A walk in the park.....and the Rijksmuseum

Sunday, since we couldn't (I mean literally could not) sit our rear-ends down on our

bike seats, we decided instead to put our backsides on the train

and to do some more sight-seeing in Amsterdam in hopes that,

with lots of walking, our butts would pop back into normal

human form, rather than one shaped like an angry bike seat.

I think it's important to note that things got so severe, Nate actually

admitted to Googling "bike butt" just to see how long it takes to adapt.

This time, we didn't really have a well-thoughtout plan for the city.

Instead, we thought we'd try to somehow, via public transport, make it to the Vondelpark.

"Winging it" is almost never a good idea in our family, but we are changed people.

Henry loves this building. He thinks princesses live here.

It is actually the Centraal Station. I'll refrain from telling Henry

that if this were truly a princess castle,

people wouldn't actually urinate in or "hot box" the lifts.

He's only 4, going on 5...so I'll let his imagination run for now.

More princess houses:

Most of the Hot Dog carts actually say "American Hot Dogs".

I love what we are known for.

Not sure what the "apostrophe" is for.

So far, we've been a little hesitant of the meat,

particularly when buying in the market.
Everything is obviously in Dutch so when you buy or

order meat, you best be translating accurately or you might end up with

ground sheep parts.

Ok, maybe not "sheep", but they have walls of meat in the stores, all with different names.

How many different meat types/cuts are there really?

Exactly.

One of the first things we learned was if it starts with "kip" - it is likely something chicken-ish.
Lots of ham here. There is ham and mayo on virtually everything.

These are Nate's two most hated ingredients, so

eating can be challenging.

We've been sustaining on fruits, vegetables, any kind of carbohydrate

and, of course, "kip-like" things.

Even the water tastes like "swimming pool"

according to Henry.

So Sunday, as a very special treat, we stopped at the Hard Rock Cafe

for some familiar.

They even served RANCH with my frites, as opposed to frites sauce (mayo).

Oh lord, we dipped the holy crap out of those frites and

would have licked the dip bowl had we not been in public.

When we arrived at the Rijksmuseum, our now-vegetarian tummies

started talking back, meat-smack. The bathrooms at the Rijksmuseum were very nice.

You cannot take photographs in the museum, but this place was absolutely fantastic. Henry loved the swords and armour, of course. Nate and I were both humbled and overcome with Rembrandt's work. Nate's favorite was The Syndics of the Drapers Guild and mine was The Night Watch. Both painted in the early 1600s. You cannot describe how well maintained these paintings are or how intense it is to stand 2 feet from something so grand and see the texture of the paint brush. They were both so much larger than I ever expected - the Night Watch was 142 x 172 inches. Art history 101 at Oregon State has nothing on standing right in front of something like this. I'm pretty sure that we are officially now smarter and more cultured. I know, I'm just kidding.

We knew it was time to leave the museum when the boys started whining for Bugels (their snack of choice this week) and Henry climbed over the barricade that separated the common people from the priceless works of art. Yea, we know when to say when.

We walked a few blocks to Vondelpark which was filling up with the Orange Sea even though it was only 3:00 in the afternoon and the World Cup Final Game wasn't until 8:30 that evening.

This is how you run when you've been cooped up in a stroller

for hours while your parents tour a museum:
He's working his kinks out.

We sat and rehydrated from the heat:

And took pictures:

And watched all of the characters in the park as they physically and mentally prepared for the biggest match this Country has ever seen. "Tiny Shorts" here kept us entertained with his football/yoga stretches for quite a long time.

See the Dutch girl in her flowy dress and her flip flops on a bike (below)?
Yea, that's not me.

More kinks being worked out:

The people watching was some of the best I have ever seen.

So glad this guy brought his drum, because we totally forgot ours.

Our "plan" was to head back to Centraal Station before the game and

be well out of town by the time the game started.

This was the scene from the Metro train.

And yes, our train parted this massive orange sea and didn't even harm the tuba.

Aahhhhhhhhh........

Tour de Holland

View Larger Map

Today was another HOT day in Holland.

I no longer gauge "HOT" by the actual temperature,

because when you ask how hot it is, you are told 24, or 27 as in today.

That might as well be in Dutch because my brain is

like a omelette when it comes to metric conversions.....pan fried.

Here is what I know. Anything over 21 requires a double layer

of pitstick, extra water and lots of sunscreen.

My office-mate, Orpen, knew just what we needed this weekend.

Sand and water.

So she gave me the map above and told me it is about

a 15 minute bike ride.

Piece of Cake.

We loaded up the kids, the towels, lunch, swimsuits

and the camera and set out for, what I was told was, our "15 minute" bike ride

to Muiderburg's man-made beach.

This is King Charlie's new bike seat.

I can now add this to the "Places Charlie is most Happy", which

previously only included "water". Now, it is "water" and on his "bike".

And we set out for our adventure.

It is important to note a couple of....minor.....points here.

1. Nate's bike is a single-speed bike. (It is really hard not to spit-take when I write that)

2. In addition to it being really hard to peddle, especially on ANY incline, he is lugging an extra 70 pounds of kid. (again, with the spit-take.)

3. The bike that I am borrowing must stay in 6th gear, or the the chain will come off. Sixth gear

is a nice thigh-tightening gear that makes you look ridiculous riding up ANY incline.

4. My front break (which is the one I always favor) doesn't work well.

5. I rode in flip-flops.

That was called foreshadowing.

After about 10 minutes of huffing and puffing, we made it to Muiden, which is the main

town that we had to navigate through.

We saw lots of Dutch countryside.

And smelled lots of Cow backside.

And smelled lots of warm weird sour milky-smells that

was so intense, Nate had to wear his t-shirt over his nose and

my gag-reflex kicked into high gear. Just like my bike.

