Worldly Chatter

Want to do something fun and a little off beat in Amsterdam, maybe even get a little tipsy with some beer in the middle of the afternoon? Try going to the Heineken Experience! Dutchie and I went with my brother and his girl to the Heineken Museum at around one in the afternoon. My brother, being a fan of beer, tried some of our beer here in Holland and enjoyed them thoroughly and finally understood what I was telling him about Heineken tasting different in the Netherlands verses America. So, with this new found passion for Heineken on his taste buds we set out to find out all about Heineken on one of his days in Amsterdam.

For €11 you get admittance into the museum with four tokens; one token for a gift when you leave and the other three are for beers at their bars along the way! When you get in, you start off with a history of Heineken with interviews from Mr. Heineken himself as well as a picture tour, first billboards and commercials.

Let me take you back to 1863, Amsterdam, with Gerard Heineken who has just risked his entire family fortune by buying out a 250 year old brewery that is on its last legs. He wants to make the best beer in his little corner shop and you get a little interactive piece of how this came about as you walk through. You walk through the huge kettles and see the process made. The ingredients and methods used by a master brewer, Mr. Feltmann and chemist, Dr. Elion was considered scientific yet magical. Some of the information is technical yet much of it was fun and amusing for the visitor. You get to take control of two Shire horses and ride them through the narrow streets of Amsterdam delivering beer in this neat ride. There is also the feel of being a Heineken bottle from filling to delivery; that was a bumpy ride! The four of us drank our beer, learned how it was made and the business that is Heineken. There was music to listen to; a place to relax and we even learned what the company is doing to help reduce use of electricity and water. I suppose it just isn’t beer anymore when you learn what it does on an environment friendly stand point.

The free gift was a hollow bottle of Heineken with a bottle opener inside. We took a little more home with us though; pictures and a jacket for Dutchie! My brother took home a t-shirt or too and a wonderful understanding of his favorite Dutch beer! It was a blast through and the beer was good. I do, however, feel my brother had the best time out of all of us because when asked what his favorite thing in Amsterdam he had done, this was it, the Heineken Experience!

Amsterdam tourism, Heineken Experience, Worldly Chatter, Heineken Beer, Holland Tourism

If you ever get the chance to go to Holland, there are hundreds of things to do here! This past week, I have learned there is so much I haven’t seen until this past week and there are tons of activities and sites I still need to see here! I have so much to share about this vacation but I am going to stick to one right now. It was actually the Amsterdam Dungeon and it was an amazing place! It is a tourist attraction on Rokin, between the Dam Square and Rembrandtplein for those who understand the Amsterdam layout. It looked rather creepy when Dutchie, I, my brother and his girl decided to go. Of course if you are in Amsterdam, go to the exchange offices and tourist booths, my brother and sis-in-law found a great deal where we would go to the Amsterdam Dungeon and Madam Tussauds for €25 instead of €36, so definitely keep an eye out, tourist places usually have stuff and if they don’t have anything appealing go to the exchange places. Aside from exchanging dollars into Euros they have other information but I am getting sidetracked.

As I was saying, it looked kind of creepy in a fun, let’s get scared kind of way! When we went in we had a woman all decked out in costume hand us axes and my brother on this device. We looked like we were about to chop his head off when she took the picture! Once our little photo op was done we waited for some more people to come in before we got a tour of Amsterdam during the Dutch East Indies Company most influential and profitable period, as well as the time during the great plague and the Blood Council, the 16 and 17 hundreds. We had a bar maid attempt to recruit us for work on board a ship, offer ale she spit in and told us tales of the men working on the trading ships. The whole place was decked out to look like a real tavern one might go to after getting off a ship. She eyed the whole group asking them to join a ship and eying the ladies for jewelry when she actually confronted Dutchie when she saw two rings on her hand. They had a bit of a staring contest and neither wanted to budge! These actors are great let me tell you! She finally kicked us out and we ended up at bottom of a ship with a captain bellowing to bring the fresh working hand on deck to start work! There was some more storytelling and then the room filled with smoke so that you couldn’t see in front of you! They were under attack you see.

Poor Dutchie, not only did she get picked on with the bar maid, she got picked on by the make shift doctor. You see, the make shift doctor was looking at the dead doctor, inspecting him and verifying that it was, in fact, the plague. There were more patients of course; one in particular needed his leg amputated. It just so happened that where Dutchie was sitting was in direct alignment with the doctor and when he hacked the leg off, blood squirted out and Duchies leg was soaked. More importantly though, even with all the antics of the would be doctor there was a story to be told of the plague and how it ravaged through Europe. There were stories of the trade ships and then finally came the Blood Council.

