Day One - Haarlem and Herring

I only got about 4 hours sleep the night before I was to leave for Holland. I was making last minute preparations (and of COURSE my printer was giving me fits on the ONE day I needed it most) and so I had to go to Jeff's office and do some printing. I did at least have my suitcase all packed and ready to go from the day before but I needed to get up early to be able to catch the Front Runner train to the airport. For about $6.00, I was able to save the $40.00 parking fee for a week and also save my husband driving up to Salt Lake City at O'dark-thirty. He still had to get up early, but it's only a 5 minute drive to the train station.

I WAY over-packed. I was really afraid I was going to go overweight...but it ended up being 46 lbs for my large bag. It was funny trying to weigh the suitcase on our tiny bathroom scale. I also packed my ENTIRE kit in a zebra bag...with no rollers...probably weighed 25 lbs itself, and ended up carrying that sucker through 6 airport trips. Why? Why did I do that to myself? Because it's cute!!! YES! I admit it was because it was pink and zebra and has heart-shaped zippers. I paid dearly for my vanity!

The first jet was one of those tiny two-seater Canadair Regionals so I ended up checking my zebra bag at the end of the ramp. I was lucky and had booked early enough that I was on an exit row and I had lots of leg room. The second flight (the long one) was on a large 777 jet and other than the food was a pretty pleasant flight. Each seat was given a pillow, blanket and had a TV. They had fairly new movies to choose from, music, books on tape. I think I mercifully got some sleep about half-way through Delivery Man.

Complimentary carts, what a concept!

We landed in Amsterdam about 7:00 am local time. I didn't realize until I got CLEAR DOWN to the baggage carousel that the carts that I saw all over the airport were FREE! It was a little funny though because I tried to get a cart out of a stack of them and they are reverse engineered. The brake is always on and you have to press the bar (similar to a modern lawn mower) to make the wheels free. Well, I bet I gave some locals a good chuckle as I tried to make that dang cart roll. I thought it was defective so I wrestled the next one out and it had the same problem. Arggh. Says Denise to herself, "there has to be a break that is locked" and I finally figured it out. I had to remind myself of that fact a couple of times, most notably when we were traveling up a 40 degree flat escalator and the cart (I figured it weighed about 100 lbs loaded) started rolling toward me! I kept fighting it for a bit and then I'm like...let go of the bar dummy. LOL!

Once I got my luggage on the cart (thank you Amsterdam Airport, you saved my arm!) I saw signs that said "CUSTOMS" and had one side if you didn't have to declare anything and another for declarations. I read some signs about what was allowed and what wasn't and pushed my cart what I thought was customs...and ended up in the airport lobby...Oooops. I by-passed Amsterdam customs...shhhh.

Airport Starbucks

I saw the Starbucks where I was supposed to meet Saskia Timmermans. She'd warned me that she was meeting other artists so I didn't panic when she wasn't there yet. I just wheeled my little cart over in the general area and waited. It wasn't too long before I saw her. I recognized her from pictures and FPBA in Vegas. She was so TALL and kind of like a goddess and I was
very glad to see a familiar face. She soon found Sean Avram and Shonna Flannigan inside the Starbucks area and Richard Nijboer came along shortly. We all sat at the table and I immediately LOVED visiting with everyone. We had some time to kill before Pashur came and it was so fun getting to know them. I found out that Sean and Richard have been mistaken for each other on Facebook which made for a cute gift later I'll tell you about. Of course, Sean came prepared as a good guest should and had these darling maple leaf shaped syrups for Saskia and Richard...showoff! :) I should have brought fry sauce from Utah. It would have come in handy later.

Pashur's Welcome Committee

We decided we needed to do something for Pashur's arrival. He was coming in about an hour after we'd arrived. I had brought my Wuppie Monster hat (which was coincidentally Holland orange) and so Shonna got out some balloons and made Sean a tiger crown to match (I think I found a kindred spirit for sure!) and we gave Pashur a standing ovation when he came through the door. I'm sure we looked like a crazy bunch to onlookers.

We managed to get all of our gear in Saskia's Mehron van and the guys went with Richard in his car and we with the van and took a trip to Haarlem; sounds like Harlem but is NOTHING like it. For me, it was like stepping into a story book town. It was like the real version of a Disneyland street. Bright colors, canal, little bridges, ducks, moss, little shops...really a beautiful introduction to Holland. Every turn and corner brought a new view of a church or beautiful building.

Beautiful Haarlem. Every turn a new vista.

Dutch tourist traps. Just put them out and you'll capture
a few dozen tourists every day.

Of course one of the first things we come across are a very large pair of wooden clogs and we took the obligatory tourist photo.

About lunch time Richard asked if we are hungry. The last thing I ate were some marble sized meatballs and a croissant with mustard...or something like that...so I said yes but he had a surprise in store for us, a Dutch treat so to speak.

Hollandse Nieuwe

Go Shonna!

We went up to a street vendor, more of an open air deli and I thought he was going to get one for us to taste. I was wrong. He had the nice woman prepare three whole ones for us: me, Shonna and himself. Mine was cut up like the photo. Shonna got a whole one and Richard coached her on the proper way to eat it. I don't think the lady at the counter liked all the fuss we made about eating her well prepared dishes! It wasn't bad tasting but the texture was a little tough for me since the most raw fish I'd ever eaten was about the size of my thumbnail in a sushi roll. I motioned to Pashur for help but he said "Oh, no...that's all on you!" and so I finished most of it, avoiding the onions...for Pashur's sake of course. LOL!

Our taste exploration didn't end with fish. We stopped at another little shop that was making hot Dutch Fries (not French Fries) called Patat and there were all kinds of toppings and flavorings available. I was thinking that I would be clever and make my own version of Utah fry sauce so I asked for mayo (traditional) AND some ketchup and I thought I could mix them up together. Ooops. They

Our fries were similar to these

come plopped right on top. I only made it half way through before there was just too much mayo to get my fingers around. I wonder if they can put sauce on the side? They were hot and delicious however and the warmth was welcome as it was getting cold. Fortunately, and I guess unusually, it was the only chilly day the whole trip. We Americans apparently brought the sunshine with us!

We made it back to the hotel but had to wait a bit for our rooms...sitting still was probably a mistake. I think all of us starting getting sleepy from staying up for many hours past our bedtime. I think most of us new arrivals ended up taking a short nap so we could make it through dinner. Pashur snapped this photo while we were waiting to go. Apparently I was the only one that got the memo that we were expressing our lack of sleep in a jet lag selfie. Here we are being photo bombed by perky butts Wiser, Lea & Svetlana. Is Sean making moose antlers on me? Wacky Canadamerican! :) Sweet Svetlana gave us all delicious Swiss chocolate (which I hauled 6,000 miles in a shopping bag just to have my kids polish off in a day! Luckily I got a bit of it.)

We went to dinner at the casino close by the hotel at the Flamingo Wok. It was a really nice buffet where you can also make a custom wok stir fry with your favorite marinated meat, fresh veggies, mushrooms, etc. and then you choose your sauce from super mild to spicy. The sushi roll and other dishes were quite good too and they even had homemade ice cream, lemon was my favorite. It was so great to meet all the fabulous instructors. They were so kind to say hello to the newbie and give me a place at the table. What a great end to a very LONG day.