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Published: April 15th 2011
Maastricht
So beautifulOff to Rome------Hmmm maybe not!!
Before we start this adventure I must make sure I correct some facts that I included in the last blog about Holland. I stated it had 11 provinces and thanks to one of the blog readers I now know it actually has 12 provinces. The other correction I need to make is that Frisian is not a dialect of Dutch, rather it is Holland's only other official language. Thanks Dad for that correction. So hopefully now I have the facts straight for all of us. Let's continue the adventure.
Wed, Thurs and Friday - March 16-18, 2011
We left Amsterdam train station, running for the Euro bus lines. We got to the bus station with just minutes to spare and while standing in line waiting to purchase our bus tickets, it hit us that the bus trip to Rome was going to be 32 hours!! I just couldn't stand the thought of being on yet another bus for such a long time. We had spent many hours on buses in Southeast Asia and I just couldn't do it again so soon. I guess I need more time to change that memory to a
Maastricht, Holland
Quaint narrow cobblestreets in town positive one. So......instead of getting on the bus, we jumped back on the train and headed to Rotterdam, Holland. While sitting on the train discussing more plans we decided that the best plan would be to go all the way to south Holland and work our way back up and spend the next month just exploring the Netherlands. Instead of running from big city to big city in Europe, our plan changed to really becoming intimate with the Netherlands and see what each day would bring. Now the Netherlands is not a big country, so we weren't sure we could keep ourselves occupied for the next month, but we were determined to try.
We knew we wanted to go to Maastricht, one of the most southern cities of Holland and some claim that it is Holland's oldest city. (I guess there is some debate with another city) So the decision was made and we were going to Maastricht. A very nice man on the train was listening to our conversation and kindly told us we were on the wrong train if we were headed to Maastricht, but it was not a problem, as we could get off at Utriecht
Maastricht, Holland
Close up of the cobble street design. So much work to install station and transfer to the south route. He walked us through the platforms we needed and viola!! we were on the right train headed to the right city.
We arrived at the train station in Maastricht, found a cafe that had internet, found a hostel, called and they had room for us and it was just a 10 minute walk away.
While on the walk to the hostel we got a quick look at the city. It was a very beautiful old city. We checked into the hostel and went to tour the city. We spent the next couple of days exploring this old old city. Lots of beautiful old buildings, ancient old squares to drink coffee and have a cookie. Oh yeah, speaking of coffee and cookies. Drinking coffee is a whole experience in itself in the Netherlands. When you order a coffee, you get a teeny, tiny little mug of very strong, very wonderful coffee and ALWAYS a little cookie to go with it. For me, a true Canadian, the little mugs were a little disconcerting at first. At home when I order a coffee, I get a X-large or a Venti and I am a happy camper!!!
Maastricht, Holland
Oliebollen!!!! One of the Dutch's best treats!!! Deep fried dough with icing sugar!!!! Here, that little mug is gone in about 3 swallows. I am learning the art of slowly sipping my coffee and nibbling on my little cookie. I'm not sure it's acceptable behaviour or not, but I like to dip my little cookie in my little coffee. Given time I could probably enjoy this art, but right now.... truly..... I really do miss my GREAT BIG coffees.
Anyway Maastricht is also known for it's international university and shopping. Lots of young people in the city. We did some shopping, but as always since space is an issue, we didn't buy much. A couple of scarfs. Love scarfs, they can make it look like we have a different outfit on each day, just by changing the scarf!!!!
We had to check out of our hostel after the first night, as there was a huge art show and sale going on. We lucked out and found a room in a house boat. We stayed for the next 2 nights in the Botel, while we explored, read, worked on the blog and planned more of our trip.
Sat March 19, 2011
We left Holland today and headed to Belgium. In a previous blog
I talked about a young couple we met in Florida, Walter and karen from Brussels. We connected with them and they wanted to show us around part of their beautiful country and especially Brussels. So on the train we went to Belgium. Walter and Karen picked us up at the train station and took us to Walter's parents home. Walter and Karen are staying there while they get back on their feet after 6 months of travelling in North America and Mexico. We settled in and off we went to check out the city of Gent, Belgium. The city of Ghent has a long and interesting history that dates back to the iron age. In the 13th century, Ghent was the second largest city in Europe, after Paris. Right in the middle of the city is a real medieval castle. We toured around the old square of the city and of course had to make a quick stop to buy some Belgian Chocolate. I know my kids are wanting me to bring some home, but I'm just not sure it will make it all the way to Canada. You know....it might melt or something!!!!
