Belgium

I've managed to find an internet cafe here in Cannes. Although the keyboard is French, the man here showed me how if I press a button on the screen, I can use it like an English keyboard. So, Belgium:

I caught the train from Brussels to Maastricht last Wednesday and managed to locate Grand Place all by myself, without even trying! I confess I was actually trying to locate the tourist office at the time, but that turned out to be in The Hotel de Ville (Town Hall) which was in the Grand Place. Grand Place is really... Grand. There's no other word to describe it, and the photos that I've taken really don't do it justice. You really need to be standing in the middle of Grand Place, dwarfed by the surrounding buildings to get a feel of how magnificent it is. I've just looked at the photos that I've posted here, and they make the place look grotty, so you're just going to have to believe me, or see it for yourself.

Elise arrived in Brussels a couple of hours after me, so after we found our hostel and dumped our bags we headed back in to Grand Place for a caffeine fix at one of the many cafes lining Grand Place, and try to plan our week.
After our much needed coffees and a Croque Monsier (ham and cheese toasted sandwich) we headed off for a little look around Brussels. Our first stop was Galleries St Hubert, a shopping arcade which opened in 1847 which contains a mix of shops and cafes. Elise was looking to buy a lace hanky (for her mum), I was looking to buy chocolate (for me).
After we both had a chocolate fix (this is a photo of Elise eating her 1st Belgium Chocolate from Belgium), we went searching for the Mannekin Pis. And we found him! For those who don't know, the Mannekin Pis is a statue of a little boy peeing, in the centre of Brussels. It is a bit like the little statue in the Conservatory of the City Park in Launceston. Once we were satisfied that we'd taken enough photos of the little guy, we checked out St Katherines Church, then decided it was time for Dinner. We had both decided beforehand that we were going to have mussels and fries for dinner, and there were quite a few places offering mussels, fries and a glass of wine or beer for 10 euro, so we thought we'd try one of those. We got sucked in, however, by a waiter standing outside one restaurant lining the street, who told us that he'd give us a glass of wine for free! So we went inside and it wasn't until we were seated that we saw the menu and found that the mussels here were actually 20 euro! So we decided to save the mussels for another night and instead tried some traditional Flemish Dishes. Elise had the Rabbit cooked in Beer, and I had the Chicken Waterzooi, which is a creamy chicken stew with potatoes and other veges. It was YUMMY! In fact, it was so good that I had Waterzooi again later in the week at another restaurant. It reminded me of the chicken casserol that mum used to cook and put in Crepes.

The next day, in the rain, we visited The Cathedral. It wasn't a great time to visit, as there was a service in progress, so we couldn't walk around, but I heard some of the best church singing that I have ever heard! We then went to the Musees royaux des Beaux Arts de Belgique and spent most of our day there, wandering around the 17th and 18th Century paintings in the morning, and the 19th and 20th century paintings in the afternoon. Unfortunately, they were undergoing some renovations, so the 15th and 16th Century art wasn't on display- we still saw enough art to satisfy us for the rest of our Belgium trip, however.

That afternoon, we had a couple of Krieks (Cherry Beers) at Grand Place, before finding a spot to have some Mussels and frites for dinner! They were pretty good. Elise ordered the Mussels in White Wine, and I ordered the Mussels in Garlic. It wasn't until Elise had munched on her 20th piece of garlic, and I was just about on my last mussel, that we realised that the waiter had mixed up our meals! It didn't really matter, as we enjoyed them anyway.

We managed to squeeze in Belgium waffles with chocolate sauce for dessert! VERY RICH. Having since tried the Belgium waffles plain (the way the locals eat them), I have to say that I actually prefer them that way. I never thought I would find anyone with a sweeter tooth than me, but I think that in Belgium (and also in the Netherlands) I am way out of my league! They put sugar in and on just about everything.

On Friday, Elise and I headed off to the Victor Horta Museum which is located a little out of the city centre, to check out some Art Nouveau architecture. We had to catch a couple of metro trains and a tram to get there, and it wasn't until we were waiting for our tram, that we realised that we were actually there 4 hours before it opened! So we checked out the outside of the museum anyway, then went for a walk along some of the surrounding streets which also feature some Art Nouveau architecture, before heading back to the centre of the city, to catch a train to Antwerp.

