The Netherlands and Belgium

What else did we do in the Netherlands and Belgium?

·         Alkmaar Cheese Market – Took Greg and Michelle to see the traditional cheese market put on once a week for tourists that we visited in 1990.  Very touristy but fun to watch.  Not that any cheese is traded I - it’s all for show!

·         Explored Zaanse Schans - very quaint.  Five working windmills all with different functions.  Grinding spices or pigments for paint, making paper or milling wood.  And I thought windmills were only used to pump water in Holland!  Especially enjoyed the information on clogs.  So many different sorts.  Girls did you know that when you became engaged your betrothed made you a pair of intricately carved clogs for you.

·         Visited Volendam a pretty fishing village

·         Zuiderzee Musuem – think a huge version of the Howick Colonial Village with lots of traditional activities to convey what life was like.

·         Drove across the Alsluidijk – all 32 km of it.

·         Highlight for me Aalsmeer Flower Market.  An early start but worth it.  It is the world’s biggest flower auction with 21 million flowers and plants changing hands for about 6 million daily.  13,000 types of product from Europe and Africa pulled into place by worker on motorized vehicles like 100s of umperloomper! (reference to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory for those of you who are wondering what she’s talking about)  Anyway ‘organised chaos’.  We viewed this from a very long catwalk suspended above the warehouse floor.  We were able to watch the auction process through windows on the walkway.  Buyers sit in rows similar to a movie theatre and enter their bids electronically as the flowers glide past.  Bidding is done in decreasing amounts.  The auction leader sets a price which instantly begins decreasing until a buyer puts in his bid.  A slip of the finger could be very expensive!  Anyway we all found the whole process fascinating.

·         Zeeland – checked out the Eastern Schelde Surge barrier, the last part of the Delta Project Works which is a system of dikes, dams and other constructions built to tame the North Sea on the S.W Netherlands.  A massive undertaking.  ‘As they say god made the world but the Dutch made the Netherlands’.

• When travelling back through Belgium to Dunkirk to get the ferry we stopped at Ypres.  There we visited Passchendale, the site of the 1917 battle where NZ experienced the largest loss of soldiers in a single campaign (5000 casualties).  The Tyne Cot Cemetery has the largest number of Commonwealth War Graves in the World.  Beautifully kept with flowers planted around the headstones and manicured lawns.  520 NZ soldiers are buried there and the names of the NZ soldiers who died there are etched on the remembrance wall.  The Information Centre details the sequence of events, who was involved with memorabilia and also has an interactive NZ section.  Once again what a waste of young men many - the age that Michael and Hayden are.

Amsterdam

I’d forgotten how many bicycles there are in Amsterdam – 600,000 (I goggled it!).  They come at you from all directions.  Scary stuff!

Once again we did a canal boat trip then spent the rest of the day soaking up the atmosphere and taking in the sites.

Day 2 highlights:

·         Revisited the Rijksmuseum to see, amongst others, Rembrandt’s highly acclaimed works.  Such attention to detail.

·         The renovated Maritime Museum.  Must admit wasn’t my first choice but I thoroughly enjoyed it and learnt heaps. Once again great use of technology to make a subject come alive.  Useless information – in the 17^th and 18^th centuries flying an upside down Dutch flag meant man overboard.

·         Beers at a local pub

Belgium

We spent several days exploring Gent and Bruges while having our van serviced.  Both very picturesque, with canals, beautifully preserved buildings and churches, and lots of chocolate and beer shops.  We did a canal trip in both city which is a great way to orientate yourself and earmark places to return to later to further investigate.  Both are compact so we did a lot of walking. .

One of the highlights was the De Halve Maan Brewery tour (Bruges last remaining brewery). Our Belgian guide had a wicked sense of humour and really gave an entertaining performance yet still managed to explain the brewing process simply.  Of course we got to sample the product at the end!

Off to the Netherlands next.

