Blogs from Gelderland, Netherlands, Europe - page 3

Geo: 51.9567, 5.75556Are we in Holland still? Its been warm since our arrival last week. Not a drop of rain, and seldom a breath of wind. Another scorcher today for our trip to the Openluchtmuseum (Open Air Museum) with blue skies and 35C. Its an official heat wave in the Dutch newspapers. Todays morning routine was similar to yesterday. Up around 9.30, breakfast, and on the road around 11. It had been 7 years since my last visit to the openluchtmuseum. Much was the same style and layout, however with new features, buildings and improvements in some areas. The most notable new feature was our first stop at Holland Rama. This featured a cinema/theatre presentation different from any I had experienced before. What started as a standard film soon became more. The theatre was a moving ... read more

Saturday 16th. Goodbye to Scotland: We left Kinloch Rannoch at 5 am as planned and arrived at Edinburgh airport at about 7 am. The Easyjet flight was interesting - we could sit anywhere we wanted. We were met Schiphol airport by Jill's aunty Sjaan then caught the train to Utrecht and Ermelo - about 2 hours all up. The weather was warmer than Scotland which we appreciated. Sunday 17th. In the morning we went to Sjaan's reformed church in Ermelo. The service was in Dutch and very formal but we recognised some of the tunes. The church was built in about the 1600's with brick/cobble floors and well-polished brass chandeliers. We did some obligatory cycling around Ermelo in the afternoon. Monday 18th. There had been thunderstorms and strong winds and rain during the night and early ... read more

Have you ever had a day where you just need supervision? I feel as though my whole day can be described in two words, "oops!" and "lost!" I somehow managed to get lost looking for the train station in Nijmegen (according to the map, it's only 3 turns from Sarah's apartment!), but stumbled across it on accident. From there, the day continued going downhill. My new word in Dutch today is "Zuid" which means "south." I accidentally got off the train at the wrong Arnhem stop - I got off at Arnhem Zuid, rather than Arnhem Centraal. Ultimately, after consulting a map and realizing it was a 5 kilometer walk, I decided to wait for the next train to travel the one stop over. From there, the central train station in Arnhem has 2 exits...of course ... read more

the last 2 days have just rushed by, and tonight I go to amsterdam and then tomorrow I'm in deboik for karnaval!! I cannot say how much the people here are very very friendly, they are very welcoming and nice Sometimes I catch myself speaking with a Dutch accent?? I took a customer out today for dinner we had at Humprhy's it was very good, I have now learned a lot about Dutch culture regarding the political system and whatnot. I very much like Nijmegen, and so far my impression of Holland is very good. I met some other international students last night will hook up with them later. It is not normal to tip in holland and when you do they make kind of a big deal about it, but I hate carrying the change, ... read more

How have I gone my whole life without realizing that I lovetomato soup?!? I woke up this morning with some sort of cold, I think a combination of the dry/cold air along with my still jetlagged body has caused this. I also have found out that I didn't bring enough pairs of boots. The working hours here are very short in comparison to the longer hours we work in the US, although they take a much shorter lunch. The colleagues here are very nice so far, and welcoming to me. All the stores closed today at 6pm and I didn't get back to the hotel until right before then, so I still wasn't able to go out and get a bicycle for travelling around. The hotel that NACCO booked for me is very nice - it ... read more