My Dutch friends will forgive me if I don't share in their delight at the novelty of snow appearing on streets, bikes, and in parks this winter. Having left Canada after 37 years, I've seen enough of the stuff to last a lifetime. But I understand their glee - it can go years without snowing here, so a blanket of the white stuff must seem like a nice change of scenery. I could just as soon do without this anomalous avalanche of a winter though.
To mes Amsterdam amis: to put to my "bah, humbug" attitude into perspective, imagine going to Canada for a visit and having cheese fall from the sky; a bunch of us natives would be making cheesemen and throwing cheeseballs, laughing all the while, and you might be a little reticent about it all as you've seen plenty of kaas your whole life.
Rather than sit in my apartment and wait for the melting to begin, however, I decided to take advantage of the photo op this latest frosting provided. It's also interesting to contrast the Vondelpark with similar photos taken in early November as seen in this post. It's not the best way to survive winter, but for today it was more than Gouda enough.
