Our big project has been delayed again so it looks like we can get away for a couple of days so we are going back out to the Island for a four day jaunt. It will be relaxation all the way. The forecast calls for rain so we might be taking a lot of naps and reading while sipping some wine on the porch.Sounds good to me.
24 comments:
Backs to the Adirondacks again!
I wish I could go back to Hawaii.
You and me both.
We have to meet out there on vacation next year. Lets see if we can plant that!
I mean plan that.
Shut up Sixty.
We're likely to go either to Holland or New York next year.
Well I will be in New York but not much chance of seeing you in Holland.
Holland as we know it may not exist in a generation or two.
Hmm, Hawaii, Holland, plants - it all makes sense now...
Or the rest of Europe, chickenlittle. I've said before in many places that they'd better be packing up the British Museum, the Victoria & Albert, The Louvre and every other art gallery and museum in Europe for shipping the jewels of Western civilization over here before the Muslims gain control and do to them what the Taliban did to those stone mountain-side twin Buddhas in Afghanistan..
Hey Trooper! It's a rough and dirty business but SOMEBODY's got to do it, right? LOL. You rotten BASTARD! Rub OUR face in a LI summer weekend, will you! Just for that I'll have to DOUBLE my ration of Barbancourt 5-Star this weekend to make up for it!
PS: That'll teach you!!
Where in Holland are you thinking of, Troop? I've been to Holland a bit (I almost married a Dutch woman), but, like most Americans, to me, Holland = Amsterdam. In my case, you can throw in Utrecht, as that was where my sweetie was from. But the point is, it's all in the urbanized north.
Last October I went on a business trip to an obscure corner in the rural south on the Belgium border in the province of Limburg, right on the river Meuse, or Maas, as they say in Dutch. I stayed in a great little hotel in the charming town of Maaseik, just across the Belgium border in the Belgium provence of Limburg. Same name, two countries, but you can hardly tell about the country part, European borders having been practically erased.
The old Duchy of Limburg, straddling parts of modern Holland, Belgium and Germany, has been going through a bit of a boom lately. Despite being a transportation center with some industry, it's mainly agricultural, with the most beautiful farm country I've ever seen anywhere. They even still use working farm horses in Belgium. I saw farmers harrowing fields with fat, handsome pairs of classic, dappled grey Belgian mares.
It's a prosperous, pretty, historic area that has a fair bit of tourist trade, but not American. The great little town of Maaseik has a couple of 4-star restaurants, not to mention the Hotel Van Eyck where I stayed. At the end of the week, the hotel filled with Low Countries' tourists and a couple of Germans, all there for the food, shopping and sightseeing. I was the only American in the place.
It also has the best beer on the planet, IMHO. I spent a beer-shoshed week, about which I felt neither pain nor regret. For example, we stopped in a little roadhouse, right over the Belgium border, where my host knew the owner, and where we sampled the local brews and had an great meal. There are, as in Germany, lots of local beers, with nothing of the pretentious micro-brewery crap we get in this country. It's beer made by nearby breweries out of local grain and hops, nothing special, just what springs naturally from the soil in those parts. Amazingly great.
BTW, the roadhouse was just like an American one, with bar girls, the usual regulars, and people, including a couple of bikers, stopping in from the nearby country highway. The only difference was the girls were prettier, the beer better, the people nicer, the food better, and the bikers rode BMW's. Not to rag on America, but I've been to similar establishments in a dozen states on both coasts and in the middle, and this joint was just about the Platonic ideal of a roadhouse. Sadly, I had to go to Belgium to find it.
I flew in and out through Düsseldorf, less than two hours' drive from Maaseik. Leaving on Sunday morning, I stopped in Aachen and went to Mass at the Cathedral. That's another out-of-the-way place you should visit. It's amazing to be at Mass in a church dedicated in the year 805, with what's left of Charlemagne's bones in a reliquary behind the alter. I took the German-language tour afterwards, as the English tour didn't start until 2:00. Very moving, especially if you're a Catholic, and well worth a visit whether you are or not.
Anyway, it was a great trip to the sunny south (as the Dutch regard it), and the best time, short as it was, I've ever had in Europe. You do have to rent a car, as public transportation is spotty at best in those parts. You take your life in your hands on the Autobahn in Germany, but once you cross the border into Holland, the speed limit is 120 km/hr, which is about 75 mph, and driving becomes much saner. The Dutch are the best drivers in the world.
Car rental is expensive in Europe, but everything else in Holland and Belgium was cheap. The 4-star hotel was something like $85/night, and the food and beer were comparable. The car was the priciest item, the gasoline being much more expensive than beer.
So, that's the story of of Tim's latest Reise nach Europa.
Oops! That should have been 85 Euros a night. That put it into $113/night territory, but still a bargain by any standards.
Dutch women are among the most beautiful in the world. Just look at Rubens. Although his women were Flemish. Same difference. When I was in my teens I was lodged as part of some program, can't even remember what it was about, with a young couple from the Netherlands who lived in upstate New York. Astonishing beauty. And health. And it was like, what's so special about us? Amazing. You never forget the shock of such beauty.
Staying by the Sound,
Sounds good.
Stay away hard knocks,
Knock wood.
ricpic said...
Dutch women are among the most beautiful in the world.
Unlike Tim, I did marry a Dutch woman, so I should know. That's why we go there every so often.
I totally agree with ricpic, and congratulate chickelit on his perspicacity and good fortune.
It's interesting, too, how modern Europeans, especially the women, who, as a distressingly heterosexual male, I tend to notice most, are all so tall, healthy and, well, American-looking. Only better. I think we've deteriorated. But, with a more assured diet than in the pinched and war-ravaged old days, not to mention more exercise, Europeans have come into their own, health and looks-wise.
And ricpic is absolutely right about the effect of some of those Flemish women on the male hormonal system. The ugliest young woman I saw was still smoking hot. Europeans used to grudgingly admire the looks of American, especially California, women. Having been recently to both California and Flanders, I'd say they don't have anything to be ashamed of any longer.
Actually, Holland and Flanders have a lot of things not to be ashamed of these days. But that is a subject for another post.
And to finish on a personal aside, I've got to say that a woman speaking Dutch, preferably Flemish-accented, makes my heart go pitter-pat. It may be my early conditioning, but I think Dutch (and its many variants) is the sexiest language in the world.
Speaking of the Holland Tunnel can anyone explain the look on Paulie's face when...oh forget it.
Deena.
Gawd.
WTH?
Having a "dutch wife" has multiple meanings, y'know?
I guess your parole officer won't let you leave the state.
Enjoy your relaxation time!
Still pinchin', I see...
Pinchin' or pitchin',
Perfessional or
A-mature
Time to regroup
& crank up
The fogger* for
Another foray
Into the clouds.
*A fog machine or smoke machine is a device which emits a dense vapour that appears similar to fog or smoke. This artificial fog is most commonly used in professional entertainment applications
Vive le fogblather!
Clouds.
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