The Tall Tall Dutch

Oh did we have fun in Holland. Rotterdam is a beautiful city with
super fun people - at least 2 anyway. We visited our friends who we
had met in Honduras earlier this year and they showed us their
hometown of Rotterdam. It was fantastic. We went to a comedy show
where the first girl on stage was a comedian from Evanston, IL -
strange coincidence.

Then we rode some bikes through a park to the museum in the middle - a
museum which has more Van Gogh paintings than even the Van Gogh museum
in Amsterdam. It was an awesome ride even if my butt hurt later and
we got rained on a lot.

Jeff was excited to eat Rice Tafel - some sort of thing you do when in
Holland per Jeff's family but it really turned out to be chinese food.
It was good, though.

We also ate the traditional food of the Dutch called bitter balls.
They were deep fried balls something yummy with some spicey mustard on
the side. YUM.

Lastly on the yummy food list was the last night we were there when
our friends cooked us a meal of mashed potatoes with endive and gravy
with sausage and bacon on the side. Goodness it was hearty but oh was
it good.

No, Rocko, I am not yet 400 pounds. But I'm getting hungry again just
writing about all this food. Next we were off to London and Portugal
for the two wedding ceremonies of my best friend Sarah Wild. But that
deserves it's own friendly update...

Here we go again!

We have already had a whirlwind of a European tour! So far we have
been here a week and covered 3 countries. So I've had a lot of time
to catch up on sleeping on the many train rides we've taken and I can
say finally, I am over the jetlag (it wasn't pretty).

We started in Nuremburg, Germany where Jeff's distant cousins live.
We stayed with Kurt and Birgitte who were super nice and have a
beautiful apartment full of art. They were super generous and fed us
a LOT. Which I loved, but a girl can only consume so much. I
absolutely love me some German food! Brats and schnitzel and steaks
and potatoes! I heart here. Once, and not the last time, Birgitte
forgot I don't speak ANY German and just kept talking to me and Jeff
also forgot so I just nodded and smiled. He seems to forget a lot
that I have no idea what people are saying.

We also visited Jeff's grandma's cousin Paula - who loves snickers
bars. We had coffee and dessert at her house and I have to tell you,
I have no interest in having a garden but I love everyone's gardens
here. Her house and garden were beautiful. We also picked up Jeff's
Chicago cousin, Joann, and brought her along for the next two
countries.

Then we went off to Vienna, Austria to visit Jeff's friends Rene and
Frank. I loved it there! Vienna is a neat city but more importantly
Rene and Frank live in the best house EVER and it's about 100 feet
from a vineyard-restaurant (one of 16 in their neighborhood). Schmidt
is my new (and only) most favoritest Austrian wine producer. I'm also
contracting Frank to decorate and landscape my house if I ever have
one. He has done the most amazing job on their house and yard - and
we had the best time. Like Nuremburg, we toured Vienna and got a feel
for what a cool city it is. Plus here we got to eat lots of ice
cream. mmmmmm. We went to the summer palace of the old royalty and
saw a show on how apple strudel is made! Struuuudel! They even gave
us a little piece to eat. Again, Jeff forgot I don't know German and
kept looking at me during the German part of the show and laughing -
like I understand their jokes. Nope.

After that we visited Jeff's old TA from college, Jasmin, in Bern,
Switzerland. Although not a super happening town, Jasmin still gave
us a great tour and she can cook some good potatoes. We saw why Bern
got it's name (from an old king who killed a bear), shopped around but
bought nothing (waaaay too pricey for Joann and I), and brought along
some yummy Schmidt wine to share.

Now we're relaxing in Hanover with Jeff's old friend Mark. Mark has a
son named Tom who is hysterical. He keeps talking to me in German so
I just speak right back in English and nothing gets done - but we
still have a good time. Jeff is now able to identify the look I give
him that says, 'now is when you translate for me...'. Tomorrow we're
off to Holland to visit our favorite, and most tall Dutch friends -
and the whirlwind continues. More to come - more frequently too,
hopefully.