Netherlands 08

In the first week of September this year I flew to the Netherlands to meet up with my family for my grandmothers (Oma) funeral. The last time I had seen them was about four years earlier so I was quite happy to make the trip. I arrived at Schiphol and then took the train to my uncles in Apeldoorn. The train ride was great and the scenery was made up of horses, cow, and really good graffiti.

One of my favorite things about going back to the Netherlands is the meals. This is what breakfast and lunch normally looks like.

After crashing at my uncles I went to get groceries with my cousin Maarten. He wanted to know what kind of beer I might want, I said, "anything with a gnome on it".

We then set out with my mom, uncle, Maarten, and his brother Lennaert to clear out Oma's apartment. Luckily my aunts and uncles had been organizing her things all week so we were able to move out a lot of the big things all at once.

The next day we had the funeral. We started at the funeral home then the Church, and Cemetery. We ended our day at a super fancy country restaurant.


Maarten, Cas, Amber, Hjalmar

Desert was amazing. Hungarian cake encrusted with marzipan.

The first free day I had I spent re exploring Apeldoorn.

This is a normal two lane street in the Netherlands, room enough for both bikes and cars.

I recognized a few spots in town since I was there last. I went in to an AH (the company which owns Giant) for some hard to find Dutch food.

The first and absolute favorite being Hagel Slag!

Since most meals are sandwich based, Hagel Slag is a fun treat to put on sandwiches aside from your normal spreads. Its pretty much a variety of chocolate sprinkles made for bread, and is truly amazing.

To further illustrate the importance of sandwich making and cows, I give you the wall of cheese.


On the way home that day there happened to be a beer fest. They were definitely making the royal palace out of empty crates.



On monday I had plans to help my uncle and namesake move an extremely large armoire from Oma's apartment to his place in Amsterdam. The armoire had been through the war and had the bullet holes to prove it. It also weighed a ton a it took four dudes to lift it five flights to my uncles flat.

The view from his balcony

I was greeted with a meal of traditional Dutch pancakes

This is how real pancakes look


Frans' neighbor is a huge comic fan. So much so that his marriage is more or less based on a mutual love for a certain comic. He shared his collection with me and we had some pretty good discussions. With a full skeleton its not hard to understand why we got aong.

The weather was beautiful for the last days of my trip


I spent the rest of my time hunting comics with a fair amount of success. I went to a few different stores and ended up spending a whole day in this one.

http://lambiek.net/home.htm

The owner was extremely informed nice. He showed me a few rare Moebius portfolios and, some really good books. The other half of their store was set up as gallery space. Which housed some great pieces.


The best part of the room was the random stacks of comics. I was looking through some piles when I came across the complete run of the original French Heavy Metal magazine. Which I took my time with.


After that I got ready for my flight with a hefty suitcase full of comics. Here is some of what I came back with.