First days in Holland

Me, Mila, Joop, Bas and Bella

Bas, Mila and Joop in Bas's kitchen

Ans and Frederique walking outside Bas andAns' house.

Ans and Fred

Joop

The first days in Holland have been hectic. It is exhausting to arrive 9 hours jetlagged and then have to gird your loins to prepare for a party. Luckily most, if not all of the details had been handled by Joop's nephew Bas and his wife Ans. We feel tremendous gratitude for all of the planning that they did and organization of all of the details that went into making the party such a huge success.

We arrived on Thursday morning and Joop's brother Arnold picked us up at the airport and whisked us to his home in a seaside village Driehuis, for a wonderful lunch made by his wife Marlene. Afterward we hunkered down in a hotel in Amsterdam in the centre of town for supposedly a restful sleep prior to the intense preparty planning. It was a most wonderful hotel but I could not sleep. In fact sleep eluded me until after the party 2 days later. I think I look very perky for a person who has not slept in 3 days in the post party picture. Somehow our hotel was located in an area under construction so we could not drive anywhere near it. Try to lug your huge wheeled suitcase down cobblestone alleyways while suffering profound body collapse. Not a delightful picture. I think I am indebted to Starbucks Vente awake teas for enabling me to make it to Lelystad the next day in reasonable form.  I took 3 teas in a 3 hour time frame.

Once we arrived in Lelystad we raced around buying flowers and drink ingredients. Rural Holland does not take credit cards. Just a tiny detail but quite profound in its implications. In fact I ended up actually despariging the North American dependence on credit cards for navigating. It simply did not occur to me that I might need actual money. After the fifth shop keeper explained to me that it was because the charges from the credit companies are too high (me in complete agreement but still non the less panicky at how could I now get money without severe penalties from my bank); I began to see the Dutch in a new light - a debtless society - subsequently debunked by one of Joop's nephews who then waxed on and on about the lines of credit that keep everything afloat. We bought beautiful flowers - such a great price. I compromised on some of my drink ingredients. We had supper at the neighbours - Joop's niece Ester. Party planning - which consisted of me arranging flowers and making a drink - began in earnest the next day. The party was a huge success. A large band consisting of many professional musicians sang a song about Joop's life. We had an amazing Jazz duo - the guitarist brought in by Joop's brother Arnold a professional bassist - then wild dancing. It was very entertaining. The guitarist when leaving went to say goodbye and then before he grabbed my shoulders said: "I need you to know that this means nothing, it is just Dutch" as he proceed to do the routine 3 time cheek kiss. You got to love that preemptive negation. The catered food was beyond wonderful. I still am shocked at how inexpensive it was compared to North American caterers. 

The next day we walked along the small canals to pay for the bed and breakfast hotel that some of Joop's sisters stayed at. Lelystad is freshly "reclaimed" land. This means that 50 years ago all of Lelystad was under the open sea. Significant dikes and pumping of water has revealed the marvel of flat landscape that is Lelystad. I am quite amazed by the linear copse of trees that permeate Holland - usually only 3 trees deep - all the same height. Everything is a manufactured landscape - how weird is that? One night from our tower bedroom - Bas had built this tower where we slept in the loft - all self contained - very amazing - (I always told everyone that I would just let my hair down and they could come in), I heard a dog barking incessantly - my first thought is what is there to bark at in this predator free constructed world? Foxes were the answer.

Miles and miles of windmills

The spectres and the changing sky

The day after the party we drove to Arnold's village for supper. The landscape can be quite disconcerting especially if it is shrouded in fog and the bodies of the windmills are hidden - all you see are these lonely blades of the windmills slicing through the opaque cloudy sky. It feels very Orwellian.

Once at Arnold's having navigated the rainy, dark highway with cars that kept flashing their lights at us, Joop became quite incapacitated with dizziness. We ended up having to stay at this historic hotel even though we had no luggage. It was quite a delightful old hotel near the open sea harbour that had survived WWII while the rest of the region was razed just because the German Army captains liked to stay there. We might have been the only guests. They had the remote control beds that we have at home but we failed to notice until the next morning. We felt quite cheated. The town is located on the dunes with the open sea raging beyond. Joop's childhood summers were spent biking from Amsterdam to the northern dunes to a cottage. I love the image of the family biking together all of those many miles to their summer stay.

The sand dunes and open sea outside Arnold's town  Driehuis

The Augusta hotel Ijmuinden

The bicycle capital of the universe -Amsterdam

We are now happily ensconced in the Amsterdam hotel in the centre of town. I am still in awe of the bikes. In fact at central station they are so deep as they are tied up that I don't know how you could possibly retrieve your bike. I loved all of the school children heading home on their bikes from school on the rural paths. 

Joop and I in our tower after 10 hours of Partying at the 70th - don't we look perky?