Anyway it truly is wonderful chocolate
Masstricht, Holland
The "Botel" where we stayed for a couple of nights. and an wonderful city. We returned to Walter's parents' home and went out for traditional Begian fast food. Deep fried meat and fries. You choose from different meats from the display case. Chicken nuggets, meatballs, kabobs etc and it is then deep fried and of course an order of fries. Then you choose your dipping sauce. mayo, ketchup, curry, garlic etc. We all pigged out on the fast food. Karen told us an interesting story about what we know as "French Fries". As it turns out, French Fries may not really be French Fries, but rather Belgian Fries. The story is that during one of the Wars, one soldier came upon a french speaking Belgian soldier eating these deep fried potatoes and they received the name of French Fries, when in fact maybe we should be calling them Belgian Fries. Interesting story, but I don't think French Fries will ever be known as anything but French Fries. Had a lovely evening meeting and chatting with Walter, Karen and Walter's parents.
Sun March 20. 2011
We were all up early, as the plan for the day was to explore the city of Brussels. Off we went after breaky into the
Market in Maastricht
on the vine tomatoes with the market behind. big city. Brussels is over 1000 years old. Hard to imagaine when everything at home is so relatively new. Brussels is the capital of Belgium and the administrative centre of the European Union. This has earned the city the title of the Capital of Europe. Brussels has been given its character by the coexistence of French and Flemish culture.The atmosphere of Brussels is further enhanced by picturesque medieval streets, lively squares, beautiful boulevards, impressive monuments, spacious parks and cosy cafés. We started our tour at the heart of Brussels; the Grand'Place (Grote Markt). This historic market square with its guild houses and the impressive Gothic beauty of the Town Hall, is widely considered to be one of the most beautiful town squares in Europe. We spent all day walking the city streets and learning about some of the history of Brussels. Such an interesting city with a mix of sooo old and some very modern happenings and buildings. Along the way of course we had to stop and have a Belgian Waffle. YUMMM. For our afternoon break we stopped in a little pub in a dark alley and with Walter's help, we sampled several different Belgian beers. Some....really great...others....really horrible!!
Our last stop on our Brussels tour was the Giant molecule structure! The Atomium in Brussels is a monument in the shape of an iron molecule enlarged 165 billion times. The Atomium was never supposed to last this long. Erected for the 1958 World Fair, the building was destined to be dismantled soon after the Expo. The Atomium, however, had left such an enduring impression with its nine shiny spheres, the panoramic view from the restaurant towering more then 100 meters above ground in one of the nine “atoms’’ and the elaborate external lighting system mimicking the flight of electrons, that Belgium decided to keep it for good. This giant molecule is now a popular landmark in Brussels.
After exploring this amazing city we headed off to Karen's parents for a traditional Belgian supper. we were warmly greeted by Karen's parents and sat down to a delicious dinner of endives wrapped in ham with a cheese sauce and some traditional baked mashed potatoes. For desert we had crepes with sugar. What a treat!!!!!
After visiting a while we went back to Walter's home and fell into bed exhausted after a full day, wishing we could have another couple of days
to explore even more of this great city. One day is certainly not enough to take it all in.
Mon March 21, 2011
We woke up and were on our way back to Holland.
Walter please thank your parents again for opening their home to us for a couple of nights. Karen please thank your parents again for such a lovely evening and sharing with us such a great dinner. Walter and Karen, so nice to see you again. Thanks for showing us around just a piece of the land you call home. What a great way to see a city.....a personal tour by you who love your country. We wish you the best that life has to give. Stay in touch!!!
So we headed back into Holland. We stayed in a little town called Valkenburg. We spent most of the day looking at places we wanted to go to and mapping out our route. It is very expensive to travel in Holland we decided. Even the cheapest hostels were looking like they were about 60 Euros. In our research we found a site called WICKED Europe. This a company out of Britian that rents out vans and campers
Ghent, Belgium
Shoes on the line for vacations. We did some cost comparisons and found out that if we rented one of the vans for 2 weeks it would be less costly than travelling around by train and staying in a hostel/hotel each night. We called and they had one available for us to pick up the following day in Amsterdam. We spent the rest of the day and evening watching some English TV and reading.
Tues March 22, 2011
We were up bright and early, excited about picking up our van. We jumped back on the train and rode to Schipol Airport (Amsterdam's International). Once we were there we borrowed a phone to call the depot and 15 minutes later a nice young fella picked us up and took us right to our new home (the van) for the next 2 weeks.
