You know when you anticipate something for so long and then when it’s over you feel like, “wait…how did that happen?!”?
That’s how this trip felt. Mom & Sis were always going to come visit but we needed to wait until the fall of 2017 (more on that later), so to think we’ve all been waiting for 3 years is kind of crazy!
They packed their bags and came Crosson over the Atlantic for ~2.5 weeks of family fun!
First stop – The Netherlands!
They just COULD NOT wait to get their hands on Meatball!
She obviously felt the same. 😉
We spent the first few nights in Leiden, which is a city about 40min south of Amsterdam by train. This was perfect because Amsterdam was still accessible, but they were also able to see a city with fewer tourists. Holland was also extremely kind, and gave us sunshine and summer-like temperatures!
Leiden city center
We did, of course, spend time in Amsterdam. We visited the Anne Frank house, the Rijksmuseum, got mom in a clog…
Side note: If you ever find yourself visiting the Rijksmuseum I would highly recommend the “Highlights of the Rijksmuseum” guided tour, which can be booked through the museum itself. It’s only 5 euros and an hour long, but if you’re like me and tend to look at art and go “ooohh…. cooooool” and move on, it’s nice to have someone explain some of the main pieces.
Hanging out with Rembrandt and the Night Watch.
After a few days in the south, we made our way to Winterfell (Groningen) via Bitburg, Germany. I’m not gonna lie. I was not excited about an ~8h car ride versus ~3h but my mom was born in Bitburg and wanted to go back so back we went!
And look how happy that lady is drinking her Bitburger beer in Bitburg!
She’s giving Dany a run for her money…
After our detour, we spent the remaining days in Groningen showing off our adopted hometown. Most importantly, they braved the craziness and toured around town on bikes! With the average household owning three bikes, and the city nicked named “The World’s Cycling City,” it’s easy to understand why biking here might be viewed as intimidating.
The Martinitoren in city center
University of Groningen
Last, but most certainly not least, I couldn’t let them come to The Netherlands without having some proper Dutch food things. This is an area in which I feel that I’ve shorted our previous visitors, and I sincerely apologize.
Dutch food things such as bitterballen, frietjes, hagelslag, stroopwafels, and drog worst!
Ya know how sometimes you need something, but you didn’t know you needed it until you have it?
That was Palma de Mallorca for me.
As I write this is 18°C (65°F) & raining. It’s getting dark at 9:30pm now. I’m slowly accepting the fact that The Long Night will once again be upon us. (Game of Thrones reference, sorry for being dramatic.) Therefore, one last weekend on a sun-shiney Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea was exactly what I needed!
I ditched Shane again (sorry hubs) and met up with my friend, Kaitlin, from grad school who was in Spain already for a wedding.
Per usual, the first day we walked, ate, drank, repeat.
We starting our Saturday with a free walking tour to learn the layout of the city center and a little history! For instance, did you know that Palma was founded by the Romans and later taken over by the Muslims before the reconquest of the Christians? Now, there is essentially no evidence of the Roman or Muslim eras on the island as, with few exceptions, the buildings were either destroyed and rebuilt, or the ruins were covered over the years.
The current city center was also surrounded by a medieval city wall – similar to Dubrovnik – but law prevented people from living outside it. What did they do? Change the law? Nope, in the early 1900s they tore down the entire thing. Makes sense…
I guess people like to take pictures with trash cans…
One other unique thing, which we never would have noticed on our own, were the small faces on street corners (above the street sign, below the lamp). Each face is that of a person of importance to Palma, and is adorned with something representative of their contribution. It’s hard to see, but this guy has books on his head as he was a professor.
Another great thing about walking tours is asking your local guide where to go. We asked about food & beaches (priorities). Her suggestions lead to some interesting scenarios…
Her first suggestion was a lunch place which was a little outside of city center so off we went. Let’s be real, you always anticipate some awkward scenarios when you’re in a foreign country and you don’t really speak the language (thankfully Kaitlin speaks some Spanish), but this was a chart-topper for us both. As we walked into the restaurant we were immediately sized up by the staff as tourists (I suppose), and then promptly ignored. Finally, when we were able to catch the eye of the waiter, Kaitlin asked for a table for two (in Spanish) to which he gives an indication to come with him….or so we thought. We followed him to a table of 4 he was serving, then back to the front counter, then almost into the kitchen – all the while getting the same ‘follow me’ type of look.
After almost joining to cook staff we decided we’d reached our daily dose of awkward and that was our cue to leave.
