Lessons from the Dutch and the Danish

Eight simple pleasures I’m taking home with me from my travels

When I returned from my usual walking route around the neighborhood this morning, I felt as if spring really came alive since we’d be gone the past two weeks. There were more blossoms everywhere, tulips and daffodils smiling hello in many-a-yard, and a dusting of petals in the parking lot that evoked the feeling of snow. It felt greener, more lush. The sun kept peeking out from behind the clouds, letting itself be known. Almost as if to say, “hey, didn’t you miss me? Welcome home!”

It was the greeting I needed, as I’ve been a little in denial that our Europe trip is over and we have to go “back to reality” tomorrow.

Excuse me while I sidebar on the concept of “reality.” During my self-exploration retreat last summer, I had lamented to the facilitator

Satya Doyle Byock

on our last day there that I didn’t want to go “back to reality.” I was looking forward to seeing my boyfriend when I got home, but I was going to miss the special community we’d built during the four days of the retreat. After I expressed this, she looked me dead in the eye and said, “Morganne, this is reality.”

It’s something that has stuck with me, for every time I come home from a trip or an experience that breaks the norm, I have this sense. It’s even more so when being immersed in an entirely new culture. Hearing those words last August helped me realize that these parts of our lives needn’t be so separate. It’s hard to do though, as our day-to-day realities have an easy way of sweeping us right back up, the lessons or inspirations of our travels quickly forgotten. 

So it is with that spirit that I’m sharing the observations and novelties I collected throughout Amsterdam and Copenhagen. These are the things I intend to implement now that I’m back at home, in the hopes I can better integrate the joys of traveling with my daily life.

Here they are, in no particular order. I hope you enjoy!

1. 🌷Tulips: When we first booked our trip, I didn’t realize that we’d be landing in Holland in the midst of tulip season. So of course once I realized this, I made it a point to visit Keukenhof, the famous tulip garden. Surprisingly though, I found myself more captured by the tulips that abounded throughout Amsterdam and the town of Delft. I saw more tulips indoors than I did in the ground, but it was all the more inspiring. I lost count of the number of homes I saw with a vase of tulips proudly waving hello through the front windows. Having always loved the sight of tulips in my own home, the Dutch took it to another level by displaying their tulips in such a way that passersby could enjoy them too. It inspired me to get some immediately upon returning home and putting them in our front window. And perhaps make this a recurring habit until tulip season dies off. (Full disclosure, I’ve yet to make it to the store since getting home but this is my public promise to myself to get some when I do!)

   

2. 🫖 Ginger tea with fresh ginger: Another simple but small pleasure—all the coffee shops we went to throughout Amsterdam had gemberthee, or ginger tea, on their menu. I could’ve easily mistaken this for a commonplace tea bag and would’ve likely never ordered it, if it weren’t for seeing a group of Dutch girlfriends all sipping a warm beverage with slices of fresh ginger root submerged in it. What classifies this as tea, I’m not sure since it didn’t have any tea leaves, but I was delighted all the same. Something about taking the time to slice some fresh ginger and treat oneself to this warm beverage at home felt special to me. *Adds fresh ginger to the shopping list*

   

3. 🥐 Pastries and lattes for mindful moments: When we embarked on our trip, Pete and I proclaimed that we’d eat at least a pastry a day in Copenhagen due to their esteemed bakery culture. We successfully did this, perhaps to my own detriment when the kardemommeflet I ate on our last full day there was nearly too much sweetness for me to handle. That said, I really enjoyed touring the city this way. There’s something that feels so romantic about taking the time to sit in a coffee shop sipping a latte or a flat white alongside a tasty pastry. This is something I very rarely do at home, mostly because I usually don't take the time to sit in and getting a pastry feels like an indulgence. But what if I looked at it not as a negative indulgence, but a pleasurable one? A way to make an otherwise ordinary day feel a bit more special and in-the-moment? Some ways to incorporate this into my routine are inviting friends to coffee dates instead of the usual happy hour or dinner, or taking my writing and/or journaling practice to a coffee shop. Portland is probably full of better coffee than it is pastries, but in this spirit I want to use this little indulgence as a mindful way to intentionally visit different coffee shops around town, especially in neighborhoods I don’t frequent often.

