Friesland - kaas and cows

Sneek

Well here we are in The Netherlands, where most people would go to Amsterdam or Rotterdam we chose Friesland, a providence in the northwest of The Netherlands with a total population of about 646,000 people. Maybe you have heard of their horses and cows or ice skating? Friesland has been a total 180 from our month in Paris, not in bad way though. There was a part of me that was disappointed to leave Paris as I loved all the food and culture that Paris offered and there was a part of me that was looking to slow down a bit and just sort of sit with it all. Well life has s-l-o-w-e-d down, we went from monuments, museums, crazy drivers and sensory overload to farmland, canals, wooden shoes and a head spinning language. We are staying at a camp ground but there is no "roughing it" here. (OR/WA peeps envision Campers Hideaway) We are in an adorable 2 bedroom A-framed house, w/d, full kitchen, flat screen TV and a backyard. The closest town is about 3 miles away and we do not have a car or a bicycle so we are the strange Americans walking on the bike path. We actually have been enjoying all the walking and our bodies are starting to show it, but 3 miles in Paris consisted of shops, cafes and people whereas in Sint Nicolaasga its cows, slugs and bicycles. 3  miles feels a lot longer here than in Paris.
We have explored a few towns/villages, Joure, Sint Nicolaasga, Sneek, Heerenven and Langweer. They are all very charming but sadly all look alike, lots of shopping (the Dutch love to shop) bakeries, cafes and did I mention shopping. The villages all have that coastal boardwalk kind of feel and look, everyone is on a bike, tan and smiling.  Everything for the most part is very affordable if you don't do the Euro to Dollar conversion, plus they have some great affordable shops, HEMA is the Dutch IKEA.
Not sure I am a fan of the Dutch cuisine as we haven't tried very much. There is a lot of fried food that all has the same red breadcrumb coating, pickled foods and fries with mayo (okay they were tasty). The kaas (cheese) and rye breads are amazing!! Decided we needed to try a local libation so we bought a bottle of Beerenburg, a liquor made of 71 herbs and gin...sort of a tamed version of Jaegermeister and mixed it with coke it wasn't to bad. Before we leave we promised each other that we would try the raw herring (served with raw chopped onions). We were told to think of it as sushi...gulp.
We have two weeks left so working on our trips to Amsterdam and the capital of Friesland, Leeuwarden - can't say I am not looking forward to a museum, a coffee shop and a few more people.

Kaas aka cheese

Our backyard

Bike Path

Dutch house

Shopping

Yes we are connected

10:00PM sunset

All about the Oranje

Lilly Pads

Heerenveen

Fotbol

I want to ride my bicycle

Cow!

Local libation

Ducks?

Pillow jumping

Reflections

Reflective sphere at science museum

What have I learned my first month in Europe..hmmm. I learned that playing in the park is really fun, fresh baguettes are amazing, trying to communicate in a foreign language is a challenge, walking 50 miles a week isn't so bad and breaking up a gypsy scam is fun, okay and scary. So much has happened in this last month and I can't believe I still have 8 more to go. The biggest lesson so far has been leaning to slow down. Traveling with a two year old forced us to physically and mentally slow down. Imagine trying to maneuver through a museum full of people from all over the world, everyone is there to admire the art - now insert a two year old strapped in a stroller who has absolutely no clue who Monet is and could care less about water lilies. How do we both find enjoyment in this adventure and also not create havoc for the other museum visitors?  You play games. we decide ahead of time what we want to look for and we go in search of it. We searched for bananas, kites and of course elephants. We didn't have much luck with the bananas but Ce'zanne's Pommes et Oranges was a beautiful piece of art work that we spent at least 4 minutes looking and talking about..3 more minutes than I would of spent without the goal of finding bananas. We broke into song while looking at Monet's Woman with a parasol because Tatum thought it looked like a kite. So we sang "let's go fly a kite" we got some interesting looks and lots of smiles too. I would have to say that I probably had the best time in a museum because I had to slow down and look at things differently.

So I decided to be a good samaritan and thwart someone from getting taken like I did with the "found your gold ring" scam. Except I didn't realize my scammer had a pimp and they would chase you down. We had just crossed over from the Louvre as we were going to indulge in another cup of Angelina's Chocolate chaud, it was pouring and we needed a pick me up. I noticed a girl standing with a couple showing them her discovery of the infamous gold ring. The man walked away with the young girl so I approached the woman and informed her it was a scam, she then called out to her husband and I told him the same thing. I foiled the scam, take that you gypsy scammers!!! I look up and there is this guy starring at me with a certain look upon his face (it wasn't a happy look), as we passed him he yelled something at me. At that moment is when Laura and I realized that was the "pimp". Next thing I know the gypsy girl is behind me saying things in broken English, the only part I really caught was "kiss my ass" (made me sort of giggle, really that's all the English cursing skills you have?) then she proceeded to try and trip me by kicking at my feet. We never turned around, we never engaged  we just kept on walking, I wont lie I was having thoughts about the gypsy mafia coming after me, every time someone came up from behind us and passed I was on guard. Laura and I decided we are going to research all the other countries we are traveling to and find out the scams so we don't get scammed but everyone else is on there own...but hey for one Euro I have a couple of great stories. Next stop Friesland, The Netherlands.

