i moved to amsterdam when i was three months pregnant with my first child. i had never spent any time there and like many americans, i associated the netherlands with wooden shoes, tulips, marijauna “coffee shops” and the red light district. i was leaving behind my family, my pacific ocean and my super-fun job styling the windows for banana republic. the whole move happened so quickly i barely had time to process what i was getting myself into and what i was going to do with myself when i got there, besides being pregnant. one of my favorite work friends suggested i start styling the red light windows. i could rework them every season with different themes like we did at banana and dress the women in something beyond tiny, white bikinis that glow iridescent in the intense red lights.

amsterdam was mostly nothing like what i imagined. the garbage crews DID still wear wooden clogs and sweep up with brooms that looked like they had been hand-made by a grandmother from a grimm’s tale. and the expected tulips WERE sold everywhere, but i had been a resident for almost a year before i wandered into the red light district (with my visiting father no less!) and other than the pot smell wafting around many corners, the coffee shops were not too obvious. 

maybe because i was pregnant and other than trying to figure out what everything was in the market (i was eating the BEST yoghurt called “vla” for breakfast every morning for months before i made a dutch friend who told me it was actually pudding!) and was largely focused on finding baby things, one of the first dutch cultural icons i zeroed in on was nijntje. she is the celebrated bunny by dick bruna who lives with her bunny parents and is friends with a little bear and a piggy. i loved the simplicity and sweetness of nijntje. she is the equivalent of america’s mickey mouse, only she doesn’t seem quite as commercialized. (there ARE loads of storybooks documenting nijntje’s adventures and she is also available in a multitude of forms, but there is no theme park in her honor.) so i filled my unborn baby’s dresser with nijntje onesies and of course, had the requisite nijntje stuffy waiting in the crib. i sent all my american friends who were having babies nijntje swag, even writing english translations into the simple books. i never lost my love of nijntje, even as my son grew older and became more interested in the dutch footballers, who went to the world cup the last summer we were there. when our leave date to return to the states was determined, i went on a nijntje bender. i bought crocheted nijntjes, a delft nijntje, a silver nijntje coin bank and a big nijntje floor lamp. i wanted to be able to fill my new house in boulder, colorado with reminders of our time in amsterdam. it was no small feat getting that big nijntje light home. i had to schlep her across town on two sets of trams. and then after her journey over the ocean, she had to be rewired for american electrical sockets. now she is available on moma’s website. 

i am getting ready to take my children to amsterdam for the first time since we moved back to the states. we cannot wait to revisit the keukenhof tulip gardens, pompadour, our favorite chocolate shop, the kaaskamer cheese shop and our old apartment. i think we will avoid the red light district (i never did get to styling those windows - turns out having a baby can keep you busy for years!) and of course, we are beside ourselves to visit our darling friend, nijntje, again.

 to read about other dutch favorites click here or here or here