Ben Geytenbeek

Ben Geytenbeek

Ben Geytenbeek




Europe » Netherlands » Gelderland » Nunspeet July 14th 2010

I woke up, stayed in bed, fell asleep again and woke up again. Then I got up and lounged around in the living room for a while until everyone else woke up. Once they had, we had breakfast together, me having two large bowls of cereal. There was several other items of food, but I didn't eat any. We packed up our things for the day and went and got in the car with Aunty Betsy. Aunty Betsy drove us to a nearby town of Staphorst. There were several farms on the way, with different types of crop, but when we did get to Staphorst, we noted the unusual layout of the town. Instead of rows and rows of streets like a normal town, it has one road, then a house with 2 or 3 houses ... read more
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Europe » Netherlands » Gelderland » Nunspeet July 13th 2010

The day started very similarly to the previous day; lying in on my air materess and only getting up when Dad comes in and says that we are going on a bike ride. I got dressed and made my way downstairs, and had breakfast, once again, museli. Then, Nana came in with Leidy and they had a map which they gave to us. It showed Huizen and Naarden so we wouldn't get lost. We took the same bikes, putting the hipbag into the bag on the side of Leidy's bike. We rode out of the town on the streets we knew to the harbour. From there, our map showed a bike track, so we worked our way around the coast before we found it, passing a firefighting excersise which Dad rather liked. The track we were ... read more
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Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Huizen July 13th 2010

I woke up on my air mattress, but just lay there for a while, too tired and lazy to get up. Then Dad came in and said to get up and have some breakfast, then afterwards we would go for a bike ride. So I fumbled downstairs and said hello to Leidy and Nana, and ate breakfast, again cereal, museli, while having a conversation with Nana, Dad and Leidy, with Nana translating everything from Dutch to English and back. All of the food in Leidy's house is organic, or Biological as it is called in Holland. She had to pay a little more for it though. After breakfast, Leidy took us outside and showed us the bikes that we could use. She did have two bikes, hers and her late husband Wim. I used Leidy's, while ... read more
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Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Huizen July 9th 2010

We had to wake up early to pack our things up, because we were leaving Ben and Von that day. The twins again had school, so we said goodbye to them, and we think that they understood us, because they only speak Dutch and we only spoke English. With our things in our bags, we took them downstairs and left them in the laundry and helped ourselves to breakfast, again museli. We said goodbye to Von, who was taking the twins to school, and Dad, Ben and I got in Ben's car and drove off towards the east, leaving Nana behind, still yet to pack some of her things. As we drove, Ben and Dad started talking about family history. I was listening in, finding it a facinating topic. There was so much that I didn't ... read more
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Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Enkhuizen July 9th 2010

Once again, the twins had to get ready for school at 8.30, so we tried to stay out of their way as much as we could. It wasn't hard though because we had got up at about 8. Ben had again planned the day for us, so at half past 9, we left to the Enkhuisen Train Station. When we arrived, I assumed we were going somewhere by train, but Ben walked in the other direction, so we followed him. He told us we were going to the Zuiderzee museum. We had to take a ferry there, so we bought tickets and waited by the ferry stop. Dad looked across at all of the boats in the harbour. The ferry arrived at 10, with no-one else on board but two ferry operators. We got on, and ... read more
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Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Enkhuizen July 6th 2010

I woke up and made my way downstairs and helped myself to some museli for breakfast. I could hear the twins from upstairs but when I came down, they were silent and distracted. They were supposed to be getting ready for school. I sat at the table and the twins stopped eating, so Von had to get out a Mickey Mouse clock and show them what time it was, and then they got ready faster. The twins started school at 8.30, and we had to take Fredric to the train station for 9 o'clock, because he had a train back to his uni to do some more study. So we slowly got ready, farewelled the twins and Von, and at quarter to 9, we got in the car and drove to Enkhuisen. We arrived at the ... read more
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Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Enkhuizen July 6th 2010

After 8 busy days in 3 big cities, both of us needed a break. We had been going flat out, seeing as much as we could of London, Paris and Amsterdam in the short time we had there. Now that we had met up with Nana, we would slow down, and start the part of the trip where we were with family, meeting people we hadn't met before, or hadn't seen in a long time. No longer did we have to worry about what we would go to do next, because it had all been organized for us. Everyone else was going to church. We had been told the previous night that we didn't have to go because it would have been in Dutch and we wouldn't have understood it. They had left at 8.30 and ... read more
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Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Enkhuizen July 4th 2010

Our day started at about 7, with a shower and headed down to breakfast. People were still celebrating from the previous night. Breakfast was a self serve buffet breakfast, with cereal and toast and different types of sandwich fillings and juice on a tap. I had as much as I could because we knew that the more we had the better value for money it was. I probably had 4 or 5 bowls of cereal in the end. We went back upstairs and packed up. Nana packed up her stuff as well. We put all of our washing into a bag to give to Nana because she was going to Andijk before us so she could do the washing before we get there. We had one last look at the canals before heading to the train ... read more
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Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Amsterdam July 4th 2010

We woke up early, that was one of the things that you do when there are 16 men sleeping in the one room, and had showers and made our way downstairs looking for breakfast. It was 7.30, and we were told that breakfast was served at 8, so Dad decided to go for a walk. We left everything in the hostel, and made our way towards the east of the city, walking through all the streets with the buildings falling over, and along the canals and looking at the houseboats where people still live. We walked wherever we felt like, looking at the sights of what makes Amsterdam, Amsterdam. We looked at our watches and saw that it was 8, so we walked in the direction that we thought our hostel was, but everything looks the ... read more
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Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Amsterdam July 1st 2010

We were able to sleep a little later because we didn't have that much of a busy day ahead of us. We weren't going to be running around seeing 6 or 7 things in such a short space of time. Again downstairs, we had croissants and baggettes, for the last time in that small hotel, and made our way back upstairs to pack all of our things up into our bag to take on the train to Amsterdam. But the train wouldn't leave until the afternoon so we were able to go out for a little bit in the morning. Dad had been planning a walk for quite a while to do on the last morning in Paris, so we checked out of the hotel, and, leaving the bags in the bag room, and taking the ... read more
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