Contents
A short intro in English...
What we didn't do
Liesbeth didn't leave the farmyard since three years and after a very active period in our life we decided to just go away and see where we'd end up. We simply wanted to drive south from The Netherlands (our residence) and maybe visit Spain, France or Italy depending on the weather. A spot we had in mind was Menton between Monaco and Italy because we share very good memories from our late youth. Some ingredients for a retro trip: a small van, a tent, primitive cooking stuff, parking places and - less retro, I admit - a budget to take a hotel in case of bad weather, etc..
So not to Europe?
So how did we end up in the States? Well I told you we were active... preparing a reunion of our old boarding school and let me tell you: we made many people very happy. Those people collected money for a trip and since Liesbeth missed our latest trip to my cousin in Florida the decision was made quickly. However the schedule was tight because of waiting working orders so we booked a flight with Martinair (they offer a direct flight from Amsterdam to Orlando), searched the net for a car and a place to stay. Comparing stuff with for example Kelkoo works out very well... in theory.
Up and go
So we left head over heals, carpe noctem plus diem style.
Mom also wanted to say goodbye and gave us a bag of genuine 'soutudropjus' at Schiphol and we left
What we really left was the nice Dutch weather
and after a trip with delays but a smooth flight we landed at Orlando. I swapped GSM-maps at home and quickly we were driving away without coins for the toll ways. After a few curses even that was solved by asking the car waiting behind me for some change. He gave us two quarters for free but I gave him a 2 Euro coin for his great gesture. We ended up at Holiday Inn in Cocoa Beach. No reservations made, great! They had a place and despite the price we took it after being awake for 22 hours. Something went wrong with the processing and instead of a great price of $ 700 for 13 days we had to pay that amount doubled. I wonder if they restitute what we paid too much.
After a good sleep
No need to say we woke up early in local time, went shopping for some food and... wow! we were actually sitting on the beach eating and enjoying the sea and weather. After we finished our breakfast we went to see the Stennes clan. Only Astrid was there and oh, her face is what I enjoyed most while Liesbeth asked: "Do you want a dropje".
Since they own South Beach Inn (see also http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=28.289058,-80.607607&spn=0.001946,0.003573&t=h&z=18&om=1) we were offered a great place to stay but more family affairs won't interest you so I keep the rest private. The hotel is a few steps away from the sea, the rooms are great with a complete kitchen and the people are friendly.
Our favorite beach house:
Intermezzo Caramelco
Do you know what 'Caramelco' is? During my time as a kid you could buy this sweet caramel substance and put it on a slice of bread with butter (of course I liked to eat it straight from the can with a spoon). For some reason they stopped producing it and I missed it until some years ago. My brother in law who recently died taught us a nice trick about making 'Caramelco'. As a kid he used to live in Argentina and it seemed to be a common recipe there. The base is sugared condensed milk. Your local store should have it.
The steps to take are even more than simple:
- Take a pan and fill it with water, put it on a fire and let it boil.
- Put in a can of condensed sugared milk without opening it. It should be covered with water completely during the process.
- Let it boil for at least three hours. You may want to experiment with the values but four hours is the limit, boiling it longer will result in a bitter and burned taste. What happens inside the can is a process of caramelizing the sugar which changes the contents completely.
WARNING: After this you should be very careful because the substance is not fluid anymore. That results in a long cooling period by emptying the pan and filling it with cold watter. Take at least half an hour for cooling down. There may be build up pressure in the can so open it very careful, it may erupt in your face and can cause severe burnings.
- Now you should empty the can in a jar of glass or plastic because it is not smart to keep it there: metals from the can can solve into the substance.
No need to say you do this all at your own risk.
Ice cream
How would our economy look with gallons instead of litres? Well we enjoy wetting the appetite of some people at home...
Discovery
This morning September 27 2007 the Discovery was launched and that is pretty impressive. From Cocoa Beach you get a great view...
At the time of take of it is silent and you don't see more than a glowing spot and a smoke tail... Until much later the rocket is far away and the sound of lightning reaches you while everything around you starts shaking.
Click for an enlargement...
Black Point Wildlife Drive
Definite one of the most impressing POI's. The combination of silence, birds and aligators and nature's exhibition makes this place worth a visit, by car, bike or foot. See http://titusville.com/Page.asp?NavID=285
Sea world
Sea world is a nice place to see obesity problem cases. Do they think they are not spotted between the sea cows and manatees? The 'praise our soldiers'-part of the polished Orca show 'Believe' simply doesn't belong there. Despite of this the cooperation between trainers and Orca's makes this show a 'must see'! Don't complain about the $65 pp (taxes excluded) because Sea World is more than just a zoo and and says it uses money to help animals. You may also want to donate $ 65 to http://www.bornfree.org.uk/campaigns/marine/campaign-action/dolphin-drives/ or http://www.seashepherd.org/ because that is probably a better investment.
Shire Reeve
At the day of departure we stumbled upon a national contest regarding motor cycle skills.
The Sheriff is elected in the States so his Mobile Command is a nice piece of art work. In particular my focus was on the masts but that has more to do with my professional activities concerning accident analysis.
