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Published: March 23rd 2010
Amsterdam
Walking the streetsHi Folks from the beautiful city of Paris. We have just arrived here yesterday after spending three memorable nights in Holland. Ron treated us to a first class trip from Salzburg to Amsterdam on an overnight train. We had to change trains in Munich (so now we claim to have also been there) and then we then hopped into our sleeper cabin with ensuite bathroom. Very luxurious and very small, but it was a nice way to travel. We arrived in Amsterdam Friday morning after a reasonable night's sleep (helped along with Uncle Corry's special travel lollies) and set about to taking in the sights of the city. It was a pretty ordinary kind of day, raining pretty much the whole time we were there and rather cold. We managed to find ourselves around the city looking at nothing in particular but admiring the buildings and our new surroundings. Naturally a visit to Amsterdam wouldn't be complete without a walk through the red light district, which was a bit of a laugh. I couldn't look at 'the girls' though, not because I was keeping an eye on Ron's eyes, but it just felt weird checking out these girls parading their wares
A must see
No prizes for guessing in the hope of receiving one's business! Having moved on quickly through this area, we moved on to the next activity of the day. With lots of water and lots of boat activity going on we decided to take a boat cruise if only to get out of the rain and into a warm environment. This proved a winner because we not only kept dry, we got a running commentry on what we were looking at, which was pretty interesting. The one thing that really stands out here are the bikes! Oh my gosh, I have never seen so many bikes in all my life. There are parking bays dedicated entirely to the two wheeled machines and they are attached to anything and anything that is fixed to the ground. They are locked up against bridges too and we saw bikes literally hanging off the bridges from their locks as we took our river cruise - quite a laugh. There were lots of 'family wagons' with a wheelbarrow type of tub attached to the front and other assorted configurations for workmen and shopping trips - a great idea which we should take on back home, but we are probably too
lazy to be as committed as the Dutch. After having some lunch in a kebab house (which we dedicated to Matt and Sharon), we decided that that would be our last lunch at that particular restaurant. It wasn't until we were well into our meal that the resident cat started tugging away at Ron's backpack strap, which was kind of cute at first, but we weren't so amused when the cat jumped up onto the shop counter, where he looked quite at home. Rather than shoo him off in horror as we would have expected, the owner stood their petting him and talking lovingly to it. Eew. After having enough of the cold and rain, we collected our bags from their expensive temporary home at the train station and made our way onto the Rotterdam train. An hour or so later and we were there, where we were to ring Ron's cousin Anja to arrange for her to come and collect us. And so began our weekend in Rotterdam with the family. We were made so welcome by Anja and her husband Henk, as well as another cousin Ivon (pronounced Yvonne) and her husband, also Henk. We were taken back
Cruisin'
On a Sunday afternoon.... to Anja's house where we were treated to a feast with their extended family - their son and daughter along with their spouses and the four grandchildren as well as Anja's mother, 'Tante Coby' who is Ron's late father's sister and a lovely lady. For want of a better description, the dinner was like a barbecue, but the food was cooked by ourselves at the table on electric hotplates. This, along with assorted side dishes we ate for the next couple of hours! We had all sorts of meat - chicken, beef, seafood - you name it, we had it. Oh boy was it good. We were very lucky that all the family spoke English very well, so the dreaded language barrier was non existent. After a blissful night's sleep, we set off for the first of two days of non stop sightseeing. Our first port of call was the 'Maduradam', which is basically Holland in miniature. It was such a cute place to visit - so much work has gone into these working models over many years and it is something to behold for young and old. My boys would have loved it when they were little kids as
Maduradam
Fascinating for kids and adults alike there was just so much to see and do - the airport had planes moving around on the tarmac, boats cruised the canals and they even had a mock rock concert, complete with screens and dancing fans. It was hysterical. We were later taken to 'Zoltbommel' to visit some more family at another Aunt's birthday celebration. We were offered a walk around the town with some of the family, which was a bonus. It was a pretty little town with lovely walking tracks around the water. It was nice for Ron to see some of his father's surviving siblings and it was nice for me to meet them too. We particularly loved Tante Coby because she is such a strong lady and she came out with us on both days. She walked for hours on the Sunday and never complained once. She is of a good age, still rides her bike everywhere and until only a couple of years ago was still playing tennis. We were taken for a night drive through Rotterdam city and also out to 'Kinderdijk', which has a row of nineteen windmills. Unfortunately we didn't see it in daylight, but we could see the sillouhettes in
My boy
More Maduradam magic the night sky which was also pretty. Another huge feast followed that night, cooked by Ivon and Henk. The following day started with a cruise on a big boat, and another cruise which took us to yet another cruise boat, the retired SS Rotterdam where we had morning tea. This is a former cruise ship which has recently been restored and is now used as a floating hotel and restaurant. We have therefore also claimed a cruise formed part of this trip. Another nice part of the day was visiting Delf's Haven where there are pretty shop fronts and historical buildings and a windmill sitting at the end of the road, so we managed to get the real thing on camera. We couldn't have come home without at least one photo of a real windmill. The undeniable highlight of the day was going to a real Profferjes restaurant for a big plate of the dutch delicacy - Profferjes, icing sugar and butter - lots of butter! It was high calorie, high fat eating, but worth every gram of them. Some more sight seeing ensured before heading home for a take away meal. I have to say, it was one of
The Golden Earring
In concert - live at Maduradam the nicest takeaways I have ever had and made for a nice relaxing meal at the end of a very busy day. Our final morning we had a relaxed breakfast before packing up and going out to the station with Anja and her mum, Tante Coby, the sweet Aunt who wanted to come and see us off. After a nearly three hour trip on a fast train, we had past through Belgium and arrived in Paris, where I leave you now. The next blog you read will be Paris, where Mother Nature has turned on some brilliant spring weather in our honour.
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Cynthia
non-member comment
Amsterdam
Hi Sue It was lovely to hear about Holland brought back lovely memories of when I visited Maduradam and yes all the bikes. I didn't know that Ron had dutch hertiage. I haven't read all the other posts but will get to them, very interesting reading while I have a break at PANCH. Happy holidaying Cynthia