4. 🕯”Hygge-ifying” my home lighting setup: I could probably write an entire post on the characteristics of good lighting, but for brevity's sake the two guidelines we live by in our home are “no big light” and warm > cool. Having already been mindful of how we light our home, I shouldn't have been surprised at how much the Danish taught me in this department given that their reputation for lighting design precedes them. I was in awe at how cozy all the bars and cafes felt, candles burning on every table beckoning for you to come in from the cold and stay a while. Our Airbnb was no different, complete with candlesticks in every room. And as dusk turned to nighttime, we watched people’s windows light up, all with warm light fixtures in neat designs, never a jarring cool overhead light to be seen. It inspired us to want to make some updates in our home. We intend to update all our lighting to warm bulbs (somehow there’s a few stragglers despite our buy-in on warm lighting) and upgrade the fixture above the dining room table. And lastly, more candles! The thing the Danish are onto about candles is that rather than using them primarily for scent (what seems to be the prevalent mindset here in the States), they use them simply for lighting a space. I already set out our candlesticks to burn tonight when we eat dinner to evoke the hygge feel. Now I’m kicking myself for not buying the amazingly cheap candlesticks I saw at a candle shop in Delft!

   

   

   

5. 🧣The power of a peacoat and scarf: The vast amount of women I saw throughout Amsterdam and Copenhagen donning colorful scarves and gorgeous peacoats never got old. I even jotted down a note in my iPhone notes app about a particularly inspiring outfit I spotted—wide leg cream pants with panda Dunks and a black peacoat tied at the waist. Being an owner of panda Dunks myself, it was a fresh take on glamming up these otherwise casual sneakers. My personal style is something I’ve struggled with a bit since transitioning into the sneaker culture that is my employer; I find myself wearing my “fancier” clothes less often, but this was a reminder to dig out my black peacoat. Why limit myself to the standard puffy jacket that is PNW culture? If it makes me feel good, I want to wear it. In all honesty, it might be too warm at home for it now, but I intend to try to wear this more next winter if so! (Or alternatively, if I can really find no use for it, donate it.)

   

6. 🖼 Visiting museums: Ok, so this one isn’t specific to the Dutch or the Danish, but it’s noteworthy all the same. We visited three museums during our trip—the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, the Royal Delft Museum in Delft, and the Design Museum Denmark in Copenhagen. As someone who used to consider herself not much of a museum-goer, particularly when it comes to art, I went into this trip with a more open mind. The Design Museum was hands down my favorite, but I gleaned a thing or two from Van Gogh as well. It made me think I should bring that same open-mindedness to the Portland Art Museum. It’s been a long time since I went and saw an exhibit there, and a quick Google search just now tells me a current exhibit is about the future of sneakers—who would’ve thought? Exploring one’s own backyard via the arts seems like a great way to keep the inspiration alive, especially among daily routine. Marking my calendar now for their Free First Thursday next month.

7. ☁️ Embracing the outdoors despite the cold: As I hinted at in my last post, I was throughly impressed with how much the Dutch and the Danish were outside in the chilly weather. Portland, despite being full of citizens who are “outdoorsy” people, doesn’t seem to seize the cold outdoors in the same way. Aside from biking, which I’ll get into in a moment, people were constantly walking, dining, or sometimes even picnicking or park-bench-reading outdoors. Every restaurant or cafe we passed by had seating outdoors, usually with people sitting there. Some had heaters, but not all. The majority actually provided blankets to their customers, should you need to bundle up a little more, and I saw plenty of them in use. Another thing that struck me was how many people were out walking with their babies bundled up in their strollers, so much so that it became clear there’s a cold weather stroller accessories market I’ve yet to see in the States. Strollers came with rain covers and sleeping-bag-like compartments that kept their inhabitants cozy and warm. It made me think us Portlanders can toughen up! Our climate is similar, if not slightly warmer than Denmark. While I’m not in the stroller market myself, nor am I going to single-handedly change the Portland dining norms, the page I’m taking from this book is to evaluate if the weather is truly a showstopper, or if I can dress accordingly and find a way to spend some time outside on colder days.

   

8. 🚲 Bike riding: If you’ve followed me for a while, you might’ve seen this post about my newfound interest in riding bikes in adulthood. I was looking forward to bicycling in Amsterdam and Copenhagen, both cities renowned for their bicycle infrastructure. What was most impressive besides the infrastructure (those Europeans really are smarter than Americans in so many ways), was how many people continued to ride, rain or shine, cold or warm. We took a play from their book and bundled up in our rain jackets to ride to lunch one rainy afternoon in Copenhagen; the next morning when it was nearly freezing out, we bundled up again to ride to a sauna session we had booked across town at La Banchina. We had to don our layers while riding in Amsterdam too, as it never got above the mid-50s while we were there. It gave me mad respect for these citizens and has me reconsidering “fair weather” for riding bikes at home. While Portland’s infrastructure and terrain are wildly different from these flat European cities, this was the proof I needed to remind myself it doesn't need to be a warm, sunny day to get my bike out. Vowing to ride my bike more this year than last so I can continue to build my riding confidence, and justify a bike upgrade. ;)

The “dancing ladies” of Amsterdam.

I’d love to hear, what’s something you’ve noticed while traveling that you’ve taken home with you? How do you hold onto the inspiration as you get back into your routine?

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