father of jochem

So, after spending approximately 15 hours in Amsterdam (half of them sleeping), we decided to take refuge in a smaller, much less touristy, “suburb” called Haarlem. As we learned from Rick (Steeves, our portable travel guide - don’t judge us), Harlem, NY was named after this town, as New York used to be named New Amsterdam. Fascinating. The train ride over was filled with lots historical relics and free range farming (Dutch cows and sheep don’t need fences) surrounded by moats, all of which we did not realize until the ride back. Once arriving in Haarlem, we wandered pretty aimlessly (not unusual for us), searching for something great, like an outside market. We found a park and canal and then decided to go back towards the train station where we decided that, before progressing any further, koffe was a must. Luckily we found a cute café sitting directly across from a very large construction site, so we could enjoy the smell of exhaust while sipping our treats. As we were sitting there, sipping and discussing nougats, an older looking gent approached me from the side. I cant remember exactly what he said first, but he went on to comment on how skinny I was and I must need some apple pie. I said, “okay, sure.” He appeared to be pretty excited to take me up on the offer and quickly skipped inside to purchase a couple slices of pie. We proceeded to discuss topics such as his philosophy of square head, round heads, and oval heads. It’s too deep to explain here. Also, talked of politics, Holland, desserts, things to see & do in Haarlem, and mostly family. He expressed much joy over hearing that I have a 2 year-old. He told us all about his son,
Jochem, who is now 17. All of his other children are in their forties. From then on, he referred to himself as father of Jochem, and before parting ways, he made sure to leave all relevant contact info with us, including his address, phone number, email address (that he said he never checks), and names of all his children. He really enjoys having young people visit him. In Zeist, Holland…anyone interested?

…I’ve decided to continue looking skinny to encourage more free food (and nice chats with random kind people).

Also, in Haarlem we enjoyed these things:

Buying LOADS of delicious, local cheeses at a cheese shop from a kind young man who let us taste as many as we wanted
Unintentionally enjoying an afternoon snack and drink at Holland’s #2 top rated pub in 2008
Trying on boots in various stores, including giant wooden shoes
Shopping for random grocery items with labels in Dutch
Getting laughed at for almost breaking a fancy child bike seat
Not seeing crowds of drunk, stoned, crazy boys stumbling around
Walking on brick streets among very old buildings
Pam whispering “hunger winter” anytime we saw an short elderly person