Before I arrived in the Netherlands, G and I realized it might become very crowded with three and then four people in the same house. His dad’s schedule is keeping him in town while I am around, and then his littlest sister stays on weekends. We decided ahead of time to schedule a week away at Center Parcs in Gennep, in the province of Limburg. G reserved a two room holiday house/cottage in this vacation park, complete with indoor/outdoor pool, restaurants, lake, woods, etc.
It took us three hours in traffic and warm sunny weather to arrive. The grounds were very nice, though very crowded when we walked around. The cottage itself has a lot of windows and lights. There is a half kitchen and an alcove bedroom. It is very comfortable, minus the …bugs, BUGS, B-U-G-S!!! It’s similar to going for a hotel in the Wisconsin Dells, where you can’t avoid letting a few neighbors (aka creepie crawlies) through the door. There’s always a small fellow in the corner. For dinner, we walked around the main center building, which is full of diverse “restaurants”, entertainment areas, grocery store, arcade, and a cheesey kids performing area.
At The Market Restaurant, we paid about €28 for each of us (you don’t want to know what that is in $). It was worth the price, for the amount of food and liquid we got here. I have seen the average price for a drink here go between €2-3 a glass, the drink being smaller than a can. And yes, you pay for water. Funny enough, this is where the biggest culture shock comes out. Not language, not architecture, but the forks and knives. It didn’t seem to occur to me or the Europeans around me that Americans eat differently. Some people mentioned to G that I wasn’t using etiquette at all. Little did they realize it wasn’t European etiquette. I am trying to pick up on it now (and possibly change it), but it’s less natural than learning Dutch.
The etiquette thing aside, we wandered over to the arcade post-dinner. They had three different styles of air hockey tables, and we had to play at least two of them (not the child’s table). Downside, one game session for three minutes costed €1. We were enthusiastic enough to be knocking the puck onto the floor accidentally.
We’ll be here until Friday, May 27. It looks to be lots of fun!
iPads and food in the cottage kitchen