Well...... on the website this WICKED van is all painted in crazy colors etc, but the explaination stated that the "van may not be exactly as shown". We took that literally and expected to find just a regular van waiting for us, but.......when we came face to face with our Van it truly was all painted up. All very bright colors in
Gent, Belgium
Old medevil castle in the middle of the city an ALice in Wonderland theme. We had a great laugh!!! The seats in the van had been taken out and converted into 2 benchs with a table that can be convered into a bed. All the cooking supplies were there, a little sink, a couple of little lawn chairs and a plastic folding table to use outside. We were set to go in our crazy van. All we needed to get was some bedding. Then Rene looked inside and realized that the steering wheel was on the right hand side. Another great laugh!!! He had never driven this way and learning it in a foreign country had him a little nervous at first, but within about 15 minutes it was no problem.
We threw all our luggage into WICKED (that's what we had named her) and on the road we went. We drove south again and drove along some VERY narrow canal roads. Roads that were just big enough for one vehicle with canals on both sides and picture perfect brick houses and farms along these canals.
A very interesting drive. We would not have been able to do this drive if we did not rent the van. The trains,
Ghent, Brussels
Typical street in the city although very efficient, don't go to all these tiny little villages. By having the van we can meander around all we want as we are not on any schedule or specific route. By the first hour on the road we were very thankful we had the opportunity to rent WICKED. Silly looking, but oh so much fun!!
We arrived at our first stop of our tour in Kinderdijk. It was dark when we arrived so we just went to MacDonald's for dinner (free WIFI). We needed to get some groceries and while we were talking a lady behind us offered to show us where the grocery story was. We gratefully accepted and we followed her and her family to the store. After purchasing our groceries we found a parking lot and tucked ourselves in for our first night in Wicked.
Wed - March 23, 2011
Well...... our first night was just fine. I was a little worried about sleeping on just some pieces of foam, but I guess after the carzy hard and varied beds we experienced in S.E Asia, we can sleep anywhere??? Anyway, Kinderdijk is a village in South Holland, but more interesting than the village is
Ghent, Belgium
The 3 towers in the city center the 19 Windmills that line the canals. This system of 19 windmills was built around 1740 to pump water from low-lying land (the Dutch call these lands - polders) back into the Lek River. This group of mills is the largest concentration of old windmills in the Netherlands. The windmills of Kinderdijk are one of the best known Dutch tourist sites. They are also a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1997. we spent 2 hours just walking along the canal and looking at these massive windmills. Most of the mills have families living in them now and are not operational for pumping water, although I believe in an emergency they can still be used. What an impressive sight. After walking the canal, we stopped to have some lunch and then decided we should rent bikes and bike along the canal and get another look at the windmills. We continued our bike ride into another very near town. The villages and towns in Holland are all very close together and the land is pancake flat, so very easy to cycle wherever you need to go. Had a great day hanging out at the Kinderdijk. We thought we should carry on to
Ghent, Belgium
Coffee stop with our friends Walter and Karen the next stop of the tour, so about 5:30 we left Kinderdijk and headed towards a town called Gouda. By the time we got there it was dark again, so we ended up stopping near a little pub. We went in and had an omelette. We asked the waitress if she thought we could just park in the parking lot behind the pub and she told us that the police station was right across the street and they might not like us there and in the night come and make us move. She then directed us to a sportsfield. Within 15 minutes we converted our dining room into our bedroom and to bed we went.
Thurs - March 24, 2011
We woke up, converted the sleeping quarters again, had some breaky and went off to explore Gouda. Guess what they make there???. While walking around the market we asked a guy if there was somewhere where we could watch the cheese making process. He gave us the name of a dairy farm in the area that gave tours of their process. Off we went in search of the dairy/cheese farm. Again we drove some very narrow tiny roads, but
Brussels, Belgium
Grote Market, Main Square no problem now. It's like Rene has been driving this way forever. We found the farm, knocked on the door and were invited in. Now this farm is a real working farm and they will do tours if they are not too busy. So lucky for us they were not that busy. We first watched a 15 minute movie about the cheese making process and then becasue it was just the two of us, we got to walk right in to where the owner of the farm and his son were busy making the cheese forms. We watched and talked with them for about 1 hour about how cheese made. From the milking process to the end where we got to sample the different kinds of cheese and the different ages of the cheese. We bought a chunk of tomato and olive gouda cheese. HMMMMMM!!!!!!
