Week One in Apeldoorn, Netherlands

Swimming pool at our place in week one. It was so adorable and perfect for Norah.

We thought she'd be all about this slide but...(well, not surprisingly given her fearfulness) she only went down this once.

Loads of playgrounds in the recreation park too so we did lots of visiting to each one.

Sweet snap of Norah reading with Nana on the balcony

 

Chocolate-covered fruit yummies

Lady-licious (women's clothing)

Apeldoorn's beautiful cheese shop

 Palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn (the place where Dutch Royalty once vacationed. Also a place where Canadian soldiers were allowed to recuperate once WWII ended.

This was a lovely little café in Apeldoorn and we were so surprised to see a poem from Chief Seattle (yes, that Seattle) on the napkins (in English, no less). What are the odds?? What are the chances that a girl from Seattle would be sitting in this small corner café in the small town of Apeldoorn in center of the Netherlands? Love that kind o' thing.

Family outside Palace Het Loo

 Kinderboeken (Children's books...)

 Wayne said, "Take a picture of this for someday when we have money. This is the type of furniture I want.".

Dream wagon!

This store was such a dream!! It was half amazing, amazing toy store (mostly all beautiful wooden toys and building sets) and then half Dutch design furniture store. This chair for instance - so simple (looks very IKEA-like) and soooo dreamy. Whoever designed this chair is pure genius. It's almost like a wooden, rocking, zero-gravity chair. Wouldn't even ask the price.

What most houses look like in the Netherlands/(middle of the country anyway). Large cottage-type homes, nearly all with thatched-roofs.

You can't help but take photos of the houses from the car window - it becomes a compulsion.

A famous Dutch custard-whipped-cream-graham-cracker-crust heaven-treat. Man, I wish I could share even a fraction of the taste of this thing with you all.

One night Pake decided he wanted to sleep out in the bunk by himself (really hot in the main house and he thought this might get him a full nights' sleep). And Norah wanted to sleep on the top bunk with him. He was just nuts enough to sleep out there one night but then he came back in to the main house. Thankfully, we were able to convince Norah to stay with us so Pake could actually get some rest.

Nana brought Norah some high heels. Uh ohhhh. You should see this girl prancing around in these. Click-clack-click-clack-click-clack.

Every house in Holland has these fly swatters that have an electric charge button. They're brutal but very effective... Well, for some odd reason, we got on to using the side of it to test Rick's reflexes. I wasn't very good at it and kept banging it straight into his knee cap. He was a good sport.

 Pake got his hair done by a special little lady.

We don't have a TV so it was very exciting for all of us to watch some TV! Trashy TV at that! (I was all about catching up on TLC - which I haven't seen for over a year now and mannnn has it majorly gone downhill. I used to LOVE that channel. Anyway, that's not what Norah's watching here... :) This is some adorable Dutch cartoon and Norah seemed to have zero problem with all the cartoons being non-English.

Cutie Dutch cartoon.

This I thought was so funny! It's one of those ollllld automatic food machines (I vaguely remember these from my childhood in places like hospitals and...I don't know...truck stops??) You put in €2 and press a button and open a small window to take out your fried meat stick, croquette, or hamburger. As you might have guessed....the food quality is exactly what you'd imagine.

This is Wilma and I after our near-40km bike ride - back at our place - wind-beaten and ready for ice cream.

 On another night - Vla for our dessert and Wayne had pickled herring chunks for his. Mmm.

Walk around the park after dinner - these are small ones but they're still so nice! These are oldschool but the people take such good care of them and their little gardens. You can tell, hours of work go into these yards, every single day.

The Dykstras Head to the Homeland! (Which is...The Netherlands)

So, so, so excited to be boarding our flight to the Netherlands to meet Wayne's parents (coming from Toronto, Ontario).

First glimpse of Holland

In Amsterdam's Schipol Airport, just after having our reuniting hugs with Nana & Pake!

