Field Hockey and The Netherlands

Leaving Amsterdam

On Saturday we went to a few more Amsterdam sights.

We went to Anne Frank's house, the line to get in wrapped all the way around the building, but it was well worth it. When she was living there in hiding she was about 12. In addition to excerpts from her detailed diary, they also displayed things like her wall of pictures of famous people (Greta Garbo, Ginger Rogers, etc) that she had glued on to brighten up the place, as well as pencil lines on the wall where her father had kept track of Anne and her sister's height through the years. It reminded me of my own room as a 12-year-old.

It was about time to get moving after that. We packed things up at the Tourist Inn and waved goodbye to our lady friends in the red-lit windows across the street and made our way toward Amsterdam Centraal.


Amsterdam


Utrecht

We hopped a train for Utrecht to go visit Raisa, a player on the Wake field hockey team. She lives in a quiet suburban area that was really beautiful. Her mom borrowed some bikes from the neighbors and we got our own private bike tour around the town. We saw Raisa's old school and where she used to play field hockey. It seemed like we fit in much better once we had a bike.



In front of Raisas house

Raisa's dad used to play basketball so I was asking him about that, because when I think of countries where basketball is big I don't usually think of The Netherlands. He said it was like the 8th or 9th most popular sport there, behind soccer (the most popular), field hockey, tennis, volleyball and some others. But he played it from when he was 16 until 40 and then coached some women's teams too.

We also had Raisa explain to us the difference between Holland and The Netherlands. She said they were the same, but 'Holland' was what her grandparents said and 'The Netherlands' is what everyone else said. So there you go, in case you were wondering too.

Her mother made us veggie lasagna and for an appetizer we had a cut up melon with cream cheese and pistacio nuts. I think we were all three a little skeptical of the melon at first, but it was SO good. Her family was so nice to us and we talked for a long time after dinner. It was so peaceful it was almost hard to leave!



Rotterdam

Now we are in Rotterdam staying with one of Stivo's former Maryland teammates.

We went to see a men's field hockey match this morning. The weather was pretty, um, uninspiring (read: cold and wet), but the game was entertaining. I'd never seen men's field hockey before so it was pretty interesting for me, though our hosts said it was really boring game.


at F.C. Rotterdam

Right before halftime all these young kids lined the field with their hockey sticks and soccer balls. When intermission started they all ran onto the field and starting hitting with each other. Then they squealed when the sprinklers came on and ran around some more. It was really cute!



We are getting ready to head to Paris for a few hours tomorrow afternoon and then fly to Barcelona. I hope to write some more on Tuesday. Hope everyone is well!