Echte Nederlands

Real Dutch. That's what this post is about. Sure, there's cheese and windmills and klompen and stroopwafels, but what happens when you get beyond tulips and coffee shops?

Well, one thing that happens is spekken. This is a sort of marshmallowy candy that is soft, pink & white, and pure sugar. Spek is the Dutch word for bacon. What this candy has to do with bacon, I'm not exactly sure. Perhaps it is the pink and white that is reminiscent of marbled fat? Mmmm. Isn't your mouth just watering?

We all felt a bit sick afterwards.
Another thing that happens is Sjoelen, an old Dutch game were you slide wooden discs across a wooden board and try to get them into four different slots, each earning you different points. It's a fun game but I haven't yet got past the sliding-as-hard-as-I-can-in-hopes-that-something-will-go-in strategy.

Another thing is Ijs van Co, which is this hugely popular little soft-serve ice cream place that Jeanni's parents used to take her to when she was little. The lines were long but moved quickly because there were about seven teenagers packed into this little hole in the wall and serving up ice cream. Annabel and Mieke got two ice creams because their first servings were small, and well, Oma and Opa need to spoil them!