Blog 57 – Birthdays in the Netherlands,

Pandemic lockdown style

The Netherlands remains in a hard lockdown; restaurants are only for take away, some shops can do a “click and collect”, bars are closed, as are all museums or ‘’entertainments”. The curfew is in effect 9:00 pm until 4:30 am. And all travel is for essential reasons only.

So, it has come to this – I have no choice but to share our most significant cultural experience of the past few months, celebrating my birthday in the Dutch tradition. This is a cultural event because birthdays are different here from the US, even in non-Covid times.

How do I know they are celebrated differently? First, in our textbook, Nederlands in Gang, a fictitious student invites her friends out for drinks – on her, because it is her birthday. Later in the book another student has a whole birthday party – which she throws herself. Time to ask Google for the full details: https://dutchreview.com/culture/dutchness/how-to-celebrate-your-dutch-birthday/#:~:text=A%20typical%20Dutch%20birthday%20will,expected%20to%20serve%20and%20provide. Generally speaking, then: the birthday person pays for cake, drinks, maybe dinner. Close friends and family are to be congratulated at the birthday party as they have helped the honouree to age another year. And gifts are to be opened and acknowledged immediately. Turns out, birthdays are a ‘thing’ here. With the help of our language tutor, Leidewie, it was time to celebrate mine.

Andy and I began the day, a beautiful and sunny treat of a day; by going from our apartment through the mosaic filled Beurs passageway (https://nltimes.nl/2016/12/01/spectacular-mosaic-passageway-dots-primarks-amsterdam-kick) and continuing out to the back of Centraal Station, where we had lunch with a view of the water. To the east of the station lies the Cruise ship port and terminal. (https://www.ptamsterdam.com/) A beautiful newly build part of the city; there is the large terminal, huge hotels, venues, and restaurants; even a bowling alley. All to welcome millions of cruising visitors to the city every year – except this one. It is all still beautiful; it is all still closed and empty.

With restaurants closed, we met Leidewie at the Vondelpark. Following tradition, Leidewie gave me a small present of Tony Chocolonely chocolate with a self-composed card. She congratulated Andy on my successful attainment of another year. She congratulated me also and I made sure to acknowledge her gift in the moment. While it does not show in this picture taken in October, the park was jam packed with people who were also out to enjoy the lovely day. We decided to move on a few blocks to the Museumplein. With its wide-open lawn and designated walking and biking lanes we thought it would be an easier spot to do our ‘walk and talk’ lesson about all things Dutch. What we found instead is what we now call the weekly Sunday Protests. Hundreds, if not thousands of people turning out for the bit of warm sun and to protest the curfew and lockdowns. We took some pictures and ended up walking back through most of Vondelpark.

We like to think we have discovered a hidden treasure of a spot right outside the popular Vondelpark. On the far, west, side is another main entrance to the park; which was still unbelievably crowded. But, across the street from this entrance is a lovely café, The Schinkelhaven. We were able to order a tart with slagroom and hot drinks for each of us and even find a bench to sit on by going just down from the café to a very small playground. We concluded our Dutch birthday lesson by again crossing to the other side of Vondelpark to begin making our way home.

The sun was setting as we made our way back to the apartment. Crossing the bridge, we witnessed the perfect sunset ending to a perfect Dutch birthday day.

And lastly, a picture of my birthday cake for home which Andy ordered from the French bakery next door; yum. You can’t tell, but this is a toffy meringue cake with crème filling. Business is good at the bakery, we are doing our part .