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Published: July 21st 2019
Friday was a day set aside to visit with the Doreleyers family in Schijndel, my father’s hometown about a 25-minute car ride from where we’re staying. Dutch and English were freely intermingled and Marion is beginning to understand some of it. We had dinner back at the house from Albert Heijn, the grocery store at the end of our street that has many freshly prepared foods.
On Saturday July 20 we drove the 1 1/2 hour to The Hague to meet up with our friend Hans, from the Ottawa-The Hague Twinning Games back in the eighties. We started with some excellent coffee at Capriole at the Fokkerkade from where we travelled by tram the rest of the day. Sandwich of the day at the Kicking Horse Cafe was a roasted chicken sandwich with a whole bunch of goodies on it, as well as the finest mocha coffee I’ve ever seen, although it might have been difficult to find under mounds of whipping cream. We also met up with Hans’ delightful 12-year old bilingual son Jesse-Merlijn.
Many people we know are familiar with the Amsterdam canal cruises, and maybe also with the Dieze boat tour in ‘s Hertogenbosch. I never
Market at The Hague
Lots and lots of fish. knew there were canal tours in The Hague, but Hans had organized one for us. We experienced this 1 1/2 hour tour in the pouring rain and a thunderstorm so bad we had to take shelter for a while under one of the bridges. Areas not far from us were hit with hail the size of golf balls. The Ooievaart tour is independent and run by some 100 volunteers. An “ooievaar” is a stork and “vaart” means cruise. Interesting name yes?
Because of the free ponchos provided, we only got a little bit wet and dried quickly again in the heat that followed. We walked some very interesting downtown streets before we ended up at the Van Kleef Distillery, although presently only used for marketing, guided tours and lots of sampling of what looked to me like at least 50 different flavours of some good ole’ Dutch jenever. Don’t let anyone tell you differently, that’s one good drink! I purchased the 5-year old “Ouwe Klare” while Marion settled for the “limoen” flavoured one (lime). We hope to bring these home but they may not last!
Next step Scheveningen, where we decided to go to the area a bit
Market at The Hague
Slight misspelling. north of the Pier to get away from the crowd. Fish and chips at Soomers was great. Correction to what I said before about Kibbeling being cod tongues. Originally this referred to cod cheeks but today it could be any other white fish cuts left over after filleting. After some relaxing with a coffee and enjoyment of the sea breeze, we found that it was already 10 pm, and still daylight, and we still had to get back to our car and then drive the 1 1/2 hours back to Eindhoven. Got back at midnight, and we were good and tired after a great day!
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Dorothy Hillmann
non-member comment
Marion looks very happy with all that whipped cream...