The

Going through the Dungeon you see a variety of rooms with things that are less than pleasing. There were contraptions for stretching the body pealing the skin and chopping, breaking, stabbing the body into any form of confession. For whatever the person was in there for, they were tortured and beaten practically to death. Once they confessed they were sentenced to death in a variety of ways. If they didn’t confess, they died during their torture. When we were put in front of the Blood Council Dutchie was once again the center of attention. This time it was a t-shirt she was wearing that caught the courts eye. New York was plastered on her chest, a shirt we bought in the city and the court asked her name and condemned her on the count of bad fashion sense! She would have her left arm and leg removed and they would watch her swim in circles until she sank!

To say the least it was an interesting afternoon! Educational and fun as hell! The four of us had a blast and I highly recommend it to anyone in Amsterdam!

Amsterdam Dungeon, Amsterdam Tourism, Worldly Chatter, Amsterdam, Rokin

I finally received some pictures of the wedding while we wait for the photographer to finish with the professional pictures. So since I have something to show you, I want to write about our big day and finally becoming a Mrs.!

It started a little after ten in the morning, a little late because we were waiting for some guests and taking pictures outside the town hall. It was a beautiful blue sky and everything finally fell into place except for me. I was a mess! I wanted to cry all morning, ok, actually I cried between 9 and  9:30 and tried to compose myself when my family, Duchies’ sister, the photographer and car showed up at 9:15-9:30. We drive to town hall in a blue Volkswagen Beetle, top down and the ride I am still trying to remember, I was so emotional! I was about to be married, I was beside myself with joy and excitement!

Our registrar, ambtenaar in Dutch, was wonderful from the beginning. She spoke to everyone in the room about how we met, she mentioned Duchies’ co-workers and all they did to make it possible for me to stay and even my own co-workers who attended and what that meant to us. She is a woman with a sense of humor yet very professional when she has to be. She was compassionate and even touched when both of our fathers walked us in the room. She had never had two fathers give two brides away before and was very moved when we walked in. She also read a poem for the occasion that I want to share. It is titled Ik heb je… by Jan-Simon Minkema.

Ik heb van jou wel duizend foto’s:
Ik heb je als je drinkt en eet,
Ik heb je als je staat te praten,
Ik heb je als je dat maar weet.

Ik heb van jou wel duizend beelden:
Ik heb je als een kind zo blij,
Ik heb je als een wijze meester,
Ik heb je als liefhebberij.

Ik heb van hou duizend gezichten,
Ik heb je als je met me vrijt,
Ik heb je als je ligt te slapen,
ik heb je voor de eeuwigheid.

Ik heb voor jou wel duizend zinnen:
Ik heb je lief, ik heb je beet,
Ik heb je door, ik heb je nodig
ik heb je als je dat maar weet…

I know there are many of you who cannot read this and for that I am sorry. I can read it yet some of it is not easily translated. I want to put it up there because it is beautiful and an important part of our ceremony. As she read it, I translated it as fast as I could, she was reading slowly but my brain needs time to translate here, there was but one word I missed but the rest I understood and loved it dearly. It made her smile when she asked if I understood. A lot of the ceremony was in English because of me and some of our guests, the only part mandated in Dutch so it was a wonderful touch to have something else in Dutch. After all, I live in Holland and my wife is Dutch so it was very appropriate and warming to hear.

We had our vows and the I Do’s and let me tell you I had tears! I don’t believe there was a dry eye in the room! First we had the Dutch part and both Dutchie and I said ‘Ja’ then Dutchie said her vows first and by the time I was done with mine, my knees felt weak! We put our wedding rings on each other and I should mention we do it different here. Our wedding rings go on our right ring finger, not the left. A tear or two fell down my cheeks when we did that! In Holland they have a trouwboekje, it’s our version of a marriage license. It translated to marriage book. First Dutchie and I signed the legal license, then my father and my sister-in-law, finally our registrar and a gentleman to notarize it all. She announced that we were married and we sealed it with a kiss! I had a lot of tears fall that morning! I like to think I can keep it all together and not show a lot of emotion but it all came out that day! I am a married woman! I, an American lesbian, am a married woman! I really never thought I would marry and here I am, Mrs. Joppe-Schmalfuss! I still can’t believe it!

