Green Acres

Saturday, 7/23

We slept in late again... the "Opium Den" sort of lends it self to that. (Don't worry, it's just another nickname we've given our Amsterdam basement room). We spent the morning listening to tragic news about Norway. Fairly sure these terrorist attacks are localized and sadly homespun, we feel safe with our remaining travels in Europe. Since our apartment owner Daniel, had said we should feel free to stay however long we wanted today, we took our time packing up, showering, charging electronic devices and set our check out time for 1pm, so we could enjoy a take out lunch in our room before heading for the train station. Our travel time today was short, only one hour by train from Amsterdam to Gouda and then 25 minutes by bus to Bergambacht. We called Hannie when we reached the bus and she was there to pick us up when we arrived. Immediately friendly and helpful, Hannie chatted with us about our travels and pointed out tidbits about Holland. She pointed out how the river was on higher ground than all the houses, basically all these farm houses are below sea level. I wish I could say that along with the beautiful landscapes we've found more beautiful weather but alas, it is still very cold and stormy. However Greg and I have managed to stay fairly dry today. We got settled in our apartment, a small studio above the garage (somewhat to our relief it is not actually in a barn loft as we had thought). We have a large bed under a sloping roof with a skylight/window (our bathroom has a matching style skylight/window), a couch with book shelves and TV and a small minibar area with a dining table. After leaving the bags in our apartment, Hannie loaned us two bikes to go into town with and get some food at the supermarket, then find dinner in town. She thought it would be inconvenient for us to have to cart our groceries to dinner, so she arranged to meet us at the market and bring our items back to the farm and drop them off in our room. This is one nice lady! So we had a cold but rain free bike ride into town, I can't tell you exactly how long our ride is (10-15 minutes, maybe?) but it is such a beautiful ride, we see all the straw thatched farm houses, beautiful animals, charming canals that crisscross the land, and the substantial waterway that separates us from a huge old fashioned windmill that we will try to visit in the next few days. We hurried into the market just as it began to rain and spent some time gathering snacks and lunch items for the weekend. As we exited, the sprinkles were stopping and Hannie was there in her car to take our bags back and wish us a happy evening. We parked our bikes at the bus station and walked into the tiny town center. It was virtually abandoned except for the main restaurant/pub which was packed with Spandex clad bikers watching the Tour de France. We enjoyed some local beer and a prawn dish with spaghetti. (Fusion food seems really big here in Holland, they serve some Italian/ Continental/ Asian and just present it with some fries and mayo and its fit for the Netherlands!) My favorite part about the food in the Netherlands thus far is the bread. Delicious billowy soft bread accompanies each meal with sweet butter or in tonight's case a tomato herb butter. It rained on and off as we enjoyed our warm meal, luckily as we headed back to our bikes it was temporarily dry again. It was a cold ride home, riding into the headwinds. Suddenly, I brought my bike to a screeching halt, something out of place had caught my eye, behind a wire fence near a bush. I shouted to Greg, "Stop! Koala!" I don't know why I said "koala" because that is not what I saw, but my mind couldn't come up with the name of the animal quick enough, plus I simply just didn't expect to see it here in Holland. What I had seen was a wallaby (one very close to the fence and a small mob off in the distance). We realized we were biking past some sort of exotic animal farm. There was an emu, some giant South American rodents called a capabara, and a tiny horned gazelle of some sort. It really threw me off to see these animals in the midst of all the cows, horses, goats, sheep, ducks, geese, and such we're growing accustomed to seeing in this area. Of course our expected animals are present, but how fun to see something so unexpected. We took a few photos of the wallaby closest to the fence, the whole time with me cooing compliments at her. Then something truly amazing happened, a small albino joey poked his head out of her pouch to have a look at us. I am in animal lover's heaven here! We continued our ride home and saw a giant Heron take flight from a light post. As we coasted back into the driveway, I made salutations to the sheep in the front yard. Hannie came out to make sure we had enjoyed our dinner and to help us park our bikes in the garage. We had one more question for her, did she know of any laundry mats we could visit. No she didn't, but we could use her machine, she even helped us get it started. Hannie is the best, she even added fabric softener to our load, a luxury we haven't had since leaving home. Back in our room, with what we hope will be our final load of laundry while in Europe brewing down stairs, we enjoyed the view out our back window. At 9:30 it was still bright out. There are animals galore on this farm. First there are the cats named Puma and Tiger. (We met Puma when we arrived, a lovey black cat who was keeping our couch warm for us and Tiger, a stripey girl, introduced herself by making a funny racket when it started to rain outside again). We have not been formally introduced to the horses yet but I can see them from the living room window. Of course I've given them all nicknames. The white one is Star Shine. There are 6 brown horses; Nutmeg, Cinnamon, Anise, Clove, Mace, and Allspice. (Devon, Greg said if you wanted to borrow any of those as possible baby names for Chuck, feel free!) A white goat shares real estate with the horses, for lack of creativity after naming all those horses, I call him Billy. (But I say it with an Irish accent like from the movie Billy Elliot. When the goat cavorts away from a gust of rainy air, tossing his goatee in the wind, I shout, "Go Billy!") In addition, there are two geese. I call them Cranky and Fussbudget. (More possible baby names Devon, I'm telling you I'm full of 'em today!) There are also a slew of ducks, too many to name so far. I am loving this place! While we do have TV here, I have other plans for tonight. I found a 500 piece windmill puzzle on our bookshelf and I am bound and determined to get Greg to help me put it together. Let's just hope all the pieces are there, wish us luck!