By Ben Niven

Thursday July 28

Unfortunately today was our last day..tomorrow at 2pm Netherlands time we will begin our journey back to Canada via Iceland. I am glad to say that we made the most of our trip. Today was a slower day in comparison to others. We decided to go to Lage vuursche (la-ga ver-say) for their Pannenkoeken. You can find panenkoeken anywhere in Holland but  Lage Vuursche is famous  for their pannenkoeke. Luckily for us  Lage Vuursche is close to where we were staying. The restaurant offers a variety of pannenkoeke, ranging from sweet to savory. For example one with powdered sugar, strawberries and whipping cream and I had a savory pannenkoeke which was Spanish. My pannenkoeke was like a pizza almost. The crust was thin like a crepe and it was covered with chorizo sausage, tomatoes and cheese.

A little background information about pannenkoeke is that they are a dutch style pancake. Is it usually up to a 1 foot in diameter. There are two types of pannenkoeke. Sweet and savory. Sweet pannenkoeke can be served plain with nothing on it besides whipped cream and syrup. Savory pannenkoeke invloves more ingredients, sometimes imitating common foods we eat. For example I had a Spanish pannenkoeke which resembles pizza. There were also savory pannenkoeke that resembled ham and cheese pizza etc.

                                                                  Sweet

                                                                Savoury

Poffertjes are a traditional Dutch batter treat. Resembling small, fluffy pancakes, they are made with yeast and buckwheat flour. Unlike pancakes, they have a light, spongy texture. Typically, poffertjes are served with powdered sugar and butter, and sometimes syrup or advocaat.

A Poffertje Pavilion in Baarn. Running since 1847

The chef prepares the grill

The special batter is poured onto the grill

The batter cooks on the grill and the chef knows just when to flip them

mmmm….almost ready!

More butter and some icing sugar on top…

…and finally the eating of the delicious little treats.

Monday July 18, 2016

By Jud Niven

You’ve never been to Holland unless you go biking on Ameland Island in Friesland.  This was a fun day for the whole group. Up early again to get to the 10:30 Ferry on time.  Off the Ferry and rent a bike and then off you go on one of the many bike paths on this interesting little island.  We biked a total of 25 kilometers and stopped for some lunch and a beer in a little town called Hollum.

By Ethan Niven

You have never been to Holland unless you have met Bob Elvis Jacob and Gup they are all  Frisian horses.

So today we went to Spakenburg they have really good stuff called kibbeling it is white fish deep-fried in a light batter and you can dip it freite sauce which is a mayonnaise/tartar sauce.

This is a list of the interesting foods I have tried so far on our trip.

• Smoked Eel
• Duck
• Kibbeling
• pannekoeken
• Bitterballen
• raisin buns
• koek bread
• Oliebollen
• Croissant
• dutch cheese
• suikerbrood
• Stroopwafels
• Poffertjes
• Pickled herring
• and Mom and Dad have been enjoying Koffee Verkeerd

We’ll the 8 hour time difference still has a bit of a hold on us on day 3. We had grand plans of getting up and on the road by 8:30am and heading North to the homeland-Freisland. Well that timeline came and went and we all woke up around Noon local time. So we gave our heads a shake and decided a shorter trip to Spakenburg a nice little fishing Village about 10 km from Soeste where we are staying. We walked around and enjoyed the local shops, the boys and I ate kibbeling, which is a local delicacy of small chunks of Cod lightly battered-lekkers(delicious) Gloria and Gramma had Kroketten , which is ground up pork and Dutch spices and then breaded and deep fried. Grampa had a plate of Patates Frites(French fries). The deal of the day in the picture below is the Lion Hat for €1.50 Ethan got to help cheer on Holland in the World Cup.

In the