church. But no worries, we would just find an internet cafe, log onto Myspace, reread e-mails, and Google the place. No problem right? Well, we found an internet cafe and it was even free! But they had Myspace blocked. At this point, it was my random memory skills that remember things like it originally took 27 hours to hand-make a peep (those nasty Easter candies) that allowed me to remember that the name of the church was something along the lines of "Martinkerk." Google helped me to realize that it was actually spelled "Martinikerk" and after checking out their webpage, we confirmed that yes, there was a performance by SAU that night at the church. Score!

So we went our merry little way off into the drizzle to experience Holland. Our first realization was just how much the Dutch use their bikes. Oh my goodness. Death by bike is actually a legitimate worry in Holland. There are so many bikes and you're more likely to see a parking garage like this than parking space for cars.

Unfortunately for us, it was not tulip season yet, the other famous Dutch characteristic. However, the daffodils and crocuses were blooming so we still got flowers.

There were also the canals, of course.

And also, by some magic streak of luck, as we were walking around Martinikerk, getting pictures from all sides, we stumbled across what were probably the only four blooming tulips in all of Holland. Right there, just clumped together for us. Made me happy, it did.

The reunion with Emily was great, the concert was amazing,

the organ stellar, the skull head sticker in the heat vent disconcerting,

the coffee in the department store yummy, and the all around atmosphere that first night great. Brittany and I had booked a room in the same hostel as the orchestra so we just became groupies for the trip and rode with them back to Sneek (pronounced "snake") for the night. There, we talked till 1am or so before going to bed. The next day included a concert for the worship service at the SDA church in Groningen and a soup and sandwich potluck afterwards.

Another great Dutch experience in which we met a little old lady who actually had heard of Idaho, and even Boise since she had relatives there and also got to taste a fake ham that's better than Wham. It was also the first time that in the name of providing translation services I saw TWO headphone splitters used on the same device.

Afterwards, the orchestra packed up again and drove down to the Amsterdam Marriot airport hotel. There, Brittany and I (with permission from the orchestra director) snuck into Emily's room with the intentions of sleeping on the floor. Since Southern was leaving the next morning at 4:45 for the airport, the only logical thing for the three of us to do was party till all hours of the night.

We started off by taking the fast public bus to Haarlem where we saw Corrie Ten Boom's house,

a cheese shop (that unfortunately closed 10 minutes before we got there - no Spanish schedule here folks!),

bought Stroopwafels, and had coffee (with a "k"!) in a restaurant before heading back to the hotel.

Then we headed down to the lobby to talk rather than disturb Emily's three roommates. But we only were there a little while before management kicked us out since I was lounging on their sofas in pajama pants. Oops. So we trekked up to 10th floor and parked ourselves on the floor of the elevator lobby by some chairs where we figured no one else would bother us. And no one else in the form of humans did. However, as we were preparing to head back down to sleep (at 1am of course - Emily could sleep on the plane), when the elevator doors opened, out came a little dog, all by himself.

I still cannot think of a good explanation on how that dog got into the elevator all by himself. However, we picked him up, went down to grab a camera, took some pictures, named him "Brinker," and then delivered him down to the front desk where we relieved a rather worried desk worker.

Then it was off to bed. Sunday morning Brittany and I crawled into bed after the Southern girls and Emily left before actually getting up around 8am. Then it was a never-ending journey by public transport back to Spain. It went like this: public bus, another bus, tram, walk around Amsterdam in the rain for 30 minutes,

train, bus, plane, metro, train, and walk back to the school in the dark. Yay for public transportation!! And that was Holland folks. Here's a foggy/rainy picture of a windmill to round out the Dutch experience.


Oh and the fuzzy slippers at the airport that I really wanted to buy but couldn't cause they were too expensive (stupid euro).