Daytrips in The Netherlands

We start with a come

to Holland advertising

campaign with these pictures





Is it
the "us" muse

     It is early Sunday morning and we are back in sweltering Norfolk. I have recently found out, what it feels like to have a publisher. A writer should just be able to wait for its muse to land on his/her shoulder and inspire him or her.


or a visiting muse?

     But oh no, the reality is, that there is a nag, that tells you that there is such a thing as a "deadline". In my case, there is my lovely spouse (by the way 

Could she be dreaming
of more adventures?

still in morpheus arms), who has in the last few weeks been "hinting". For those who know her, which in my case is every reader of my unimportant endeavours: "hinting" is a nice word, brought to you with her smile, implying that I am way overdue in bringing you a variety of my Lady's pre-titled posts.
     So here I am, happy to be back in Norfolk, as long as our small apartment stays cool, allowing a reverie of Amsterdam to occupy my mind.

If you think this is my Amsterdam
home then YOU are day dreaming instead of me!

     City life in the Netherlands is completely different from living in Norfolk VA. Amsterdam like Manhattan is a city that never sleeps, where one does not have a car and where friends and family tend to visit you with more interest in the city than in you.
     It is a place where you buy your groceries on a daily basis, dragging a shopping bag on wheels with you, visiting the baker, the pastry shop, the cheese store, the wine store etc, while seating yourself half way through these chores on a terrace in the sun, for a beer or a hot chocolate according to the time of day, to watch other inhabitants or tourists file by.

One of the loveliest tourists
I had the pleasure of carting around

     Did you by the way notice, that I haven't even commenced to talk about the title "Daytrips in the Netherlands" and its contents?

this is how daytripping in
Holland will be if you come

This is real, not Disney World

     One gets that way, when one needs to vent about his publisher. I can list for you, that there were the following day trips during our few months stay: 1. A get together day with our friends Ted and Afke while roaming country roads north of Amsterdam, 2. A preparatory day finding places to show our cousins during their visit to Amsterdam, 3. The show and tell day with our cousins and a visit to the Keukenhof,


Pictures can not tell the story



The Keukenhof and its flowers



Once captain, always a captain

 4. A day riding the train all the way to the northern province of Friesland, where we rented a motor sloop and traveled some of the many lakes up there, 5. A like day visiting the most southern province of Limburg and       taking a tour of the long since closed coalmines, as well as riding a touristy little coal driven choo-choo train through the hilly countryside,     6. And to complete our set of trips to the extremities of The Netherlands, a day trip to the city of Middelburg, the capital of Zeeland; the province where I was born, a land where the everlasting struggle with the sea is evident all around you, 7. A rained out trip to the Floriade, europe's and maybe the world's largest flower and plant show, which we abandoned around lunchtime. And oh, I almost forgot number 8: A greenwheels day with our friends Gary and Linda prior to our Safari trip with them and my sister and brother in law Marjo and Herman. 

wine never tastes better

     There were more little expeditions, that brought us out of town for a few hours, but I will spare you those details, like our frequent 30 minutes out of town train rides to the sea city of Zandvoort, where we hoped to see sunsets on the beach seated at the only beach-winebar in The Netherlands and where I spy for bare breasts, which alluded me because the weather was always too cool.

Really you won't find any

     Why these expansive listings? Well is it not evident? It is without a doubt my publishers hot breath in the nape of my neck, urging me to meet deadlines, while stressing the point, that I need to be more funny. My readers like to at least smile she laments, if not need to once in a while guffaw.
     Dear reader, it is beyond me to be funny, writing about all the above AND do justice to posts about our sailing trip in the mediterranee on the worlds largest 5 masted ship, as well as report to you about a fourteen day safari trip to Kenya and Tanzania. 

None of the above in Kenya or Tanzania

     Thus I will cleverly shortcut the above and with the help of pictures tell you my story. You noticed I hope and in doing so, I can fast forward to the story of Rome and the sailing trip and to the one story you all await with baited breath: the Safari.

     If any of you, my readers, wish to have a specific post,

Does this make you wonder?
what the hell is this?

just for you, on any of the above listed and you were not part of that trip, I will write one just for you some day in a my spare time, and that is a promise.

     PS: My publisher just perused my submission and urges me to start on the Italian story forthwith.
Did I lament about publishers???