The Durneys Go Dutch

Monday, August 14, 2017

Spontaneous Road Trip to France

We spent a whole 10 days in Amsterdam before deciding that we needed to leave for another trip! 10 days filled with readjusting to our time zone and catching up with our friends over dinners, playdates, jamfests, facials, the Pride parade and home-brewing. During one of our get togethers, Audra was shocked to hear that our next trip was not scheduled until Pete's October break. She said that we had to go somewhere before the school year started and I agreed! All summer long I saw friends posting pictures of their amazing vacations across France and I was longing to go. After all, it had been a whole 9 months since we'd been to France (Gawd, we are obnoxious). We didn't have any plans for the weekend and our house was a disaster with the window project, so we decided to get out of town!

Looking at a map of France and deciding what was doable for a long weekend, we honed in on the Champagne region, because, Champagne. While the drive home Sunday night was an easy 4.5 hours, the drive there Friday was a journey as we joined the masses of Dutch heading to France to start their summer vacays (the Dutch school year doesn't line up with the US). With 4 stops (diaper change at McDonalds, lunch, gas, giving car sick Maeve some fresh air), we made it to Epernay in 7 hours.

We came upon lunch time as we drove through Belgium so I asked Pete if he had any beer places on his list to visit. We pulled off the highway South of Brussels in Beersel and went to the 3 Fonteinen cafe, which serves local Belgian food and the namesake beer.

Happy Daddy

Lucky for Pete, I don't like lambic beers, so he could taste away while I took the keys for the next leg of the trip.

The cafe was in an adorable little village. When we pulled off the highway, we passed right by a gorgeous castle! If the kids hadn't passed out after lunch, we would have toured it,

Church in front of the cafe

Beersel Castle

Sweet relief to finally have made it to our (last minute booked) AirBnB. Pete went out to pick up pizza with Maeve while Jude played off all his pent-up-in-the-car energy.

After bedtime, needing some fresh air of our own, Pete and I took turns going out to explore town. I wandered through the main town squares to the Avenue of Champagne (it is literally called that), the Rodeo drive of Champagne cellars and home to Moet and Chandon, Perrier Jouet and dozens more I hadn't heard of and couldn't pronounce.

Hotel de Ville

We learned on this trip that Dom Perignon was a monk who spent 27 years creating and perfection Champagne. Good on you!

The avenue at sunset

Feeling refreshed and excited to explore more in the daytime, I headed home and Pete headed out for a run, snapping this shot of the Champagne de Castellane as seen from the Marne river.

Home Reno and a Trip to Gouda

Thursday was the start of our first home renovation project. The front windows on the ground floor and 1st floor needed to be replaced after we noticed leaking and broken seals. We didn't have plans for the day as we didn't know how involved we'd need to be during the process. It soon became clear that construction project + kiddos was not a good combo. So we packed the diaper bag, snacks and our Netherlands guidebook and got in the car with no destination in mind. The weather was not looking good for a beach day and I remembered that the Gouda cheese market takes place on Thursdays in the summer, so to Gouda we went!

Front of the house removed.

I was expecting the cheese market experience to be identical to that in Edam where Rach and I went last summer, but it had a very different feel. In part because Gouda is a decent sized city whereas Edam is just a small village. In addition to the cheese market, Thursday is also the day of the town market so the streets were filled with vendors and the cheese market was just a small portion of this. The Edam experience was charming with farmers rowing their balls of cheese to the market and theatrically tossing them about. In Gouda, the large wheels of cheese were rather unceremoniously thrown from the horse drawn carriages to the tractor. The Goudse Waag (original cheese weighing house) was very cool though with the beautiful facade depicting the process. We didn't see any cheese tasting or bidding going on, but the people running the market were happy to pose with tourists.

Unloading the goods

15th Century Town Hall, modern day market

Pete was able to check "get new Iphone and service plan" off his pre-school year to-do list when we walked past the shop he needed to visit. Not what we intended to do while in town, but glad to have that done with. During that whole process, there was plenty to keep the kids entertained. Jude would have stood dancing in front of this player all day I think.

Behind the weigh house the town sets up a children's games area. Some cute cheese themed activities included a shuffle board-esque game with small Gouda cheese wheels, Gouda Plinko and "catch the falling foam clogs."

Goudse Waag (Weigh house- now a museum)

Inside you could find out how many wheels of Gouda you weighed.

Surveying the scene on the Markt

Say Cheese!

We eat Gouda daily so sampling the cheese was not a priority, but we were sure to find a yummy cafe with a view of the square for lunch.

Slowly, but surely we are getting around our adopted country!

And back at home, progress on the window install was slow as plaster walls had to be resized and the workers broke the two large panes of custom glass during the process. Work would continue the next day we were told (and then the day after that and still not be done), so we made a very last minute decision- "Let's go to France tomorrow for a long weekend!" Never mind that Pete and I both had plans that evening with a babysitter coming and we hadn't packed or a booked a place to stay. Just details.

The extent of the work at 7pm Thursday evening.

Friday, August 11, 2017

2017 Pride Parade

This was our first year in Amsterdam for the annual pride parade and we were cautiously excited. I say cautiously because while we really wanted to see the parade and enjoy the full experience, we weren't sure how the crowds + noise + canal danger + rowdiness would work with the kids. Wanting an easy out if it was as crazy as I imagined, we started the day at the zoo, which was just 1 block off the canal parade route. Then, I figured, if it was a no-go, we could retreat back to the zoo and still have a fun day in the city. As Brad and Audra were walking to meet us at the zoo, they noticed other boat owners mooring alongside the parade route. They acted quickly and secured a spot with their boat in front of Hortus, inviting the party onboard! 6 kids 3 and under plus parents (and a lot of Heineken). As long as the kids weren't hanging over the edge of the boat, it served as the perfect play pen!

Everything about the parade was wonderful. Just a lot of love in the air. Here's a snap shot (forgive the quality of a bunch of these photos. Iphone acting up!):