Ok, first let me point how weird it is to just say "Oh, yeah just went on a nice little day trip to the Netherlands... No big." I mean, a day trip. To another country. That only takes like 3 hours of driving. Pretty crazy to think about. I mean, I guess I can get to my hometown (Maple Ridge) in Canada in about 3 hours as well, but I don't know. It is just different, to go to a completely different country, in Europe, in 3 hours or less. It's like each country is bascially a state, really. It's that easy to get around here.
So we did have a bit of an early start, I think we left around 7. So, early enough for me... We stopped to get croissants for breakfast (Yay, raspberry filled croissants! And I also just realized I spelt that completely wrong in my last post... Darn French is ruining my English!), and then hit the road. It was definitely not a bad drive at all. The first bit I just took in the scenery, but then about half way through the trip I got a bit bored of that and just listened to my iPod and dozed (spelling?) off a bit. I mean, 7 is a pretty early start for me... I woke back up when we got to our final destination: Zeeland! It is a coastal town in the Netherlands (which IS the same thing as Holland, in case you were wondering...) that is actual below sea level, so that definitely leads to flooding and such. But it also makes for very rich soil, and lots of beautiful plants and such. At first we just drove around a bit looking at things (I kind of got the feeling that they didn't really know where we were going..). But I was happy with that! I like just driving around and looking at things. The houses were absolutely adorable. The majority of them were those small, cute old houses that, Mom, I just knew you would fall absolutely in love with! Pascale got some pictures on her camera, but hasn't given them to me yet, so once she does I will post them on whatever random post I am making at the time!
We finally pulled up to a parking lot right on the ocean and stopped. It was nice to get out of the car, and to be by the sea. Undescribable. There is just something about the ocean that I just absolutely love. It's so calming and beautiful and just really, one of my favorite places. Wherever I choose to live for the majority of my life, I know it just has to be near the ocean. Because I love it so much. And, well, if I ever end up in some landlocked state, at the very least a yearly trip to the ocean. The coast in the Netherlands reminded me a lot of Washington's coast, kind of cold and rocky but in it's own way still beautiful.
The reason that we stopped where we did is because there was an ample supply of mussels there. And even though I saw a sign saying that it was some National Park or something like that... Well, maybe rules are different in Belgium? Because we went right on down there with our buckets and shovels and took all of the still alive mussels (the ones that were NOT open) we could find. I have seen mussels a whole bunch, but I never knew that you could eat them. Well, I guess I knew you could eat them I just didn't really know... how? If that makes sense to you... The majority of them were stuck to rocks and each other, so that required some work. I just picked up the ones that were free from the rocks, because it was easier and to be honest, I didn't want to get my hands too dirty because I didn't know when the next moment would be that I could wash them, and cleanliness isn't always their top priority it sometimes seems.
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| Where we found the mussels... The little dock looking things were covered by them! |
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| Hopefully it was ok that we took those mussels... |
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| I just love the ocean! |
After filling 4 different buckets up with mussels, it was time for lunch. At first we were going to go to a restuarant, which I was a bit worried about since everything on the menu would be in Dutch, but then that ended up being closed. So then we drove around a bit more, and found a friterie. It is really cool, because even though most Dutch people can't speak English and most French people can't speak Dutch, most people do speak what seems to be the universal language: English. I mean, no matter where you go, you can pretty much be guaranteed that you can communicate with others as long as you speak good enough English. The friteries in the Netherlands just don't measure up to those in Belgium though, unfortunately. The meatball I had was iffy (some more mystery meat for me...) and the fries weren't that tasty at all. But the one thing that DID make up for it all was the mayonnaise. It was DELICIOUS!!!!!!!! The mayonnaise here in Belgium I find to be pretty sweet already. Like at home, I am more of a Miracle Whip girl. But here, mayonnaise is pretty good. But the Netherlands, it is amazing. I think it might be because it is sweeter than most that I have tried. But I don't know for sure, I just know it is absolutely delicious. So as long as I smothered the mystery meat and the fries in the mayonnaise, it was all good.
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| Random windmill we passed while searching for a place to eat! |
After lunch, we drove around a bit more (lost, I think) until we came to our final destination: a muesuem which I seem to have forgotten the name for... The muesuem was all about this huge project that they did in the 1970s (I think...) to build a system to keep the whole area from flooding. Because apparently right before they started the project, there was a HUGE flooding thanks to a storm blowing water over the natural barriers of the below sea level land that took many lives and ruined the land. The experts knew that they couldn't just build a dam or something like that in between the land (it's kind of like the Puget Sound, how the land isn't exposed to the direct endless ocean) because that would ruin the wildlife in the ocean. So instead they proposed this whole project where they installed a structure in the ocean where if a storm was coming up, they could put up these huge walls that blocked the water and acted like a dam. The project was a huge one, but it actually ended up being successful and saving the area from huge damage from storms ever again. The mueseum was ok, and I just realized I spelt mueseum wrong twice. But for whatever reason this website is doing that weird thing where if you try to go in the middle of text and correct something, it will delete a letter ahead of it for every one that you write. So I can't correct it... It had the basics where I could really get an understanding of what the whole project was about, so that was cool. There was a video, that was in Dutch but we watched with English subtitles, and a little actual mueseum-like place with information. But, in Eddy's words, the rest was just turned into a mini Sea World type park that wasn't all that impressive... I know they are probably suffering and need to attract customers, so that's why.
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| The Mueseum! |
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| A model of the process from the beginning... Too confusing to explain |
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| Sunset! <3 |
After the mueseum, it was getting dark and we had spent quite a long, but nice, day in Zeeland. So we headed on home... I was glad that I got to go to Zeeland. Because, normally, it probably wouldn't be something that I would go out of my way to see. I mean, I just get way too fascinated by the beautiful old buildings and such. But thanks to Eddy and Pascale, I got to discover something a bit different than what I have experienced here in Europe so far, and I actually enjoyed myself. So all in all, a great day. And I get to cross off another country off my list of places to visit... :)
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