Tour guide status: 0/1
After a quick lunch elsewhere, we stopped for a typical Mallorcan pastry, the ensaïmada, at a quite off the beaten path shop also recommended by the tour guide as one of the best in the city. You can have them plain with only powdered sugar, or stuffed with fruit/cream/chocolate – you name it.
I ordered apricot. It came right away.
Kaitlin ordered something? I don’t remember, long story short they were out. “Would you like chocolate instead?” Sure!
25 min later…. nothin. After a little reminder, her’s finally arrived.
Tour guide status: 0.5/2
Next up, the church Santa Eulalia, recommended by our guide as her favorite in the city. This, she was not wrong about as the views from the bell tower were fantastic.
Tour guide status: 1.5/3
Our final stop of the day was Bellver Castle which sits on a hill overlooking the city and took a little hiking to reach…
In case your wondering. We discovered a paved route with stairs once we got to the top (facepalm).
Anyway, the view was great, and the castle was really cool as it’s one of the only round castles in Europe.
it was a steep hike to the top…
All-in-all Saturday we walked a little over 20km (12mi) therefore we were quite ready for dinner. We ordered so much food that they actually asked us to move from a 2 person table to a 4 person table…
Seemed a little dramatic in my opinion, but I wasn’t going to complain.
Day 2 was spent at the beach!
Tour guide told us to take bus #3 to the end of the line, and we would find Illetes, a much nicer beach than the one closest to city center.
I don’t think turquoise waters will ever get old.
Tour guide status: 2.5/4
Our last meal in Palma ended up being the best one. After a day at the beach, we were hungry. 7pm, in case you’re wondering, is too early to eat dinner in Spain. As we were wandering the streets looking for an open restaurant a little google action brought us to this place called Calixto.
I think there were only three employees and only tables outside on the terrace in a smaller, quiet square. There were no menus. The waiter (and maybe owner?) offered us paella (traditional, only meat, or vegetarian) and sangria to which we immediately said YES! It did not disappoint.
Tour guide should add this place to her list of suggestions!
And that was the weekend! Way too fast, per usual, but great to meet up with another friend!
Up next, Shane’s ESEB conference and my mom & sis arrive in a week!
My instinct for the title of this post was “Eating My Way Through America”, or more accurately, “Eating My Way Through Charlotte”, because I felt like that’s all I wanted to do on this trip home.
Since the majority of the food I ate ended up in my stomach before I remembered to take a picture, it didn’t make the final cut.
Despite my inability to re-brand The Shwits as a food blog, I had a fantastic week at home with my dad and sister. The weather was warm and I was able to hit all my favorite spots, even some new ones!
First stop (duh)…
12 piece tailgate box for three of us? Yup. That’ll do.
As I mentioned before, I was able to play tourist a little bit this time. I think when you live somewhere, you often don’t take advantage of all the things the city has to offer. That’s definitely been the case for me, and to be fair, a lot has changed since I last officially lived in Charlotte. Therefore, I present to you the new things I did while I was home.
New Thing #1 – BB&T Ballpark
Home of the Charlotte Knights AAA baseball team!
This is by no means my first Knights game. We went a lot when I was a kid, but the stadium only recently moved to uptown Charlotte. And for good reason… what a view!
Pops & me with Homer the Dragon.
New Thing #2 – NASCAR Hall of Fame
Opened in 2010… It only took us 7 years to get here! (insert eye roll)
As I learned in the hall of fame, the birth of NASCAR itself was in Daytona Beach, FL, but the origins of NASCAR date back to the days of prohibition when guys would modify their cars to improve their ability to run moonshine out of the mountains of NC. NASCAR fan or not, the hall of fame was very interactive and absolutely worth the visit!
Sis & Terry trying their hand at being part of the pit crew.
and speaking of racing…
New Thing #3 – Lancaster Speedway
Dirt track racing! And while technically not in Charlotte (it’s in Lancaster, SC) I’ve never been so I’m counting it.
And yes, I forced my sister to wear matching pigtail braids with me.
Not pictured – funnel cake fries. I think you can understand why.
As for the rest of the trip, I was able to see some friends, get my fill of Mexican food, sis and I got matching ear piercings (lol), and we had some nice evenings out in the Queen City.
I’ll see you again at Christmas, Charlotte!
In the meantime, I’m off to Mallorca, Spain this weekend! My summer of unemployment is pretty rough…
Since this is supposed to be a blog about our life here in The Netherlands, and everything is official now, I think it’s only fitting that I take a moment to acknowledge a pretty major change in my day-to-day life here in Groningen.