The Central Station at Antwerp is very spacious and grand, and a lot nicer than the Central station in Brussels. Our first stop in Antwerp was to visit the Diamond Museum, where we saw lots and lots of diamond jewels, and learnt everything you could want to know about diamond (and more). Unfortunately, they didn't let us play with any of the diamonds or give us any free samples. Very disappointing.

That night I learnt a very important lesson. Kriek should be drunk on it's own and not mixed with food! It doesn't taste that great if you are eating a meal while drinking it.

The following day, Elise and I went to De Kathedral in Antwerp, where we took ourselves on a guided tour. It is certainly the nicest and most informative church that I've been in. The parish was first established in 1124, and since that time the church has undergone expansion, been ravaged by fire, has been confiscated by the French revolutionaries, been reclaimed and restored. It is a seven aisle church, and features some famous paintings by Baroque artists such as Peter Paul Rubens. As Mary is the patroness of the Cathedral, many of the works feature her. There are also two large organs, one which contains 5,770 organ pipes!

After the Cathedral, we checked out Antwerp's Grote Markt. Much less grand than Brussels' Grand Place, it is still nonetheless, a nice place featuring all the essentials such as guildhalls and a Stadhuis, plus a rather snazzy water fountain of Silvius Brabo, flinging the hand of the giant Antigonus, into the Scheldt. Legend has it that that is how Antwerp got it's name (which is literally "hand-throw".



We also managed to go through the St Anna Tunnel which is a pedestrian tunnel, 32 metres underground, and travels 500 metres under the Scheldt, linking the city with the Left Bank. It is like you are about to enter a new world or spaceship when you enter the large elevator that takes you underground to the tunnel. When you get out of the elevator at the bottom, all you can see is white tunnel wall stretching out in front. It was a relief to get to the other side without having the walls cave in.

We also visited the National scheepvaartmuseum (ship museum), and I'm happy to say that I have satisfied my curiosity for boats for a lifetime! And we also did a fashionwalk which took us past stores featuring clothes by designers we had never heard of, and could not afford. We also felt a little too dorky to actually enter any of the stores!

That night we did our laundry and felt like geniuses when we managed to work out how to get the soap out of the soap dispenser, as it required you to use 2 machines to do it! We were so proud of ourselves (the instructions were all in Dutch).

On Sunday, we headed to Bruges where we spent 3 nights. The day we got there, it decided to pour with rain, which put a little bit of a dampener on our sightseeing. We managed to find the Belfort in the Markt, and climbed the 366 steps to the Belfry. I did feel a little puffed when we got to the top! It was a lovely view though, and as soon as the man who works here figures out how to get my CD out of the computer (it's stuck) so that I can put my other CD in, then I will put more photos up, but that will probably have to wait for another day!



















We also did a tour of the Stadhuis, and learnt about a little of the history of Bruges. The Gothic Chamber on the 2nd floor was absolutely amazing, with murals painted on the wall, and decorations on the ceiling (unfortunately, weren't allowed to photograph it).

We had dinner at an eetcafe (pub) just around the corner from our hotel, which served greek food. The meal was fantastic (and the beer wasn't half bad either).

On Monday, as the weather had cleared a little, we decided to do a canal cruise, which was a nice way to see a little of Bruges and learn a little about the history of it's buildings (if you could understand the guide, he spoke German, French and English, and I found it a bit hard to catch his English explanations. Elise had no problems, however). We then had the best hot chocolate in the whole world at a little tea-room. It not only tasted great, but the presentation was also superb- a cup of steaming hot milk, and a little saucer of melted chocolate sitting on the top, which you mix in the milk. On the side, a little saucer of whipped cream which you can put on top if you wish (I thought, why not?) and a little saucer with a selection of 4 chocolates. We then went to Choco Story, a chocolate museum, which offered far too much information, and far too little free samples, if you ask me! We did manage to put what we learnt about chocolate to good use though, and went out and bought some!

