This past week, Joe flew to Amsterdam for a four-day project management conference.
Joe enjoyed his top-floor hotel room overlooking the intersection of five canals.
The Dutch ride their bikes everywhere. Joe was amazed that women in dresses, men in suits, and young school children can all be seen pedalling from place to place on old-style bicycles. After a few close calls, Joe finally learned the difference between the sidewalk and the bike lane.
In order to get to the conference center, Joe had to pass through one of Amsterdam's larger parks. Since most people in the city live in row houses, the parks were filled with moms and kids enjoying the spring weather.
On Saturday, Joe, Julie, and the kids accompanied Julie's Japanese friend Taka to a farm in the mountains above Pierrevert. There, the kids were able to see first-hand how chevre (goat cheese) is made.
While the goats were interesting, the star attraction was a very large dog.
The kids watched as the farm hands wrangled the goats into their milking stalls.
Nicolas and Elyse got to try their hand at milking the quarrelsome critters.
As a treat, the owner of the farm gave us three rounds of Cherve. One with herbs de Provence had only been aged a couple of days and was relatively mild while the others were older and therefore stronger.
Before leaving, Taka sent us home with some fresh sushi. Needless to say, our diner of seaweed, fish and cherve will not be forgotten (or repeated) anytime soon.
à tout à l’heure! (see you soon)
Joe, Julie, Nicolas, Elyse, and Nathaniel
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