After our tour we jumped back into the van as we wanted to be in Northern Holland in a town called Alkmaar to watch the cheese weighing display that the internet said was only held on Friday mornings from 10-12. So we drove half way across the country - took only a couple of hours,
and found Alkmaar. We looked for a campground and although we found 2, they were both closed until April 01. So we found a nice nature park and parked for the night. Bought some dinner, went for a long walk in the park and played cards until bedtime.
Fri - March 25, 2011
Went into Alkmaar, found the square where the show was to be. It looked pretty quiet for anything to be happening and sure enough when we asked, we were told that this was the right square, but the show didn't start for the season until April 01. That meant not until next Friday. Oh well, we had to change our tour route a little but no problems as we wanted to check out the polders in the area anyway. Off we went to see the polders. Now.... polders are the low lands in the Netherlands. That means most of Holland is a polder as far as I can tell. OK not most but, about 25% of its area and 21% of its population located below sea level and 50% of its land lies less than one metre above sea level. Sounds polder-ish to me!!! It was
Brussels, Belgium
View from high up a fascinating drive, mostly with us driving right up on the dijks and so many farms and so much land below us.
We decided since we couldn't find campgrounds with showers, we would stop once in a while in a hotel for the night and have a shower and clean up a bit, so we found this great hotel in the middle of the polder area in DeRijp. We checked in and they told us we could use the bicycles. We cycled through the town for an hour or so and came back to the hotel, ate dinner, watched some TV and to bed.
Sat - March 26, 2011
Woke up to kinda drizzily wet morning. We lounged around and finally at about 11:00 decided we should get moving. Our next tour stop was central Holland. We set out and just kept driving and driving. At 4:00 we stopped at a MacDonald's just about 1/2 hour from the German border. We checked emails, had a coffee, Skyped with Cyndi and drove into Germany. Our first stop was in a grocery store. There we bought some wieners in a jar!!!, a container of sauerkraut, some ham, pickle and mayo
Brussels, Belgium
just one of the many old beautiful churchs in the city salad and a bottle of German wine. What we really wanted to do was find a small corner German pub and hang out with some locals. We drove to a little town called Neuenkirchen and went walking. We found a little pub called Alte Marktschanke. In we went. We hit the jackpot with this little pub. We found out the the speciality of the house was a local brew called Rolinck and the dinner was authentic schnitzle with a sunny side egg on top, served with fried potatoes and a German salad. We were in German Heaven!!!! Everything was wonderful except that it seemed that everyone in the pub smoked. I'm sure the air was blue with smoke. We each had a couple of beer, tiny little glasses that just keep coming until you tell the girls "no more", and by then our eyes and throats were burning so we had to leave. What a great night it was!! Another night in another nameless parking lot.
Sun - March 27, 2011.
Woke up to church bells ringing in Neuenkirchen Germany. We contemplated finding a church, but decided we could only catch one or two words in the Dutch
Brussels, Belgium
famous tourist attraction - Mannicka piss church we attended, so the odds of even understanding one word in German might be one too many. Instead we found a wonderful little German Bakery attached to a gas station. We walked in to smell fresh bread just coming out of the oven. We bought a couple of fresh cheese buns and a coffee and off we went to check out some of this west area of Germany. We noticed some very stark differences between Germany in Holland. In Germany, the farms are much bigger. The land is bigger, the houses are bigger and the area between the towns in much bigger. The brick they build their homes is a richer redish color. The farms are just as immaculate as in Holland, just bigger. I really wanted to see a castle in Germany, but just as I had given up hope, we drove right into one. Jumped out of the van and went to explore this big beautiful old castle. Back in the van. It was a beautiful sunny day and we were headed back to Holland and going to the very west coast. We had some good tunes on the radio with Dutch commericals, so we could laugh
Brussels, Belgium
Molecule structure and say the funny sounding Dutch words and before we knew it we were on the very west side of Holland. That meant we drove from the east to the west side of the country in about 3 hours. Pretty small country!!!
At about 5:30 pm We parked Wicked for the night in a parking lot overlooking The Oosterschelde Barrier. This barrier is said, by some, to be the 8th wonder of the world. It is a very impressive, massive dam system to control the water levels of the North Sea and prevent the Netherlands from flooding.
We were both tired from a long day of travelling and so we broke out our German groceries and had a great German dinner in the Netherlands. It was a day late, but just as tasty and interesting as eating it in Germany. Who knew that wieners in a jar could taste so good.
