There are 8 Maartens in Oldenzaal

---

One of the promises that we made when we returned home was to go and visit Maarten and Lyke in Holland! Since we met this lovely couple they have had a beautiful baby girl called Sophie who is 4 months old now.........

So on one day in May we arrived into Dusseldorf Weeze airport to be greated by Maarten! It was a bit unreal at first to see him there as the last time we saw him was back in Hanoi in Vietnam around 18 months ago. We hadn't realised that he had driven for 2hrs to come and collect us across the border in Germany........we thought that the airport was alot closer damn google maps!!!!!

Anyway we drove a lovely drive through the Dutch countryside to there home town of Oldenzaal just north of Enschede! We were so happy to see Lyke when we arrived at their home, she looks so well after having Sophie! We sat and remembered travel stories and looked at there pictures on the wall, the house is full of reminders from their travels it is great!

Watching the DVD that Maarten had made, from clips and photos brought back good memories for us all, sitting with people that are on the same wave length as you makes a huge difference! An idea for us to make so that we can show people a couple of hours worth of the trip in a nutshell rather than hours upon hours of pictures and video clips!!!!

Maarten it seems has a new hobby.....breaking into football stadiums! I dont think that there is anybody else i know with this hobby! He showed us pictures of his recent break in's at Athens Olympic Stadium, and Celtics Parkhead on a recent trip to Scotland.
With Football being an important topic in both Ste and Maartens lives, Maarten felt it a must to take Ste to the brilliantly named de Grolsch Veste stadium of FC Twente. The stadium would be closed as the season was finished......but hopefully this would give Maarten chance to initiate Ste into his hobby!

I will let Ste tell the rest of the story.................

It was cracking the flags in Oldenzaal as we headed to the pride of the Eastern Netherlands, FC Twente, who although not a household name across Europe, have made the Champions League for the 2010 season after finishing 2nd in Hollands Eredivisie last season.
I like stadiums, visiting them, taking the odd picture and buying a small memento from my visit,
I had hoped I could visit Twente's Stadium before my arrival, and bearly a few hours after our arrival Maarten had read my male mind and offered me a trip their the next day.
Once there it was clear that rebuilding was underway to install extra seats to accomodate more fans for the forthcoming high profile games!

We headed to the main entrance, in Dutch, Maarten enquired with the Gentleman if we could have a quick cheeky tour of the stadium.......... No.
We expected as much and headed on a circular tour, looking for an entrance, luckily with building work underway, gates and barriers had been left open for the workmen to get in and out and security there was non-existant, so we sauntered in unopposed, and quickly agreed to try our luck, should anyone official walk by, to stand tall, look confident and nod at our supposed fellow stadium workers.
so what did we achieve? well we managed to to head into two stands, including the directors boxes, the tunnel including where officials and players are interviewed after games, we tried vallantly to get into changing rooms and referees rooms, rudely, from our point of view they were locked.
We also made it up the side of advertising boardings and took our rightful places in the pitch dugouts! where ex England manager Steve McLaren sits during home games!

we stayed for 5 or 10 minutes, before a hefty chap with a bald head came over and informed us that we weren't reallly allowed to sit here.... "oh, ok, I'm sorry mister, we didn't realise that we weren't allowed to sit on the managers bench, ok we will leave now"
ok, so maybe the conversation didn't go like that, mainly because Maarten and the barrel chested chap were speaking Dutch, but we left anyway, However it turned out he was a nice guy, and was working on the construction of the stadium, had just moved to the area and was feeling at home in the Enschede area, we managed 30 minutes of free touring before making our way out with a feeling of accomplishment!!

During our 3 day trip we managed to squeeze in a day out to Amsterdam, being a compact land, this cross country trip took about 2 hours, and we managed to walk the waterways and canals on a beautiful day in Amsterdam, It was hard to not admire the amount of bicycles on show in the city, Indeed they are chained to every railing on every canal, although a stereotype of Holland, it really is true! everyone cycles to and from, and many nations could learn a thing or two by this approach, no one can really point a finger of blame at this country with regards to emissions.

We also had a little trip down the seedier side of Amsterdam with regards to the infamous red light district, although knowing what to expect here it still comes as quite a shock to see the curly finger of enticement of a young girl in a window cubicle, although we only saw the one street, we believe there are different streets for.... ahem ... different tastes, Thats about all I can say really, I was a little bit shocked, maybe I have lived a sheltered life, I don't know.

We had a beer in the centre of town and listened to a band, before heading back to Oldenzaal.

We had a fantastic time in Holland, and would like to thank Maarten and Lyke for their welcoming hospitality to us and hopefully one day, somewhere, we can repay the favour.

---