(Grandma & Grandpa for you non-Dutchies)

They have a full-sized grocery store in the airport and these little "salads" made me feel more like I was in Japan than Holland. You see these everywhere (they're essentially like egg-salad - mayo-concoctions and pickles) Not super inviting for me but Wayne's mum said she really likes them.

Apeldoorn was our first destination for week one!

There are many, many food photos here so apologies in advance if you find that boring. I've seen most Dutch items, but in Ontario, (where Wayne grew up), which is a very large Dutch-bubble community and you often feel as if you're in Canadian-Holland there. So, for some reason, it was really exciting for me to see the things I've eaten so many times with his family, in their orginal place! Where they're not "in the Dutch Store" but just....in A Dutch store.

And the soup mixes! Ohhh the Dutch soup (soep) mixes! I love these and Wilma makes the best soups on earth. I'm not kidding. (Well, Tanta Anna is a very close second, I learned, while in Friesland) And maggi (the soy-sauce like seasoning liquid that many cultures know but the Dutch CLAIM as theirs) :)

One guess what "Pannen Koeken" is.... Ok, there's a picture but it's "Pancakes". I love that word!

So that's Grandma's Pancakes. So cute.  

Not sure WHY that's the word for rice but ok. :)

Ahhhh, hagelslag! (chocolate sprinkles people put on buttered toast every single day, like it's NOT a dessert.) Many eat this for breakfast and I'm not going to lie, I did as well, EVERY single day in the Netherlands, but boy have I paid for it.

My other good friend - Suiker.

 So here's our first place for week one in The Netherlands - a super plush mobile home-type place outside Apeldoorn. Some of these are so nice, people live in them 6 months of the year (and have their main somewhere else). It slept 7 inside (and even had a bunkbed out in the shed/outside room - also really nice). In this photo, Norah had been walking around for 20 minutes making us all call her "Old Lady" and she's pretending to walk with a cane.

 Looking through the kitchen to the living room

The main bedroom and us getting out the tub o' sheets to make the 7 beds!

Outside shed - (so shed on right side, wall separating, and bunk bed room on left side). Really smart idea for a rental property. And of course, all pristinely clean because....well.....it's Holland!

Nana was so excited about us trying this - Vla (sort of like "Flan" as in custard - but this is basically pudding - in a carton). You have it for dessert. Wilma swears its less sweet than pudding but I can't taste all that much difference. It's amazing, I know that. And thankfully, in week two, we found a soy version for us dairy-allergic-Dykstras.

Albert Heijn (HINE) - the big grocery store.

 What I love about the Netherlands is the stores have everything packaged, compartmentalized and sealed off in the store. So organized!

Ahhh, I found a gluten free section and was so excited!

This is an entire SECTION of Hagelslag (the chocolate sprinkles) - and the De Ruijter white powder (mmmm) and then an equally large section of varying Nutella's. The Dutch know what they're doing.

You can buy pre-made Pannenkoeken too.

Big ol' trike with a hard case on the back. Loved this thing.

One of my favorite foods in Holland (and there....were....many) was Kibbeling. These are sort of like small pieces of fried fish but then they have this spice mixture on them that makes alllll the dopamine in your body just flood your system. They are...fish-cocaine. I had this many times during our two weeks, but none ever came close to this first in Apeldoorn!

 Wilma in line

 See? There's that dopamine release.

Instead of Kibbeling, Wayne had herring and he regretted it. He said this little raw-guy didn't necessarily taste bad, more that it was just taste-LESS and gooey. No thanks.

Apeldoorn was about 20K from our rental place and oddly enough, later that day, I saw this old man (here at the farmer's market in Apeldoorn), back down near our neighborhood. So...I knew this 80-something year old made the ride and a few days later the five us all made the bike ride into town. They thought it couldn't be done but we had so much fun and Wilma & Rick were amazing troopers to go on a trek like that. If this man can do it, we can do it.

Apeldoorn Market

Heeeerrrre we go!

Me & Wilma, usually taking up the back. We're just strong and steady. :)

 Trampoline at our place - so fun for Norah!

Many more to come! (this is only 3 days into Week 1, of Two!)