Sunday, October 21, 2007

Klapkut Rally - Den Oever, Netherlands

Before I put up the photos from the Klapkut Rally, I wanted to say a couple of things that I've been meaning to post, but hadn't.



Ice cream. Good old American ice cream sundaes. They have no idea what these are here. There is some substance called Gelato from Italy (which I will try at some point) but IT ISN'T ICE CREAM. They call it schepijs. They also have soft ice cream from a machine. If you know me, you know that I am a gourmet (American) ice cream connoisseur. In the defense of this fine country, they do also have a couple of flavors of Ben and Jerry's ice cream available for purchase in supermarkets and a couple other places. But trying to find an ice cream shop, I eventually gave up. A fruitless search.



I've also learned a few things about the Dutch language. One, I need to actually learn it. And, it's going to be very difficult. They tend to combine words into one long sentence, so even if you know one or two individual words, you won't recognize them stuck onto the back or front of another word. It sounds like they are saying one really long word for a paragraph, and when they have another thought, instead of using a comma or period the pause is usually an "uhhhhh" sound (or breath cause they are pretty much out of air, I think) and then a verbal mishmash of sounds comes tumbling out at a fast rate of speed again.



SoifIwaswritinginDutchyouwouldhavetosayitalltogetherlikethis...uhhhh...andthenjumprightintoanotherinterestingideaorthought.


But, I digress.


So, on to the Klapkut Rally. I'm not translating that, it's something bad, I think. My friend Krul decided without my knowledge to nominate me to be considered as Miss Klapkut 2007. That bastard. Of course, if you win you have to go up on stage and so on. Guess who won? They announced it in Dutch, but luckily my good friends were there to drag me up on stage. Otherwise I would have hid under a rock. Krul - I will have my revenge. Some time, some day when you least expect it... Just wait...


So here we are all arriving at the Rally. We rode in with a group, and it's cold here now!


Krul and me.


Krul, Herrie, Cora and Ghans


They had a lovely warm fire going, and a banjo player. He was really good!


Jeroen, one of the founders of the Motorbike Touring Club Dippy. Yeah, dippy means the same thing here as it does back in the USA.


Jeroen and Krul


Hey, I don't drink beer - so I'm having something better. Back in Belgium, Jan had hooked me up with a really good whisky - Jack Daniels Single Barrel. It's better, stronger, and I'll bet I'll feel better than everyone else when they wake up in the morning! If you look closely at the picture you can actually see my breath. Brr.


The band they had were quite good. Nearly all the music they play here is American, and tonight was no exception. Mostly classic rock cover tunes. But, look at his shoes!





This is a Harley Davidson WWII Liberator. Mint.


A face like that is why we love you.

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