Holiday in Holland!

On Saturday, B and I took the CityNightLine train to Amsterdam. We booked a sleeping compartment and settled in for a long ride. After arriving in Amsterdam, we took a small train to Haarlem, and then a bus to Noordwijkerhout.

Noordwijkerhout is the heart of bulb country. Even from the bus, we could see huge fields of tulips, daffodils, hyacinths, and lilies.

It was amazing, and so utterly fabulous that we took about 400 pictures of flowers, with an average of 3.7 million blooms in each photo. Keep reading to see some of them!

We also enjoyed the fantastic Dutch spring weather. It was warm and sunny all the time, so we were able to walk everywhere. On this trip, we walked 54 kilometers. We covered a variety of terrain, including flower fields, dunes, beaches, and polders. B even saw his arch-enemy Ammophila in its native environment!

Before arriving, we weren't sure how many tulips we'd be able to see, so we planned to visit Keukenhof, the biggest bulb flower park in the world. It was beautiful, although packed with tourists. On the other hand, tourists who like tulips are my favorite kind! It was fun to see some of the more exotic flower varieties and specially designed exhibits, though as it turned out, we saw plenty of tulips for free just walking around.

Besides wandering around the Dutch countryside, we made small trips to Den Haag and Haarlem. Both of those cities were really nice, with lots of trees, parks, and attractive canals. We saw many bicyclists--though maybe not as many as here-- and the Dutch people were very friendly and helpful.

In Den Haag, we visited Madurodam, which is basically Holland in miniature. B visited there as a small boy and has never forgotten it, so I said we had to go. It was worth the trip--there were even tiny tulip fields!

E is excited about getting on the train!

Bam! Lots of yellow tulips!

Tulip fields somewhere between de Blink and Noordwijkerhout (I love Dutch!)

Not far from our hostel were these nice fields

B thinks about tulips

Stripes of tulip colors

E in tulips

One thing we didn't expect is how good everything smells!

Sunset added some nice lights to the tulips. It smelled really good here too.

E is inspired

Keukenhof was pretty cool

One of the rarer colors we saw at Keukenhof

Orange is the color of Holland, so I think these must be extra-Dutch

See what I mean?

Some more tulips at Keukenhof

Flower production is serious agricultural business in this region.

Here we are on the beach near our hostel

Holland in miniature! At Madurodam in Den Haag.

Tiny tulips and a tiny tulip tractor

B-zilla!

A very nice springy park in Den Haag

Haarlem

April Showers...

Sometimes just make us want to leave town.

So we are! We're heading out on a train tonight, arriving in Amsterdam tomorrow morning. From there, we'll dip south to Noordwijk and Keukenhof for a real tulip tour!

We'll be back on Thursday, hopefully with millions of pictures of tulips, or at least pictures of millions of tulips. In the meantime, here's what it looks like here when it's not raining.

Behind Rådhuset, lots of påskeliljer are blooming!

Påskeliljer are daffodils, obviously, but their name means "Easter Lilies."

This week is the Easter Holidays, so some Danes get super-Danish with daffodils, bikes, and flags.

See you on Thursday!

Alliteration Addiction

It seems like I just can't help myself. I always want to have alliterative post titles.

Two Go to Thy
Language Lessons
Daily Dane-ification
Autumn in Aarhus

And of course, the worst offender,
Lucky Linguists and Local Laughs

Basically, if you see that the title is alliterative, even if it says B is the author, it was probably me.

Look at the last one. "More Bang for Your Buck(Wheat!)" It's not too bad, alliteratively, although it is, of course, hilarious. But when you find out that I had actually considered calling it "Blogging 'Bout Buckwheat," you will understand that this is a very serious problem.

Luckily for all of us, puns trump alliteration any day.

More Bang for Your Buck(Wheat!)

Scandinavegan Presents: Buckwheat!

en del af 11 i 2011

First of all, I want you to know that this is not a fraught story, like the last one about buckwheat. I went to the store, planning to buy buckwheat flour, bought it, came home, and made vegan blinis. Simple as that.