Mon - March 28, 2011
We checked out the dam system and drove south to the Westerscheldetunnel. The tunnel is almost 7 kms long under the water. We took our time, found the little side roads again and made out way to Brugge Belgium. We spent the
afernoon hanging out in Brugge. Rene did some people watching and I did some shopping. Again because space is an issue as well as the Euro being at about 1.40, the purchasing just isn't nearly as fun, so just a small purchase and done. After exploring Brugge, we headed back to our little town of Vourwenpolder and went out for dinner to a local Dutch diner. We both had pasta. Very tasty!!! We parked Wicked again for the night in the same area as the previous night.
Tues - March 29, 2011
Woke up this morning and both of us were at very interesting places in our books, so opened our eyes and opened our books and just sat and read. At about 10:00 I looked out the window and saw a police car drive past. of course it went very slowly checking the van out. The next time I looked they were driving past yet again. They completed 1 more pass before they stopped. By this time we were up, dressed and Rene was out of the van to meet them. They asked if we had heard or seen anything suspicious in the night. We didn't as
we were obviously sleeping soundly. Rene asked what was going on and the police officer told him that he couldn't say, but that we were not allowed to leave the area until another officer and the police dog came to sniff the van and area. Kinda exciting!!! We waited for the dog and his handler. Neither one was very interested in what we had to offer, so we went for a 2 hour long walk on the dam system and back in Wicked to check out another little village close by called Veere. Another beautiful little village. We sat in the sun and drank coffee for about 1.5 hours. So nice to have the time to do this. Two great huge churches in the village, cobbled streets and small quaint little brick homes. sat for a time overlooking the water and then back into Wicked and off towards Schiedam. Schiedam is said to have the world's largest windmills and the jenever museum. Jenever is this alcohol that is made in Holland. really I think it tastes like fingernail polish remover. Anyway to find Schiedam we went through the city of Rotterdam. Rotterdam boasts Europe's largest harbour. We got stuck in
Brussels, Belgium
Justice Building. Used to be the biggest building in the world. rush hour traffic and would like to say that we truly believe that it is the biggest harbour. Took us forever to get through the city on the harbour side. Big huge ships and all kinds of industry for miles and miles. We don't like to stay in cities, so we drove until we found another sports field, close to a town called Hoek Van Holland. We drove through many towns with acres and acres of greenhouses. Greenhouses on either side of the road that just went on and on. SOOOOOO many. We parked for the night after another fun filled packed day of seeing and experiencing more and more of Holland.
Wed - March 30, 2011
We decided to drive back to Alkmaar in the North. We really wanted to see the show at the Cheese Market, so back we went. This ride took us through the city of Den Haag. We drove quickly through the city as we had plans to see Den Haag on the way back to bring the van back. someone told us there was a campground open year round in Alkmaar, so we decided to find it, park for a couple of
Belgian Waffles
Oh so good, especially with icecream and chocolate nights, see the Cheese Market on Friday morning. We found the campground, but the older couple behind the desk said that it was full. They spoke only a few words of English, so I'm not sure they understood that we just wanted to stay for a couple of nights. Either that or they say Wicked and decided they didn't want us anywhere near their campground. Whatever, there was no room, so off we went again. feeling somewhat dejected, we decided that we like the hotel in De Rijp, so back we went and booked in the hotel for the night. We really needed a shower and to clean up. had another great night in the hotel.
Thurs - March 31, 2011
Woke up to rain, rain and more rain and cold, cold and more cold. We were thrilled to know that we had a nice warm room to stay in. Because of the weather, we made the decision to stay yet another night in the hotel. We had a great day of doing really nothing except reading, writing, watching TV and hanging out. After our wonderful absolutely lazy day we went out for dinner in DeRijp. Had a wonderful
WICKED
Our first look at our new home for 2 weeks kind of fancy meal. It's been a long time since we dined out in any kind of class, so this was a special meal. After dinner came back to the hotel and watched a movie and did some computer work. Another great sleep in a nice warm hotel room.
We have 2 weeks yet in the Netherlands. Still finding new and exciting things to see and do, so I'm sure 2 weeks will go quickly.
And so we remain.....
In The Grip of Grace
Rene and Crystal
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carla
non-member comment
Nice to hear from you again
Hi there, we were wondering what was up. I guess that we are just spoiled and expect the blogs....you can't blame us really. Snow, snow and more snow here....ah to be somewhere else...... Sounds like an amazing time, did you find out what the police were up to? I have a craving for a babybel, can't figure out why. Enjoy the chesse, talk to you later.