It’s Spring in Glendale…
and I have a new perspective. I just returned from a river cruise through the Netherlands and Belgium. After seeing one of the largest (if not the largest) gardens in the world, the Keukenhof Gardens just outside of Amsterdam, I have come home to appreciate Glendale and all it means to me.
Keukenhof Gardens is not to be missed. From the welcoming fountain at the entrance, spraying a pattern that resembles a giant puff ball, to the sailboats floating serenely on an internal pond, this beautiful venue has stunning layouts of red, yellow and white tulips, blue, pink and white hyacinths and waves of yellow and white daffodils. Spectacular is the best word to describe the Garden. The size and extent of these fields is mind boggling.
The weather cooperated with our visit. Throughout the entire two weeks we had only one day of rain. I expected to see ‘real’ windmills. What I didn’t expect was to find that hardly any of them do the work that they were cut out for. Most are historical monuments to a different time and need in the Netherlands, when pumping water out of the land was most important. Now the ‘real windmills’ are the modern silver and white three armed behemoths that dot our landscape and theirs, churning out energy from the wind. We saw LOTS of cows!
Cheese is a staple in this dairy-rich country. One afternoon I was treated to an unpronounceable pastry, only to find that I was going to eat a cream puff! We were introduced to Stroopwafels…a cookie with a smooth caramel filling that melts in your mouth…great with tea or coffee. Pickled herring was on the luncheon menu several times and potatoes were a staple with every meal.
Now I’ve come home…and taking a look at my beloved Glendale, I don’t find a lot of differences surprisingly.
Walking through Clovernook Estates this morning, I found that although there are not ‘fields’ of tulips and hyacinths, I reveled in the tiny, hopeful signs of spring as I found blooms nestling close to trees that are umbrella-ed with new citrine green growth. Violets peek through the woods near the ravine, nodding their tiny purple heads in agreement with being Wisconsin’s state flower. The smell of newly cut grass is always a welcome harbinger of our short summer season.
The Netherlands has its windmills – and the North Shore has its water filtration plant. I’ve passed this macaroni pipe-filled yard thousands of times. Now I have a better respect for the fact that this unassuming plant filters water for all the surrounding communities. It’s kind of like those windmills in Holland. Unless someone points them out to you with an explanation of their importance you begin to pass them over.
We went out for a fish fry last night, and found ourselves thinking about the common ground that all cuisine seems to have…or maybe the German background in Milwaukee is close to that of the Dutch. We had cheese and crackers before dinner and could have ordered an hors d’oeurves of good ol’ Ma Baensch’s pickled herring! I’ve now had two versions of potato pancakes, two versions of cream puffs; similar, but from different countries...
I dearly love travel. I love thinking about a new country, its people, the landscape, the food. But the older I get and the more I travel, the more I realize commonalities and the fact that there’s no place like home.