There Are No Stupid Questions. Are there?

by Alison

We get off the boat and go on walking tours or bus tours. Each day we get in one of three groups.

Day 1 we were in the group with people who had graduate degrees from Harvard asking, shall we say, questionable questions. We thought it a cause of jet lag or drunkenness.

Day 2 we switched groups and now we’re are mingling with Silicone Valley types. But we got more stupid questions. Was this a phenomenon?

Day 3, amongst ourselves, “Are these questions the stupidest stupid questions ever?”

Day 4, lounge time after tour, the four of us summarize stupid questions we’ve heard. And here they are (Note: Those with asterisks* were only stupid after asked and answered 74 or more times):

  • Were the Nazis here?*
  • Did this town get bombed in the war?*
  • Do people in Belgium have cats as pets?
  • Is the tour over? (it had literally just begun)
  • How long were the Nazis here?*
  • What kind of tree is this?*
  • Do the branches of this tree break?
  • How many Nazis were here?*
  • If you ride a bike to work but you get sick, do you still go to work?
  • If I walk backwards, will my Fitbit subtract steps?
  • Does the miller still work the windmill?*
  • (In a sea of 4,216 tourists following respective guides) Is tourism a business here?
  • I’m just looking at that french fry on the road (Not a question but directed at the guide so it made the list).
  • And my personal favorite, What do you call people from Belgium? (I snuck a pic of the two idiots who came up with that one):
    Keukenhof, Copyright 2018
    Four Lips with Tulips, Keukenhof 2018

Here are highlights from our garden tour at Keukenhof Gardens and the Kinderdijk windmills tour from a very sunny yesterday. (Let’s hear it for spring!!)

Three Windmills in Kinderdijk
Duck in Kinderdijk Canal
On a Sunny Day in Kinderdijk
Brand New Roller Skates, Kinderdijk 2018
David with Windmill in His Neck, Kinderdijk 2018
Close up of Kinderdijk Windmills
The Dutch Flag Flying at Kinderdijk
Kinderdijk 2018, Copyright
The Miller’s Shoes, Kinderdijk 2018
About to Burst, Keukenhof 2018
Tulips in April 2018, Keukenhof
Alison in Shoes Too Big to Fill, Keukenhof, April 2018
Here’s Looking at You, Keukenhof 2018
A Red Ribbon of Tulips
Categories: AmsterdamTags: , , , , , , , ,

42 Comments

    1. Oh, I wish I thought so. But this was a conversation on the bus when a group was checking their Fitbits and some results were different than others and that was one theory they advanced for why. Good to hear from you!

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  4. Well, those questions are at a par with what we heard in Alicante back in the summer from an American lady exclaiming: “Oh, Look, a Ferris wheel!”, when it was an old fashioned Carrousel. Let’s put it down to jet lag, shall we?
    I am dead jealous of the tulips, as that is what I want to see when we go to Holland at the end of this month or early May. I do hope they are still out and haven’t all withered by then. And I love your clogs: very fetching!

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    1. Fatima, the tulips haven’t bloomed yet! Those were in a greenhouse garden at Keukenhof. There are fields and fields of tulips that have not yet bloomed. You might be just in time due to their late spring! But my oh my were the ones we saw gorgeous!

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  5. Oh Alison…this is one reason to avoid organized tours when travelling! No one does their research prior to the trip, or listens or, gosh forbid, tries to adapt to cultural norms…There is no end to the (embarrassing) stupidity…
    But that is what makes us ‘charming’ to the rest of the world, non? 😉
    Enjoy the rest of your adventure!

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  6. Proof positive that indeed there are stupid questions. I’d love to have heard the answers and picture the restraint that went into formulating those answers. And there has to be a some back story to the cat question.
    By the way, love your shoes!

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    1. The guides will be sainted someday. No back story on the cat. Just a lot of people walking dogs and a person from our group said, “I see a lot of dogs here. Do people also have cats?” This woman was the originator of many stupid questions and on reflection I think she was trying hard to have a conversation.

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    1. That’s a nice compliment. Blogging does help us keep our eyes open, yes? Like your door photos. How many of us just walk by those places you capture and name so wonderfully?

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  10. Yay – so happy you finally got some sunshine! Looks beautiful, tulips are some of my favorites!
    Great stupid questions – Americans are truly top notch 👌🏼

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    1. I am usually more tolerant. Two women, I am sure, were trying to come up with questions rather than let them be organic in nature. Plus there were usually 35 in a group so that meant people asked the same questions over and over because they weren’t paying attention and I find that rude to the tour guide and the others who are touring.

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  15. So sad. I once taught Camus’ L’étranger to a class of UNIVERSITY freshman…when I explained the French Resistance as a point of context, no one had heard of it. No one. Sigh.

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    1. It’s possible we’re the “silence please” signs not up there might have been a similar Q & A. Have you been to the Anne Frank House? I felt a little disappointed at first but a few months later I still see the house and picture those poor people living there. It has really left a mark on my soul.

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