Experiencing Holland with the Wondergems

On our way to pick up Katinka at the airport the Wondergems showed me more of Holland. The first picture is of Kinderdijk, which has quite a few windmills all in one area. It was very neat to see so many so close together. This may seem like a "duh" remark, but I have now experienced the wind in Holland and know exactly why the Dutch built windmills. And having been inside of a working windmill and understanding how land was "created" in Holland, the importance of the windmill is incredible.

We stopped at a seaside fishing village and since it was so windy and rainy we took a small break and had some hot chocolate. Pictured are Katinka's parents Simon and Ankie, me, and Katinka's sister Marjolein. There is a wonderful tradition in Holland of serving a small cookie with coffee hot chocolate in restaurants. I'm trying to figure out how I could bring that concept to the US, but I love it.

On my plate you will see two krokets. These are very Dutch and are like a mushy meat-gravy substance breaded and fried. They are great by themselves or put on bread.

When I put "experiencing" in the title I meant it. Marjolein is holding up a small part of a fillet and I am holding skin...of an eel...that we ate! (We didn't eat the skin.) In this fishing village you can buy eels that have been smoked, but the eels look like eels when you buy them! As interesting as it was, I won't go into the details of how you go about eating it. It was pretty good and tasted like something smoked.

Check these out! Are they not the coolest slippers ever? The Wondergems got these slippers for me to remind me of my trip to Holland. I had a fabulous time exploring Holland with the Wondergem Family (look for more posts!) and am excited to see them again spend a long weekend with them while I am still in Brussels.