The food

Cheese, and a lot of it. Cheese sandwiches, cheese this and cheese that. Hearty food. It was often quite good (and sometimes very expensive!). This big ball of cheese was $30US in Amsterdam; of course the exchange rate killed us:

But it really was awfully good.

This is our bakery in Enkhuisen, where we bought morning pastries and evening desserts:

In Haarlem we ate these wonderful pancakes --
the one in the lower left is apple,

and in the upper right, banana:

And in Brussels, we ate waffles. OH MY. This waffle was topped with strawberries and whipped cream. Another one we got was topped with bananas and chocolate. The bottoms were caramelized, and just so delicious. Every bit was made before our eyes, the fruit peeled and sliced, the cream whipped, the thick batter/dough scooped and waffled:


We mainly ate at home, since we had a full kitchen. There was a great street market in Enkhuisen:

Fruits and veg

Snacks, nuts and seeds

Roasted chicken -- looks like it's glowing with goodness

and -- of course -- the kaashuis. The cheese house.

Anna and Marc were daring and ate the warme kibbeling before they really knew what it was. Turned out, it was small chunks of fish, battered and deep-fried, served with a couple kinds of sauce. They said it was really delicious; it must be common, because we frequently saw it in little snack stands.

We got in the habit of having tea and snacks a couple of times each day, and found some great biscuits to go with lemon tea. I'll miss that.

This trip wasn't really a culinary trip, like our Vietnam vacation was. The food was not the thing, at all. But we did have some wonderful treats, the waffles and pancakes, the fresh fish. Like other European countries, it's a sidewalk cafe culture, so if you like to sit and have a coffee or a beer and watch people, you'll have a great time, even in the small towns like Enkhuisen.