We spent an afternoon driving around the countryside during a beautiful and sunny Pinksterdag. These photos will give you an idea of what the Dutch do on a typical long weekend. We avoided the beach totally as we are not so fond of heavy traffic jams and crowds so these photos show kind of “everything” except the beaches.

Biking is one of the most common weekend leisure activity aside from taking long walks in the countryside. People also bask in the sun next to or in the water. Since most of the Netherlands is next to water the activities center around canoeing, fishing, boating, swimming and all sorts of water sports. They are quite blessed to have water all around indeed and they obviously appreciate and are proud of this fact.

The next thing I love about springtime are the flowerbeds. It’s too bad that we did this too late as the flowers have either dried up or have been harvested. Well, at least I am glad I was able to take a few shots of the red and white flowers.

P.S. As promised, the cow photos are now included here

When I was living in South Jersey, it was a pleasant surprise for me to find out that I don’t have to go to the Midwest to see and learn about Native American culture. Within 20 minutes drive of where I live, there were several powwow events that happen regularly each year. Powwow’s as I observed, are regular social and culture events for the Native American community. The formal ceremony starts with a parade of participant tribes. It would be then followed by speakers, dance performances and  musical performances. It was the first time I’ve ever seen such a cultural event and indeed attending it was all worth it. I was fortunate to be able to attend two of these events during my stay in the U.S.
To find the next Native American cultural event in your neighborhood just visit Powwows.com.

Holland is the more popular name that refers to The Netherlands but actually it is only one of its provinces. I chose these photos as an introduction because this is what the world sees as typical Holland — and that is so true. Once you are outside of the major cities, this is what you would see everyday — hectares and hectares of flat lands with cows and sheep grazing. Oh yes, maybe I have missed the cows but in the future I will include a photo with cows in the background.

The windmills have also been here for maybe hundreds of years as they provide an economical means of power and help control the flow of water in the fields.

Cheese and milk. This is what Dutch people can’t live without. Their typical lunch (and sometimes breakfast) will always include a cheese (kaas) sandwich with sometimes ham (boterham) and on the side they will have milk or even sometimes buttermilk (karnemilk) which is the sour kind. I don’t know why but they just love it. They also like to put cheese toppings on almost every meal.

Roads are part of our everyday life. They lead us to where we want to go. Without roads there is no progress. Roads connect us to the world.

Country roads, city roads, muddy roads. I like them all.

• Note: These photos were taken during our recent road trip in the West Coast of USA, and some were from a visit to Canada, the rest are from here locally (Netherlands).

Are they barren or are they lush? These trees are extremely unique and they thrive in the desert. This huge national park located in Southeastern California, around 2 hours from LA is surely worth your visit. The attraction is not just the trees but the also the stone mountains.  When I was there mountainers or rock climbers visit the park in droves and they do group practices there.