Holland calling

So it's a public holiday with everything shut tight and everyone dead silent. So what's a girl to do? Travel tends to get booked up early because the Germans like to get out of town. When you live within an hour of either Belgium or Holland, and Holland does not take off for May 1, you know your mission.

It's important that you get up early, because most the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), which includes Cologne, D'dorf, Duisburg, Essen, Bonn, etc. will be on the road, mainly in the same direction that you are going (towards the Dutch border). We left the flat at 09.30, toward destination Venlo.

Why Venlo? It's spitting distance to the German border and easy to get to, take the A3 to A40/A67, and then spend 5 minutes on a little road. Get directions to the Tref Supermarket which is one of the best supermarkets in the world. They are very large, with a huge selection of many things, including cheap Senseo coffee. They also have a map on their site to help you. In addition they have some shopping Sundays. Go here to find them.

In addition to the lovely Treff we had plans to go to Leurs Tuincentrum which is a large gardening shop. If you need a plant or a pot for a plant, or anything in connection with your garden, they seem to have it all.

We did well on the time, with no traffic encountered, and only one slowdown due to road works. D. was hungry so we stopped at McDonald's in Venlo. I don't get McDonald's much in Germany since there is none near where I live, the closest is 30 min away in a direction I seldom am. At McDonald's D. tried his luck with English, and the man in his mid-20's answered him with perfect English. I asked in English 'Do you have a GemueseMac?' (which is the name of the vegetarian burger that McDonald's sells in Germany. I know there is a Dutch equivalent, but I didn't know the name. It's a deep fried veggie patty that is not exactly healthy, but when you have one once every six months, it won't kill you. But hold the sauce, it's a very thick white mayo-like substance.

They guy says yes and punches in a Groenteburger and I ask for no sauce and the conversation continues, do you want the McMenu, etc. At some point he switches to German so I answer him in German. I have no idea if he was switching to German for me since I asked for the GemueseMac by its German name or if he was more comfortable in German than English. He flawlessly switched between me and D. with German and English.

Then we went to Tref, but the damage was minimal because I had been there a month ago, just picking up a few things that I cannot find so easily here, like anti-bacterial hand soap and some hot peppers from Asia that so liven up my cooking. In the line the woman was speaking German to the people in front of us, but she switched to Dutch when dealing with us. Not sure if she figured out we were going through the motions since we weren't required to come up with anything more than yes/no answers.

We went next to Leurs Tuincentrum because I needed some supplies for the balcony garden. Looking around the parking lot, it was about 95% Germany license plates. In like the woman was speaking German to the couple in front of us. She started immediately with us in German. In thinking about it later, she probably did this because A. we don't really look Dutch and B. any able-body, working-age adults who are in the garden store dillydallying among plant supplies are probably having a day off, and therefore German today as well as C. statistically there are many more Germans in the store than Dutch today. However, I was fishing for exact change and D. asks me in English, do you need something in particular because I have lots. I answered, no, I have it. The woman hears this and then switches to English for the rest of the transaction.

So the balkon garden has been started. I now have tomato seeds in a pot as well as some herbs, although I brought them in for the evening, because it does still get a little chilly overnight. However, I'll put them back out in the warm sun tomorrow while I'm at work.