I am officially on bike #4.
My poor poor ‘grandma bike’ – Helen – met her end due to rust. Pieces were literally falling off while I was riding it. And you know it’s bad when you take it to a bike shop for repair, and the shop owner tells you to just buy a new one.
Ok Ok, so that’s not the big news.
The big news is that I am unemployed.
But don’t worry too much, luckily it’s only temporary!
Quick recap, when we moved to Groningen it took me about three months to find a job. I ended up working for a small biotechnology company, Mucosis, who was developing a nasal spray vaccine for RSV. When I joined, the company was expanding to prepare for entering Phase 1 clinical trials.
Fast forward ~2.5 years, and a lot of hard work later, we met all the necessary criteria, and our vaccine went to Phase 1 clinical trials! This in itself is quite an accomplishment for a team of ~15 people.
Fast forward another 6 months, and Mucosis is bankrupt.
Unfortunately, the vaccine did not meet the criteria to progress to Phase 2. The goal of a Phase 1 trial is safety, and because we are testing a vaccine, you are also able to get preliminary data in how effective the product is. Very generally speaking, vaccines should stimulate an immune response, which should then allow the body to remember the pathogen & protect against it in the future. Our vaccine was safe, but it also gave no indication that it was going to be effective.
And when you’re a small company with no product for sale, you rely on investors for funding. I think it goes without saying, but the investors decided to pull out leaving Mucosis bankrupt.
Honestly, we knew this was always a possibility. It’s the nature of working for a small company, but it was also one of those ‘that will never happen to us’ kind of scenarios.
Now, I’m going to get a little bit mushy, because of course I’m bummed to not have an income, but I’m more bummed to leave this team of fantastic people. Our small team felt like family, and that was invaluable considering all my friends and family are a literal ocean away. Here, I was able to be my actual self, and still learn a hell of a lot career wise.
Each and every person in this company taught me something that I will take with me.
Some science-related (ELISA troubleshooting… amiright?!)
Some personal (‘zin van vandaag’)
Regardless, words can’t express my gratitude for Mucosis, and the impact it had on my life. So, to my Mucos-was colleagues should you ever see this, THANK YOU for being mentors & friends.
Ok, enough with the mush. On to the good news!
I got a new job!
Starting mid-September, I will be a Senior Analyst in the bioanalytical lab of PRA Healthcare (which oddly enough, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC).
This will be a promotion for me. I will be moving into more of a leadership role in the lab, which is exactly what I want. And, to Shane’s delight, I will actually have to commute in Dutch weather to work each day. The company is located in Assen, which is about a 20 minute bus ride from Groningen Central train station.
And, as tradition dictates, I was rewarded for said new job with a trip to the Pannekoekschip! Gah, I love pancakes.
(Shane did say this better be my last celebratory trip to the ship while we live in Groningen… I guess he has a point)
So, that’s the update! I’ve got a lot of free time right now, which some might think ‘oh! how nice, the summer off!’. Well, my friends, it’s been about 17-20°C (62-68°F) since I’ve officially taken on my housewife role, so if you could tell real summer to head my way that would be much appreciated.
I’ll be heading to the U.S. in a couple of weeks for a family visit but until then…
Last weekend we whisked off to meet some friends at the beginning of their summer holiday, and (if I do say so myself) we kicked it off pretty well! The company, the scenery, the weather, the wine… it was all fantastic.
Here are a few reflections from our weekend in Italy.
The streets of Venice are really beautiful… and you WILL get lost.
That’s part of the fun though (until you’ve been walking for an hour and still haven’t reached your destination). Long story short, get ready to get lost despite signs like ‘per (to) Rialto’ and ‘per San Marco’ guiding you to various parts of the city. We heard it’s easy to walk in circles, and it’s true, so if you’re on a time schedule I would suggest aiming to be there 15 min. before you’re supposed to.
Additionally, don’t seek out the Rialto bridge because
You will cross the Rialto 15,000x in your attempt to navigate the city.
And if you’re very lucky you’ll get to drag your 25kg (50lbs) suitcase up and over on multiple occasions.
but no worries, because when your lost and out of breath…
There is never a bad time for wine and gelato!
All day. Every day.
Get a little turned around trying to find your AirBNB at midnight? Gelato will fix that.
28°C (83°F), you’re out of water and you’re only halfway through your walking tour?
Wine is the answer!
And yes, Venice is crowded, but
If you wander off the beaten path (aka: point number one – get lost) you can find yourself all alone.
