Tulip Fields

2 weekends ago, we went with a few friends on another long bike ride up to the flower fields. They were amazing! The air was full of sweet smelling hyacinths and the fields of color just seemed to go on forever! I am definitely loving this time of year here!! Here are some pictures we took on our trip. Click on the pictures to see them full size!!

Huisarts

The other week I had my first doctor's appointment in the Netherlands. I always gear myself up for adventures like these because I never know what they have in store. The general practitioners here are called Huisarts, which literally means home doctor. I believe they used to make house calls and some still do.Most of them operate out of a house, like the ones you in the picture. Sometimes it's even their own house!  But the idea is that you choose a huisart that is near your home. So I looked up the list of doctors and called one in my postcode. I had a difficult time understanding the woman on the phone but was able to schedule an appointment and explain that I was a new patient.

The following day I went to my appointment, where I discovered what I had really scheduled was my registration. The receptionist handed me a clipboard and told me to fill out the top half of the paper, which was basically demographic information. My "appointment" was over. Now, to be fair, I'm pretty sure this was a lost in translation issue between us so I asked her if I could schedule a time to see the doctor. She scheduled me for the following morning. They are very good about getting you in here. You can typically get in that day or at the latest the following day.

The next day I showed up (again) to see the doctor. She was a very nice older woman who took me into her office, which looked like a real home office. In one corner, there was a patient bed that was half enclosed with a decorative room separator. She led me over to her desk and I sat down and sort of felt like I was in the principal's office. We talked for a few minutes about what I needed, she wrote me out a prescription and an order for an X-ray on my knee and that was that! There was no co-pay, no wait, none of the usual hassles we get back in the States. It was great!

So today I went to get my knee x-rayed (minor mishap with tripping over my too long of pants and falling up, yes up, the steps about a year ago). It's always an adventure to follow google map directions in this town because roads curve slightly and then are named something different. I finally found the hospital, which confused me because I thought I was going to a place that just did X-rays (again with the communication barrier) but I walked through the revolving doors and was able to read the dutch word for radiology (don't be impressed, it's radiologie) and made my way to the department. When I came out of the elevator, I walked into a large waiting room that was filled to the max, behind a long line to sign in. So I inwardly sighed and got in line.

When I finally made it up to the desk and handed the woman the note from my doctor, she asked for my card. I started to pull out my insurance card but she stopped me and asked for my registration card. Hmm?? Apparently at hospitals you get registered and then receive a little folder that you bring with you everytime you come to the hospital and it already has your information on it as well as stickers to go in your chart. Pretty nifty actually but it was a pain because it meant I had to go back down to the main lobby and register. 

Finally, after registration, which took no more than 10 minutes, I was back in action. This time though, everyone in the waiting room had magically disappeared and no sooner had I checked in and sat down, my name was called. So they had me take my pants and shoes off, which I thought was a little weird. I mean, the machine can see through my skin but my cotton sweat pants are just too much?? But whatever, the x-ray was done.

All in all, it was a very pleasant first time experience with the health care system in the Netherlands. The only money I had to pay out was 13euros for 3 months worth of medicine, that would cost me $75 in the States, WITH a discount card. Now, don't be too fooled though, we do pay like 42% of our income to taxes so . . .they get you somehow.

Hopefully this great experience continues with whatever health care needs that arise. I'm sure I will have interesting stories to tell whenever we decide to have children. Did you know nearly 50% of Dutch women give birth at home?? And you don't see OBgyn's here except in high risk pregnancies. You work with a midwife. But these are stories for another time, far down the road.

Beach Ride!

On Saturday, the sun was brightly shining and it was the warmest day of the year so far! It was 22 degrees Celsius, which for those non-metric system users (aka every sane person in America :) ), it translates into 71 degrees Fahrenheit. It was beautiful. So what better way to spend the day but biking to the beach in Nordvijk!! We are pretty close to it and the trip allowed us to bike through parts of Holland I hadn't seen before.

Right after we got out of the city limits of Leiden, some boys-who will remain unnamed but both might have been the only 2 American men with us, started their horseplay. Despite Kimberly's best efforts to reign them in with her teacher's voice, someone got hurt. Ed's bike. His brakes were basically rammed off the wheel. So for the rest of the ride (and remember, we were only 2km into it, so total round trip, we still had about 26km more to go), Ed was grabbing onto others for dear life when faced with sudden stops. The rest of the time we all yelled out "Braaaaaake"! to give him time to Fred Flinstone it and use his feet. We were determined to get to the beach.

We passed some beautiful flower fields. The tulips weren't up yet but you could see them getting ready to bloom. The other flower fields were just as beautiful with their rows and rows of colorful blooms.

We were very close to our destination and it hardly seemed like we had been biking long at all. That is the great thing about biking in the Netherlands-no hills!! But just shy of the beach, we came across a mini-golf place. Naturally we had to stop and play a round. I lost horribly but I believe I was thrown off by the ridiculousness of the Dutch "midget-golf" course. Each hole ran into the next one so if you would go to hit your ball and you overshot the hole (which, you do on nearly every first shot) your ball would roll onto the next green, where someone might be getting ready to take their shot. So we had to implement a system where a few of us would stand at the end of the hole and guard our ball from going onto the next green. Annoying, to say the least.

But after mini-golf, we were beach bound! It was amazing, we came through a parking lot and BAM, there was the North Sea! Tons of seaside restaurants, people sunbathing, children swimming in the water (even though it was only 70 degrees and we are as far north as Canada, making the water pretty chilly). It was beautiful!! We had lunch at a beachside restaurant and then made our way to the water. No one but me wanted to get their feet wet. Weird right? I mean, we were at the NORTH SEA for the first time!!! But I had a fabulous time and splashed around as much as one can who hds no friends in with her and who was freezing.

Then we decided to take a different route back so we could bike along the coastal route and go through Katvijk (another seaside community). While this seemed like a great decision at the time, once we got going we realized that there are in fact about 4 km worth of hills in the Netherlands and we were biking them! We followed a path through sand dunes, that had all of us shouting at the injustice it was that the country had tricked us into believing that riding your bikes was a great means of transportation. Then we finally exited the sand dunes and all was right with the world again and we continued on our flat way home. Once we got through Katvijk, which is about 9km from Leiden, we all started to feel the burn in our bums. We prayed there wouldn't be red lights that would force us to have to get off of our bikes. As long as we didn't lift up or move in any way, we were all right.  But one wrong move up or to the left or right, shot shooting pains through our backsides.

By the time we got home ,we were tired, sunburnt, sore, and ready to plop down on a doughnut pillow. It was a fabulous day. One of my best days in the Netherlands I think. I can't wait to go back with a picnic lunch, when the tulips are in full bloom.

Here are a few pics from our trip!