Blogs from Overijssel, Netherlands, Europe - page 2

Since my Polish haircut experience Gretchen has been hanging out waiting until we get to Holland for Diny (Cormac’s mother) to find a hairdresser and to go along and translate for the style Gretchen likes. Today or tomorrow could be the day as our journey this morning will take us south to Zwolle in Holland. I don’t recall seeing Gretchen with a shaggier looking style, the result of the Kotor, Montenegro haircut. The high pressure that has been around for a few days is still here this morning and we have another cloudless, blue sky for the drive. However, before getting on the road we waited for a while in anticipation of the new royal baby being born to Kate and William as we have been able to get the BBC news channel on the TV ... read more

It rained again off and on so we decided today would be the day that we visit the places where I was born and lived. I had previously contacted my old friend Jet (Henriette) and she agreed she would meet up with us. We drove to De Krim in Overijssel and tried to find my old school and the place where one of my uncles and aunts had lived, couldn't find either although some of the neighbourhoods were still familiar. In front of my old home Jet was already waiting....it was great to see her again after 45!!!! ..years, as we talked it felt as though the years fell away slowly and we both remarked on how great it was to have grown up here (photos), it was wonderful to see her again! Our old house ... read more

Fri I forgot how very far it is ..... After 26 hours of traveling we were picked up By A very flash new Mercedes arriving at our hotel at 7 in the morning. As our room was not ready we dumped our bags and headed out to look for a coffee. Seems Amsterdam doesn,t wake up till 9.30. then very quickley gets verybusyand by midday you are very likely to get knocked off by a fast movi g bycicle or a very quiet tram. (same result in both cases only one more messy) We exhaunted ourselves walking around getting our bearings until we colapsed and decided to rest our feet on a canal boat ride. Ve... read more

We spent one more day in Ahrweiler and Bad Neuenahr. We visited a foodfair in Bad Neuenahr but only mastered a piece of plum cake, not feeling for any fatty food.Next day we took leave from the nice people in Ahrweiler. We had a glorious stay there. After a good breakfast we left Ahrweiler and went further north direction Holland We landed in a little place called Tubbergen. It is in Twente, close to Hengelo, where I spent the first twelve of so years of my live. Up to a certain point the GPR worked well and we enjoyed the route it had set out for us. We had a mixture of Autobahn and country roads that gave us a good variety of scenery and traffic. Roadworks sent us twice to dead ends but it will ... read more

Berend and Islemary were my hosts for two days in this tiny village near the Friesland border. The weather was nice when I took the train from Zutphen to Steenwijk and remained OK for the afternoon, but by evening rain and wind had set in. In the afternoon we went to the canal town of Giethoorn where there are many water related activities such as canooeing and canal trips as well as a lake to sail on. This is a popular tourist spot with walkways and paths, bikes to hire and cafes to sit in. In the winter the canals freeze and are used for long distance skating. It's an extremely popular holiday spot, really pretty. Another town nearby is Blokzijl which was once a harbour. Now its an inland water town as a new dyke ... read more