French Fries

Shannon and I had prepared for things to be very different in the Netherlands compared to the USA, and in many aspects we were right (credit cards, store hours, bikes).  However there are some things that we did not expect, one of them being how much the Dutch love french fries.  There are french fry stands on almost every corner, with half a dozen different sauces available, though the most common seems to be mayonnaise.  (Dutch mayo is very different from the bland mayo in America)  Our closest fry stand is a Bram Ladage, and those are some excellent fries.  These fries are simultaneously very large and very crispy.  In the US I had become accustomed to crispness and size being inversely proportional, but that is not the case here.  Our first few days before we got used to the fact that grocery stores all close at 6pm, and they roll up the sidewalks at 7pm we ate a lot of fries since it was the only place still open.

photo by Massimo Catarinella - Creative Commons

Life in Rotterdam

Shannon and I have settled in well in Rotterdam and are enjoying life quite a bit.  There were obviously some differences between Rotterdam and Houston that we had to work out, but that didn’t take very long and now we are in a much more normal day-to-day life.  We’ve had some adventures since we arrived and I’ll be posting about those in the upcoming weeks and months, so please check back!