|
|
TRAVEL BLOG ENTRY
|
|
“If you want to know Holland this is the way to go” |
Holland is my native country. I was born there, my mom is Dutch,
and I speak the language. Every summer as a kid we would spend three
weeks there hanging out with family. In short, the country is not
foreign to me, it's my second home. But this trip was different. This
time I, along with my brother and a close friend and former teacher
would be leading a group of Junior High School students through the
country on a bike and barge trip. At night we were sleeping on a barge
that was remodelled for accomodation and during the day we would bike
through the country to visit certain places of interest. As we biked the barge would sail through the canal systems of Holland and meet us a different location each evening.
I know of no country that is as ideally suited for biking as Holland.
Not only is it the most biker friendly country in the world, but it's
paucity of hills makes cruising a simple joy. Biking along the dikes
through the long flat polders (land reclaimed from the sea and under
sea level) and pedalling through small towns and large cities is a
perfect way to get to know a country. We stopped to eat at cafes in
towns with ancient Churches towering over the centrum, we visited
countless museums and markets- we explored Amsterdam-quite a feat with
14 kids in tow- and we did it all without a flat tire.
The group of kids we took were simply amazing. Full of energy and
always excited about what was ahead, it was effortless to spend time
with them. From hanging out at outdoor cafe's late into the bright
summer nights, to intense games of risk that invariably ended in fierce
conversation, to the simple joy of pedalling without hands on a quiet
bike path everything was fun.
My favorite part of the trip had to be when we took the kids to meet my
parents at our home to be treated to a lunch of all dutch foods. The
kids sampled 3 different varieties of the famous Gouda cheese (my
hometown), to stroopwaffles, and brood met hagelslaag (bread with
chocolate sprinkles), to koek (a honey bread), as well as other various
dutch specialties. You can't not have fun eating all that good food.
This was actually my second time leading this trip and it never gets
boring. This time around our route went from Amsterdam south to
Utrecht, then east to Nijmegen and Arnhem then south again to
s'Hertogenbosch, before heading back direction Amsterdam stopping in
Gouda for the evening. We visited the Van Gogh Museum, the Anne Frank
House, the Openlucht Museum in Arnhem (an outdoor museum in which each
area of the museum represents a unique period in Dutch history), we
went inside an old fashioned windmill to see how it works, and we
stopped at the Maarkt in Gouda, a twice weekly Market featuring the
traditional selling of Gouda cheese that has been going on since the 1200s.
Great weather and great company mix well, especially when it's combined
with the opportunity to show the richness of your country to foreigners. And touring Holland with people that have never been before is a great way to rediscover my own country. Not to mention it was a great chance to explore parts of the country I'd never been to. And hey, it's impossible to argue with a free ticket to Europe! So thanks kids for putting up with a few wrong turns here and there.
previous travel blog entry
Would you like to comment or ask a question?
Sign up for a free account, or sign in (if you're already a member).