Stroop, Shoes, and Soccer

I'm officially living as a Hollander. The toilet in the apartment has some strange Dutch viewing shelf in it and assorted plants are on the window sills making the experience that much more Dutch. I also made a lovely batch of pannenkoeken with stroop this morning. Pannenkoeken are Dutch dinner plate sized pancakes that are thin, light pancakes cooked in butter for crispy edges. Usually, they're dusted in powdered sugar, but I didn't have any (note to self: pick up some powered sugar at Albert Heijn on Monday. Stores are closed on Sunday) so instead I smothered them in stroop. Stroop is a molasses type thick syrup made of sugar and other sugary substances making it doubly good. Next, we hopped on the bus to Haarlem. If the town name sounds familiar, the NYC Harlem is named after the Dutch Haarlem. It took us about 20 minutes to walk to the train/bus station in Hoofddorp and about 30 minutes on the bus to arrive at the center of town. It seemed that at every stop there were people dressed in orange getting on the bus to get to their soccer party. Orange jerseys, orange hair ribbons, orange hats, orange horns, orange, orange, orange. The bus dropped us off right in the center of town where there were shops big and small and a McDonald's. A nice center market had fresh fruits and vegetables, cheese, fish, meats, and many other items for sale. We bought some Dutch cheeses made in the north of Holland, a wedge of old cheese and one of new. The vender cut off slivers from large cheese wheels for a taste test. The old cheese is quite pungent and hard while the newer cheese is softer and a bit milder in flavor. I prefer the younger cheese. I found another pair of shoes in Haarlem bringing the count to 4 pairs of shoes so far. Well, damn, they fit so nice I can't pass them up. The Europeans have sensibly sized shoes that actually fit me feet. It's worth a trip here just to buy shoes. While I was trying on shoes the clerks tuned in the TV to the soccer game. The Dutch team played Japan and later won 1-0. A close game. The Dutch being the Dutch, complained there could have been another goal. Hey, a win is a win. We watched the last few minutes of the game in front of a nut stand, No, the nuts were peanuts, cashews and such, not the folks watching the game. Although, there was an old man sitting in front waving a cane. I'm not sure exactly what he said because he spoke Dutch, but I do understand the universal language of get back to work. The workers passed around some warm, salted peanuts and I bought 100 grams. The peanuts came in an orange bag that said, "hup Holland hup" which means rah rah or some such. The picture above is a view of Haarlem from about 5 stories up. We were at the V&D department store cafe. The large church is the protestant church that dates back to the 1500s. The prominent townspeople and clergymen were buried in the floor of the church. Apparently, that's where the saying, "stinks to high heaven" comes from. If you can imagine the parishioners sitting in church on a warm day after a burial.