Just One Scorpino...

As I’ve said before, the Dutch don’t need much excuse to party. A bit of sunshine usually does the trick, but this weekend – not just sunshine, but jazz and ships, the perfect excuse for a mega party!

Haarlem has been hosting its annual jazz festival.  A large stage has been erected in the Grote Markt with two smaller stages competing with each other just around the corner of the church.  There are also performances in various bars and clubs. You can move from one area to the next – a bit of funk here, a bit of soul there, and some Dutch talent contest winner somewhere else. 

I've no idea who these performers were,  and from the reaction and size of the crowds in town, I imagine some of them must have been quite famous. But still, now that we are pseudo-Dutch, we didn’t really care. Friday evening was dry, it was warm, it was the perfect evening to stand in the square listening to music with a Scorpino or two.

I have only recently discovered  the Scorpino. It  appears on the dessert menu in several restaurants, an intoxicating combination of lemon sorbet ice-cream, Prosecco and Vodka. How can you go wrong?  It now ranks above apple pie as my favourite Dutch food, although technically, if you leave it to melt, it’s a drink.

On Saturday we braved we the crowds and headed into Amsterdam to see the Tall Ships taking part in Amsterdam Sail. This was a spectacular event. I’m not particularly fond of ships but even I was impressed – even more so when we jumped  on board a 95 year old traditional wooden sailing vessel to go on a cruise around the harbour. (OK jumped isn't probably the correct term to describe a precarious walk across a gangplank. I'm not good on boats, even less so when they are actually moving on  water.)

 I’ve never seen so many ships in one place – or so many people.

The event took place in an area of dockland which has been transformed into swanky apartments. It was probably a right pain for the people who lived there, and the Dutch being Dutch,  some of them still insisted on riding their bikes against the tide of visitors, or taking their regular Saturday morning jog along the waterfront. There were also people who had insisted on bringing their dogs – because we all know how much a Chihuahua loves to look over an old sailing boat.

The afternoon grew hotter and hotter, and Amsterdam busier and busier.  I couldn’t wait to get back to the relative quiet of Haarlem, where after an early evening BBQ we headed back into town for more jazz, and dessert, of course.

It's A Jungle Out There

This is mostly a pictorial post to showcase some images from two recent trips to the Hortus Botanicus  in Leiden and De Hortus in Amsterdam.

 We visited the gardens in Leiden a few weeks ago, and called in at the one in Amsterdam this weekend. The primary purpose of the visit to Amsterdam was to stock up on some supplies in Marks & Spencer. However it would seem sacrilegious to visit one of the cultural capitals of Europe with the sole purpose of buying cheddar cheese and English sausages, every trip has to be combined with at least one sight-seeing activity. The weather was decidedly dodgy but we decided it wasn’t quite wet enough to justify a museum (you can get cultured out in Amsterdam) so instead we headed for the botanical gardens.

Amsterdam was teeming with tourists, but De Hortus was a little oasis – a hidden gem amongst the hustle and bustle of the city. After all the excesses of the Haarlem Culinaire weekend, it was the perfect place to recover.

And some pictures from Leiden

And Miffy - a Dutch legend!

Oh and after last week's triumphant second place in the quiz - this week bottom of the league!

On Vakantie

There’s a real buzz in Haarlem at the moment. It’s all to do with the holiday season.  The campsites nestled in the sand dunes between here and the coast are  full to bursting point. And when the happy Dutch and German campers want a break from BBQ’ing  the evening meal, they head into town.

Haarlem also seems a mecca for visiting Spanish and Italians. I’ve never really thought about it before, always preferring to head south to warmer climes for my summer holidays, but I suppose if you live somewhere warm all year round, you might well head up north to do a bit of sight-seeing. I’m not entirely sure that a guided tour of Haarlem’s Red Light district would be top of my holidaying agenda, but as we sat outside our favourite Irish bar the other evening, a steady stream of tourists appeared to be enjoying a visit to the nearby brothel.

Other visitors include those who arrive by bicycle barge. This is an excellent way to travel through the Netherlands. You stop off at a new town every day and explore on two wheels, then return to your barge for a meal and bed every night. 

The Dutch take their annual vakantie very seriously. Despite the influx of tourists bringing business into town, there are still bars, cafes and shops which remain gesloten whilst their owners take their own break.  The pool where I take my weekly swim has also closed for six weeks – this is apparently so that staff can rotate through Haarlem’s two remaining pools to allow everyone to take their annual leave. It sounds like a good idea for the staff, but closing your pool, when the kids are off school??  To me that doesn’t make an awful lot of sense, although I have to admit our street feels like a ghost town at the moment with most of our neighbours away. Perhaps it does work. The locals go away, the tourists flock in.

This weekend also saw the arrival of the Haarlem Culinaire food festival. A dozen or so local restaurants set up pitch in the main square offering tempting bite size portions to sample. As with all things Dutch there was plenty of loud music and copious amounts of alcohol on offer to accompany the event. Any excuse.

And for once it has been ideal weather for partying. We’ve had a ‘first’ since we arrived in the Netherlands eleven months’ ago.  An entire week rain-free.

And that wasn’t the only first. We actually made into the prize money at the pub quiz, reaching the dizzy heights of second place. Whether this was helped by the fact that some of the regulars are away on vakantie, I don’t know, and I don’t care. As we’re never going to beat the professional team who win every week, second place is good enough for me!