A bureaucratic bother carried us back to the glories of the Dutch Golden Age and into the vital heart of the Netherlands today – all enfolded in the capital city of Amsterdam (Ahm-sta-DAHM). We traveled by train from Groningen via Assen, Zwolle and the open vistas that characterize the northwest of the Netherlands. We changed […]

Read More Post No. 4 — Journey to the Golden Age

The Dutch language is deceptive.  You walk around town and familiar words jump off the side of a bus or store windows – “cooking”, “koffie”, “weekend.”  Or, in this dual-language society, you’ll commonly see complete sentences in English touting travel packages or the benefits of drinking coffee!  The instant familiarity of many Dutch words is […]

Read More Post No. 3 — Learning Dutch is a (k)hoot!

I had stopped my bike at an intersection.  Both the light for bike traffic and the light for car traffic were red.   Then both lights turned green and cars and bikes were free to go.  I, however, had pulled out a map to check my route, so I wasn’t moving.  There was a BMW in […]

Read More Post No. 2 — We’re not in Kansas anymore!

I caught my breath and wiped the sweat that was falling in large drops from my brow. I had just finished hefting seven suitcases up to the 4th floor walk-up apartment in the city of Groningen in the Netherlands where my wife Janet, daughter Elyse and I are beginning a one-year stay. To say that […]

Read More Post No. 1 — Prelude to an Adventure