We wanna go to Dutch Villiage!!

So really the only people who will get this blog title are my immediate family. I am not sure how my parents endured car trips anywhere that involved us going through Holland, MI – home of the famous Dutch Village and the tulip farms. For about 20 miles on either side of the city my sister and I would break into song (clearly the Billboard Top 100 missed out on this hit). “We wanna go to Dutch Village, Dutch Village, Dutch Village. We wanna go to Dutch Village ALL DAY LONG!” Hey, we grew up in West Michigan, where the closest theme parks were Deer Park Funland and Dutch Village.

So on my second day in The Netherlands, I was on my own and after a little mishap at the train station to head back to Amsterdam (yeah, I couldn’t get a ticket – long story) – I decided it was time to test my driving skills in Europe. I'm grateful that The Netherlands drives on the "correct" side of the street. I could tell you how brave I was, but I had my “European Bitch” (aka the GPS system - that one is for you Uncle Roger) in the car with me to tell me exactly where to turn. Destination – Delft.

So why did I choose Delft – well for one, I’d heard of it before in my days of living in Holland, MI. You know - the hometown of all that famous blue and white porcelain. So after getting up my nerve that I could in fact do this, it didn’t take me long to be driving through Rotterdam at speeds I don’t want to mention. I arrived in the small town of Delft where the inspiration of Dutch Village had to have come from. I could say Dutch Village threw up all over this town, but I think that should be reversed. It was very surreal to see the drawbridge and all these blond people who looked like my next door neighbors. They too had heard of Holland, MI!

So after a few hours of touring the city on foot, and learning a little bit 'o Delft history such as the inventor of the microscope – Antony von Leeuwenhook - lived here, I hopped back in my mini-car for the uneventful ride home - well except for the weaving in between the semi- trucks so I could snag a picture of the lone windmill that I saw on the side of the road. But how can you go to Holland and not get a picture of a windmill.

Tomorrow it is back to Amsterdam for me to visit some of the museums and tour around in a canal boat while I wait for Will to finish up his work and drive in to meet me. Can't call this anything but a whirlwind trip, but it is all part of the fun.