Great day at the Alkmaar cheese market!

We have so much to share!  Niece Amy has been keeping us very busy and we are absolutely exhausted!  Tomorrow we are heading out for a long bike ride... Cross your fingers that we make it!

Today's post is on today's day trip to the Alkmaar cheese market.  Sometime over the next few days we will be posting photos and write ups about other recent and interesting experiences, including last weekend's trip to Paris and Brussels.  Check back at a later time.... 

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Today was a great day!  Alkmaar is about an hour and one-half train ride from Den Haag's Central Station.  Niece Amy and I (Melissa) were able to catch an early morning train so that we could arrive in Alkmaar in time for the 10:00am cheese market.  (Carrie couldn't join us due to her work.)

What a production!  The cheese market was quite the show!  Who knew there is a job called 'cheese transporter'?!?

You will see in our photos below that the cheese was stacked on the ground when we had arrived.  All of the various workers were wearing different 'outfits' depending on their function.  We were amazed at how many workers were involved in the process of testing and transporting the cheese. 

Promptly at 10:00am the market opened with the 'cheese testers' beginning to sample random cheese wheels.  They are considered to be 'cheese experts' who verify the quality of the cheese and who determine the price, per kilo, for the cheese.

While the cheese is being tested, various workers (dressed in blue tops) would begin stacking the cheese wheels onto wooden cheese carriers.  The 'cheese transporters' would then carry the fully loaded wooden carriers over to the weighing house for weigh in.  It was very interesting to watch this process, as the 'cheese transporters' sort of 'semi-ran' while carrying their cheese.  They were actually quite entertaining!

Once the cheese had been properly weighed, the 'cheese transporters' would then transport the cheese back for loading onto empty wooden carts (by the men who wore brown tops).  The wooden carts were then eventually wheeled over to a side street where multiple delivery trucks were waiting.

Somewhere in the middle of this process, a 'cheese expert' and the 'buyer' would slap hands together to signal the price per kilo that was determined by the expert.

You might ask.... Did we buy any cheese?  My answer... of course we did!

After we were finished at the market and buying our cheese, we then strolled through the many meandering streets and we visited two museaums.  We went to the national cheese museum and the national beer museum.... neither was very impressive.  However, we did enjoy everything else that we had experienced in Alkmaar and we will definitely be back some day!

Lastly, our train ride home required a stop in Harleem where we decided to spend a little time exploring.  We had heard that Harleem was a nice city and so we decided to see it for ourselves.

We saw many beautiful flowers and learned that Harleem is known as 'The City of Flowers'.  It is also an old city and one that has a lot of history that the various museums and architecture will attest to.  We saw one windmill that you will see in our photos. 

Today was a fun day!  It was fun seeing a real cheese market and exploring two neighboring cities to learn more about the rich culture and history of this very interesting country!

Enjoy the photos.

.... and a few photos from Harleem....

An Update

Sorry for the delay in writing... my niece Amy is in town and we have been out having fun!

Amy and Speedy (our cat) safely arrived into the Amsterdam airport early last Friday morning.  I was a little late meeting them, as I learned that the tram, which takes us from our apartment to Den Haag Central Station where we catch the train to the airport, doesn't begin running until 6:00am.  On Friday morning I was the 'happy aunt' that couldn't wait for it to pick me up!  I arrived after Amy was able to enjoy a fresh cup of Starbucks coffee to revitalize her after her long journey over the pond.

Our time with our first guest has been extremely busy!  Her first night here we not only went out and enjoyed a nice dinner together, but we also took in some of the many local pubs.  After all, you can't go to Holland and not experience the pubs!

On Saturday we ventured up to Amsterdam for the day where we walked throughout much of the city.  My feet were killing me by the time we had headed home!  While in Amsterdam we saw many flower vendors with beautiful fresh flowers and various tulip bulbs.  Our visit could not be complete without a trip to one of the many museums.  We purchased annual museum passes and enjoyed a great experience at the Van Gogh museum.  I must say... it was well worth the time and the money!  The Anne Frank House was another place of interest to us, but the line was way too long and so we decided to save this experience for another time. 

Have you ever eaten at a Dutch 'pancake house'?  We did.  We had lunch at 'The Pancake House' and boy was it good!  The pancakes were actually more like crepes and you can order them with just about anything that you want on them.  We had ordered one with ham and pineapple and one loaded with various fresh vegetables.  They were both... yummy!!!

On Sunday we enjoyed a beautiful day over in Leiden.  This is a college town and one that we thought Amy would absolutely love... and she did!  We walked all throughout the town taking photos and enjoying all there was to see including the Leiden Botanical Garden.  There I took several photos and I will soon post some of these for you to enjoy.

Amy had learned, prior to this trip, that there are various poems that can be found painted in public
places throughout the town.  Most of these can be found painted on the sides of buildings.  While there are hundreds of these, we were able to spot just under a couple dozen.  We actually had a contest to see who could spot the most poems and Amy won, hands down!

