Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
“Baby, this
stamppot
is more delicious than ever!” Mark exclaimed as he took his first bite.
“I don't know if I just learned to appreciate it during our trip, or if you've gotten better at
making it, but I'm really in the mood for it.”
“Probably a bit of both, sweetheart,” Hannah replied as she finished her first bite. “I was
paying attention to the spices over there, and I did make a few adjustments.” Mark and Han-
nah had been back in the states now for two weeks, and they were still glowing from their
amazing time in the Netherlands. After their day in Delft and The Hague, they had shared
so many fantastic experiences together that they sometimes had difficulty remembering them
all. They had visited the home of Rembrandt, taken in the largest Van Gogh collection in
the world at the Van Gogh Museum, shared canal-side beer and pie at the famous Café
t'Smalle, enjoyed a wonderful walk through the enormous Vondelpark (with Jan de Groot,
with whom they had managed to get in touch!), and generally immersed themselves in the
Dutch culture as thoroughly as possible during their week-long trip. It had turned out that
there was so much more to do than they had expected, they had been forced to jettison their
plans to visit the Dutch town of Haarlem (where they had originally planned to meet up
with Jan), along with the so-called “Historic Triangle” to the north of Amsterdam. But they
didn't mind at all. As Mark had said, canceling those plans just gave them another reason to
go back sooner. Hannah liked that idea, so they focused their attention on experiencing as
much of Amsterdam as they could. The trip had been incredible for them both individually,
but it seemed to have an even stronger effect on them as a couple. Since they'd returned,
they'd been spending more time together in the evenings, reliving their memories and con-
tinuing to learn Dutch together
.
“I'm really glad you like the
stamppot,
sweetheart.” Hannah reopened the conversation. “It
may not be the same as what we had at Moeders Restaurant, but I think it's still pretty good.
Would you like a beer?” Mark nodded, his mouth full of food, and Hannah got up to go get
beers for both of them. Before the trip, Hannah hadn't really cared for beer, but something
about having beer canal-side had seemed to convert her
.
Mark watched Hannah walk into the kitchen, then looked down at the beautiful spread
of food she had prepared:
stamppot
and freshly made bread and an assortment of Dutch
cheeses. The world was opening to him, thanks to Hannah and the adventure they shared
together, and he knew that their travels had only just begun
.