 

To our Dutch friends from Portugal and Spain: Peter we would like to catch up with you - can you please send us your contact details as we have mislaid them. venville@xtra.co.nz

Paris

Well we hit Paris in its busiest week.  Wonderful but exhausting.  We had an underground pass and a Museum Pass and thrashed both!  The bonus with the museum pass was that it allowed us to skip the queues and some of those queues were over 2 hours long!  Consequently by the end of our stay my legs were aching from climbing so many stairs.  Stairs everywhere – the underground, the museums, churches, monuments…I know yes they’re good for me but a girl only has so much stamina!

Day 1 – Orientation – wandering along the left and right banks.

Day 2

·         Sacre Coeur.  300 steps for 360 a panoramic view.  Wandered through Montmartre enjoying the buzz – cafes, caricaturists, painters, street performers.  All very touristy but fun to people watch. 

·         Explored Pere Lachaise Cemetery which opened its one way doors in 1804.  Jim Morrison, Edith Piaf, Oscar Wilde, Chopin are buried here amongst many other famous people.

·         Obligatory photos of the Eiffel Tower

·         Lido Show in the evening on the Champ-Elysee.  Great costuming, staging and supporting act but thought the dancing/choreography was rather average. 

Day 3 (public holiday-groan) Museum pass so we were off! 

·         Spent most of the day at the Louvre (the royal residence in Paris until the French revolution).  I’d forgotten how vast it is.  Napoleon collected/stole all the best Greek, Italian and Egyptian artifacts as he conquered each country and although some of it has since been returned, the collection is mind boggling.

·         Took a break and visited exquisite Ste-Chapelle (thank you Robyn and Graeme for the heads up) and the Conciergerie which is next door. It is the old seat of government which was later partially turned into a prison.  Marie Antoinette spent her last days here along with many others who met their end during the French Revolution.

·         Evening meal out at ‘Le Marmite’ gotta love the name!  Then climbed the Arc de Triompe (more stairs) for a night view of the city.  Very pretty.

Day 4 Museum pass still valid so off to wring every last euro out.

·         Pantheon – a massive temple that honours the memory of the nation’s illustrious.  Checked out the tombs of Marie and Pierre Curie, Rousseau and many others.

·         Pompidou Centre and the National Modern Art Collection.

·         Yummy lunch at a rustic French restaurant using some of our Christmas money.  Thanks Dad and Leonie.

·         Orangerie – viewed impressionist Monet’s water lilies series as well as works by Picasso, Cezanne, Matisse, Renoir… Like a kid in a candy store.

·         Hotel Invalid – now a fabulous Army Museum and also houses the tomb of Napoleon.

Frustrations – Picture this: Selecting 3 different restaurants from the guide book and tearing from one district of Paris to the other only to find them closed for the holiday.  Nick was not a happy camper!

 Le Quesnoy (near the Belgian border and Flanders fields) - Temperature up in the 30’s again.

November 1918 NZ Forces liberated this town days before the Armistice was signed.  115 NZ soldiers died and many are buried in the beautifully kept Commonwealth Cemetery there.  There is also a memorial to the NZ soldiers and several streets with a NZ connection.  Avenue and Rue Neo Zelandais, Rue Helen Clarke and a square named after the All Blacks!

Off to Belgium and the Netherlands next.

France

Bonjour.  Back in the land of banquettes, airy pastries and taking loo paper to the ablution blocks.  We’ve been spoiled lately with toilet paper, soap, hand towels and toilet seats. Not so in France.

Verdun – Once again what a waste.  The carnage in terms of lives lost was appalling.  Over a million shells falling in the first 24 hours, permanently scarring the landscape and forever turning it into a ‘red zone’.  Five villages gone.  300 days and nights of ‘living hell in the trenches’.  At Fort Douaument we toured the rooms of the underground fortifications.  Very interesting.  They used a smart phone to tell the story of its fall to the Germans and eventual recapture -very effective use of technology.  At ‘The Citadel’ holograms were cunningly used to depict the life of a French soldier in 1916 and sequence the events.

Champagne

Pretty villages nestled in the rolling hills covered with vines.  Epernay- bikes out again and off we went on the Moet and Chandon caves tour.  Quirky stuff you might like to know!

Bottles are turned by hand by ‘wrigglers’ who serve a 3 year apprenticeship.  Not a job I aspire to!

Sediment is removed by freezing the neck of the bottle, removing the cork or cap and it is expelled by the gas.  Very clever!

Wine and sugar is then added to replace the volume lost and this determines if it is brut or curve.

While staying in Epernay we went to the most amazing sound and light show.  They used the facade of the Chateau Perrier to project the images on.  And it was free - a bonus!  Cycled home in the dark – another adventure!  

Ghost Villages

We are amazed how few people we see from mid-day onwards in the villages. It’s as if the inhabitants have been abducted by aliens!

Sunday 11^th

We spent the morning exploring Fontainebleau.  Europe, especially France have come a long way in 20 years in their presentation of historic sites – with audio guides or guided tours in English enabling the tourist to gain so much more from their visit.  Anyway back to Fontainebleau – magnificent and opulent.  You can see why the French had had enough of the extravagance of the aristocracy when they were struggling to put food on the table.  Though using ‘Madame Guillotine’ to dispatch them was a bit extreme! 

In the afternoon we visited Provins one of France’s oldest medieval town.  Very quaint.  Once again timing is everything.  As we were wandering the narrow streets of half-timbered houses we arrived in time to catch a medieval show featuring jousting, acrobatic horse riding and battles.  Very entertaining.

Magic Moments

Tonight a fellow French camper Greg was talking to asked if he could sing for us.  He serenaded us mostly with songs he had composed for his family or friends.  Beautiful. 

Return to Germany

Guten Tag from Germany.  From Prague we drove to Heidelburg in central Germany and camped by the River Neckar where we could barges slowly drifted by. 

Day 1: The next morning we watched a huge barge negotiate the lock – fascinating!  After checking out the Cathedral in Worms we started our leisurely trip up the Rhine.  Grape vines covered the hills and castles dotted the landscape at every curve.  We stopped at several villages to explore.  The area is famous for its Riesling (yes Nick bought wines from a local vintner) and characterized by half-timbered houses that reminded me of Hansel and Gretel.  Lorch, where we camped on the banks of the Rhine, even had a tower – an ideal location for Rapunzel to ‘let down her hair’.  We had a beer in a pub in existence since 1643 with an intriguing collection of steins of varying sizes.  We could see the local castle lit up at night from our camper.  Very picturesque.

Day 2: The next day we continued to meander up the Rhine as far as Linz where we made a stop to grab some morning tea.  Again narrow alleys and half-timbered houses built between the 15^th and 16^th centuries.  Here we over crossed the Rhine via an exorbitant car ferry (6 .30 Euros) which took all of 3 minutes and travelled down the other side.  At Korblenz we turned south-west and headed down the Moselle.  Similar landscape with cute villages nestled amongst the grape vines but only the odd castle.  The sides of the river are more mountainous with vines running vertically up the slope.  We decided that harvesting the top most vines required danger money!  There are over 4000 wine growers in the Moselle.  The first vines were established by the Romans – and yes Nick bought more wine!  Again we camped by the river, gazing up at a sea of vines as we had our nightly drinks and nibbles.

Day 3:  Continued down the Moselle to Trier.  Once we had obtained a fresh supply of Nick’s meds involving 2 trips to the hospital to get a script and purchasing them at 400 Euros – not cheap over- ouch there goes my shopping money- we spent what was left of the day exploring Germany’s oldest city.  Very pretty and a real mixture of Roman and 15-16^th century buildings.  Porta Nigra, a huge black Roman gate, the oldest bishop’s church in Germany-‘The Dom’, and the Konstantine Basilika - a huge building that was the throne room of Emperor Constantine were the highlights.  We ended the day eating in the town square and people watching – a very pleasant day after a frustrating and time consuming start sourcing Nick’s drugs.  Back to France tomorrow.  

Prague – The Czech Republic

Timing is everything.  Yesterday we walked into a bar just in time to watch Mahe Drysdale win gold, beating the Czech contender.  The Czech patrons in the bar were very gracious in defeat.

