THEE Holland Heineken House

We were able to hit up the Holland Heineken House a couple of the last nights after our tournament was done, and before we left. This is a place that follows the Dutch Olympic team. Every Olympics the Netherlands are in there is a Heineken House for the fans and athletes. The Holland Heineken House (HHH) comes to the Olympics a couple years before it's due to happen, finds a place to buy, rent, or build and makes the HHH. This one had the main hall which normally had up to 6000 people and 3 bars in it. An outside lounge with a big screen showing sports and a snack bar area as well. Also, in the back, about a 5-10 minute walk from the HHH's entrance you find the VIP lounge for athletes and athletics' staff.

It was off limit for the baseball players until we were done playing, for obvious reasons, because it can easily lead to a long night out, and that's not ideal with all the morning games we had to play. It was a nice place to hang out with fellow athletes and unwind after a somewhat stressful and dissapointing game for the baseball team.

Here's some photo's from those nights...



The cabs in China have some kind of weak deviders. I really couldn't see how this thing would protect the driver if some crazy chinaman wanted to do bad...



L -> R Tiny, Me, and our trainer Martijn heading into the Holland Heineken House



Mike Duursma (short stop) and Pim Walsma (pitcher) about to enter the Holland Heineken House. That's a sprite in Mikey's hand, don't worry about it



Typical dutch symbols, in this case leading you to the bathrooms



The Heineken House hall, it was holding about 5000 fans, family, and athletes. The music was pumping all night every night until 3 when they closed. I think the hall was orginally a museum of some sort because this place was huge, and looked museumish



The fans watching a live band getting after it on stage



At the HHH, if a single athlete or team wins a medal, they are recognized that evening on stage. This night the water polo team beat USA for the gold, and it was their turn to dance some and get their applause



Danny Rombley (left fielder) with a couple of the water polo gold medalists. The one with the short blonde hair is the top goalie in the world.



Crazy Dutch and thier crazy outfits, they'll wear anything, as long as it's orange



This is me with Tjerk Smeets' (catcher) fiance. She is on the Olympic champion field hockey team that beat China in the final. The medals are amazing, really heavy, and the patterns are beautiful... someday



Edith Bosch and myself. Edith has so much energy and a crazy personality, making her a bronze medal Judo fighter this olympics. We work out with the same trainer, and often at the same time. Her boyfriend is an olympic cyclist as well, they're going to have some athletic offspring someday, that's for sure



Tiny found the big bottle. A little Black Label wisky... we didn't touch it that night, but it's an impressive bottle



They got some baseball and softball players up on stage the last night I went, and it was a bit crazy, about 5000 Dutch fans going crazy in this massive hall, and they were pumping the music