Life of Brian

That's Brian- Rob's friend from their decade in college- and that's how fast he moved while he was here. In a week he saw six towns, plus Amsterdam. The guy had an agenda. Rob was so tired from trying to keep up that he didn't bother trying to post anything until Brian was gone. We toured Alsmeer for the flower market, Alkmaar and Edam for cheese, Haarlem for the culture, Maastricht for history, and Cologne for the church and an excuse to eat some German food. We'll post more stories and pictures soon, but first check out the Dead Baby Monkey Angel we saw mounted in a spooky store in Edam:

Creepy.

Too Early for the Beach?

The weather this week has been just beautiful and we took advantage of the much needed sun and headed to the beach. The North Sea is about a half hour's drive from home, so we packed a lunch and loaded into the car with Jane, Michelle (our first repeat visitor!), and our friend Elizabeth. We found a nice bench and enjoyed sandwiches and some wine and then joined the other hundreds of pale Dutch folk drawn to the beach like moths to a flame for a good walk. Spring can't come soon enough!

Another Amazing Pasta Post

Erika continues to amaze in the kitchen. This week she made ravioli, stuffed with mushrooms and ricotta. The new pasta maker, coupled with helper Jane (Rob still has his job pulling things off the top shelf, which he continues to be incredible at), has ushered in a new era of fantastic meals at home. Here, Erika scoops the ricotta onto the first layer of pasta:


The finished product, covered with a little ricotta and served with wine and veggies:


And, for those of you out there wondering where all the photos of our wonderful houseguest, Jane, are, well, Rob gave Jane photo (but not editorial!) approval and she is quick with the veto, leaving Rob dozens of pictures like this one of the girls on the tram:


So, we promise our friends in Portland that she is alive and well, but we can't offer much more in the way of photographic evidence...

Evil Construction Banner

Did you notice the giant poster above the boat in the previous post? It's a huge banner in front of the train station covering some construction and it's really creepy. None of the people are happy to have their photos taken and some of them look like they just might kill you (like the guy in the sleeveless shirt) (click to enlarge):


Jane was particularly wary of the redheaded guy, who, curiously, looks a lot like Rob's brother:


So, Drew, seriously. Quit stalking us. You're creeping us out...

Cruising the Canals

The most popular tourist attraction in town is the canal tour and this weekend we took advantage of the warm weather and joined Jane on a tour through town. The tour is great because it's only about an hour long (so you never feel like you're stuck on a boat) and you see enough of the city to get you interested to go explore it later. We even managed to learn a little. This particular tour was prerecorded and it was bizarre and disorienting to hear all the street names and canals we've struggled to learn translated into English.

Here's a typical houseboat in front of a row of canal houses:


It's tough to make them all out, but there are seven bridges in this picture (click picture to enlarge):


This is the NEMO building, which is the (kid-themed) science museum. Apart from looking really cool, the top of the building has a café with tiered seating and during the summer it's a great place to sit in the sun, drink a cool beer, and enjoy a rare high view over the city:


We had a great time and highly recommend a tour (though the absolute best way to see the city is via bike). They also offer dinner cruises, but we wouldn't mind checking out the wine tour, too...

Bruges Redux

This weekend we returned to Bruges with Jane (before sending her off on her own to Paris). Bruges is such a beautiful city and it's famous for beer, chocolate, fries, and waffles. How can you go wrong? Here, Erika and Jane talk shop with the chocolatier at Galler's:


This time we stayed in a beautiful bed and breakfast run by a retired rancher and his wife. Check out the website for pictures. We highly recommend it to anyone traveling through Bruges.

The Month of Jane-uary

We're celebrating the new year with our first guest, Jane. Jane is visiting from Portland and will be staying with us between her many trips throughout Europe this month. We've enjoyed taking her out to some of our favorite restaurants and she's enjoyed the various museums and shops in the city. And she taught Rob a very valuable lesson- he had the brilliant idea to throw her on a bike and take her into the city center on her first day, when the city can be a little rough on newcomers on bikes and, more importantly, Jane hadn't ridden a bike since she was 8! She managed to survive, but still hasn't completely mastered the art of braking without hand-brakes. The look on her face here pretty much says it all:


In her first week, she's visited the modern art museum, the giant Reichsmuseum, and the beautiful town of Haarlem. This weekend, we'll travel together to Bruges to gorge on chocolate, waffles, and beer, and then she's off to Paris for a few days. In the meantime, we've got her set up in the "Jane Wing" of the living room:


In addition to touring the local cafés and restaurants, Erika and Jane have been cooking up a storm. Jane made homemade strawberry jam for us and Erika and Jane used the new pasta maker to whip up an unbelievably good lasagna:



It's been great to have her here and hopefully she'll recruit some more visitors for us when she returns to Portland.