H/B/F 2017: Corrie Ten Boom, Zandvoort, (a little) Amsterdam and Den Haag

Here’s a few more things I was up to last week:

I made sure to visit the Corrie Ten Boom house here in Haarlem. If you’ve never heard of her, think of her story as the other half of the Anne Frank story (her hide-out is in Amsterdam, we plan to visit next week). Corrie came from a long line of believers here in Haarlem, who (obviously) were sympathetic to the plight of the Jews during World War II. Corrie, her older sister, Betsie, and their father hid Jews in what they called ‘the hiding place’ in their home here in Haarlem. They even had an architect friend come in and build a real brick wall in their home (it took a week to smuggle in the supplies) to create the small space needed.

Tours are free, led by volunteers and incredibly moving. It’s clear their main purpose is to evangelize while telling Corrie’s story. She, Betsie and their father were arrested under suspicion of hiding Jews and sent to some of the worst concentration camps in Germany. Thankfully, the six people hiding at their time of their arrest were aided by a sympathetic policeman and led to safety. Betsie and their father died in the camps, but Corrie was inexplicably released and vowed to travel the world spreading the Gospel.

I was moved to tears (along with many others) by the end of the tour, and was happy to obtain my own copy of her book–The Hiding Place–there at her home.

Later that afternoon, I rented a bike and headed out to Zandvoort, a local beach about 45 minutes away by bike. The area was experiencing record temps, so anyone who could be was out on their bikes.

I copped a squat at a recommended beachside bar and drank some cold brews, snacked on a pineapple/orange ‘cookie’ I got at a local health food store and caught up on some magazine reading. (Note to self: the pineapple orange flavor combo was fantastic–must replicate at home!)

That evening, Andrew and I took a train to Amsterdam to meet his co-worker from East Aurora, Frank, for dinner. If you’ve never seen the biking action here in Amsterdam, it’s certainly an event to witness. According to our guidebook, the average family has four bikes, and in the city it’s most certainly their main mode of transportation. They even have parking ramps just for bikes!

Andrew, Frank and I grabbed a beer before finding a place for dinner. Our view:

Andrew played around in a passageway with a beautiful ceiling:

On Thursday, I jumped on a train to Den Haag to meet Andrew there to visit the Mauritshuis, their art museum featuring Rembrandts, Vermeers and Frans Hals, Haarlem’s golden boy. It is home to Vermeer’s ‘Girl with a Pearl Earring,’ its biggest attraction. I loved the juxtaposition of both the old and new architecture in this big(ish) city full of tall buildings, people in suits and young professionals.

I arrived at the museum about 30 minutes before Andrew, and their temporary exhibit, Slow Food, caught my eye. (Of course.) I had no idea what it was, but an almost supernatural force drew me to it. (For what it’s worth, we almost never spend much time at museums’ specialty exhibitions.) Slow Food is a compilation of Dutch artists’ food-themed still life paintings from the 1600s. INCREDIBLE. Incredible. Despite their very ‘traditional’ look (I’m more of a modern art girl, myself), I fell in love with the pieces. The colors. The food. The styling. The upturned glassware. The perfectly painted reflections and play of the light. This exhibit–by far–has been my favorite of any I’ve seen, and even rivals all the Impressionist works in the Musee d’Orsay in Paris.

We spent the rest of our time admiring both the interior of the Mauritshuis (only two floors of paintings in approximately 15 rooms, all ornately decorated) and the museum’s ‘biggies.’ Vermeer painted a similar work to ‘The Girl with a Pearl Earring’ and I’ll never know why her portrait (not of an actual person) didn’t rise to fame like the other. (She wasn’t quite as pretty…)

After the museum, Andrew and I wandered over to a lively square to join everyone else for happy hour. We ended up at Café Paraplu for dinner, a little spot tucked away in a quiet corner of the city.

H/B/F 2017: my gym away from my gym

I mentioned in this post that I joined a gym as soon as we got here. I knew I’d have two weeks (really only about 7 or 8 days) to workout while Andrew was working.

On our way into town, we passed this place and I figured because of its proximity to our hotel, it would be the winner. I’d done some recon before we left and seen another gym close by, but now that I’ve walked the town, I’m glad I came across this one!

It didn’t even occur to me until I was walking into my first group exercise class that the language barrier might be problematic. While just about everyone here speaks English, their primary language is Dutch, and so the classes are led in Dutch. Again, this wouldn’t be an issue if I simply wanted to run on the treadmill and lift weights.

Thankfully, I made friends quickly and others around me made sure I knew how many reps or for how long we were supppsed to do something. I’m even planning to meet up with one of the girls I met in boot camp for lunch next week!
Today, I chose to give a spinning class a try. While I teach cycle at home, I’ve noticed true ‘spinning’ classes tend to be a bit more intense. I tend to do one ‘thing’ (sprints, climb, or run) for the duration of a song, while in spinning the songs tend to be longer (more techno than what’s on the radio) and you might incorporate more endurance or intensity for longer segments of the song. Anyway. All that to say, don’t mind my hot and sweaty face!

The gym is actually quite extensive; there is a pool, childcare, a cafe (of course), a weight room with machines, a crossfit room (below) and various studios for yoga, biking, etc.

I went three times this week and plan to go at least that many times next week, which would make my 30 euro ‘membership fee’ be less than that many drop-in visits to my Y at home. Totally worth it.

I’m having a blast working out each morning! I love to work out, I feel better when I do, and it sure helps with all the ‘vacation eating’ going on. It’s also a neat way to ‘assimilate’ to your new home while abroad.

H/B/F 2017: flowers for days

One day after work, I took a bus to meet Andrew and some of his co-workers at Keukenhof, which is a giant tulip and flower farm. It’s open only for eight weeks in April and May, so we made sure to get there on a nice evening as soon as possible. In addition to the acres and acres of flower fields (apparently an amazing sight from a plane), they have a walkable park filled with flowers, attractions (such as a windmill and a lily pond you can walk on) and expositions housed in buildings on the grounds. Unfortunately, the flower fields were all finished by the time we visited, but we did see plenty of beautifully designed gardens still in bloom.

That evening, one of Andrew’s dutch co-workers recommended we head to the coast for dinner as it was such a nice night. We walked a bit and found a restaurant with ideal seating and enjoyed fish, the smell of sea air and the extra 1.5 hours (!!) of daylight. Because we are farther north, the sun is setting at around 9:30 p.m., significantly later than back at home.

The next morning, Andrew and I got up bright and early (6 am!) to get on the road to see the Aalsmeer flower auction. It’s best early in the morning and can wrap up by 9 am on slower days, so we planned to arrive by 7 am.

Royal FloraHolland is housed in the largest commercial building in the world (equivalent to 220 football fields!) and is THE flower market for Europe. More than 20,000 different varieties of flowers and plants are bought and sold in more than 100,000 transactions a day.

It’s operated by what’s called a ‘Dutch auction,’ the reverse of a traditional auction. With the price starting high and going low, it ensures transactions are completed incredibly quickly. While on the tour, I heard it takes a new buyer more than a year of training before they’re ready.

Sales at Royal FloraHolland are about 9.6 million euro per day, with about 4.4 BILLION euro each year. It’s incredible that 34.5 MILLION flowers are moved through this place every day.

It was so neat to watch the action from above; thousands of employees (3,500) drive carts of flowers from end to end for hours. Within 90 minutes, all purchases are in the buyer’s staging area.