The City of Delft and a Dutch BBQ

Hello Everyone!

We spent most of the day in the beautiful city of Delft. Upon arriving, we were given a tour of the city by Coach Cosenza's fiancees mother, Moeder Lies (who lives in Holland). We started the tour in a large square in the center of Delft learning about the major landmarks and history of the city. The first thing we noticed when we walked into the center square was the largest pile of beer cases we have ever seen. Moeder Lies explained that Delft (being a college town) had just had a very big and popular festival. This particular festival was all about drinking 15,000 beers and afterwards building an enormous bridge using the empty beer cases. We weren’t able to see the finished “beer case bridge” but it was an interesting and unique concept! Next, we learned about the City Hall. We learned that the top of the building was originally used as a jail and that many people get married here! In fact, we were able to witness a wedding right before we left the square! Another building located in Delft was a very large and old church. The church took seven years to build because the town kept running out of money to fund the building. Because of the soft foundation the church was built on (because it is located near the canals), the church started to lean two-thirds of the way through the building process. Once they realized this, they tried to compensate at the top so as you can see in the pictures, the church leans one way and straightens out at the top.

            After we finished our fantastic tour with Moeder Lies we took and an hour long boat ride tour through the canals! The tour was led by a local college student and she was full of interesting and fun facts about the city of Delft. One interesting tradition was that when the students of Delft graduate from the University, they throw their bike into the canal to celebrate that they can now get a job and afford to buy a car.  Every year when they clean out the canals they find thousands of bikes.  Later on, we were given free time to explore and shop around the city on our own. We walked through a vast antique market and got our Delft blue souvenirs for which the town is very famous for (get excited friends and family!!). We enjoyed an enormous amount of gelato, refreshing mint tea with honey, and even some fries with mayonnaise (surprisingly very delicious--don't knock it until you've tried it!).

After Delft, we drove to Paul’s family’s house where we enjoyed a Dutch style barbeque with his family and some of Coach Cosenza’s family. Some of the food we enjoyed was raw Herring and onion (see pictures- hilarious), Bitterballen (deep fried meat, broth, butter, herbs and spices), homemade meatballs, cucumber and tomato with feta, cous cous (with peaches) and other assorted traditional dutch foods. For dessert, we enjoyed apple pie, ice cream and a personal favorite of ours – STROOPWAFFELS (again, get excited family members)!

 Day 4 is complete and we are exhausted and our stomachs are more than full – resting up to explore more things tomorrow! Do you sense a trend of consistent early bedtimes??

Love, Ally & Kayla

The crooked church--if you look closely you can see how the church is leaning!

Just SOME of the thousands of empty beer cases that are being built into a bridge.

Some of ECFH enjoying the boat tour.

Before Lix and Ashley tried the raw herring and onions....

And after...

Ally and Tatiana enjoying some gelato in the city of Delft

Cheese Markets and Windmills Galore!!

Wow, what a day! 

Day 3 began with breakfast with the team in our hotel. We all sat, laughed, and enjoyed delicious croissants and orange juice that were made right on the spot from this awesome juicer machine. After breakfast, we traveled to the town of Alkmaar, where there was a lovely cheese market and plenty of shopping opportunities! There were many stands all over the market with employees yelling and trying to sell their cheeses to everyone. We lined up at almost every stand to try and grab every sample that we could; but there was one person who was not so into it: Colleen.  Colleen claims that she is not allergic to cheese, but is simply not a big fan (she actually can’t stand it). Colleen stood in the corner and hoped that the cheese festivities would end soon. “You guys are addicted!” she screamed, after we all happily purchased our big wheels of cheese. After we all had our fill of the Cheese Market, we were able to explore and shop for a few hours before we met for lunch at Grand Café Samen.  

            After the Cheese Market, we headed off to see the famous windmills and wooden shoe factory. The team was able to walk around and explore the three different windmills on site. There were many opportunities to shop, so many of the girls bought lots of souvenirs to bring home to their families. As it had been several hours since lunch, many of us ladies wanted a snack, so we chose some delicious ice cream at a little stand. The ice cream was so good, a goat attacked Marie and tried to eat it right out of her hand (see picture below)! After the windmills, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. We enjoyed dinner in a quaint little café, where every one had the choice of a meat, fish, or vegetarian dinner. During dinner, everyone sat and enjoyed the food as we started getting pumped up for our first game of the trip.

