France - Holland


Advertisement
Netherlands' flag
Europe » Netherlands » North Holland » Amsterdam
July 27th 2008
Published: July 27th 2008
Edit Blog Post

Well, we finally made it to France after one very long flight with much to say about the lack of food that we had - one piece of cheese, 2 small Ritz crackers, a rice dish from Presidents Choice for dinner and a muffin for breakfast and Coffee and tea a couple of times. Once arriving at the airport we landed on the tarmac, were bussed to a terminal and herded in like cattle. Apparently this terminal is not used often, the roof collapsed in the other one. Once we got our rental which was a smooth process, off to the land of many roundabouts and freeways. Oh yeah, diesel first and because we didn’t have an express card, had to change pumps and then couldn’t get it going. During our drive north from Paris, the landscape reminded us of Saskatchewan except instead of seeing the grain silo before the town, it was the church steeple.Upon arriving at the hotel about 2 hours later, it was find something to eat and get to bed. The room was very clean but very tiny as one can see from the picture, but it served the purpose of sleep. Our first night in Noyelles Godault, France - Subway for dinner as it was the closest establishment around quick and should be good. Yup. This morning we headed towards Vimy Ridge which was spectacular to see. The main monument which is made of limestone stands 10 storeys high. It stands high on the ridge and can be seen from miles away. The trenches are still there and some bombs are still live. The Cdn War Cemetery has some many gravestones with “kids” aged 18, 19 & 20. Off to Utrecht to pickup Garrett at the Dom Torren. Thank heavens for GPS. With the tiny little streets, and many sharp turns and 1000 of bicycles to compete with along with pedestrians, it made for a very interesting journey. We did find him which was a relief, as neither one of us were sure if his phone would work. We wandered around a bit then off to find a lost cousin whom I haven’t seen in 21 years. Found her, had a great chat seen many pictures, even saw her parents which are my aunt and uncle, had dinner, played with the kids and then off to Amsterdam. We have stopped for the night to rest and then to explore Amsterdam tomorrow. Who knows where our feet will take us.

Our Little hotel room



Vimy Ridge



Narrow Street in Utrecht



Picked up Garrett!



Bikes!






Advertisement



27th July 2008

Togetherness
Enjoyed the update and the photos! Glad you are all together now. Are you following the Beier tradition of naming your GPS voice? (Ours was Heidi in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland but we called her Sophia when in Italy!).
27th July 2008

Starving Travellers
Glad to see you still alive! And actually managed to find Garrett! Hope the remainder of your trip is better than the getting there.
29th July 2008

Like that ceiling bed!
Small and cozy room, good thing you guys like each other. Nice pics. Enjoy the rest of your trip.

Tot: 0.222s; Tpl: 0.009s; cc: 11; qc: 52; dbt: 0.0445s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.1mb