Europa 2013

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Managed to find our way into the city without getting lost this morning. It's literally 10 minutes from the hotel so I don't know how we managed to get it so wrong yesterday. Well yes I do but I made mention of that yesterday! Strolled around the city and picked up a few essentials. Found a Vodaphone shop so that I could purchase a SIM card for my phone that I can use throughout Europe. We purchased a TravelSIM in Perth that we thought would do the trick but I wouldn't recommend them. Not user friendly. The process to call and text is just too complicated. Stopped at a flower stall and bought a bunch of flowers for my cousin Nel who we were visiting in the afternoon. Flower are ridiculously inexpensive here. A big bunch of beautiful fresh flowers for around $8.00! Popped into a store called Vroom and Dressman and had lunch in the its instore eatery. On our way out a particular counter caught my eye. I thought I was seeing things but no there was a whole counter dedicated to jube lollies! It made me think of jube obsessed daughter Pippa. If she was here she would think she had died and gone to heaven! And then there was that counter full of tarts and fresh bread . . .

After lunch we headed off to my cousin Nel's place. Nel lives about 10kms out of the city and we had travelled by tram to her place on Monday. The difference was that this time we were doing it on our own whereas on the Monday she was with us. No problem all good except that we got off three stops too early. Nel lives on Erasmusweg so when Erasmusplein came up on the screen as the next stop I thought we were where we needed to be. No, no, no we needed to get off at Hardenbroekstraat . . . of course. So . . . more walking! We haven't had this much exercise in years!

Had a glorious afternoon and evening with Nel and my sister Anne and brother-in-law Ric. Nel made us a a beautiful traditional Dutch meal of vlees, aardappelen, groene bonen, witloaf emwikkeld met spek en appel moes. It was just like my mum used to make for the family when I was a young girl. Delicious!

We managed to catch the tram back to the hotel without getting lost or getting off at the wrong stop. How's that for progress! Ah, another memorable day.

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Photos

The Hague
Jube Heaven

The Hague
Tarts, bread . . . Yum!

The Hague
Cousin Nel, sister Anne and us!

The Hague
Street flower stall.

Comments

[Josie]

Getting Lost
So pleased to hear that you didn't master the transport system first time around. There's nothing like seeing sights that you had no intention of seeing, just through getting those stations/stops wrong (hope you have good shoes). Your holiday looks amazing - thanks so much for keeping us updated! And I'm really pleased that we don't have those jube stalls here in Perth - you can just imagine what Rose Marie McCracken would be hauling in here to Newman on a daily basis! XX

[Rose Marie McCracken]

Jubes and Bread!
Oh my goodness! Bread and jubes! I could live at that counter. Looks so nice. Hopefully you will be able to fit in your seat on your way back to Perth! The flower stall looks beautiful and great to see you with your family. I bet they are happy to have you there. Ciao bella! Rosex PS: Miss you!