Sunday, October 07, 2007

Culemborgse broodjes

Culemborgs' delicacies: a Spanish Sandwich in front, a French one in the background

Finally sun is back in Holland! After a period of dark days a high pressure zone has settled and brings calm but pleasant autumn weather - no wind, cool nights, some fog early in the morning and than sun and in the afternoon temperatures around 16 degrees. Ideal conditions for an active outdoor weekend. No paddling this time, today I had an appointment with Linda for a bike tour in the Green Heart of Holland. Linda proposed 3 hours biking. We first argued a bit about my interpretation that 3 hours bicycling means 90 km distance. Than we decided to bike from Woerden along the Lek (one of the branches of the Rhine in the Netherlands). When you can't be on the water, you should be next to it! Near Culemborg we crossed the Lek with the ferry and noticed some paddlers from a distance. In the bright sun it were only silhouettes, but I can tell kayakers apart from their silhouette, the way they sit in their kayak and their paddle style - it's some strange anomaly that I always analyze paddle styles- and I recognized Cees and Ad. Knowing they live around Culemborg helped a bit of course...

On the market place of Culemborg we couldn't resist a terrace in the sun and ordered two "broodjes" (sandwiches). Linda went for the French style sandwich and I took a Spanish one. It was a bit strange interpretation of a Spanish Ciabatta (C. is supposed to be Italian?). According to the menu the "Spaanse broodje" should come with salami, salat, dried tomatoes, marjoram and olive oil. To my big surprise it had all this with bacon and egg on top of it... This bizarre combination tasted good, but was heavy stuff: a lot of calories to burn away!
We finally arrived back in Woerden after just a bit more than 3 hours biking and 95 km. Not a bad comprise, is it Linda?

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hi Hans,
You are right. The Chapata, rustic, bread used in Spain is but a transliteration of the Italian "Giabatta".
That sandwich looked terrific.