The Little Dutch Boy

While Sarah was dropping some science on the Baroque dance world at her conference, Liam and I hit the town of Utrecht. It was quite an experience walking around with a cute baby strapped to me: normally I get the feeling that strangers on the street are vaguely suspicious that I might be homeless person (one of the few perks of my career path at the moment is that there is little incentive to worry about one's personal appearance, and cultivating a bit of "eccentricity" can be a plus). But with Liam, it was all smiles and coos. I was approached by multiple Dutch Grandmothers, who I assume were complimenting Liam (I am an expert smile-and-nodder, at least Dutch is a fun language to let wash over you).

The first thing we did after checking into the hotel and sending Mommy off to her conference was to sample the local cuisine:









What you are seeing on the left side of the picture is a typical Dutch delicacy, the Krokette. The inside seems be some sort of partially liquified meat, which is breaded somehow, then deep fried. Depending on your taste, they are better than or as good as they sound. I found out later that Liam had gotten to know the krokette very well; changing his clothes later in the day I found that my attempts to shield him from the crumbs were not particularly successful.


Fueled with gravy, I set out to explore Utrecht.

Here we are passing under the tower of the cathedral:

















Liam is ecstatic.



So you know we were in Holland, here we are by a canal:


















And near some giant wheels of cheese:


















Liam sez: "Wow. Fascinating."






Mommy!!!!!!









Liam sez: Yeah, yeah, I get it, it's old. Do I have to wear this hat by the way?



I am not sure what emotion he was experiencing on the walk home to the apartment from the tram, but I'm sure it was intense: