Home, Sweet Camper-Van

News Blackout

I have lots of stories, friends, but no time to blog. I hope to write more about all we are experiencing, but for now will let you know we are alive and well and seeing the world. We made it out of Amsterdam on July 10 and are slowly learning how to travel as campers. Since then, we have

• been to a festival of street theater on stilts in the medieval city of Deventer, Holland
• Spent two nights with my distant cousin Karl Lovink and his wife Thecla
• watched the Dutch narrowly lose the world cup finals with 9000 excited, then dejected Dutchmen and women
• figured out how to unclog and empty the stinking wastewater tank in our van, which was full upon delivery . . . also had the air-conditioning repaired (thank heavens)
• camped near the spa town of Bad Ems and gargled with the water from the hot springs
• flown along the "fantasticable" from on Alpine mountaintop to another, 100 km an hour and hundreds of meters high
• Spent an evening at the Montreux Jazz Festival
• hiked in the Alps
• stayed with our good friends Jenny and Peter in Morgins, Switzerland
• lost Dennis's backpack in a tiny medieval town in the Aost region of Italy (it was basically empty)
• Missed our Dutch friends!
  
• seen the opera Aida in the Arena at Verona 
• camped in the ruins of a castle above Verona
• taken the Vaporetto in Venice and explored the Doge's Palace
• Seen the sixth century mosaics in Ravenna
• left my wallet on a chair in a Ravenna church and had it returned by -- who else? -- Dutch tourists
• swum in the Adriatic Sea
• Gotten sunburned
• Eaten gallons of gelato
• More . . . . but I have to get off the wireless now . . .

Countdown to gone

Long silence = packing.

And packing, and packing. What to take, what to pitch? What to give away? How to bring home all our acquisitions without paying a fortune in excess baggage? How to get it all to the airport, for goodness' sake? We bought an entire dinner service in the south of France. So optimistic of us!

Clara is bringing her Dutch bike home. That in itself will be an interesting logistical exercise. After much deliberation, I am leaving mine in Holland. I think I'll get one with three speeds in the States. I'm glad to know my trusty steed will be in good hands, though -- my good friend Charlie, an experienced expat, is taking it with her to Sevilla, her next port of call.

I'm not even going to write about the sadness. Not now, at least. 

Anyway, we are not going back to Ohio yet -- just leaving Amsterdam. We will spend four more weeks touring Europe in a camper-van. Switzerland, Italy, Northern Spain, and a bit of France. I hope to post from some of these ports of call -- if I can find a wifi zone!

The children's hands-on sex, I mean science, museum

If you want real evidence that the Dutch have a different attitude about sex than us prudish Americans, don't go to the red light district. That's for tourists. Go to NEMO, the children's hands-on science museum. There is a "Teen Facts" exhibit there that made me blush, and I do not consider myself a Puritan (I'm the mom who told her kids the facts of life the first time they asked. I apologize if they told your kids; I forgot to tell them to keep it to themselves). When I found myself standing beside a hulking teenage boy, both of us looking at 20 pairs of wooden artists' mannequins posed to demonstrate different sex positions, I hightailed it out of there. AWKWARD, as my daughter would say.

My 10-year-old son and his friends Isaac and Eliot did not go inside that exhibit; it was labeled for ages 12 to 18 (!). But they were interested in the exhibit where you could practice French kissing by sticking your hand inside a giant puppet of a tongue. "Be creative! Make it beautiful!" read the instructions.

They also watched this hilarious and rather brilliant three-minute film about puberty, which was looping continuously on a wall where you really could not miss it. Check it out here:

The boys found it fascinating and watched it twice. Zander pronounced it "disturbing" -- but he didn't really look disturbed.

