On the road again

     The Dutch are celebrating Koninginnedag since 1885, starting with the 5th birthday of the popular princess Wilhelmina, although at that time it was called "Princessedag", as she only became Queen on her 18th birthday, when that day was ofcourse changed to "Queensday".      The reader must realize that the Dutch are anything but royalists by nature. As soon as we shook off the shackles of the Spanish royal tyranny in 1581, we became a constitutional republic (a lot of the US constitution is based on the Dutch and French versions). We still claim to be "the oldest republic" in the world. In doing so one has to ignore the anomaly of San Marino, (whoever heard of them?) which was declared independent from the Roman empire in 301. And to be candid, we continued in 1813 the Monarchy that Napoleon forced on us in 1806, effectively ending our Republic.      Anyway our mindset is still republic-minded, while t...

     Most of you now know, that we are aspiring culinarians, which is an uppity word for cooks. During the wedding ceremonies in Amsterdam our guests presented us with a coupon to enjoy a dining experience in the 33rd best restaurant in the world, at least so voted in 2011.      The Librije (phonetically - Lee-bray-ye) situated in a sleepy town in the eastern part of the Netherlands called Zwolle is one of two three star Michelin restaurants in this country. The there reigning chef Jonnie Boer and his front of the house sommelier wife Therese dabble with success in molecular adventures for one's palate and she provides beautiful matching wines.      Their restaurant has 40 seats in the remainder of a former castle, which is packed every day with guests who are eager to shell out whatever it takes to have the dining experience of their life. A few lucky ones can descend to the catacombs below and watch from the che...

      We are in the swing of making plans for a few weeks of American family visits, which of course include the Amsterdam walking tour and surely the canal boat trip. One can easily do these in one day.      At this time of the year we will definitely visit the Keukenhof (the national botanical gardens) and view the surrounding miles of tulip fields that color the ground. As that requires Greenwheels we will use the rest of the day and visit typical Dutch villages and towns.      But there are many more days to fill. One of those should be a kroegentocht (phonetically: kroeg-a-tog-th). Such a pub crawl is a part of Amsterdam one would be remiss not to offer even to a teetotaler.      How did cafes come to be, one might ask? Well here we go: It all emerged from a mid-nineteenth century Flemish trend (let no one ever say the Dutch do not like those Belgians they so often abuse in their jokes), ...