Land of the Giants

Bev at Schiphol Airport - Amsterdam

On Thursday evening we left London City airport – a small airport only minutes from our workplaces, and stress free compared to Heathrow! We flew into Amsterdam, all excited looking down on the Canals and seeing the beach coastline….and thinking that we were going to land at an airport under sea level! The first thing we noticed was how tall everyone was - yep we'd obviously flown in to the right country :o)

We then noticed that people don’t know how to queue as well compared to the British, as we had to wait for nearly an hour in a disorganised line/mingling groups for our free buses to the hotel. We also noticed on arrival that it stayed light for at least another hour later than London - apparently it doesn't get dark until 11pm in the height of summer - perhaps we should move there!!!

Friday was our first big day out in Amsterdam. The weather was awesome, hot and blue skies. We met with Jam’s good friend from Holland, Naomi, who showed us around and introduced us to some of the most finest bread, cheese and Dutch foods…unlike the Egypt trip, we must of put on 20kg! We checked out Anne Frank’s house (a bit of a sombre experience) and walked down the small canalled streets to enjoy a drink in the sun and tried some yum as Dutch pastries.

We then walked all the way to Van Gogh’s museum to decide not to go in because it wasn’t really a must see for us for the price. We then met another of Jam’s friends from her trip to South Africa in 1999 for a catch up and went for a Canal boat ride, along with Naomi.

Us on the Canal boat ride

Cool old houses built really close together seen from canal boat ride - in Amsterdam

Pretty canal in Amsterdam

Naomi and Jam on the canal boat ride

Enjoying the sun, Jam and Naomi relaxing by the canal

We then checked out some tourist shops,

Jam trying out some Clogs for size - think they're a little big!

bought some cheap sunnies, and then checked out the Red light District. We then settled down in the sun to try some white beer (with the must-have 2 fingers of froth), and tried some Amsterdam old cheese with yum as croquets! We later went to dine out at a quirky restaurant that was called and themed “mums”. They had mismatching plates and cutlery and they had pictures of 100’s of mums decorating the walls.

We travelled via a double-decker train to stay the night in Utrecht. They have very interesting flats in Holland. Because of the population size (about 16 million in a country about the size of NZ), they need to make do with the little space they have. We noticed that the stairs were pretty vertical, like climbing a ladder! In the flat we stayed in, the shower was in the kitchen!

Saturday was a big day out to see the country side of Holland. The weather was again fantastic but even hotter. By left-hand drive car (so weird going the opposite way around round-abouts) we made our way to Keukenhof, a massive park and fields of tulips and other flowers. It was so relaxing in the car seeing the country side of water ways, green paddocks with good conditioned cows and spring lambs, windmills, wind turbines, families of white swans and vertical roads that let canal boats thru!(at one point we were stopped at traffic lights while the road/bridge opened up for some boats to go through). It was amazing seeing the array of saturated colours at the tulip fields, but because of the weather and holidays it was chocka with people!

Road opening up to let boats through on the canal

Gorgeous daffidols and tulips at Keukonhof

Naomi and Jam mocking people who take silly photos amongst the flowers

Endless fields of vibrant red tulips

Classic dutch windmill amongst the tulips

Bev having a cheezy photo amongst the tulips

Hanging out at the beach

We then headed to the beach nearby for a quick look; it’s the first sand beach we have seen since being here! We then went back to Naomi's flat in Wageningen - so interesting to see how students live in another country! Wageningen is such a cute little town/city, very like Palmerston North! Naomis flat was just like any student flat in Palmy, except it was a town house, with vertical stairs! Naomis room was the coolest though, because she had suspended a double bed from the ceiling - a bit like staying in a tree hut, enabling her to have a couch positioned under the bed creating a lounge facility in her room to entertain guests :o) Don't get us started on her crocodile collection!

Sunday was another big day out in the awesome sunshine. This time we headed to the Primate zoo. This was an extremely cool primate zoo as there were no real barriers between you and the animals – so it felt like they weren’t caged in any way. The highlight was little squirrel monkeys who you could actually walk amongst, as they zapped to and fro in the surrounding trees, often scampering right in front of you!

After a day at the zoo, Naomi organised for us to borrow some bikes from her friends, and we rode for about 20mins to a memorial, in remebrance of the soldiers lost in World War II (I think, much like ANZAC day). We then rode back to Naomis flat and went out to a friendly student pub for a few drinks, to listen to a live dutch band.

Jam and Bev riding dutch bikes - crazy kiwi drivers!(It doesn't help matters when the seat is too high so you can't touch the ground!)

The memorial service

Naomi and Jam sampling the Dutch version of Fish and Chips - Sausages and Chips - with curry sauce and mayonaise on your chips.

The next day, Monday (another fantastic day of blue skies!) was a day the Dutch celebrated freedom, following on from the memorial the night before. To celebrate at 12 a big festival started - much like the big day out, but for all ages, and all genres of dutch music. This was all held in Wageningen - town centre. Very cool and lots to see! Unfortunately however we were only able to see a bit of this as we had to catch a train back to Amsterdam to fly out - this meant we missed the parade of WWII vehicles amongst other things.

A couple of random things we noticed/found out about Holland:

Everyone speaks both Dutch and English, and in a matter of seconds can switch between the two in an un-arrogant fashion! We totally loved this because no matter where we were everyone was happy to help us, and could speak our language - unlike in Paris where you have to try speaking (your bad attemps at) French first. However, we did find it hard that when hanging around Dutch people, they all speak in Dutch by default, even though they are around english speakers. It was quite funny that a couple of times people spoke to Jam in Dutch, assuming that she was a local - perhaps it was the blonde hair? Everyone is blonde!

We loved how friendly everyone was - you don't realise how sterile and unfriendly London is, and how used to this you get, until you go somewhere and people that you sit next to on a bus or train start chatting to you! The effect this has on you is astounding - it totally made Jam homesick, and just reminded us what everyone says about kiwis and visiting NZ!

We found it really relaxing spending time surrounded by green, open, flat, paddocks like NZ.

Guys are fined for peeing in the street - so for festivals they have portable (open), urinals!

Their toilets are the same looking ie a seat with a flush box, however on closer inspection they are different as the bottom of the toilet is not all water - when you do your business, it lands on a shelf with no water, and this only moves when you flush into a small area of water at the front of the toilet (not the back u bend we're used to). This means no splash back (yay), but more smelly (bad) and you get a first hand idea at how much you have produced (also bad).

Anyway moving right along.............................

We want to thank Naomi our awesome friend and tourist guide for making our travel easy and fun. The Dutch have the yummiest cheeses ever!

Mmmm dutch cheese

Midget Golf anyone?