            At 8:30, we met a neighboring Dutch club team on the turf for our first match against an international team. We were all very excited but also very nervous at the exact same time. Obviously the majority of our team has never faced international competition—this was a big deal!! Coach gave us a pep talk at the beginning of the game and told us that the main goal was to have fun and we carried that message with us throughout the game. We may have gotten somewhat…crushed… by them, but we did have fun doing it! After the game, we exchanged gifts with the Dutch Club Team. They gave us a box full of Dutch goodies (which were all consumed before we left the field) and we gave their entire team some souvenirs to keep as well! After exchanging gifts and heading off the pitch, we sat down and enjoyed lemonade in the lobby of the locker room facility the team utilizes. It was another very nice and refreshing treat after all of our hard work on the field.

            We retuned to the hotel at almost 11:00 P.M. What is strange in Holland is that the sun does not set until 9:45 PM and it was still semi light out even at almost 11:00 PM!! So crazy!! As of now, everyone is headed to bed, as we are all exhausted from the exciting yet busy day that we had.  We are so excited for the new adventures tomorrow will bring as we tour the city of Delft and enjoy a Dutch BBQ!!

Post game picture with the Dutch Club Team we faced.

Marie getting attacked by the goat for her ice cream while she was trying to take a selfie!!

   

One of the windmills we explored today. A different substance such as oil, wood, and paint powers each windmill. This windmill is powered by paint—very fascinating, we know!

Love,

Stephanie and Marie

Day 1 Done! (Well technically Day 2...)

Well folks, we've made it!  ECFH has officially begun to take Holland!! Our flights, although long and tiring, went very smoothly and we made it to our hotel around 2:00 pm Holland time.  The weather is cloudy and much colder than expected but the weather for Friday and Saturday is looking pretty good (for now)!  Our hotel rooms are very different from the hotels in the US; the rooms are smaller, the twin beds are pushed together and in order for the lights and AC/heat to work, our room card has to insert into the wall.  We have experienced many different things already and we have only been in Holland for about 7 hours!  After we took some time to settle into our rooms, we went to downtown Amsterdam and walked around.  One major thing that many of us noticed right away was how many bicyclists there were.  Bicyclists are everywhere. EVERYWHERE.  As a driver, not only do you have to worry about the many pedestrians there are milling about the streets, but the bicyclists as well. We have already had some close calls with several members of our travel party. We will if we can make it through our trip unscathed...

While in downtown Amsterdam, we walked through the red light district which Holland is famous for and boy was that something to experience (we will just leave it at that).  We saw the 3 famous canals of Amsterdam (the names of which we cannot pronounce), and we are lucky enough to be taking a tour through these canals (in boats!) later this week.  We also saw parts of a street performance in a large Plaza, located in downtown Amsterdam. Coach Cosenza told us that these performers are very common and most of the time very entertaining! After our sightseeing adventure, we all had dinner together at a cute little restaurant that is located on the same street as our hotel.  During our first "official" meal together we have already noticed that Dutch food is very different, but in our opinion, it is just as delicious as American food. We are absolutely looking forward to experiencing more traditional Dutch meals!

 We just returned to the hotel from dinner not too long ago, and we're calling it a night as most of us are too tired to think of anything else besides ours beds. We are resting up for big adventures tomorrow where we will be touring famous Dutch Cheese Farms and Windmills---stay tuned folks!!!



As always our team are no strangers to taking loads of pictures...but here are just a few from our travels thus far:

ECFH about to go through security in Boston

One of the famous canals in Amsterdam--isn't the weather spectacular?!

A Large Plaza in Amsterdam

Streets of downtown Amsterdam

One of the options for dinner (Chicken kabob with a peanut butter sauce and side of lettuce with onions - A Dutch traditional meal) 

Love,

Liz Patient and Ashley Reid

5 Days and Counting...

Hello Everyone!! 

Welcome to the Elms College Field Hockey international blog. We are so thrilled to be just days away from departing for a trip of a lifetime. Over the course of our journey, the ladies will be alternating the responsibility of creating a blog post which will be complete with pictures for everyone following along at home to see! Our schedule is jam-packed with many different activities that we're sure you have all seen on the itinerary. Some of these activities include: visiting the Anne Frank House, Cheese Farms, and spending two whole days at the World Cup!! Needless to say, the girls will be exhausted by the time they return home to the states--you're welcome :). 

Prior to leaving for this trip we would like to personally thank you for your steadfast commitment to Elms College Field Hockey. Without all of your tireless support of our program we would not be days away from departing the US, ready to experience the culture and customs of a brand new country! We are so appreciative of all of you and we will be sure to remind the team to bring home fabulous souvenirs for everyone!! Unfortunately we will not be able to guarantee that they won't come home with just as many souvenirs for themselves--sorry in advance...

So sit back and prepare yourselves for the hilarity that will surely ensue as we turn this blog over to the lovely ladies of Elms College Field Hockey. We hope that you enjoy reading about our adventures as much as we are going to enjoy sharing them with you.

Love,
The Coaches