Tuesday, April 27, 2004
Weather, Utrecht Surprise and poffertjes Clinton
After all that bitching and complaining about the damp grayness of my first few weeks here, I feel obliged to give a "shout-out" to the weather. We still have our chilly days, but, for the most part, spring seems to have arrived. The trees are full of leaves and I think I've retired my worn-out Banana Republic peacoat and Dutchy orange scarf until next fall. Finally. And I haven't had the opportunity to unfurl my umbrella (my constant companion here whenever I left the house in January and February) in at least a month.
We've been taking advantage of this with daytrips to various Netherlands cities.
While Sheryl and Sofia were in Paris two weeks ago, Dari and I went with ICTY interns Liza, Cheryl and Jasmine to Utrecht, founded by the Romans in 47 A.D. I had heard disparaging words about this place, so I wasn't that excited about going. To the contrary, it turned out to be a great town. The day was gorgeous, and the streets around the Oudegracht, the main canal in the Museumkwartier, were jammed with bikes and walkers (there are undoubtedly more fietsers in this college town than in The Hague). Getting to this neighborhood requires wading through one of the biggest malls I've seen here; helpfully to shoppers, the train station dumps right out into it.
The water level in the Utrecht canals dropped at some point since the 13th century. Now the water is maybe 10 feet below streetlevel, much lower than the typical canals in other Dutch cities. The Dutch took advantage of this and created a whole other street scene canalside. Where there was once water, there are now brick walkways near the canal. Once home to warehouses and workshops, they now house and restaurants and cafes. On this day, it was simply too inviting; we went to the nearest Albert Heijn grocery store and bought some picnic fixings for a canalside meal. It was quiet down there, and we might even have been trespassing (we were sitting in front of the door to somebody's apartment) but in the glorious sunshine, nobody seemed to care, even the disaffected-looking goth teens sitting down there who quite politely moved out of the way for Dari's stroller. Boats of all sorts floated by, including kayaks and at least two floating wedding receptions. Everybody waved. Jasmine loves Dari, and held him at every opportunity.
The next weekend (last weekend) we went to Haarlem and to Delft. Haarlem was alright; it has a huge church in the center of town that was hosting a Queen's Day carnival. Also, the annual Flower Parade was winding its way to Haarlem that day, and workers were busily setting up for the 8:20 p.m. arrival. We decided it best to head out lest we get trapped in Haarlem until late into the night, but the shopping was decent. We visited maybe a dozen shoe stores in search of the best deal on shoes for Sheryl, and there seemed to be more small interior-design boutiques here than in The Hague. Not that we had money for that, of course ...
Meanwhile in Delft on Saturday, Prince Johan Friso married human rights campaigner Mabel Wisse Smit, a commoner, and thereby renounced his throne (he was third in line). We went there on Sunday instead, missing out on the event but seeing this charming little town without too many people thronging the streets. Just a tramride away from The Hague, Delft was the home of Vermeer and dates back to 1075. It is dominated by a huge square that has the New Church (1383) on one end and the ornate city hall on the other. Just down the street is the Old Church. Apparently the prince was married in the city hall, then went to the Old Church for a religious ceremony. We ate at the restaurant where Bill Clinton ate poffertjes back in 1997; there are still Bill Clinton poffretjes (strawberries and whipped cream) and Hillary Clinton poffretjes (cherries) on the menu. Dari put a demitasse spoon from the restaurant into Sheryl's bag and it came home with us, but I'm pretty sure the little guy lacked sufficient mens rea for theft.
This day-trip schedule has been forced on us by our lack of funds, but we're having great fun exploring Holland as opposed to jetting off for exhausting, whirlwind weekend trips in France, Germany or Italy. It is a big continent, afterall, and there's nothing wrong with getting to know this one little bit of it well.
We've been taking advantage of this with daytrips to various Netherlands cities.
While Sheryl and Sofia were in Paris two weeks ago, Dari and I went with ICTY interns Liza, Cheryl and Jasmine to Utrecht, founded by the Romans in 47 A.D. I had heard disparaging words about this place, so I wasn't that excited about going. To the contrary, it turned out to be a great town. The day was gorgeous, and the streets around the Oudegracht, the main canal in the Museumkwartier, were jammed with bikes and walkers (there are undoubtedly more fietsers in this college town than in The Hague). Getting to this neighborhood requires wading through one of the biggest malls I've seen here; helpfully to shoppers, the train station dumps right out into it.
The water level in the Utrecht canals dropped at some point since the 13th century. Now the water is maybe 10 feet below streetlevel, much lower than the typical canals in other Dutch cities. The Dutch took advantage of this and created a whole other street scene canalside. Where there was once water, there are now brick walkways near the canal. Once home to warehouses and workshops, they now house and restaurants and cafes. On this day, it was simply too inviting; we went to the nearest Albert Heijn grocery store and bought some picnic fixings for a canalside meal. It was quiet down there, and we might even have been trespassing (we were sitting in front of the door to somebody's apartment) but in the glorious sunshine, nobody seemed to care, even the disaffected-looking goth teens sitting down there who quite politely moved out of the way for Dari's stroller. Boats of all sorts floated by, including kayaks and at least two floating wedding receptions. Everybody waved. Jasmine loves Dari, and held him at every opportunity.
The next weekend (last weekend) we went to Haarlem and to Delft. Haarlem was alright; it has a huge church in the center of town that was hosting a Queen's Day carnival. Also, the annual Flower Parade was winding its way to Haarlem that day, and workers were busily setting up for the 8:20 p.m. arrival. We decided it best to head out lest we get trapped in Haarlem until late into the night, but the shopping was decent. We visited maybe a dozen shoe stores in search of the best deal on shoes for Sheryl, and there seemed to be more small interior-design boutiques here than in The Hague. Not that we had money for that, of course ...
Meanwhile in Delft on Saturday, Prince Johan Friso married human rights campaigner Mabel Wisse Smit, a commoner, and thereby renounced his throne (he was third in line). We went there on Sunday instead, missing out on the event but seeing this charming little town without too many people thronging the streets. Just a tramride away from The Hague, Delft was the home of Vermeer and dates back to 1075. It is dominated by a huge square that has the New Church (1383) on one end and the ornate city hall on the other. Just down the street is the Old Church. Apparently the prince was married in the city hall, then went to the Old Church for a religious ceremony. We ate at the restaurant where Bill Clinton ate poffertjes back in 1997; there are still Bill Clinton poffretjes (strawberries and whipped cream) and Hillary Clinton poffretjes (cherries) on the menu. Dari put a demitasse spoon from the restaurant into Sheryl's bag and it came home with us, but I'm pretty sure the little guy lacked sufficient mens rea for theft.
This day-trip schedule has been forced on us by our lack of funds, but we're having great fun exploring Holland as opposed to jetting off for exhausting, whirlwind weekend trips in France, Germany or Italy. It is a big continent, afterall, and there's nothing wrong with getting to know this one little bit of it well.