Seafood anyone?

Homemade pizza 

Le Cordon Bleu'

Street Art at The Pompidou  

The Pompidou fountain

Pepsi sample

Park faces

American bookstore but that green statue is a water dispenser 

Canal  St.Martin 

Locks

St Martin bridge

Lunch in the park 

Random

Another carousel

Foggy

Clear

Musee d Orsay 5th floor

Whats a little rain?

Fishnet

Yep  we are happy!

Gypsies, Gold and Elephants

Paris Keepsake

*****SCAM ALERT****** yep they have scammers here in Paris!!! Its a pretty good scam too if you ask me. As we walked along the Seine on Monday we passed an older woman, maybe late 60's early 70's, all of a sudden she stops, bends down and picks up a gold ring. We are somewhat surprised by her find, she asks us in farely good English if it is ours and we immediately say "no, no, not ours". She then says to me as she grabs my hand, "I no need, I am divorced you take it as good luck here in Paris". She closes the ring into my hand and I stand there not sure what to do, so I say thank you and start to walk away...here is the scam. She then stops me and says, " a little something for coffee, for me?" Not knowing what the right thing is to do,I mean this lady just found a ring and gave it to me, I should give her something, right? So I hand her a Euro and walk away, she begs for more, I just keep walking trying to catch up with Laura and Tatum as they left me to deal with the gold ring. (I tend to always be the one that stops when approached on the street) To be honest I was a little paranoid, I thought what if I was supposed to give her more money and now someone is following us, it took me a good 30 minutes to get rid of the feeling. Laura and I wondered if we were scammed or what if it was a real gold ring - $$$$. Well my hopes of cashing in on the gold ring were squashed today as I read a blog and half way down the page it said ' watch out for the gold ring scam', dang it I was scammed! Today it was tried on us again but we were to smart, we just said no and kept on walking.

There are numerous "gypsies" on the streets of Paris, usually just sitting on a duffel bag, some have a pet like a dog or even a bunny, or some have a whole family cuddled up on a mattress. They dont say much, they usually have a paper cup out and sometimes you may hear them say something but its in French so we just keep walking. I guess I wasn't anticipating seeing homeless people here as it is Paris. 

Today was forecasted as rainy and gloomy but that wasn't going to stop us as we only have a week left and still so much to see. So we charted out our route to the Opera House and hoped the rain would hold off until later this afternoon, we had been pretty lucky with weather so far. We got a few blocks from our apartment when it started to rain, so we decided it was time to have our first cafe' at a cafe. We felt so Parisian having our croissant and cafe' and the cafe'' was so good, very smooth not acidic or bitter like our espressos tends to be. If you have every traveled with a child you know that what you have planned for the day is usually not what the child has planned. Tatum has been a trooper, she has her moments but that's to be expected. So to keep her interested in our outings we ask her what we should look for as we walk the city. Elephants, Russian baby dolls, kitties and doggies are the usual plus its not to hard to find a dog here in Paris, Russian baby dolls well...

So as we walk we look for the said items as it keeps her entertained while she is stroller contained. Poor girl, as it never fails falls asleep as we happen upon elephants ( her favorite animal by far) glass ones, painted ones, metal ones, elephants everywhere that is until she wakes up. So we have started taking pictures to prove to her that we did see her elephants.

Giant elephant in storefront window

One of our "must do" stops was at Angelina's. We were advised we had to have the worlds best hot chocolate so we found it and O.M.G. they were so right except its not hot chocolate its hot melted chocolate, a cup of hot steamy melted drinking chocolate. I literally saw stars as it was so rich and creamy and yummy, if you are ever in Paris you MUST make the stop (its across from the Louvre). 

My love for spicy food especially Mexican (okay addiction) has not fained. I knew coming to Europe I would be hard pressed to find Mexican food. So I tried some at Disneyland, first mistake, I found hot salsa and flour tortillas at the store this week and Mexican spiced chicken...whoot whoot we are having Mexican food for dinner kids, 2nd mistake. The chicken tasted more like Indian curry than Mexican, the tortillas were not that bad but a little thick and dry for my liking and the hot salsa...uggg was a jar of thick sweet ketchup. I doubt The Netherlands or Denmark will be of much hope. I may have to resort to straight shots of Sriracha sauce.

Rainy day random stop

Yummy cafe'

Croissant monster

Pure heaven

Hot steamy drinking chocolate

View from Pompidou

Pastry porn

Food Art

Yep a selfie

"big"bottles  of wine

Paris Opera Garnier

"Us"

Paris shopping mall

Galerie Lafayette 

Rita, they are everywhere

Another city view

No words

Can't stop drooling 

It looked like Mexican food

"love"