Rye And Coke: March 2008

Picture of somewhere in Europe on the only sunny day we had:

Well well well... I'm back in Egypt after the Euro vacation, and what a ride. I'd have to rate that trip as one of the best. The hockey was a fun excuse, but the highlights were definitely hanging out with Frank, Nabber and Peck and the good times we had together.

The Den Haag tournament went alright, we were poised to win the whole thing on the last day but the 9:00am game time got the better of us. I'm sure it had nothing to do with the four of us staying up until 5am, getting 2 hours of sleep, and then heading to the game. When the rest of the team showed up to the rink Peck, Frank and Nabber were asleep on the floor outside the dressing room looking like a sad, sorry crew. I was doing alright, still floating on the high from the previous night (not that high, a different kind of high). The game was back and forth, our goalie kept us in it, not allowing a goal through 2 and half periods. But we couldn't produce either, not enough quality chances were generated. It wasn't just our line misfiring either, the others all had a little Amsterdam'itis setting in... We eventually let one in off of a faceoff miscue in our own end that resulting in a shot from the point careening in. Unfortunately we didn't have enough gas to come back and succumbed to the team from San Diego.

But enough about hockey, or this may turn into a boring hockey and golf blog, we wouldn't want that now would we?

Back in Berlin we hung out a lot with Lee, a friend through a friend of Peck's who lives in Berlin while working on a PhD in political sciences... ya, I suppose you're wondering what we're doing hanging out with a guy like that... But it turns out he (or we) fit right in, and we ended up having a blast with him at the hockey games and more importantly afterwards... We also did the standard walking tour of Berlin in order to get a broad idea of the city's history. I'd been before in September, but the boys enjoyed it as well. We were supposed to leave Berlin Sunday after our last game in order to see some German or Dutch country side, but ended up staying until Tuesday on account of the fun we were having... or more likely that we slept through check out time and one of us had to get out of bed to beg to stay another day/night at the front desk. Good times... if anyone is in Berlin, the East Seven hostel is essentially a hotel and highly recommended. It's a great neighbourhood with a vibrant nightlife and close to all the sights. Brewer's walking tour also conveniently picks up there, and it led by some great tour guides.

Guess what this is:

Nicely translated:

We met some people from Hamburg along our travels, and they offered to show us a night out there if we wanted... so naturally we piled into the minivan and drove to Hamburg. Hamburg was a beautiful city, we pretty sure anyways. We were there for less than 24 hours and it dark for most of that. The Reeperbaun is something else though, for those that get to visit. Our hosts showed us a good time until after 5am... But we had to make our way to Amsterdam so that Frank could see it with his own eyes, unfortunately cutting our stay in Hamburg short.

Wednesday we were in DAM, that's local speak for Amsterdam I guess... With one night only we had to make the best of it. Although it was raining and cold, the DAM didn't disappoint. The bumper boat was invented, we bought a fist-trophy for our hockey team, and someone doubled down on a deuce.

What are all those red lights in the background?

Thursday we had a practice in Den Haag, so off we went. Our accommodation there rocked, we stayed at Hotel 't Centrum where we had been before, only this time we had a big apartment on the first floor to ourselves, complete with kitchen, fireplace, living/dining room, and big red curtains.

Hockey aside, Den Haag was epic. By far close to the best 4 days I've ever had. We frequented our regular haunt, where we've been going since 2006... Joep and Sus the bar owner/staff showed us a great time once again. We've gotten to know them so well we left our tab open from Thursday to Sunday, stopping in every night until 2am before heading out to another later night establishment. People in Den Haag are great, and it's a great city for both site seeing and making new friends.

On the night before our final hockey game we were planning on taking it easy... go out for a nice dinner with Fowler and Steph (fellow Calgarians on the hockey team), have "a couple" drinks, then get to bed before 2am in order to rest up for hockey at 9am. So we find a quiet restaurant, not only that they sit us upstairs away from everyone except an elderly couple on the other end... Everything is going as planned, I get the spicy ribs. We're drinking wine, being civilized... We should have known better. Up the stairs come 1, 2, 3, 4, then a 5th girl, the waiter sits them 20m from us. Oh great. The evening wears on... they have dinner, then out comes a birthday cake with a sparkler ablaze, they're singing to brunette... it's all downhill from here. We're in denial though, we order coffees after dinner, we have an early game in the morning. And then the birthday girl gets up, comes over to our table and says something incomprehensible. It was in Dutch. She sees our stupid looks and repeats herself in English... Would we like to request a song? She's collecting requests for the bartender to play... We're still not up to it, fumbling through the conversation with nothing better to offer than U2's Beautiful Day. She returns to her table, we look at each other, that was sad. Stephanie calls us losers.

We apologize to our hockey team and our "big game" in the morning before ordering 11 shooters from the waiter. On our way to their table we clear our throats and start in with the English version of happy birthday. I think they're appalled, but we find out afterwards it was "sweet"... Walking home at 5 in the morning after a nice crazy teenaged bar-top dancing (not us, them) to rehashed 90's dance music, turns out it was a beautiful day.

From Den Haag to Ghent, Belgium. On the way we drove through the Blizzard of '08, along the coastline of the Netherlands and Belgium... Saw the North Sea, drove over a big-ass bridge, through a 6.6km tunnel under the North Sea, waited for a boat at a bridge crossing, circled roundabouts like madmen, and made decent time if I don't say so myself.

Cool restaurant in Ghent, it used to be an old textile warehouse:

Ghent:

St. Nicholas' church, ya, that St. Nick:

Belgian beer of choice, Westmalle (Duble):

This often overlooked medieval town was charming... We left Peck in charge of arranging our lodgings, which put us into a youth hostel eating breakfast with 10 year olds and sleeping on rubber mattresses that had no doubt been "wet" in the previous night. Just giving him a hard time, it wasn't that bad, and cheap too!

Two nights here, then off to Ypres/Ieper for a little WWI history and war memorial touring.

We stayed at a great B&B with the best hosts. They drove us to town at night, then picked us up in the eve. We witnessed the Last Post at the main gate to the city. The city performs this every night at 8pm to thank the Allies for liberating the city after WWI. They're the only city to do this... the only exception is during WWII when the occupying Germans prohibited it. But it was resumed on the very evening of liberation, September 6, 1944. Very special to witness, traffic is halted and school kids pack the area under the gate to witness it, every single day.

We did a driving tour through Flanders...

A Canadian soldier resting on his gun:

The Menin gate and the Last Post, guess what time it was:

A German WWI cemetary:

The largest Commonwealth war memorial in Europe (Tyne Cot Cemetery):

"Real" trenches near Hill 62:

The bunker where Canadian physician Lt. Col. John McCrae wrote In Flanders Fields on May 13, 1915, near the Essex Farm war cemetery:

From there we made our way to the bustling city of Tilburg... The 6th largest city (in 2006) in the Netherlands, Tilburg is the self-proclaimed wool capital of the Netherlands, giving birth to such famous people as Sebastiaan "Bas" Rutten. This was my last night in Holland and was spent in the company of great friends, both old and new.

Massive underground bike parkade. It was manned by security 24 hours who took your bike like you're checking your coat at a nightclub... and it was free. It was complete with a moving ramp (a la airport style), security, and Dutch girls (one in particular)! North America has so much to learn: