Maassluis to Copenhagen. Polar Bears, A Return to Swiss Prices, and a Rampage of Roggeveens.

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Saturday 20 June:



A nice long sleep for Zachary who was up around 9. After all our morning jobs we headed off to Blijdorp Zoo in Rotterdam. Hannie and Anja are regulars here and we were joined by Sebastiaan, their nephew. He is a train enthusiast and also owns several lizards.



The main priorities at Blijdorp were to see the new polar bear cubs and the elephants. Blijdorp has had a very successful elephant breeding program over the years. Much money has also been spent in recent years to fully upgrade enclosures.



Just inside the gate were the raccoons. Not normally animals you see at a zoo and a keeper explained to us that these were all ex-pets. Raccoons are very small, cute, and cuddly when babies. When they are older they have sharp claws, eat everything, and are very destructive. Consequently many owners don’t want them anymore so they are surrendered to the Dutch equivalent of our SPCA and the zoo took them from there. They are surprisingly excellent swimmers.



Then it was the polar bears. The cubs were out and very active and it was cool to see one swimming up very close. While the cubs were playing, Mum was snoozing. The father bear died before the cubs were born so she is going solo.



We were very impressed with Blijdorp and I think overall it is the best of the zoos we have seen. The elephants also had a baby and there were a number of animals with babies and that’s a good sign. It also has lots of playgrounds scattered around and a decent range of not overpriced food and drink places.



After Hannie and Anja bought Zachary a toy snake (which was good as we seem to have lost the one we bought in Zagreb) we headed into Rotterdam city for dinner with the extended family. I rather enjoyed the drive there, going along roads I remember from previous visits and seeing the changes. What actually struck me was how incredibly clean the streets were. Whether this was a fluke or now the norm I don’t know but it certainly made a positive impression. The other thing was that as we drove through the city it felt very much to me like I was at home. I have never actually lived in Rotterdam but that is where the roots of the family are so maybe that was it.



Anyway, we got to dinner and it was lovely to see my father’s sisters-in-law Jannie and Nel again (Jannie is Anja’s mother, Nel is Hannie’s). I also met cousin John again and his wife and three daughters – the oldest of which I did meet as a toddler on my last visit. We had an excellent meal and conversation. Zachary got some gifts and was soon the life of the party. At one stage he was greeting guests and showing them where to go! He made friends with the older couple at the table next to us also and had them enthralled.



Then it was back to Maassluis and a late night for the young man with the rest of us not far behind him. We were lucky with the weather today. The weather has been “shit” according to Hannie thus far so to have a day with no rain and about 17 degrees was almost like summer. Speaking of which, tomorrow is the official first day of summer. I am hoping for 25 degrees and clear skies but suspect I’ll be disappointed. We will go to Delft in the morning and from there make our way to Schiphol for our flight to Copenhagen.



Sunday 21 June:



Well, nature doesn’t worry too much about calendars and we woke up to a gloomy, windy, cold day. Zachary slept well and made his way downstairs about 9. We decided there was no huge rush to go anywhere so took our time. We have managed to do a good laundry catch-up and with a bit of effort Heather got everything packed. We always have to compress our stuff when we fly and we have picked up a few things – notably the slippers – so we are going to have to consider downsizing a bit. Perhaps after Finland we won’t need all our cold-weather clothes so we may send that to the Hoffmanns.



We went into Delft which is a really lovely Dutch city (sorry, left camera in the car so you’ll have to take my word for it). The city square is really beautiful and is dominated by the church in which the Dutch royal family is all interred. We had a typical Dutch meal of pancakes and then I spotted some more of the clog slippers for sale, so Hannie and Anja got a pair each. They will remember us each time they wear them! Then they drove us the half hour or so to Schiphol and saw us off.



Hannie commented that they were a bit apprehensive about us coming to stay. It had been 21 years since they last saw me, and they didn’t know Heather or Zachary of course. But they really enjoyed having us stay and we really enjoyed staying with them. Hannie and I have a lot in common in particular. As well as nearly identical music tastes, for both dinner last night and lunch we ordered exactly the same thing! Hopefully we have convinced them to come to NZ. They seem to go to Portugal or Spain or somewhere silly like that for their holidays…



So into the massive complex that is Schiphol Airport and we had a quick visit to the outside viewing deck where we said our final goodbyes. Then as it was raining we headed back in and did the check in and security thing. Full body scanners for the first time on the trip.



We got to our gate and half an hour before we were due to take off our plane finally arrived so the prospects of leaving on-time were similar to that of the Wallabies winning this year’s RWC (very remote but you never know…) In the end a pretty good effort to get away only 25 minutes late. Unfortunately it means we are going to get to our hostel rather late (after reception closes at 8). I hadn’t managed to contact them to let them know this at Schiphol but did so at Copenhagen Airport. Grabbed some dinner, got some Danish money (at a sensible exchange rate, unlike what was being offered at Schiphol), and headed into town to the hostel. First impressions of Copenhagen – clean, efficient and expensive. The Metros are driverless like in Dubai and Zachary made friends with a couple of ladies on the way in. I had a very nice young man (who had had a few beers) sit opposite me and comment on our red and blue travel pillows. Denmark has just had national elections and, like most countries, their major parties are represented by red and blue. So I got a bit of a run-down as to what happened which was informative.



Hostel is very basic and we are paying an arm and half a leg for it – but hotels in Copenhagen under about $300 a night don’t exist so we didn’t have too many options. It’s only for 2 nights so we’ll survive. Depending on the weather and moods we’ll try and get into the city in the morning. A canal cruise is on the list and possibly a visit to the Nyhavn area. We may also look at doing something Hans Christian Andersen related.



Monday 22 June:



We had to wake Zachary up to get breakfast which is only served between 7:30 and 9 so he was a bit tired. After the over-priced meal we came back to the room and just chilled out. The weather was grotty so no rush to go anywhere.



By about 10:30am we thought we’d better just take our chances and go into town. We had decided to go to Hans Christian Andersen Fairy-Tale House and then try a canal cruise. First stop though was the Central Rail Station where I managed to use a machine to get tickets to go to Middelfart tomorrow (near where Heather’s friend Anne lives) and from there to the airport on Friday. Having had no success with a machine yesterday that was supposed to take notes, I was pleasantly surprised to find it all worked! We then headed for the Town Hall Square to find the Fairy-Tale House. Copenhagen certainly seems a nice city. Quite spacious and clean and not too busy at this point. The Fairy-Tale House was good. Entry was the equivalent of €8.50 or $NZ12 (no charge for Zachary) and you went through and there were displays, similar to De Efteling, of some of his most famous stories. You could listen to them also in Danish, English, or German. There was information about Andersen’s life and a few historical objects too, but we thought there would have been more.



When we got out the rain had cleared and the sun was shining brightly. We headed off down one of the main shopping streets towards the canal cruise. We had a little while to wait so we went to a nearby square where a junior brass band were practising performing live which was fun to watch. The canal cruise was good. We saw many of the main sights of Copenhagen, including “The Little Mermaid” statue.



After that we headed back to the train station as we had forgotten to check for lockers. Just as well I did go and check (Heather and Zachary waited in the nearby square) as I established their “large” lockers were not very large at all. We would certainly need 2 of them, assuming one pack actually fitted in one, and at €10 a pop I wasn’t keen! So we will try to go to Anne’s a bit earlier.



We found a place called “Wok On” for dinner which was very good and almost sensibly priced. Then a busy bus back to the hostel and Zachary got to play on the playground. It’s great that they have a playground here, it would be better if there was some way for children younger than about 8 to access the slide…



Copenhagen certainly has lots to do but it is similar to Zurich in terms of prices so you wouldn’t want to spend too much time here unless you have an enormous budget! But I’m glad I’ve seen it. We are looking forward to staying with Anne tomorrow and going to Legoland on Wednesday. Then Friday we fly to Helsinki for one night before heading off for our week long stay in Akaslompolo in the Arctic Circle.

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