Holland June 2012 - Boskoop

Bart Van Vliet  runs the Holland Sugar Art show every year, usually around May, but this year due to the Telford International, he delayed it a few weeks. The venue was also changed as there were more stands and more visitors than in previous years. This is good for all, obviously, and we both take pleasure in being welcomed back each year by Frankie's many fans, and the friends we have acquired over the years.

With the larger venue came a new area- Boskoop instead of Alphen - but Holland is a beautiful country, especially when you leave the motorways, and seeing new towns and hamlets is a great experience. We both love the countryside very much as it appears to be a well maintained country, clean, tidy and picturesque. The Dutch take pride in their houses, gardens, towns and cities. If life is a book, then travelling gets you off page one and I sincerely believe that if it's expansion of the mind you want, journeys abroad will provide it for you. 

This year we were joined by quite a large British contingent including Alan Dunn,  Karen Davies,  Edable Art, Georgie Godbolt, Sunflower Sugar Art, Celcakes and A Piece Of cake. 

The Dutch Traders were also there in number including our very good friends from Mjam Taart, Ellen's Cakes and Cakes by Bien. It was fantastic to catch up and to spend the rare idle moments of the weekend nattering and sharing a coffee.

We always look forward to our Dutch trips; we have many friends in Holland but our especial friends are Renita and Patrick with whom we stay whenever we can. They make us incredibly welcome and are very good to us in such a genuine manner that is much more European than British in its palpability. 

But over the years we have met these others who appear to look as forward to our visit as do we -some traders and some customers - but the one thing about the Dutch that I particularly admire is their certitude, their strength of character hidden within the natural and honest attitude they have to others. 

They are a forthright people as a whole - a nation of seafarers and conquerors too, remember - and some interesting discussions take place over a bottle of wine. The European perspective is sometimes vastly different to that of the British and makes for a lively and intriguing debate. 

I am often surprised by the European mindset. It reminds me of a joke by the German comedian Henning Venn; “The British are not sure if they should be part of Europe?  - Get a mep!"

But the generosity of the Dutch never fails to amaze me. There were some very nice Indonesian Dutch ladies at a show in Apeldoorn a year or two ago who had a young newly born boy, Adam, and we got into a conversation about babies in general as my daughter was expecting my first grandchild at the time. Six months later when we turned up to an Exhibition in Saint Nicklaas in Belgium, they surprised me to tears by handing me two boxes of presents for Laura-Anne my daughter and her new son, not yet born, Elijah. We hardly knew them and certainly had not done anything for them other than striking up a friendship that was mutual in its distribution of favour.

This time, Bien and Tirza from Cakes By Bien, handed us a bag of Dutch goodies for no apparent reason other than that we had a lot of fun with them both in Dublin earlier this year and struck up a deeper friendship than previously. We certainly learned a lesson in appreciation from our Dutch friends and their attitude to friendship. A wonderful weekend and we look forward to October and our return.