Blogs from South Holland, Netherlands, Europe - page 13

Fairly relaxed day today. Have been having a few 'issues' with my hair so decided to try out a Dutch hairdressing salon. Colour and cut in a trendy, upmarket salon $120.00! Ridiculously cheap compared to back home. Everything is cheaper here . . . but then the average wage is considerably less too. Nel had arranged for my cousin Jon to visit in the afternoon so on the tram we went once more to Nel's place. (We have become tram catching experts.) It was wonderful to see Jon. At 75 he is the eldest relative on my Dad's side in Holland. He had with him the album he had put together of his visit to Australia in 1997. Some of the photos were hilarious! People change a lot in 16 years . . . thank goodness! ... read more

We took the tram to Delft today. (The tram system in Holland is absolutely brilliant.) Delft is just 12kms from The Hague and is a beautiful, beautiful little city. It's medieval structure has been preserved unbelievably well. It is also the home of William of Orange, Johannes Vermeer and of course Delftware! We followed an historical walk trail which took us to The Oude Kerk, (Old Church) built in the 11th century and the The Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) built in the 14th century. The Oude Kerk is the final resting place of the famous Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer and the Nieuwe Kerk is the final resting place of William of Orange. We visited the Markt (Market), walked along the canal lined streets, crossed many of Delft's iconic bridges and admired the traditional Delft houses. We ... read more

Visited the Peace Palace this morning. The Peace Palace is known as the seat of International Law because it houses the International Court of Justice and the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Australia recently asked the International Court of Justice on a ruling on Japan's whale hunting practises and is awaiting the Court's decision. It's also where Australia challenged France on the legality of its atmospheric nuclear testing in the South Pacific. Fascinating! Unfortunately no guided tour was available but we were able to do an interactive tour of the Visitors Centre. We hope to do a guided tour before we leave The Hague at the end of the week. They are organised spasmodically so we may or may not be lucky. In any event the interactive tour was wonderful and it gave us a great insight ... read more

8:35 up and on the bus for Brussels today via a tulip farm and some windmills, apparently, so this should be pretty cool! We're only a few minutes out of town and have already managed to see a number of huge wind turbines, as well as a proper old windmill. Several old windmills. The Netherlands are definitely living up to their windmill-y stereotype, that's for sure. We also passed a place called Baby Dump, which provoked a lot of curiosity. I don't know if we'll ever find out what it was. I just realised that this will be one of the few countries where I have not set foot in a proper graveyard/cemetery. Hmm... A little disappointed, actually. I doubt I'll manage in Belgium, though, either, so I guess my graveyard cred is going to have ... read more

Geo: 51.8442, 4.63889Up at 5.15am. Out of the Clarion hotel by 5.30. At the train station by 5.45. On an express rocket train to Oslo airport at 6. At the airport by 6.25. Checked in, and aboard an SAS 737 bound for Amsterdam by 7.50am. Everything went according to plan. Being too early for breakfast, our hotel even presented us with a packed breakfast bag at our checkout. A lovely gesture. If only the food had been edible. The bread was so dry, I feel dehydrated just thinking about it.We touched down in Schiphol around 9.30am. We collected our bags, eventually, and came through customs to a warm welcome from Jan and Marielle who were kind enough to collect us. Before the drive home, we made a tourist detour for a stop off at the Zaanse ... read more