For instance, we wandered to Campo Santa Margherita where it was clear that there were fewer tourists and more students/actual residents. Here, we found a cocktail bar and GUESS WHAT! The bartender’s girlfriend (6 degrees of separation, I know) was from Wilmington, NC and he was flying to Charlotte (my hometown) next week to visit her! What a small world.
and speaking of finding cool places.
Walking tours are the way to go.
While the tour we chose this time wasn’t too rich in the history of Venice (in fact, we didn’t really learn anything) we were taken to some places in the city we would have never found on our own. Such as this really cool art shop in the Jewish Ghetto where we ended up purchasing two paintings.
One was titled ‘Cats of the Ghetto’. I mean come on – I had to have it.
We also walked through a square which was once Muslim, as evidenced (I don’t remember why) by limestone carvings on the wall. Interestingly enough, all of them had their noses broken off. We saw this in Egypt too, for example with the Sphinx, where the pieces of the noses were broken off for luck. Here, one guy had his broken nose replaced with a brass one. Now, it’s good luck to touch the nose.
We also saw one of two remaining bridges in the entire city without railings (parapet), got a secluded view from a monastery, saw some interesting art, and ended with a spectacular view from above.
Also, the internet did not lie to me.
If possible, buy your tickets to the major sights online and visit after 2pm.
We pre-purchased our tickets online for Basilica San Marco (St. Mark’s Basilica) and for Doge’s Palace. For both, we went around 4pm and walked straight in.
No shorts or sleeveless shirts allowed…
The Bridge of Sighs
And no, we didn’t go up the bell tower in St. Mark’s Square. We did, however, take the water bus across the lagoon to San Giorgio Maggiore and climb (lol ok not climb – elevator-ed) up it’s bell tower for a fantastic view over the main island, and the surrounding ones. Again, thank you internet for that suggestion!
View from the San Giorgio bell tower back towards the main island.
And finally,
No, we didn’t ride a gondola.
A gondola ride station with San Giorgio in the background.
To be perfectly honest, we talked about it and voted against it.
1) It’s expensive. €80 for 30 min (for up to 6 people). For us – €20 per person. Which we would have gladly shelled out if it hadn’t been for my next point.
2) Everyone looked BORED. Seriously. Maybe it was the heat? Or the fact that all the gondolas seem to take the same route, so you end up in a traffic jam. Who knows.
Perhaps if we had ventured to a more quiet street we could have found a ‘road less traveled’ gondola route, but for us, it just wasn’t worth it.
So, in a nutshell, that was our trip! We really enjoyed Venice, and even more so that we got to explore it with friends! We miss you guys already! 🙂
Shane should be making a video of our trip. Until then,
First, I’d like to apologize to my Auntie R for my blog posting slackness. My only excuse is that the weather has been perfect.
Two weekends ago (already?!), Shane and I were thrilled to host 2 new visitors, my Aunt Rebecca and her friend, Marlee!
These two were at the end of ~2 week trip through Slovenia and Croatia and were able to extend their layover in Amsterdam on the way home. Shane and I met them in Amsterdam for the day and then brought them up to Groningen for the weekend.
We always forget how nice it is to have familiar faces around. 🙂
Our main goal of this trip was the Van Gogh museum.
I’m not gonna lie… Shane and I aren’t exactly the best at art museums. We both like to go, but generally, we move through pretty quickly. This museum was an exception, and I highly recommend it to anyone visiting Amsterdam!
After our day in Amsterdam, we headed north to play tourist in Groningen!
The Martini Kerk & Martini Toren (church & tower)
As I mentioned before, we have had exceptional weather this year. For the first time since we’ve moved, we were not wearing jackets on June 1st. We even wore SHORTS over the weekend. Trust me, it’s a big deal.
So, taking advantage of this beautiful weather, the four of us spent Saturday walking around Groningen. I must say, it was so much fun to watch Rebecca & Marlee in the market here! The two of them are seasoned travelers and, unlike us when we first started market shopping, were not intimidated at all. Lucky for them, Saturday market generally has a lot of free samples too! 🙂 We also checked out the Prinsenhof Gardens, and, of course, the cheese shops!
Prinsenhof Gardens
Prinsenhof Gardens
On Sunday, we rented a car and headed about 40 minutes outside of Groningen to the Vesting (Fort) Bourtange. In case your not familiar, it’s a fortified village near the German border and known for its unique shape.
