In Nederland

I took a quick break to the Netherlands. Really quick. I left Monday morning and returned on Tuesday evening via the Eurostar.

My friend Kimmy is Dutch and invited me out to see her home and show me around the southern region of the Netherlands, less known to tourists, who tend to stick to Amsterdam in the north.

I. Adore. The Netherlands.

It has all the refinery of Europe without the snobbery typically associated with the French and Spanish, and the language is less crass than German. I was in Maastricht. An adorable town with cobblstone streets, classic red-brick buildings and people riding bikes everywhere.

Surprisingly, the landscape of The Netherlands reminded me a lot of Oregon or the Pallouse (is that spelled right?) in Washington, except with more windmills and small villages and old Castles dotting the country side. Also, unlike England, their "noble houses" actually look like Castles from the fairy tales. Lovely, absolutely lovely.

Of course I took part in the culinary delights of this region and ate Dutch Cheese, Dutch pancakes (called "pannekoeken" in Dutch - what a great name! Right!?), Dutch apple pie, and drank Dutch beer; unfortunately there were no Dutch cupcakes, but they do have this great ginger bread called "Ontbigt Koek", or something like that :)

I wish I had pictures to show, but my camera broke :( Kimmy has all the pictures from my quick break to her homestead, so when she returns to London I will be sure to update this blog with pics!