Today was filled with more new experiences. Driving is truly an adventure, and today I wondered how we kept from running over people yesterday on my first attempt. Just to try to give you a little taste, it goes something like this......(I won't bore you with the shifting details, but if you haven't driven a stick shift in a while, you need to imagine pumping the clutch and shifting amidst all of these yields) .....watch for shark teeth painted on the pavement, this means yield. Note that the shark teeth will be just before the bike lane which is just before the intersection of the next street. So, yield to the people, yield to the bikes, yield to the cars, go!!!!! If it is a roundabout, you need to yield to the cars already in the roundabout also. So, good luck finding a space between the cars circling and timing your "shifting" into first gear to get into the circle between the circling cars and the bikes and pedestrians. Somehow we made it again to the house today in one piece and without any road damage :)
The new experience today was grocery shopping! Thankfully a few friends had given us tips so we had a bit of a heads up on some of the differences from our typical experience. First we had to figure out where to park. After circling the block twice, we spied the double decker parking lot. Jackpot! I thought, so we wouldn't have to deal with street parking and not knowing how to pay. However, we did have to park our manual (did I mention stick shift yet?) minivan in the size spaces made for mini coopers with the width of a single driving lane between the rows. So, after 3 attempts at forward, back, forward, back....we were in the spot. Whew, deep breath and on to the next challenge, the grocery carts. We knew a little about this again from blessed friends giving us a warning. You have to insert a coin (like at Aldi, if you've been there) to borrow a cart and then press it into the handle to unlock the key. Upon finishing the shopping, you insert the key and retrieve the coin. Pretty slick system except there was no sign telling me which amount coin we were to insert. Thankfully a nice Dutch gentleman answered my questions and also explained that the store would issue us a free reusable coin for future visits. NICE! We made our way to the door, and the same thoughtful gentleman was waiting for us with a key ring and one of those fancy reusable coins and a big smile. He had gotten to the customer service counter and back to the front door to hand us our gift in the time we managed to push the cart from the lot. Such a warm gesture! Thank you Lord!!
I realized upon walking into the store that I had forgotten the all important cloth grocery sacks which we had so carefully packed that morning into a suitcase bound for the house. We decided there was NO WAY we were going home for them. Oh, and I simultaneously remembered that I had forgotten or John had forgotten.......we'll leave it at WE had forgotten that I needed the bank card since they don't take credit. So, the boys and I proceeded to empty my wallet and their pockets and scrounge 80 Euros between us. So, we spent the next hour tallying the total of items as we put them in our cart with fits of laughter. We couldn't read the signs, and we were on a tight budget. Histinkinlarious is what it was! We counted it a truly fun experience and look forward to returning with our shiny new cart coin, cloth bags, AND a bank card.
This sweet Lotus raced us out of The Hague....guess who won....
Cart coin
Cheese please!!
Joshua loved making his own fresh squeezed OJ!
Success!
8 comments:
You will not drive us crazy - we love the stories and will continue to love them. Just think - this will be saved "forever" for future reference.
This is so hilarious!!! I love all the stories and funny antics of your adventure!! I am so THANKFUL for the kind man who helped ya'll. Reminds me of something you would do! What a trooper you are!!! Guess you will be filling that fridge soon!!!
I love how resourceful and "go with the flow" you guys are. In a few weeks the grocery will be like an old hat! Love hearing all about it.
Melissa
Neat trip to the grocery store. Have y'all come across a truly Dutch food that you like?
Glad you are in for the crazy happenings and stories. Yes, so thankful to have a place to capture our journey.
So nuts, huh? Today was a much better trip to the store with my sweet new friend Andrea that showed Caleb and me "the ropes." There is a much more efficient way to shop that would have come in quite handy had we known on the shopping day we had to keep a running total. They have this little scanner device (kind of what you use when registering for wedding or baby) that you can scan each item before putting into your bag directly. You check out by putting the scanner in a repository, and your total appears on the checkout kiosk. Swipe a debit card, and you're off! Pretty slick!
Thanks friend, we are trying to be very go with the flow! Today was already a better experience. I'll have to post pictures of the cool gadgets we learned about that help tremendously. :)
Oh Margaret, the boys are addicted already to the Gouda (pronounced Howda) cheese, chocolate spread and sprinkles, and the stroopwaffles which are thin waffle cookies filled with carmelized syrup. Yum!
Post a Comment