Europe Diary - Post #2 by Mike

 We had started the day after some sporadic sleep trying to recover from slight jetlag.  Breakfast was hard rolls, cheese, sweet rolls, hardboiled eggs, juice and coffee with the United Nations of Hotel Guests. The only reason I mention this is that the woman working the breakfast for the hotel we are staying at would answer questions from the guests in any language but her own…  English, check…. French, of course…  German, why not…? One of the most amazing things about the Dutch is how many languages they know…  Getting cheese at the Kaas Specialist for our picnic, the girl behind the counter was able to switch from Dutch to English with no problem… She explained that with the purchase of 500g of cheese, you’d get a piggy bank and some portion going to a children’s charity. Needless to say, we got the items for our picnic at Keukenhof there along with the bank; Rebecca chose the cow bank.  At Keukenhof, the picnic area was just some straw bales that had gotten wet in the rain.  I decided that instead of getting wet sitting on these, I would sit on my coat while I ate. This resulted in a large mud stain on the back of the coat that required a trip to the dry cleaners. The man at the dry cleaner was working on fixing a seam as I came in with my dirty jacket, “Give me 45 minutes… No problem!”  Then back to the conversation he was having with his friend in Dutch. The man collecting the parking fees at the exit of Keukenhof saw our French license plate and sent us off with a “Merci, au revoir…” 

I am feeling a little overwhelmed by not knowing Dutch, so I’m trying to pickup words here and there.  I learned from Google Translate that thank you is “Dank u” and that I will have to use it almost never.  We did learn a new Dutch work from walking around Keukenhof; Beenham! It’s ham that’s cooked on a pan, then served in a soft roll with a mustard sauce. One of those, split four ways, got us through our cheese, cracker and apple picnic. With all this Dutch, I was feeling a little cocky. While we were waiting for the jacket to get cleaned, we went to a place called the Family Cafeteria in Lisse.  On their menu, they offered milkshakes, so we ordered 4 klein(small) milkshakes; 2 in chocolade, 1 in vanille, and 1 in aardbei (strawberry). I was feeling pretty high and mighty until the girl ringing up our order told us what we owed in Dutch… I just kind of looked at her for a few seconds, then had to admit I had no idea what she just said, then she gave a small laugh and told us what we owed in English…

Tonight, it is 9:00PM (Noon in Arizona), the kids are fast asleep, Kathy and I are having an Amstel and trying to decide which of our 400 some odd photos to share. I’ll post a few of the best here and figure what to do with rest later…

Keukenhof

The Kaas Specialist - Where we bought 500g of Oul Cheese.

The Picnic

BEENHAM!

Oskaar The Grouch from Sesamstraat

Learning Dutch - The Duck goes Kwak Kwak Kwak!

The flower fields of Lisse