Hello from Holland!

[JimInHolland]

Guten Tag Jim Welcome to DC Ive got a grandmother that came from Holland she cooked like a saint. Passed severl years ago and took all of her recipes with her >:-(

Hey Dave - Goede morgen to you too. If there's a recipe you're looking for, let me know and maybe I have it in a cookbook here.

I can tell you the basic secret of dutch cooking though - butter and oil. Lots of it.

 

[JimInHolland]

Velcomme, Jim! I have several Dutch friends and they are fun to be with. Your Schipol airport is one of my favorites to fly into and out of---so organized and much to distract harried travelers......I love collecting the Dutch houses from KLM as well. Lots to do here at DC......welcome again!

Schiphol is the most active airport in Europe and it's really set up to whisk people through, which is a good thing. Too many store otherwise. But the big news at Schiphol is -- we have our own Starbucks now. Three of them, the only ones in the country. As much as I love the culture, the narrow houses, etc, the dutch coffee is terrible, acrid and too intense. Don't get me wrong - 9 years here and I've had coffees from all over eastern and western europe, so when in Holland, I head to Schiphol and buy bags of Verona blend.

BTW - do you know the reason those dutch houses you collect are so tall and thin?

Did I see your address right - Kazakhstan? Exciting - but what's a nice Texas girl doing in a place like that?

 

[expatgirl]

That's a good description of Schipol, Jim---they do get you in and out and when you have long layovers the shops are a very welcome distraction----we will have to seek out these new Starbucks---I love their apple cider! We really like the Douwe Egberts coffee, though and usually stock up on it when passing through as well as your gouda cheeses and chocolates.

No, I really don't know why the houses are tall and thin except that maybe land is at such a premium there and it's cheaper to build straight up. I do know why they have the beam projecting out on the top floor, however, and that's to get furniture inside as it's too narrow to do so up the staircases.

I still haven't figured out why we're in K. except to find more oil (they have tons of it) but I've come to appreciate the culture and the people very much!!

 

[JimInHolland]

You like Douwe? Must be a case of the grass being greener - and I do pine for Starbucks, that's true.

The reason for the narrow houses leads to the hook at the top of the house - when they were digging the canals in Amsterdam, the taxation was based upon the frontage of the house to the canals. More width facing the water, higher taxes - so home were made narrow and deep, and the windows were made large so as much light could shine in as possible.

This created 2 problems - first, how to get the piano to the second floor. That worked with the beam and the hook on top, except it bashed in all those expensive windows on the way up. So to solve the second problem, builders added a 5-degree forward pitch to the front of most buildings, so that the windows had more clearance. You might not see that in the KLM models, but walking the streets you'd easily find it everywhere.

 

[TATTRAT]

Welcome to DC, don't know how I missed this, you have a great place to call home, I miss it terribly.

 

[corazon]

Hi Jim! Welcome to dc. Glad you have joined our forum!