I want to go on and on but I am getting all teary eyed again! I am someone’s wife! I am Dutchies’wife!

worldly chatter, A Dutch Wedding

Dutchie went through www.weekendcompany.nl to find something for us after our family left for NY. Weekend Company is a Dutch vacation site that gives you fabulous deals on weekend get-a-ways in Holland and the surrounding countries. We have used them before and have enjoyed the service and the place we stayed at immensely! This time we both have been completely blown away! Hotel Restaurant Vue Des Montagnes is located in Limburg, in a town called Berg en Terblijt, it is right in the middle of Valkenburg and Maastricht. We booked ‘Love is in the air’ accommodations for our weekend honeymoon which is as follows; two nights with the first night a four course, buffet, candle light dinner, breakfast in bed the following morning and the last morning has a breakfast buffet. With all this it was less than two hundred euro.

However calling it a hotel seems to cheapen the experience you have here. The staff here has been a pleasure from the moment we checked into our room. The room we have is situated on the top floor and gives a spectacular view of the rock face across the street which was once a marlstone business by the original founder of the hotel. The food is flavorful, delicate yet filling and truly incredible for your pallet! We had red wine with our meal which was delicious and enjoyable throughout the appetizer and main course. The appetizer buffet consisted of meats and fishes to go with salads and breads. Limburg trout and catfish with salad and a little bit of roast beef with a fresh baked roll is what I started with. Dutchie started with salmon salad with fillet trout, catfish, tuna with a little of fresh salad and a roll with roast beef. Our main course was just as filling and diverse! Dutchie had the rib eye steak, seasoned potatoes, pork roulade, chicken breast; the meat was with truffle sauce. She also had fresh vegetables and cod fish rolled up. I had tortellini, seasoned potatoes, fresh vegetables and fillet of codfish with lobster sauce. We had dessert which had a variety of cakes, pies, fruits, ice creams and cookies. All this was inside the restaurant and after we finished it off with a cup of cappuccino on the terrace. Each time we had something our waiter came by discretely taking our plates, he talked to us to let us know a wedding had taken place across the street and would be coming in momentarily and that we should get ahead of them with the food. He asked us if we needed anything once or twice and left us be the rest of the time. We were eating for two and a half hours and it was pure pleasure for our taste buds as well as our overall experience of the night. A few hours later we went back down to the terrace for a night cap. One waiter asked us if we wanted candles on the table while another got us a beer and a few moments later a bowl of peanuts.

The hotel as well as the restaurant gives off a cozy yet elegant feel the moment you walk in. Even without the package deal we received the rooms are affordable and the hotel itself gives package deals to accommodate each party attending. If ever you stay in Limburg I highly recommend Vue Des Montagnes, View of the mountain! The staff, the food the atmosphere; it all makes for suck a wonderful place for a weekend get-a-way! It is near all the tourist hot spots, beautiful walking areas and little towns that if you drive by and blink, you will miss it! It is unlike the rest of Holland in that it is a different atmosphere and the scenery is more vibrant with color, hills and farms. As I told Dutchie, the northern part of Holland has pockets of green, Limburg has pockets of civilization. Vue Des Montagnes is in the middle of all that, it is near enough to get to anything yet it is just far enough to keep to local personalities and traditions. A highly recommended place to stay, Dutchie and I are planning to return in the near future to do more of Maastricht!

Maastricht, Valkenburg, Worldly Chatter, Limburg, Vue Des Montagnes, Berg en Terblijt, South Limburg

There is so much to write about on my wonderful week with my family here in the Netherlands! Naturally there is our wonderful wedding that took place on Monday but there is also the two days prior and the week that followed and all the sites we saw in Holland. There are experiences and observations that must be mentioned and finally the feeling of it all. I will be in Limburg from Sunday to Tuesday and finally life will go back to some form of normalcy on Wednesday. My family flew home this morning and I await knowledge that they have landed safely back in America and I while I wait I wanted to write of my plan for this page for the next week or so. Something to look forward to you could say.

I want to tell you of my family and how the four of them saw this open and somewhat laid back nation. Their stories they take back to New York will all be different as well as what they wanted here. It was an interesting experience for me to see how they interacted with this place, its people and the flow of its society to say the least. I want to tell you of our wedding day and every detail I can possibly recall. There is Den Haag and Delft to tell you of as well as Hilversum, Arnhem, Oosterbeek and Amsterdam. The happiness and sadness of having them here with us and the plans we have made to go to NY and them to return here. It is a lot and I want it detailed. This is just a short hello to say I am alive and that my vacation is nearing its end. Writing will commence and much to read when I do!

Right now I will wait to know something and try to keep my body awake for the night as it has been an incredibly busy and sleepless week! Check back and I will start my series on our wedding and vacation!