It’s hard to believe that we have been here six months … we have now definitely settled into a daily routine, and Spring is approaching, so the days are getting longer, and the sun is shining more! We are having such a wonderful experience living in the Netherlands and exploring Europe, and are so pleased with Haarlem, where we decided to live. Haarlem is a beautiful city of approximately 350,000 people and has EVERYTHING one needs with shopping, restaurants, entertainment and culture. It’s actually the first city available from Amsterdam via train centuries ago, and has its own amazing history! And it’s of course, what Harlem, NY is named after (since New York was first settled by the Dutch as “New Amsterdam”!). We continue to bike and use public transit for transportation … even when it is raining and 40 degrees! The kids are thriving at school and in their after-school activities. Sebastian plays on an all-Dutch basketball team outside of school and Ellerbe is taking speed skating lessons!
London Before Brexit:
Beyond the usual sites, the highlight for Sebastian (and me) was going to the Texans/Jaguars game at Wembley Stadium in London where we got to see one of our all-time favorite Tigers, Deshaun Watson! And of course, a visit to London wouldn’t be complete without a tour of the Tower of London, and visiting other spots where David used to frequent when he lived there twice before!
Luxembourg, Leuven and Trier, Germany
What a great trip to Luxembourg, not only to visit one of David’s long time French friend he worked with in London in the 1990s, who now lives there with his family, but also to explore this city and its gorge, making us think that it’s the source of the word “gorgeous”! The Christmas market season had kicked in, and Luxembourg had some of the most nostalgic and festive markets, with plenty of Glühwein! On the way to Luxembourg we had to stop in Leuven, Belgium, where David spent a year in graduate school, and on the way back we stopped in the oldest city in Germany, Trier, to see it’s Roman ruins and to have some yummy German food!
CHRISTMAS
Funny to be writing now about Christmas, but here goes! Many cities in Europe put up Christmas lights even before we do in the USA … late October/early November! And here in Haarlem, they just took down the white lights in the City Center!
Sinterklaas: Our holiday season began in the Netherlands with the arrival of Sinterklaas from Spain. On November 17th, Sinterklaas and his helper, Piet, arrive by steamboat from Spain and then parade down the streets on his white horse. Sinterklaas stays in the Netherlands until December 6th , watching all the kids’ behavior. December 6th is a family holiday where in the evening families gather after dinner awaiting the arrival of Sinterklaas and a sack of gifts at the door. There are many traditions that go along with the celebration, special cakes and pastries, letter candies, songs, games and surprises (elaborately wrapped gifts representing one’s hobbies). Sinterklaas was super fun and I could write so much about the traditions, but I must leave room for the rest of the season! We did break the Dutch rules, though, and got our Christmas tree before Sinterklaas, but we were redeemed by the fact that David rode his bike to get the tree, and carried the tree on his bike to the house!!!!
Christmas Markets: We went to Christmas markets for 7 weeks in 4 countries and 5 cities: Luxembourg City, Haarlem NL, Leiden NL, Hamburg DE and Annecy FR! Although each market has its own special flare, they all had the wooden chalets, twinkling lights, crafts, Glühwein (mulled spices), special treats and yummy street food: Salmon sandwiches in Luxembourg, warm stroopwaffels in the NL and German bratwurst and our favorite, currywurst!
Hamburg: Hamburg is an amazing and bigger city than we anticipated, with such a diversity of architecture and neighborhoods. And, of course, we continued to enjoy the yummy “comfort food” of German cuisine! One of our goals while in Europe was to visit long time friends who are back home, or others who have moved here. What a pleasure it was to visit with our friend from NYC, Nike Clausing, who now lives back in her native country Germany.
Our Christmas: Although we missed our traditions and family in the USA, we carried out a few here! We had a wonderful two weeks with Mom visiting us here, had a Christmas Party with our new friends, and walked on the beach on Christmas Day! With Mom, we went to Leiden (Rembrandt’s birthplace), Hamburg and toured all around Amsterdam.
NEW YEARS IN FRANCE: We were very sad to see Mom leave, but our Charleston friends the McCormack’s arrival made it easier! After showing them our life here in Haarlem, we traveled to Courchevel, France with them for a week of skiing in the French Alps. A popular accommodation in many French Alpine villages is a Catered Chalet, where you have a host who cooks breakfast, a fresh cake for tea and a yummy French dinner. For me, it was beyond luxury to not go to the market or cook for a week and have an amazing 3 course dinner with delicious French wine! Some of our favorite dinners: Beef Bourguignon, Tartiflette, and Morrocan Lamb Tagine.
Courchevel is part of the Three Valleys of France which is one of the world’s largest ski areas. We had a week of great conditions, blue bird days and so much fun skiing to different villages! The Alps were simply amazing and strikingly beautiful, skiing with a view of Mont Blanc was just spectacular!
After skiing, we drove to Annecy, France. Annecy is an alpine town known for its cobbled street old town situated on the beautiful crystal clear lake Lac D’ Annecy. The lake is one of the largest in France, also known as the cleanest, and sits amongst the snow-capped mountains. We enjoyed the last day of the Annecy Christmas Market on Jan 5th, Cheese Fondue and a couple of down days before heading to Paris!
PARIS: Being in Paris just after the holidays was a great week to be there, with very few tourists while Christmas decorations were still up! Due to a city-wide transit strike, we were able to witness very busy and crowded public demonstrations, as well as put our walking shoes into exponential practice, walking 8-9 miles per day! Seeing the Mona Lisa with maybe 20 other people ... that’s it!
HIGHLIGHTS OF PARIS: Climbing the Eiffel Tower, The Louvre at Night, Ice Skating at the Grand Palais, exploring the Catacombes, Sainte Chapelle, Opera Garnier, Sacre’ Coeur and taking a local food tour in the Marais in one of the oldest markets, Marche’ d’Algire.
BERLIN: The teachers in the Netherlands go on strike…so the kids and I strike Berlin with two other lovely Moms and their fantastic kids! For three days we had a packed agenda seeing this history filled interesting city.
Trabant Tour … we actually drove the Trabant car, the symbolic car of Eastern Germany, all around the sights in Berlin while following our guide.
Berlin’s Fernsehturm (TV Tower): We arrived at the tower at 4:30 so we were able to experience the expansive views in the day and night. We enjoyed very much having dinner in the revolving restaurant and I especially loved the retro décor.
Of course we enjoyed coffee and cake at the Reichstag’s Dome.
Our visit to the Memorial to the Murdered Jews was very moving and informative. I highly recommend visiting along with a tour.
On the last day, we took a 4 hour bike tour in a solid rainfall … uggh! Not a highlight, but the content was so great! We experienced things off the beaten path like riding our bikes on the runway of the historic Tempelhof, Hitler’s Airport.
We continue to enjoy life here in the Netherlands as Spring approaches, and look forward to even more adventures throughout Europe (and maybe another continent?) in the months to come!