Playing Monopoly

The girls and I are enjoying some nights of playing Monopoly together.  We're learning as we play since this is the Dutch version.

The properties are famous sites in Holland..

• I own Schipol Airport and Amsterdam Central Station--costing the kids a whopping €500,000 in rent when they land on either one.
• Mia just bought the Dom tower in Utrecht--the one we climbed yesterday--for €1.8 million.  She already owned the highest rental property: Dam Square in Amsterdam.  It costs us €500,000 to land there--and that is without any apartments or hotels.
• Ana owns the Internet, several properties in Haarlem and a piece of Madurodam--both places we hope to visit in coming weeks.

The kids love the electronic device that keeps track of our money on our Visa debit cards.  I think it is ironic that the ONLY place that Visa is welcome in Holland is on a Monopoly board.

It has been one of the few frustrations of this trip to discover that Holland has its own banking system--involving their own chip cards--and hardly any shops accept international credit cards.  I can't even buy train tickets with my Visa.

Today, I saw this sign at the Kroller-Muller museum--a popular tourist site--and just had to take a picture since it was the first place in all of Holland to accept my Visa.

The other fun part of playing Monopoly in Dutch is that we can't read the "Chance" and "Community Chest" cards.  So we have the computer open to Google translate and have to type in all the cards to find out what they say.
We're learning that je krijgt means "you get,"
betaal means "pay," and
Ga direct near de gevangenis.  Ga niet langs "start." Je krijgt been €2 milioen means, "Go directly to jail.  Do not pass "go," You do not get €2 million.
Yes, the new annual salary of Monopoly is €2 million!
That's US$ 2.8 million.