Benelux Day 1: Throw Something

There’s a time honored formula for the first day of a tour. Welcome meeting to go over everything, then a moderate orientation walk with light-to-medium content on the way to dinner together. It sets the tone, informs the area, and gives everyone a chance to meet around the table. It’s a good method, and one I usually follow.

But for the tour of my new home region, the “Low Countries” of the Benelux (Belgium + Netherlands + Luxembourg) I wanted to tweak things a little. This area has abundant history and traditional European culture, the stuff we normally do on tours, but it also has a sense of playful possibility that is harder to find. I wanted that to be palpable from Day One.

So we had the welcome meeting, complete with dangerously delicious petit fours, and I guided them through one of Rotterdam’s less seen neighborhoods, moving from bullet scars of WWII to customized urban renewal and the open air laboratory where this emerging city is devising the future.

But then, instead of a normal formal dinner, we had an eccentric menu of bar bites. Order what you want when you want, and don’t forget the lovely lineup of beverages to keep us hydrated while we throw balls around.

Call it jeu de boules, bocce, or petanque. I called it a fun way to start off ten days with a small group of friends.

Once everybody realizes it’s a casual game where all skill levels are welcome, and you can sit down any time for friets and bitterballen, wings and tacos, Singapore noodles and gyoza, Indonesian spices or avocado salad, interspersed with fine local brews, well, let the good times roll.

All too often we feel constrained by expectation and norms. Etiquette is important (as I wanted to remind the guy who put his bare feet up on the train seat opposite) but my tours should feel like hanging out with friends. We had plenty of chances to sit around tables on the tour, and it’s one of my favorite ways to spend an evening. But on the first night it was perfect to wipe rendang off my fingers, take a swig of lager, then hop up to throw metal balls down the sandy lane.

Life is more fun when you play.