If you know me, you'd know why I would buy such a thing.

To go with my moose jawbone. Or piece of Mayan pottery, notes from Michael Grotto in the fourth grade, jar filled with Spanish moss, or rocks from Hither Hills ('84-'88) where I caught my first bluefish and learned about setting the drag on a reel -- how you catch your second during a run. I thought they were cool and still do.
Thats an enormous hinge in the first picture by the way, that I payed 6 euros for. You know its old, and I'm going to guess its pretty much the biggest hinge in anyone's private collection that you know.
The figure is a boy with a carp that just jumped out at me (we are a fishing family after all). We bought both at a great little hole in the wall in Naarden; when some time passes, I'm sure it will redeem the food poisoning...

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig

Thats what my mother used to say and it is indeed where we are; a bit prematurely due to some unforeseen stomach bug that Kat picked up on day 7 (of 12) of our 2006 Netherlands tour. It was unsustainable for us to continue further but we did see a great deal of country and had some great times (as well as the usual 'travel challenges' involved in schlepping an almost 8 month old around in a car overpacked with crap you think you just may need).
Katharine is now recovering on the couch and finally eating something after 2 days. I'll just say the level of recovery should be clearly indicated by the chosen tv channel (Murder She Wrote tonight and the Knight Rider movie last night).
It is good to be home. James hit a growth spurt in the last week and its nice to be back to his own room, three naps a day, and 12 hours of (usually) uninterrupted sleep at night (new parents who find that impressive, I will gladly describe the first 6 months of the schedule at another time...). He had a good time seeing new sights but the frequent car riding and new hotels every night began to wear after a week.
Highlights of the trip were some great B&B's (particularly one in Belgium and two in NL), some incredible food, and some eye-opening views of 'natural' areas in this land that short of the efforts of man, would be mostly wetland anyway.
Some fotos for a quick impression:
-James, always happy to be released from the Maxi-Cosi
-Parents, sort of on vacation
-the ubiquitous windmill
-tailgating (the bottles only indicate only the challenges recycling on the road)
-canals in Naarden

Notes from the road

Well, the first few days have been interesting to say the least. As we have been driving we've encountered nothing but blue skies, but it seems the moment we stop the rain begins. Not totally unexpected for the Netherlands in spring, and it could be worse. In addition to mastering the Benelux road atlas, we have perfected a method of photographing James in the rear facing car seat (without flash) to see if he's sleeping without stopping the car.
Our first day took us to Winterswijk, to see a portion of the Korenburgerveen-- it was a rainy walk, and the photos are a little blah-- but it was nice nonetheless. This site is close enough to Enschede that we could probably get back again for another visit on a summer day.
We spent the first night in Gewande, a small (and I mean tiny) group of houses near the Dutch city of s'Hertogenbosch, or Den Bosch (much easier to say) and we think next to the river Maas. The B&B was great, with only a slight James-related disturbance when the owner barged into James' room at about 7PM to get to the fuse box. James was easy to settle down again, and the fuse problem was quickly solved. Because the village is higher than the surrounding area, we could hear the winds howling all night-- it was an experience.
The next day we traveled to Heusden-Zolder Belgium so that I (Kat) could interview someone. We found out that Heusden Zolder is a location for formula one races, but luckily they were not going on while we were in town. Our second night was spent at the Casa Nova B&B in Grobbendonk, Belgium. We did not sign up for the massage-B&B weekend. Not exactly suitable for a business trip (we couldn't find a way to justify it)! The house is amazing-- really modern and funky. It is beautiful and has so much natural light, but it is hard to imagine cleaning the windows.
Next we head to Oosterland in Zeeland for a few days... we will update...

Embarkation

We are finally getting the opportunity to see a bit more of the Netherlands. I have been to Maastricht with my sister when she visited, and to Utrecht for school a few times. Mike and I have been to Amsterdam several times (though there is still more to see), and with visiting friends and family to places nearby like the Hoge Veluwe and Ommen. We have also briefly visited Friesland, where some of my research cases are found. Beginning this week we will be travelling from end to end, and corner to corner of the Netherlands. We are visiting the wetlands I study and I am also going to conduct interviews with wetland experts in different places. It will be such a nice trip-- we are excited. Hopefully the beautiful spring weather will continue to cooperate, so that we can really see the wetlands and get some nice photos. The only downside was dropping the pups off at the kennel. We have never tried it before, but we thought it was the best solution. I still think that I am much more upset about it than they are. I am betting on the fact that not much can happen in 12 days.

See you soon!!!

Wereldvrouwen in Twente

We had the opportunity to host a baby shower for one of the members of WiT last weekend. We did not realize that the time had changed, but luckily we were ahead of schedule-- so nobody showed up while we were still cleaning the toilets. The shower was for Marinda, who might be moving in the next few months. Although she is due in July we wanted to go ahead and celebrate now. It was such a fun day-- though unfortunately my camera batteries died early on. Here are a few shots: Our table ready for the food to arrive. Marko having fun, and two of Marinda ( in the middle in black) opening gifts.
She got a lot of lovely gifts and it was a really fun event. Our house has never been so packed!
Mike made chili, which is not exactly "baby shower" food, but everyone loved it. We even had leftovers for the neighbors.

De Straat

We could devote a whole post to our hate-hate relationship with the street makers (and I guess I am). Our main complaint is that as of 8AM every day they start blasting music from their vans parked at either end of the street. It is the worst kind of music (to us)-- a kind of Dutch country, but not like the American type of pop-like country music. Mike calls it smurf music, if that is any indication. Of course by 8AM it is not a problem, we have been up for hours, but throughout the day as James naps we struggle to deal with the noise. He can sleep through a lot, but the combination of smurf music and dumping large wheelbarrows full of bricks under his window can sometimes get him off schedule. Since reading Healthy Sleep Habits, Happy Child we have kept a log of when he sleeps (mainly because we cannot remember from day to day). The street workers have had an impact on the length of his naps. We have spoken with the new parents next door, and have tossed around the idea of interrupting the street workers naps. That's right-- every day, they all climb into their vans and have a nap from about 1-2:30. We have talked about teaming up with Ronald and Maaike and blasting a bit of baby music during one of their naps. Of course-- as new parents we are all much too busy to put this plan into action, so we will have to wait them out. Take special note of what they did to a neighbors car when he failed to move it before they started work. Its on the island in the sea of bricks. I almost expected 5 large german construction workers in overalls to come by and carry it out (does anyone remember that Menthos commercial)?