Having Weather

March 22nd, 2010

Good evening!

Sorry for no post the past couple of days. I’ve been a bit under the weather. Yesterday we took one of my wethers, Henry, to a new home. He is four years old and we’ve had him since he was a baby. It was very sad seeing him go but I know he’s in a great new home! They will take really great care of him. Good Luck at your new home Henry!

Well, on to today’s Netherlands post:

Bikes and Van Gogh

9:00pm- We landed, left the plane, flew through customs, and claimed our rental vans.

Well, I think they were vans. Maybe they were more like SUVs? Or large cars? Dr. H and Dr. E thought that they had rented two seven-passenger vans. However, when we went to claim the vehicles they each only had 5 seats! The guy at the rental company quickly fixed the problem by pulling up the final two seats from the trunk area. Can someone say RUMBLE SEATS?

We all jumped into the vans and were off to Veenendaal where our Ibis hotel was located.

Within 20 minutes of arriving at the hotel we were off again to the Kröller-Müller Museum. The Kröller-Müller Museum is supposed to have one of the best Van Gogh collections in the world!

We bought admission to the park and drove to the museum. The museum had two parts: an indoor part and an outdoor part. The outdoor part was a sculpture garden of modern art. I’m not a huge modern art fan so I can’t say that the outdoor part was really interesting.

The outdoor sculpture garden was arranged in a semi-wooded lot with paths, patches of grass, and rough stairs. The wind was whipping in the tops of the trees too. The sun was out but we all decided that if it had been cloudy or dark the grounds could have been very creepy and almost Sleepy Hollow-like.

It didn’t help that I was very cold too. I was wearing long underwear, a long-sleeved shirt, a sweater, a non-hooded jacket, and a hooded jacket. I guess the wind made the temperature feel colder.

The inside artwork was more easily appreciated.

1. It was warmer.
2. The art was more my style.

I really didn’t mind seeing all of the Van Gogh paintings and it was actually pretty cool. Along with Van Gogh there was also some Monet and Cézanne. Pretty neat. The one bad thing about the museum was that I was pretty hungry, which started to slow me down. By the end of the museum we were all sitting on a bench outside of the gift shop waiting for Phil and Dr. E.

Eventually, Dirk got restless and suggested we all take bikes back to the entrance to the park. We were up for it! Dr. H, Dr. E, and Phil drove the vans back to the entrance while we rode bikes. Wooohooo! How FUN WAS THAT? I am pretty sure it was my favorite highlight of the day. Most of us have not ridden a bike in a long time. However, the group was still racing and picking on each other, and having a fabulous time! We got to choose our bikes from a bike rack near the museum and they were free! The bikes had back-petal breaks and were very basic. My bike was like a little European car. If you have even ridden with a European driver-whipping in and out of traffic-then you know how I felt. If not, think of the Frog and Mr. Toad ride at Disney World. It was smooth but whipped around corners and passed people like they were standing still. The handle bars over-exaggerated the movements so I could whip in and out of the other students on the pathway. My wheels were smaller though. It took me more energy to get were everyone else was. FUN!

After biking we were all really hungry. So hungry that I think we were once again losing energy. Dr. H took charge and stopped at “De Waldhoorn,” a little cafe in Otterlo. It was cosy and cute! As you walked in the front door there was a pool table in the center of the first large dinning area. There was a short, but elaborate, bar at the far right of the room. We were seated directly across from the entrance at 3 normal tables pushed together. It was like being at one large banquet table. I had fun sitting next to Ariel!

I really didn’t know what I wanted to eat. At first I thought about gettin gthe pancakes. Dr. H said they were really good and really big. I was really hungry… and I think I wanted some sort of protein. I went with a dish that I didn’t kn0w what it was–the pangafilet. It turns out it was some sort of white fish. I wanted to say it was tilapia but I am not sure. (I looked it up when I got home and I was right… it WAS tilapia!) Whatever it was it was very milk, and tad sweet and rather salty. It had been lightly seasoned with something that colored the fish slightly tan. It was super moist; so moist that I wonder if it wasn’t deep-fried like the snitzels. A+.

The fish was served with french fries and a small salad. The salad was very notable too. It was ice berg-type lettuce with small cuts of cucumber and ham throughout. The dressing on the salad was sweet-perhaps it was a honey and mustard vinaigrette?

There was a small bottle on the table of something too. Of the people in our group, nobody know what it was but we thought maybe it was soy sauce. With dinner I had an A+ beer: a Palm beer. I’m not sure if I was really thristy or if it was because we are in the Netherlands but it was really cold, smooth, and tasty! The Palm was nice and dark with a good head.

After dinner we went back to the hotel. I’m so tired. I guess I just need to get my energy back from last week. I feel better already.

Good night!

Hammie

Entry Filed under: Dinner,Good Stories for Blog Posts,Traveling