There were a lot of things in the Teen Facts area that would have some American parents yanking their kids out by the hair. I admit, I was a bit shocked. But I also found it refreshing. Another blogger who wrote about this exhibit asked whether the frank attitude of the Dutch toward sex ed had a better outcome than the
American approach cited the following statistics, which support the case for openness quite elegantly:

	United States	Netherlands
Births per 1000, women ages 15-19	52.1	6.2
Abortions per 1000, women ages 15-19	30.2	3.9

Source: 2001 Unicef Report

By the way, this intrepid blogger took pictures of everything.

Comments, anyone?

[update: Interested in further information about what schools and government do in the Netherlands to produce the outcomes cited above? Check out this article: Adolescent Sexual Health in Europe and the U.S.—Why the Difference? ]

The ridiculous and the sublime . . . and loving it all

The Dutch aesthetic is tough to pigeonhole, embracing as it does both the vulgarity of the red light district with its "Sex Museum" and array of shops selling grotesque sexual appliances and the delicate perfection of a quiet Vermeer--or the architectural integrity of Amsterdam itself.

Last night the kids and I went to a city-wide party in Leiden that exemplified the first aspect of Dutch culture -- not vulgarity so much as a love of loud partying (evident also in Dutch football culture) a love of costumes and display, frank sexuality and just all-around crazy fun. Peurbakkentocht is, as far as I can learn, a Leiden-only festival that commemorates something about fishermen and worms (help me out here, somebody!) What it is really like is Mardi Gras -- with the parade taking place on the canals.

Our guide to this particular event was my second cousin Carla and her husband Willem, who have been our companions and generous hosts on several explorations of things Dutch: a visit to the famous flower gardens at the Keukenhof, a fabulous two-day sailing trip across the Ijsselmeer to Workum in Friesland on their yacht, a tour of Leiden's canals and nearby lakes on their canal sloop, and now a Peurbakkentocht party at their home which overlooks the Oude Rijn canal. Here are Carla and Willem watching the parade from the window (we went below because just like in a July 4th parade back home, the people in the boats were throwing things to spectators and we wanted to catch something).

Carla is in the middle, Willem on the right.

Anyway, what a great parade! The air was filled with music and the scent of barecue, people were floating around on rubber rafts to get a closer look at the decorated boats, children were swimming in the canal (really) and the costumes and themes were extravagant and slightly demented.

Floating princess (that seems to be a club emerging from her skirt)

And pouring champagne for one of her helpers

 

Goth boat

Harem boat with lovely men in drag performing belly dances

 Pregnant and painted

Trappist monks (towing a floating keg of beer)

Dutch hats!

 My personal favorite, a sinking tour bus (can you see the half-submerged driver in the front?)

And the piece de resistance, for which only a video will do (don't forget to turn up your audio):

                 


Can you hear what the people are singing while gathered around that phallic sculpture? Yes, you are correct: "Penisland."

Okay, on to the sublime. I discovered about a month ago that after dropping the kids off from school if instead of stopping in the Beatrixpark for a jog-walk, as had been my habit, I continued south on my bicycle, after only about 10 minutes I was cycling a gorgeous and peaceful route along the Amstel river. On that road is an art gallery in an old mansion and next to the gallery is a sculpture garden that I am adding to my favorite places in the world. It is an island of total peace, a cool, shady, meandering park filled with birdsong and studded with a beautiful array of contemporary sculptures. I love to walk there, contemplate the art, take in the peaceful mood and let my mind drift. At various points you can walk to the edge of the park and peer out of the wooded area at the farmland beyond, featuring sheep and horses. A bench is situated under a weeping beech tree and it's a perfect meditation site. The sculptures range from lovely to odd, with a couple that I dream about purchasing, if I could cobble together a few thousand Euros. But outside of this outdoor gallery, who knows if I would love the sculptures as much. The Dutch are fantastic at combining art with nature -- in fact, art and nature have combined to create this country rescued from the water -- and this spot is a perfect example.

I didn't take any pictures, but here's a video I found online. The music fails to capture the mood I experience in this place, but you can see what it looks like.