On Tuesday, tourist attraction bosses in Belgium called for ‘less pessimistic forecasts’ and urged meteorologists to pay as much attention to sun as they do to rain.
And on Monday, local councillors in Hoek van Holland said weather forecasters who got it wrong should be fined. Bad forecasts are spoiling the local seaside trade, the Labour councillors said.
While Queensday (see previous post) is the biggest celebration country wide, The Hague celebrates with a party the night before. Angela, Michael, & Brooke flew in for the celebration to get a true taste of dutch life.
Taking a ride on the Merry-Go-Round with Flat Stanley.
It was a lot like Vegas with such attractions as the Golden Nugget, Glitter Gulch, & .....
Caesars Palace!
As always, safety first for the children, with bungee jumping 20 ft in the air
Archery to win a stuffed animal (those are real arrows)
Finally, after winning your tokens at the skee-ball or the water cannon games you can pick out a prize. Maye an airplane, mentos, slinky, or if its been a good night.... some condoms.
In 2011, parents took children out of school illegally 6,500 times, a rise of
10% on 2010. Van Bijsterveldt wants to stop this by ensuring parents know when
they can and cannot remove children from school.
Parents can be find €4,000 for keeping children away from school outside the
school holidays without the permission of the head teacher.
One of the big differences living over here is how much we bike compared to back home (never back home, all the time here). Practically every time we would have jumped in a car back home we jump on our bikes here. Going to work, shopping, visiting friends, is all done on the bike.
The Dutch have made it their way of living. Practically every street has a bike path and anywhere you would like to go in the country you can get to by bike. The bikes have the right of way, then pedestrians, and then cars.
Myself and a co-worker, two members of our five member biker gang that occasionally ride to work together (that is supposed to be a doorag on my head NOT MY IDEA).
Our commute to work is about 5 miles (the same distance as Viola Gibson to Bowman Woods) and takes us anywhere from 20 to 30 minutes.
While reading the local news the other day I came across an article complaining the cost of 20 year and 30 year leases on graves in the Netherlands had gone up. After further research I learned that most grave sites here are leased and then dug up after the lease expires (provided the next of kin do not want to extend the lease) and the remains are moved to a mass grave.
It makes sense (lots of people, little land) but not something I had ever thought about.
In the words of my father, I've been to a turkey shoot, a buzzard f***, and a Marine Corp ball and I ain't ever seen anything like this.
That is how we felt about carnaval in Den Bosch ('S Hertongenbosch as it is properly called or Oeteldonk as it is called during the 3 days of carnaval).
We weren't sure what to expect as we took the two hour train ride to Den Bosch, but as the train got closer to the city more and more people got on that were dressed in costume or part of impromptu marching bands.
Part of the tradition is the handing over of the keys to the city from the mayor to the prince of carnaval. Luckily as we debarked the train the "prince" was just starting his journey.
The crowd at the train station was ready for his arrival and the official starting of carnaval.
We made our way through the crowds and arrived at the square. Unfortunately the official colors of carnaval in Den Bosch seem to align with the Cyclones.
The name of the train station also changes to Oeteldonk.
After watching the handing over of the key we made our way to the parade route to watch what we thought was going to be a kids parade. It started with real horses.
And then there were fake horses.
Everyone dressed for the occasion, everyone. Well except three tourists from Iowa.
They gave candy to the kids, shots and beer to the adults.
More horses, this time dressed up.
The Dutch are the tallest people in Europe.
And they really love speed skating, second only to soccer.
Did I mention we had never seen anything like this?
The video below gives you a sense of what it was like, for 3 straight hours.
Some floats contained refreshments, it was a long parade.
These gents are dressed in their Bierkas which is parodying the current Burqa debate that is going on within the Netherlands.
The local biker gang
Snooki and her pals...?
And then I thought the rapture was upon us, it went from bright and sunny to hail/snow with chicken feathers flying everywhere (see video below). Did I mention I had never seen anything like this?
For those of you that may not know, I have always been a big New York Knicks fan. It has been very refreshing to finally have some positive news associated with the team and follow the new found success of Jeremy Lin. Long gone are the days of Oak and Mason roughing up the Bulls or LJ and VanGundy holding on against the Heat. We'll pretend the Isiah Thomas and Larry Brown era's did not occur and enjoy the most famous Ivy League player since Bill Bradley.
How does one grow up in Iowa and become a Knicks supporter while the nearby Bulls were a very prominent successful team?
My favorite, and greatest, player during my formative years was drafted by the Knicks thanks to the invisible hand of David Stern. As I followed Ewing and the Knicks through the mid 80's another personnel move forever cemented my loyalty. The Knicks signed a player who I had watched in person play for the Cedar Rapids Silver Bullets.
Now that you got all that information, what does any of this have to do with living in the Netherlands? I found a great candy bar at the grocery store. If I knew anything about the import/export business, I would set up a candy bar stand outside the mecca of basketball and make a fortune selling them to New Yorkers.
The candy bar itself is a knock off of the KitKat.
If you have lived in The Netherlands for more than a few months you have probably either been to or heard of the dreaded circle party, known to the Dutch as a verjaardagsfeest (birthday party). It is also known as a circle party because you will sit in a giant circle around the room all afternoon. This giant circle is known as the circle of hell to many expats because you will sit in whatever chair you chose for the remainder of the party and are forced to talk to the two people on either side of you all afternoon or worse, there will be a group conversation (in Dutch). There are a few other interesting traditions at the parties, one being that when you arrive you will need to find the birthday person and say "Gefeliciteerd" (Congratulations). I am not sure why it is "congratulations" rather than "happy birthday"... I guess you are congratulating them on being born or making it another year?!? Once you have done this you must then walk around the circle and congratulate everyone else at the party as well. I am also not sure why you need to congratulate the neighbor/friend/relative of the birthday person, but you do! Another thing I find a bit odd is that the birthday person will prepare all of the food (including the cake) and will be constantly getting up to serve tea or cake while you as the guest just sit in your chair being waited on, otherwise you will be seen as rude. I don't imagine many Dutch have a relaxing birthday!
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