There is no better way to end a beautiful day than to take a narrated boat ride through the many meandering canals.  Our Captain taught us some Dutch history and we tried to absorb as much of it as we could.  I might share that we had enjoyed a bottle of Proscecco while we were cruising.  Yeah... life is good!

More to come... stay tuned!

Expat After Work Social

Some of you have inquired about the expat social that I had recently attended and so I thought I would share a quick recap of my evening.

Carrie was away in Geneva for work and so I had ventured to this event all alone.  Some of you may be surprised at this, but showing up to meet a bunch of unknown individuals all by myself is not something that I look forward to doing.  Socializing with people whom I already know and have a relationship with is a completely different story!

Anyhow, the event was to begin at 7:00pm.  I showed up at 7:00pm and found that I was one of only a handful of people already there.  Keep in mind that over 110 people from 42 countries had RSVP'd that they would be attending.  What did I do?  I left.  I decided to walk around City Centre and explore some of the shops.

I might note that this event was held on a Thursday evening, which is the only evening that stores stay open past the normal/typical 5:00pm closing time.  The weather was nice and lots of people were out-and-about strolling through the streets and meandering in and out of the various shops.
As I drifted about, while debating if I would go back and 'try again' at the expat social, I stumbled upon the Clark shoe store where there was a live band inside the display window singing in English, while playing various guitars and drums. They were singing 'Roll over Bethovan' to a large crowd who was gathered outside and able to listen via the speakers that were placed outside the window.  I couldn't help but to wish that I had brought my camera to capture this somewhat unique event, as the band went on to sing songs from The Beatles, The Monkey's, etc.  And, they were really good!

Thinking that I should attempt another try at the expat social, I walked back down to the Novatel Hotel where this event was taking place.  As I entered the lobby area, I quickly noticed that the group had now grown to around 10-15 people.  Still, not yet convinced that this was something that I wanted to do, I again left.

After about an hour of more drifting about,  I decided that I would go ahead and give the event one last shot.  This time when I had returned, to my amazement, there had to have been somewhere between 75 and 100 people.  I couldn't believe it!  I gave myself a little kick in my backside and I injected myself into the scene.  This was only after, of course, me first getting my complimentary glass of Proscecco!

The evening turned out to be a very nice one!  I had met a handful of people - all from the US, Italy, UK and France.  As it turned out I was one of the last to leave!  ( ...as were the other individuals that I was socializing with!)  I will say that at times it was somewhat difficult to understand people with their accents being so strong.  I did find that we all had much in common and that we shared a sense of community.

While I had my fears and reservations about attending, I am glad that I forged through my challenges so that I was able to experience the joy that comes with meeting new people who share common interests.  I don't know if or where these new relationships may go, but I do know that I enjoyed myself and that I have perhaps a bit more courage for next months event!  Stay tuned...

Annual Herring Festival

This weekend was a great weekend with the Scheveningen Herring Festival taking place on Saturday.  This is an annual event where the Dutch celebrate the arrival of their first herring.  Thousands of people attend the various festivities, which include demonstrations, entertainment, various historic displays, etc.  Of course there is also plenty of fresh herring for everyone to consume!

You will see from our photos the herring being cleaned and served.  It is often dipped in chopped, raw onions just prior to its consumption.  Most of you won't be surprised to know that Carrie wanted to try it.  Me... well... not so much!  After I had made a few "no, I'm not eating any" comments, I finally decided to go ahead and try it.  You will witness my experience through the 'before' and 'after' photos she had taken of me.

We witnessed many friendly and interesting people who seemed to welcome our interest in taking their photos.  Our experience so far of the Dutch, generally speaking of course, is that they are a culture who likes to have fun and they don't seem to take themselves too seriously.  They appear to be a culture who 'works to live', rather than 'lives to work'.  They are focused while at work (and they do work hard), but they like to play even harder!

You will see from our photos various yachts, sailboats, etc.  You will also see many huge and impressive fishing boats.  It's hard to walk around the marina and not notice the enormity of each of these vessels.  There are also many visible scars left behind from the extreme conditions they have endured while out at sea.  The television show 'Deadliest Catch' quickly comes to mind, and it could easily be filmed here!  

The weather on Saturday was a bit windy and chilly, but we had fun none-the-less.  After we had spent most of the day at the festival, we then ventured down to City Centre to watch Holland's first 'football' game in Euro 2012.  It was a surprising and disappointing loss to Denmark.  Later that night we were actually unable to take the tram back home because of disgruntled fans who had, supposedly, parked their car on the tram tracks and refused to move it.  We ended up walking home.  Luckily it was a beautiful evening and walking home actually seemed to be the perfect way to finish off a great day!

Enjoy the photos!  (A couple of notes for you... the Dutch love their mayonaise and it often comes with french fries.  The various craftsman seen in our photos are making mustard, cheese, jewelry, and swiss horns.  The woman is spinning yarn from raw materials.  Lastly, dogs can often be seen inside restaurants and quietly relaxing alongside their owners.)