In this blog, I would like to share with you some of the things I've found interesting in Holland.  Sorry, it's probably going to be a bit random....

First, the florists in Holland don't only sell flowers by the bunch, they sell flowers separately so you can choose and/or make your own, they have lots of full sized plants that can be put either indoors or outdoors and they also have displays of living plants such as the ones below.  They are just like a miniature garden and I think they look really special.  I'm pretty sure (I don't normally go to a florist in Australia because it's very expensive) that in Australia, florists have mainly bunches of flowers for sale.  I can now understand why my mum enjoyed working in a florist in Holland when she was younger, I can just picture her there...

Now, another thing about Holland is that they have super clean windows.  I'm starting to get used to it now, but each time I walked past a house I was amazed at how sparkling clean the windows were.  They also make a great effort to display beautiful things in these windows (especially the ones facing the street) as you will see in the following pictures.

Heaps of shops here sell beautiful things to put in your windows (and also to display elsewhere in your house).  It was interesting thinking about the clean window thing...I nearly thought people had a cleaning problem in Australia if they cleaned their windows every week (sorry!) but now I think, maybe it's me with the cleaning problem!!  I think a lot of it has to do with that they mostly live so close to the street? 

Anyway, I think I need to stop telling the Dutch people about their windows because they sort of do look at me a bit funny and I am probably giving Australia a name for having very dirty windows!

Dad and I went for a walk the first morning, just when the school kids were off to school.  They don't seem to have crossing guards, rather parents are on a roster to do it.  No one wears helmets over here and there are bikes everywhere, that's one of the main forms of transport.

There are also lots of canals which boats used to transport goods.  The bridges are low, so they lift up when a boat needs to go under (and obviously cars do not drive on it then!!

Pretty much everyone's gardens are really neat and tidy.  These trees are pretty special :

Now some interesting things about the supermarkets and food (which most of you know I am interested in and also enjoy tasting:)!) :

• they have lots of premade potato salad.  Not the cubed sort that we get in the supermarket, but the mashed sort with mayo, meat and finely chopped vegies that my mum and also Steve's mum make.  They have all sorts of varieties, in big pots and single serve pots.  The first day in Holland, I bought one and it tasted really good!  Nearly as good as my and Steve's mum's (thought I better say that hahahahahahaha)
• lots of prepared ingredients.  In the vegie refridgerator section there's heaps of potato in bags all prepared - peeled and sliced or cut in a variety of shapes and sizes.  You can get endive, leeks and other vegies all washed and cut, ready to add to the pot.  They seem to eat more cooked vegies rather than proper salads with lettuce etc.  It seems the usual salad here is a potato or pasta salad.
• Quite a bit of premade meals, including a variety of Dutch ones eg. stampot with rookwurst.
• More choice obviously in cheeses, especially Dutch.
• Heaps of yoghurt, yoghurt drinks (all sorts of flavours and brands) and quark (a type of yoghurt).  In Australia, you might find one or two types of yoghurt drink or quark.  They also have a huge variety of the yoghurt drinks on the shelves, I presume packaged like UHT milk.
• A huge mayo section and I'm talking the yummy creamy (fattening) egg mayo.  In Australia, our mayo is usually more sour, not so creamy (and probably less fattening!)  Lots of sauces too like curry sauce (type of BBQ sauce) and sweet onion sauce (like mayo, mustard and onions).  All to have with chips and meat I think.
• A huge droppie section.  We might have 3 rows of 3 types of droppies in Australia, but they probably take up a third of an aisle with their droppies!
• They eat quite a bit of potatoes.
• Whoever I've seen cooking so far uses plenty of butter for frying (very tasty:)
• The Dutch don't seem to drink much water.  Lots of strong coffee.  I feel they think I'm a bit weird when I ask for a glass of water instead of coffee or juice (they have heaps of varieties of juice and what I think is more like our cordial).
• They have something called Filet Americanse which is actually very finely minced raw beef.  I have heard of it before on MasterChef (I think they called it steak tartare).  The Dutch have it on crackers with raw onions.  Very tasty actually.
• Lots of soup cans and packets.  A few times I've eaten soup here, it's been delicious and tasty, good Dutch soup.  But I've asked what was in it, and often there was also a packet of soup mix in and one time it was entirely out of a can ! (It was really yummy, thick, meaty soup!) They have obviously perfected the prepackaged recipes!
• Heaps of variety of "droge worst"(Italian sausages) and other smoked and/or dried meats.
• Lots of frozen and fresh fancy cakes, biscuits and tarts.
• You can buy any alcohol in the supermarket.  It was very embarassing one of the first nights when I thought I was being good by cleaning up that everyone said, "Karin what are you doing??" They didn't like me throwing the empty beer bottles in the bin because they can return them in the crate and get money back!

Ok that's enough about food.  Just reminding you, Steve and children, you may have to look out for someone very fat at the airport.

Now for a few more quick observations about Holland and then (hopefully) I"ll be up to date!

• The "dorpen" (I think it translates more to "village" - they are like suburbs, usually with their own church, school and shops) in Holland - once you get to them, the roads are quite narrow.  Very interesting to drive in, especially when you normally drive on the other side of the road!
• At first, every time I saw a car, I looked twice because it seemed like there was no driver (they have the steering wheel on the other side of the car).
• Most of the toilets in Holland are very....interesting....although I have heard it is good, for health reasons, because you get to see all your business in it's full glory before you flush it away.
• For the first few days after you get off a long flight in a plane, you can feel like you're walking on a boat (and no, I did not have too much wine!)
• Some people have little heaters even in their toilets!