Final Remarks

And so our time in Holland ended. These were wonderful 90 days of hard work and enjoyment, of learning and education, or travel and living in a different atmosphere. These were 90 blessed days when none of us got even a light cold (except Denise who hurt her leg in the first days).

If you are visiting the blog for the first time, be aware that this is the last post. You will have to go backwards to read about a few of the things that were done, in Delft and beyond, in chronological order.

General Impressions

Our time in Europe is over and all I can say is that I feel it was too short and that it passed too fast. We loved living in Delft, a very nice place, very quite but with enough things happening to make us enjoy the place. Since we lived in the old area of Delft, everything was very close, walking distance, as opposed to Fredericton where we need a car to do most of things. The local commerce, restaurants, entertainment, everything was walking distance.

We lived in a very busy corner, connecting the downtown area with the train station. There was always people going back and forth, and the transit of bike was intense. We needed to look twice before crossing the street, even though the local bikers can divert from you very fast. There were not many cars driving in the streets and after some time in the evening cars could not ride in most streets anyway.

We found that life was a bit more expensive if compared to Canada, even though we were lucky that the Euro devaluated during our stay there. Things like car rental, hotel, gas, restaurant were leaning towards the more expensive side, not to mention Delft Blue which is very expensive. But then there were things that were very cheap in the local commerce. We were surprised that food in the grocer's store was cheaper, things like meat, bread, cheese, to name a few.

Something we are going to miss is the variety of cheese and wine, excellent quality, three times less expensive than in Fredericton. Also, the variety of beer is amazing. Not to mention that we could purchase wine and beer in the grocer's store as it should be.

Also, the bells, which sounded regularly providing a medieval atmosphere. We would go to bed listening to them; we would wake up in the morning with them as wishing us a nice day.

The fact that the apartment we rented was small, was a benefit since it demanded less effort for its daily maintenance, besides the fact that we were away in most of our weekends visiting other places and cities.

This is something that we will miss too. We could visit Amsterdam with the same travel time we would spend to go to St. John; we could go to Brussels with the same time as we need to go to Moncton; we would be in Paris faster than if travelling to Bangor. What a difference!

Schipol, returning home

We had to sleep at the Sheraton located right by Schipol airport since our plane departed very early in the morning. After a stop in Frankfurt we travelled to Montreal and then to Fredericton.

We arrived in Fredericton under a heat wave, hot and humid, quite different from what we left in Holland.

Temperature

During our stay in Delft we felt that the temperature was predominatly leaning towards the chilly side. The first week was cold and cloudy, with a constant drizzle. After that, between sunny and cloudy days, we felt it was more to the cold side, always windy, and increasinly so while biking. Luckly, there was rain only about three times (and we were told that the very first thing we would need after arriving in Holland would be a rain coat).

The interesting thing is that we kept track of the weather in Fredericton through the Weather Network and talked to friends there and our impression was that it was always warmer in Fredericton than in Delft. Just looking at the monthly mean temperatures, red for Delft and blue for Fredericton, and disconsidering other factors like humidex/windchill, we can see that Fredericton was warmer than Delft in May and June.

Van Gogh

The last entertainment was a visit to van Gogh (Pronounce it Gohh) Museum in Amsterdam. Very nice. Van Gogh's life was quite interesting. He started painting when he was already an adult and without any formal education. At the end he became one of the most influential painters of his generation, laying the foundations for modern painting.

To enjoy his partings, one has to look them from far away.

Van Gogh was also mentally ill at the end of his life and he ended up dying of self-inflicted wounds as a consequence of shooting himself at the chest.

Van Gogh dreamt of having an atelier where other painters could work together. Gaugin joined him and spend a few months there. Gaugin later left after van Gogh threatened him with a razor blade. In the process, a frustrated van Gogh cut part of his ear off.

What can I say: van Gogh was a genius.

Van Gogh is great-grand-uncle of Theo van Gogh.

Billy Beer

When we arrived in Delft we look around for a restaurant. We ended up finding the "Cow Square" for the first time. It was totally empty under the drizzle and most restaurants were closed. One in particular called my attention. it said: Billy Beer. That is it, I thought. A restaurant with beer in its name. Well, it happens that beer in Dutch means bear. So, the restaurant's name is Billy Bear. Indeed, there are lots of teddy bears inside, and kids like it.

We entered and it was full, we even had difficulty in finding a place to sit. We enjoyed a very large schnitzel and this restaurant became one of our favourites. (We later learned that it is a "student's" restaurant, very popular for its spare ribs. Well, I preferred the schnitzel.)

It was then, that our last meal in Delft was at the Billy Beer (Bear): schnitzel and potatoes.

The big game I did not watch

When I booked my trip in February I could never imagine that my return flight was going to be exactly during the big soccer match between Netherlands and Brazil. I arrived in Montreal one hour after the end of the game. I wish I was in Netherlands until the end of the World Cup. Whoever wins this match should win the whole competion, I thought. And Holland won.

Hup Holland Hup!

The picture invites Locus Publicus customers to watch the game there. I missed that too.