Once again a beautiful city and new territory for us. We again did the Munich thing and joined a ‘free walking tour’.  Another Keith but, this time an American.  A great raconteur – so if you need a guide in Prague – he’s your man – just look for the man in a green t-shirt and umbrella in the square.  As he’s married to a Czech he had the ‘inside scoop’ on lots of things.  We started at the Old Square and its beautiful old buildings and worked our way around the ‘Old Town’ area.

Highlights:

·         Keith

·         The buildings especially the Tyn church with its Adam and Eve steeples (one bigger than the other), the art nouveaux Municipal building, the cubist  Black Madonna building and St Nicholas church (there seems to be one in every city much to Nick’s delight and Prague has two!)

·         Josefor – the former Jewish quarter where bodies were buried 12 deep in the cemetery to conserve space and the Moorish style Spanish Synagogue.

Day 2

Sustained by a ‘sumptuous’ breakfast prepared by Nick, we headed for the ‘Farmers Market’.  Not a highlight - mostly clothes and junk – ‘same, same but different’. From there we trammed into Prague centre and leisurely wandered around till it was time to pick up Keith’s afternoon ‘Castle Tower’.  After a bit of history of Mala Strana (Lesser Town) we caught a tram to the top.  (As Keith said “This is a downhill tour”).  My kind of man.  Bit more scene setting at the top and a panoramic view point, then our first major stop was the St Norbet Monastery to sample their ‘brewed on site bevy’.  It was stinking hot so gave us a chance to revitalise and chat to all the other tour members from all over the world.

Refreshed we started the castle tour proper.  Once again with all those juicy little tit bits only a local knows.  We caught the changing of the guards then checked out the buildings within the Prague Castle area - which is the largest castle complex in the world. 

The highlight for me was St Vitus Cathedral – magnificent.  It suddenly looms in front as you enter the 3^rd courtyard.

We finished our day by eating at a Czech restaurant frequented by locals that Keith recommended for us.  Menu entirely in Czech.  The boys spotted these massive pork knuckles being devoured by other dinners so they were set.  Our waiter was able to translate the menu enough for Michelle and me to take a leap of faith on chicken surrounded by potato pancake.  Very yummy as it turned out and washed down with house beer for the boys and a glass of excellent Czech red for me!  

Did you know that Traditional Austrian, German, Hungarian and Czech food doesn’t really include vegetables – potatoes in some form yes , dumplings and raw or pickled cabbage.  However, there is a good range of fruit and veges available to buy in the supermarket or local markets.

Hungary – Budapest

OMG free WIFI and washing machines.  Small things but exciting to us travellers!  And what’s more Michelle and I have NEW MEN!  The boys had their hair cut and are looking very smart.

Budapest was full of surprises.  Stunning buildings beautifully preserved.  We opted for a hop on hop off bus tour which gave us a great overview off the city and its buildings.

Highlights:

·         Searching for the ladies changing area at the Szechenyi Mineral Baths and working out the locker system.  Very simple once you know how!  Then soaking in the tepid waters and gazing around at the baroque architecture.

·         While the boys consumed yet more beer, Michelle and I went to the Ethnography Museum – rather like the Howick Colonial Village but covering Hungarian culture and telling the their story of settlement.  Beautiful examples of national costumes with intricate embroidery.

·         Our tour of Parliament.  The most stunning building in Budapest.  We initially nick named our guide was ‘Helga’ but it turned out that she had a wicked sense of humour!

·         Dinner out at our camp ground and tapa like lunch in the city. Yes I know I am obsessed by food but I could have worse vices!

Lowlight – House of Terror Museum – the most boring museum we have encountered.  The blurb talked it up (the museum that everyone wants to see) but the info was in Hungarian, no audio guide and it was expensive.  It could have been so interesting and probably was if you could read Hungarian!  It told the story if the crimes and atrocities committed by Hungary’s Fascist and Stalinist regimes.

Off to The Czech Republic tomorrow.