Arial view of Bourtange. (not my photo, you can thank google images)
Bourtange was first built in 1593. Its original purpose was to protect the only road between Germany and Groningen (which is the province, not only the city), and was controlled by Spain during the 80 years war (1568-1648). It remained in use as a fortress until the late 1800s, when it was converted into a village. Eventually, it was left to deteriorate, but in the 1970’s it was restored to its former glory.
(read this next part dramatically)
Now you can step back in time, to 1742!
And step back in time we did! Rebecca and Marlee happened to be visiting on the annual “Battle of Bourtange” weekend, which is a 400 person reenactment of some of the battles between the Spaniards (who controlled the fort) and the Dutch (who were trying to reclaim it).
Sounds cheesy, but it was actually really fun. The fort/village itself is also really nice and worth a day trip on a sunny day.
…people were really keen on getting a good view of the reenactment.
(If Shane wasn’t careful, he would have also gotten a good view.
Personal space? naahhh.)
Come Monday morning, they were on the train heading home.
It was a quick, but fantastic weekend, and we are so happy you came to visit!
…particularly Meatball. (hah)
This weekend we are heading to Venice, Italy to meet up with our friends Michelle and Steve! More on that soon.
Not that the blog was ever out of action per se, but we haven’t been up to too much since Egypt. This past weekend, though, was a 4 day weekend here in The Netherlands. Last year during this time we went to London to visit my aunt and uncle. This year, it happened to fall over our – hold on to your hats – 3 YEAR Netherlands-versary – so we decided to explore our country of residence a little more.
Rotterdam was our city of choice. We hear so much about it, and about how different it is from other cities in The Netherlands. In fact, I think your typical Dutchie would probably not rank Rotterdam as one of their top cities; too modern for their taste. This sentiment is perhaps exactly why we loved it!
We got a really good deal through NS, the train company. €100 bought us two round trip train tickets and a one night stay in an NH hotel (which is a pretty nice chain) in city center with breakfast included. Considering Groningen = the Winterfell of Holland and for us to get anywhere near Kings Landing, even with our train discounts, is ~€30 round trip per person this was a great deal!
First stop, the Markthal (Market Hall).
The building is pretty impressive from the outside, right? Well it’s even more impressive from the inside!
The Markthal is exactly as it sounds- a giant indoor market with bars, restaurants, shops, basically anything you might want.
The Markthal is essentially next to another iconic piece of Rotterdam architecture, the Cube Houses.
They look cool, but seem pretty impractical, right? One is staged as a museum so we were able to go inside. They actually have more living space in terms of square meters than our current apartment, and the layout was surprisingly nice, and the top floor is a great sunroom! There are a few on AirBnB, if you ever find yourself in Rotterdam and want a unique housing experience.
After the cube houses, in true Shwit style, we walked. 21.22km (a half marathon) to be exact. A 30 min walk to a place called the Fenix Food Factory turned into an over 2.5h adventure due to our unfortunate luck with closed or broken bridges. We did see a lot of nice things along the way though.
De Oude Haven – The Old Port
See this lovely bridge? It’s called the Erasmus Bridge. It’s a well-known Rotterdam landmark and, due to construction, was our only way by foot to the Fenix Food Factory.
Great view right?
Only one problem…
water.
We happened to be on a little island in the middle of the river with only one way on and one way off on either side. Neither of those were anywhere close to the entrance of the bridge.
So, off we walk.
We were almost there!… and then this.
It’s broken.
We literally needed to walk over this bridge to get to the entrance of the Erasmus. Instead, we ended up taking a 20 minute looping detour to make it to the exact same spot on the other side of the canal. By the time we actually made it on the Erasmus we had been walking for about 2 hours and Shane was on a mission.
This was the best I could do for a bridge pic.
Eh. Oh well. Cause we made it!
Another indoor/outdoor market type of place more focused on craft beers/ciders & local food. It was right on the water, the weather was perfect, and the atmosphere was great making it worth the walk!
The next morning we made a quick stop by Museum Rotterdam, which gave us a short overview of the history of the city. In 1940, Rotterdam was bombed as part of the German invasion during WWII. The ‘Rotterdam Blitz’ lasted only 15 minuted, but fire in the aftermath burned most of the old town. This event is what set Rotterdam on such a different architectural path than the rest of The Netherlands.
It was a quick trip, but a nice preview of what Rotterdam has to offer! Rotterdam, to us, was somewhere we could really see ourselves long term. It was a nice blend of old and new, and really has that ‘city feel’, which we really enjoy.
The Shwits 