Blogs from Gelderland, Netherlands, Europe - page 7

Hola amigos! From a snow white Holanda we wish everybody a very happy newyear, gelukkig nieuwjaar, feliz nuebe anos, glucklich neujahr, bonne annee! Greetz, Joost & Gill ... read more

Hey guys. I know I know, where have I been? I've been busy with Mirjam. I eventually decided that I would break my stay in Europe down into a monthly summary every month. I have so much to tell you so let's get started. First off I'd like to say how happy I am to be back here in Arnhem, not to mention back with Mirjam. Although I feel slightly ashamed of myself, skipping winter and all that. Don't get me wrong, it snows here and it gets cold.. but in comparison to Northern Michigan, it feels very much like a vacation. Everyone here freaks out over 2 inches of snow... Not 2 inches of snow in a couple hours, I mean 2 inches PERIOD, as in TOTAL. Apparently the dutch aren't used to getting a ... read more

The Netherlands It was wonderful to arrive at an airport and have a friendly face to great you. The flight from Gatwick was uneventful and going through Dutch passport control fast despite the queues. No questions asked and I was soon out the door and enjoying a coffee with Lovice. It was about an hour and a halfs drive to reach Lovice's home in Wijchen, toward the west of the Netherlands. It was wonderful to know that I could unpack and just be in one place for a while. To eat home cooked meals and just get to see how Lovice and family lived here in the Netherlands. The first week I visited the local lake with Jeromy and saw his and Natajsha's school; went supermarket shopping and clothes shopping and got my hair cut etc. ... read more

It was the homeostatic equivalent of placing a loaded pistol to my temple and pulling the trigger. Consuming 1 bottle of cheap whisky, watching 3 football world cup qualifiers, joining a protracted and intense debate about various global woes and sleeping 3 hours must rank among the worst possible preparation routines for a long-haul, transcontinental flight. What would you do? You have a nasty flight and an even more gruesome connection beginning the next day when your roommates invite you to join them in an evening of restrained revelry. The cute Angel on my right shoulder firmly reminded me that AirasiaX’s seats on the KL-London route weren’t going to be conducive to a good sleep, and London’s Stanstead airport certainly wasn’t going to provide comfortable locations to pass the 15-odd hours between my midnight arrival and ... read more

With Queensday festivities officially over last Friday morning, Koert and I took a day to rest before heading back onto the party scene again. We also engaged in a little healthful activity with a bike ride through Hoge Veluwe (pronounced ho-huh velu-wa) Park, the largest nature reserve in the country, and some brain-cell-rebuilding with a cultural visit to the Kroller-Muller Museum (which lies 5.5km beyond the park gate) on Saturday. With a few clouds keeping crowds to a minimum, Koert and I felt like intrepid explorers as we rolled, nearly alone, through an ever-changing series of landscapes - from green fields to lush forests, fine-sanded desert and two-toned savanna. We returned from our adventure with bellies full of the world's creamiest, meltiest, simplest vanilla ice cream and gave our bodies one more healthy boost of soup-and-salad ... read more