How to Visit the Netherlands

I'm terribly afraid the most exciting things in my life revolve around travel. The more the better! I had the most fun (and fantastic/awesome/completely fabulous) trip to Netherlands the first weekend of this month (but being absorbed in learning indirect speech, passive voice, and heaps of more qualifiers I only now get the time to write about it).

First of all, you have to have someone to stay with. One of the students from two terms ago invited us to visit her at her home in The Hague. Can't turn down a trip to a place I haven't been now can I? After that, I had to figure out train tickets. What a frustrating experience when the website is in French and yes, I know French but have hardly the courage to read the fine print and wonder what I'm buying. Two weeks of attempting to understand (and finally getting the website in English) I bought them and after arriving the the mail, and hoping off to Gare de Nord in Paris, we were off on a high speed trans-city European train. How awesome!

When we arrived in the Netherlands, Corieke met us and took us to her house. She lives right outside The Hague and kindly let us sleep on her pull-out sofa for our stay. We met her lovely family, shared meals with them, and generally, tried to be polite house-guests and speak whichever language was desired at the moment, French or English (can't do Dutch, sorry there).

Saturday, we went to the beach. I've never seen the ocean from Europe! It was an overcast day but we were tired so we laid down on our towels and actually fell asleep. We woke up an hour later, very sunburned and almost binded from the light. It was relaxing and we talked about our college decisions and how fun it was to learn French in Paris for a year. That evening we went to a concert sponsored by a youth organization Corieke is a leader with. It was in a ancient cathedral in Gouda (same place the cheese comes from) and the wonderful stain-glass windows and the 200 voice choir was one the most amazing sights I've seen in Europe.

Sunday, we biked an hour to the French church in The Hague. It was a beautiful church with perhaps 20 people and very formal. 2 little old ladies behind us were convinced we didn't speak French and we whispering the page numbers for the Bible reading and hymn numbers for the songs. We were highly amused. The paster was Dutch (trained in France and spoke very elegant French) and wanted to convince us to return the following Sunday which we had to politely decline, informing him we lived in Paris and Corieke attends a Dutch church. The evening, Corieke took us to Rotterdam to visit her brother and his family. They live near an old field of windmills and we walked down an old stone path admiring what Holland is most famous for, it's beautiful windmills.

Monday we took the train to Amsterdam. Corieke and Rose had never been to the Anne Frank House so we stopped by there first and see the museum. After lunch in a cafe across from the Anne Frank House, we took a water bike down through the canals. It was so much fun watching the beautiful old Amsterdam houses pass by as we floated down the canals, taking turns at the paddles. We walked down Amsterdam's expensive shopping streets on our way back to Centeral Station and getting the train back to Corieke's. We picked up our bags and then went to The Hague Central Station where we kissed Corieke goodbye and headed on the red high speed train back to Paris.

It was a great trip, it was a highlight of life in France. I had no intention of returning to Paris but my giant study bible is kept in my dresser in France so I had no choice. Oh it was so fun though!!