Blogs from South Holland, Netherlands, Europe - page 4

Plan na dnes teda holandsko a mestecko maastricht. Ranajky totozne ako v predchadzajucom ubytku len s tym, ze tu kopa erasmus studentov zo strednych skol (na vs vyzerali neaky mlady). Na cestu si berem banan, jablko a vajicko. Este kupeny listok na flixbus, ktory stoji o polovicu menej ako vlak. No rano ziadny dobry spoj. Potesil aspon fungujuci 20perc kupon na zlavu. Rychlo krokom po nabrezi smer na vzdialenu zel stanicu guillemenis. Prichadzam 10min pred odchodom vlaku, tukam do automatu, tu tri rozne stanice mojho mesta, volim len maastricht. Na moju kolaj najskor prichadza iny vlak, o 5min vsak uz spravny. Tento neni ic ale regional, podla toho aj vyzera. Zastarale vozne (nase su omnoho lepsie, no ale zas uz mame vela novych suprav), dnu par ludi. Tesne pred hranicami (ktore clovek ani nevie, ze prejde) ... read more

The next morning, I was planning to meet my friends. I first had breakfast of bread and strawberries before packing up to go. Getting to Leiden from my hotel in Rotterdam was beyond easy - the Rotterdam Blaak train station was just steps from the hotel and went directly to the Leiden Centraal station in about 40 minutes. My friend and their oldest daughter picked me up and drove me home. I had worked with the couple in Qatar, but in the last three years, they had had two kids and bought a home. What have I done again...? So, the grandparents came to pick up the kids to watch for the day while my friends and I rode bikes into town. On the way, it was cold, rainy, and a bit windy, but the day ... read more

Fast forward to after we had queued up, checked in, dodged the customary welcome photo in front of a tacky back drop (these pictures never show the good side of the subjects features and are far from the perfect holiday photo souvenir as most people usually have their coats on, carrying bags, hair dishevelled and looking harangued after their often long and frustrating journey!!) Normally, once you arrive at the departure lounge your luggage is collected by a porter and then not seen again until it is delivered to your stateroom (it was not so long ago that these used to be referred to as cabins!!). However, as this was only a three-day cruise, Roisin and I were traveling lighter than usual so we walked our baggage on and straight to cabin 7555. Our cabin was ... read more

“Exit Applause!” as Barry from Boston is fond of saying; or, as another of our favorite piano bar stars (Jeremey from our Mediterranean Cruise in 2015) would say, “We Have NEW People!” But for us, this marks the half-way point of our cruise. Nineteen days are in the books (and blogs) and now we start the bittersweet journey towards home. In nineteen more days we will be back in Boston (and Las Vegas). ** Sigh ** I must commend the cabin steward though. He has left us dark chocolate every evening on this past first leg except for two. And you know what that means: More chocolate for me! I’m surprised that Sharon didn’t say something last night. She was in the room when they came to make it up. They left that evenings chocolate, and ... read more

I noted that there were frequent services between Amsterdam Centraal and Leiden Centraal; we didn’t get up early on 23 June. My mother had brought the Chikyu no Arukikata (Japanese travel guidebook) of Belgium, the Netherland and Luxembourg and it contained a good map of Leiden; so I decided to use it. We were to visit Hortus Botanicus Leiden – Horticultural Botanical Garden of Leiden University. However, we learned from the Japanese guidebook that there is a designated birthplace of Rembrandt and the windmill associated with his work on the way to the destination. The house in which Rembrandt was born was demolished a while ago but there was a plaque installed on the building where his birth house stood. We found the square where the waxwork of Rembrandt painting. Opposite to the square showed the ... read more