Blogs from Zealand, Netherlands, Europe - page 2

THE WINDMILL About 5km from our home (it is really Daphne's) is a village called Biggekerke. Population about 1000. It is a small village with a big history. In Biggekerke, on the island of Walcheren, a church already existed around 800AD and history declares that the 16th Century Reformation had a strong influence in the region. The brick church of today with spire reaching 30 metres and bells in the belfry could tell the history better than myself. The skyline of Biggekerke reaches high also because of the historic windmill. Its “sails” are 20 metres diameter, and while a church spire is strong and motionless the windmill sails are dynamic and strong and never fear to face the wind and swoop power from the air. It is more than likely that the tourist of 2014 will ... read more

We left Oostende, Belgium at 1PM and made our way to Breskens, Netherlands. We had hoped to make it to Vlissingen (Flushing to us English speakers), but we saw that we would need to go through a lock and bridge and understood that the last opening was at 7:30PM. It appeared as if it would be tight to make it across to Vlissingen so reverted to our plan B and headed to Breskens instead. Others had told us it had a good sized marina there. Janice’s motto for this trip is “better safe than sorry” so the decision was made. We found out later that the information about the last bridge opening in Vlissingen was not true, but it didn’t matter – we made it to the Netherlands during the 2013 sailing season! It has been ... read more

It had all seemed so simple when I came up with the idea - having finished my UK working holiday in May but elected to delay the start of my Canadian working holiday until July so that I could remain in Europe for the duration of the European football championships, it had occurred to me that I would have the best part of three weeks to fill in between the end of my week in Tenerife (unfortunately no photos and very little recollection of the events of that week means no travel blog!) and my eventual flight to Vancouver... so what better way to spend that time than by taking my bicycle (which had been left with friends near London for the previous six weeks) on the ferry over to Holland and cycle around the Netherlands ... read more

Beste ouders, verzorgers, leerlingen en geïnteresseerden. vandaag en morgen worden de informatieboekjes over de Venetiëreis uitgedeeld. Deze kunnen jullie ook voor thuis downloaden. Dit kan vanaf de volgende link: http://www.mediafire.com/?dt5he7cvog1aujc Voor de mensen die moeite hebben met het downloaden: * Kopieer bovenstaande link en plaats deze in je adres balk. * Klik op enter om naar de website te gaan. * Wacht tot de website geladen is en er onder de tekst "Venetiëboekje.doc" de tekst "Click here to start download from MediaFire.." komt te staan. * Klik op de tekst "Click here to start download from MediaFire.." * Kies eventueel waar u het document wil opslaan en kies voor opslaan. * U download nu het bestand en deze kunt u openen zodra het downloaden klaar is. Veel leesplezier!... read more

Last stop, the home stretch. I arrived in Amsterdam, and it was cold! And rainy, what terrible weather. I ended up buying a jacket since I had mailed mine back when I was in Hong Kong. I spent a couple days in Amsterdam looking around before Opa, Uncle Andy and Steven arrived. The hostel I stayed at, Inner Amsterdam, was not that great. Don't stay there. There is mice in the room and it has bug beds! Not a good way to start your trip in Holland. There were several guys from Britain in the dorm I was in and we looked around for a while. Went to the red light district but it was pretty touristic. I went to do a walking tour, the Anne Frank Museum, Rijks Museum, Van Gogh Museum and took a ... read more