But blinis you say, that sounds Russian. I thought this was a Danish blog. Well, Danes like buckwheat too! My Danish friend G made blinis last time B and I visited, and explained that Danes always eat them when it's just the beginning of spring. She served them with creme fraiche, chopped red onion and Danish caviar. I served mine with homemade tofu creme fraiche and red onion. You know what Danish caviar is? It's lumpfish roe. (We thought we heard wrong too, but that's really it. Lumpfish).

Anyway, here's the recipe. It was delicious.

Vegan Blinis (makes about 10)

2 tsp. lemon juice
1 cup or so plain soymilk
3 T soy flour
5 T buckwheat flour
3/4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. ground flaxseeds
1 T oil (plus a little more for the pan)

Measure out the soymilk and stir in the lemon juice; then set it aside to curdle. Meanwhile, begin heating a large skillet, and grind your flaxseeds if they aren't already.

Combine the two flours, baking powder, and salt.

Stir the ground flax and oil into the curdled soymilk.

Vigorously whisk in the dry mixture. It should be pretty runny; if it isn't, add a bit of water.

Oil your skillet lightly and pour in about 2-3 T batter. It will run all around and start setting up straightaway. Cook for about 90 seconds on each side.

Serve hot, with creme fraiche and chopped red onions.

Eat and be happy for Danish springtime!

Two Take in Tulips

It's spring! Well, it's almost spring if you're American and have been taught that spring begins on March 21st. If you're Danish, though, you know that spring begins on March 1st, so even if it's snowing and raining at the same time, it's totally reasonable to ditch your hat and eat ice cream. If you're a studious scientific type, searching for hard evidence to back up claims of spring, you might be kind of disappointed.

But.

There is good news. There are more birds! And there are tulips! Like me, Danes love all bulb flowers. They are everywhere. Observe and rejoice.

Here's a tiny bonus farmers' market next to Domkirken.

This Danish man is rightfully proud of his wares.

Tulips and daffodils for sale on Strøget.

B peruses the display outside a fancy Danish florist. Danish florists are all super classy.

This florist has "Excellent Fresh Danish Tulips!"

Because the thing is, as the great H. C. Andersen said,
"At leve er ikke nok, man må have solskin, frihed og en lille blomst."

Or, for my English-speaking friends,
"Just living is not enough, one must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower."

Lucky Linguists and Local Laughs

Tomorrow is a big day for me, E. I'll be heading over to my local "SprogCenter" to take the Module 2 oral Danish exam. Last week I took the written portion--a 2 hour test focusing on creative writing, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension--and passed. That entitles me to move on to the 25 minute exam tomorrow.

In the written exam, we were required to write a letter to a Danish friend, explaining that we had just moved, and describing our new neighborhood. I adopted the persona of a fictional librarian and modern art lover named Gitte. We also read a story about a robbery in a butcher's shop, and listened to a story and a dialogue before answering questions about the material.

Tomorrow I'll be speaking with a proctor about any two of five topics--three novellas I've read from the LaerDansk library; "my education and work;" or, "the city of Århus." After that, my conversational partner Bulgarian J and I will be assigned a topic and asked to chat about it for 4-5 minutes. We've been practicing on topics like these:

what I did this weekend
movies
North Africa
ice cream
beer
my family
museums
music
my dream job

So I need all your good wishes! Kryds fingerne!

And in the meantime, this little video about the Danish language might amuse you. I found it pretty funny myself, and so did two actual Danes. It originally aired on a Norwegian TV show not unlike "Saturday Night Live," so all the subtitles are in Norwegian, not Danish. Check it out--after all, how many chances for Scandinavian hilarity do you usually get?

Language Lessons, part a million and two

I love this and have to say it to everyone.

In Danish, a sloth is called a "dovendyr." A lazy animal! So charming!

But I'll leave it to you, dear readers, to figure out this one.

en hvalros....