It really was breathtaking. In more than one way.

Since it was so warm, we made lots of water stops.

It was at this point that we were certain this bike trip was going

to take us more than 15 minutes.

Looking off a bridge in Muiden:

The center of Muiden:

Small, narrow, cobble-stoned streets make up Muiden.

This is where Nate almost had his ass-side shaved off by a car.

It is highly suggested that you know what you are doing when riding a bike

in a small town with cobble-stoned streets.

About 45 minutes into our leg pumping Tour de Holland,

we were hot, sweaty, tired and a little sloppy.

We were on a bike trail where when you looked left, you only saw a grassy berm.

Looked right, you only saw miles of farmland, looked ahead, you only saw endless bike trail

and looked behind you, only saw endless bike trail.

Nate suddenly called out "I'm going to stop" and then he, naturally, stopped.

I crank on my front brake.

Nothing happens. And I am about to take out my three boys.

So I start making Plan B and

fly ass-over-head flat on the bike pavement, on top of my handle bars.

I've done this before - like when I was 14 and it hurt then.

I am now 37 and believe me....it hurt worse.

I shaved all of the skin off of the top of my 2nd toe

and shaved all of the skin off the bottom of my big toe.

Blood.

Pain.

Stupid flip flops.

But all of the Dutch girls ride in skirts and flip flops.

I'm so not Dutch.

Back on the bike and a few miles later,

we finally cross over the berm and see this:

It was an oasis for our delirium.

We dropped our bikes, stripped down to swim suits and

jumped right in.

It was HEAVEN!

The water was warm, clear and only knee-deep as far as you could walk.

Thankfully, the water was NOT salty, otherwise, I'm certain my

hamburger toes would have fallen off.

We played in the water for HOURS watching our very happy,

cooled-off boys. It was the happiest time we've had yet in Holland.

This is a man-made beach that also had a cafe, playground and an

ice cream stand:

And then it was time to head back on our 15-minute-which-actually-

took-us-1 hour

bike ride home.

I bailed a second time (because my flip flop fell off) on the way out and reinjured

my already hamburgered toe and slashed my thigh with my handlebar and decided then that

I likely will not be participating in the Tour de France anytime soon.

On the way home, we had to stop to let these guys cross:

And to photograph the castle in Muiden:

And to figure out what the hell these cows were looking at (it was nothing,

they must have just been hot):

And to photograph my boys:

One of them, slept half of the way home.

FACE-DOWN ON HIS HANDLEBARS.

And now we are home, nursing my foot, managing sunburns

and doing everything we can not to walk or stand because

our bike seats were made in the Devils Workshop.

Damn you, bike seats.

Dutch Play

Here is video from earlier in the week from the playground. It's pretty cute when the Dutch kids try to play/talk to the Boys. Or when they try to block them from going down the slide.

The boys have become excellent playmates for each other, and while fight like cats and dogs sometimes, they really do look out for each other.

Made by the Devil

I am now confident that this bike seat was made in the Devil's Workshop.

I will never, EVER be the same.

EVER.

Nike Campus - Hilversum

Wednesday, the boys took the train down to Hilversum to visit

me on campus and have a little lunch.

Here is a tour of the Nike Campus:

This was so cool - and very tasty!

They put cooked penne pasta and a white creamy, buttery, cheesy

hot mess of a sauce into a WHEEL OF PARMESAN and mixed it all together!

Why you ask? WHO CARES! ITS A WHEEL OF PARMESAN!

Modeling the sectional sofas in the Bill Bowerman Center lobby:

And watching the Tour de France:

This guy, I call "Jason", as in from Friday the 13th, is hanging out

getting his oranje bloed via IV.

Nate thought this was AWESOME and I was like you are weird and

Jason is creepy.

We stocked up on some orange gear for Sunday's BIG game!

And the boys played football on the campus football field

GOOOOOOAAAAAAALLLLLL!

Henry is either "scheming" with his brother, or trying to

hold his pee in. Either way, they were super cute today on campus.

And I am SO happy to say that we are finally set up with bikes!

And OH what a treat that post is going to be....to be continued....

This is what happens when.....

Um Henry, you know what happens when you drink

Heineken at your tender young age?*

You get real silly....

And then you end up dancing on a pole.

* No Heineken was consumed by the young lad in the making of this blog post.

Henry just likes to see our reaction when he tries.

Daddy Day - Day 1

At the conclusion of Daddy Day - day 1, everyone was alive and

for the most part unscathed.

I say for the most part, because Nate is sporting some wicked

blisters on his feet that required some TLC and blister pads.

For several days, he was walking like he had been on a horse all day,

but after some fancy blister pads, it seems the horse is back in the barn.

The boys met me as I came off the train after my first day at work.

They were waiting by the canal and by the looks of the

photos Nate took, he let them dive off of the top bridge rails into the canal.

Of course, only after he let them suck on tennis ball-sized jawbreakers,

run with scissors and plug their ears with Play Doh.

I kid, of course! They had a great day together.

Lots of park time, during which they met another American

family (from NC, Ang!) living in Weesp.

They have kids the same age as Henry and Charlie and

were generous with the kid-friendly suggestions.

A pretty alley in Weesp:

On the way home, they literally walked into a Weesp street fair

where they picked up a chicken, nuts and fruit.

All of which are some of the tastiest things we've had

since we've been here.

By the looks of it (I wasn't there), it was a street fair for those in

their Golden Years, but they were kind to the new American

Family and just let them shop.

Our little town gets smaller and smaller each day we are here.

I think this town "talks" because today Nate was approached in

the park by someone who already knew who he was, yet Nate had never met.

I'm not sure if that is good or not, but I think Nate is loving every minute of it.

The Dutch Prodigy

And it has only been 4 days!