In the evening we went to 't Brugs Beertje, to sample a couple of the 250 odd Beers that they have on offer. I started with a sweet Trappist (made by monks) Westmalle Blond which was rather nice, then Elise and I shared a REAL Kriek. A real Kriek is one that is made with real cherries, and doesn't just have cherry flavour added to it, and it comes out of a bottle with a cork in it, and it tastes sour. It was great. I prefer it to the "artificial" one. I imagine it will be especially lovely to drink on a warm summer evening. Very refreshing. After staggering out of the pub (Belgium beers have rather high percentages of alcohol), we went and had another beer with our dinner.

On Tuesday, we did a bus tour of the World War I battle fields near Ypres and the surrounding area. This was a very sobbering experience, to visit a few of the 207 war cemetries in the area, and see and walk on some of the places where battles were actually fought, it really emphasised the reality of war. The people in the area are still suffering the affects of that war- there are a few fatalaties every year from unexploded shells in the area, some crops don't grow due to cannisters of poison gas still in the ground, and some houses are collapsing due to being built over some of the dugouts and tunnels. Hundreds of bodies are still being discovered every year, and there are thousands more still buried, in mass graves, having not had a proper burial. We also visited a field dressing station where John McCrae spent much of his time during the war, and where he wrote his famous poem Flanders Fields. I found this tour to be much more thought provoking and worthwhile that any museum I visited in Belgium. Our bus driver/tour guide was Sharon, and she was an Australian.



Yesterday morning, Elise and I said goodbye and she headed off to Luxembourg, and I headed off to Nice. I stayed in a hostel there last night, then caught a train to Cannes this morning. The weather here is much warmer than what I've experienced in The Netherlands and Belgium. I'm looking forward to going swimming and celebrity spotting while I'm here, although after spending half the afternoon typing this blog, I don't have much time to do either today, it may have to wait until tomorrow...
I did see someone famous while I was eating my lunch today. I can't tell you who he was though, as I only recognised him by the crowd of screaming 14 year old girls who were following him. He looked a bit like Puff Daddy, but I'm not sure who he actually was!

My next update will probably be from Perpignan, where I am going to be taking French lessons for 2 weeks!

Hope you are all well, keep up with the emails and comments!

Missing you all

Love,

Lisa x.

Just a VERY quick blog to let you all know that I'm currently in Nice and heading to Cannes tomorrow. I'll tell you all about the great time I had in Belgium just as soon as I go somewhere where there aren't people lined up behind me wanting to use the internet, and I can find somewhere that has an English keyboard (this French one is slowing me down somewhat!).

Love,
Lis x.

Maastricht

I'm about to hop on a train to Belgium, to meet my friend, Elise, in Brussels, so I thought I would quickly type one more blog to tell you about the end of my Netherlands Adventures.

I didn't end up going to the museum in Rotterdam, as I was all museum'd out! In the end, it was just as well, as when I walked past it later in the day, it turned out to be closed (all the museums are closed here on Mondays - Duh!). So I just walked around the streets, and visited the kikkubus (apartments which are shaped like upended cubes). When I returned to the hostel, I found that Maree was gone (which was such a relief, as I found that I had heart palpatations as I opened the door!).

I'm currently in Maastricht, where I stayed the night in the Stayokay. This was the nicest hostel I have stayed in so far, as it has been recently built so everything is new and clean and comfy. It turns out that at this place, I was in a mixed (co-ed) dorm! I ended up sharing with a middle aged Dutch couple and (thankfully) they were able to control themselves for one night! I think the woman may have been an insomniac, however, as I kept waking in the night to find her pacing by the window, going to the toilet, and running the water in the sink.

Maastricht is a lovely town. I think if I was to live anywhere in The Netherlands, I would pick Maastricht (or perhaps Amsterdam). There are lots of little boutique-style shops here, lining the many small cobble stoned streets. There are also lots of pubs and cafés offering al fresco dining, along the streets and squares. I had a late lunch at one of these pubs and had a beer and people watched. Not sure why I ordered the beer, it just seemed like the thing to do, but it went down a treat! Maastricht is also the home of the oldest surviving town gates in The Netherlands. They were built in the 13th century! I walked around the streets, yesterday, just shopping and exploring, really. It reminded me a little of Bridge Road or Toorak in Melbourne, with a few men waiting outside the shops holding the bags while the women were inside spending the money!

I have to add a little note here for Peter V.T: I passed through your hometown, Eindhoven on my way from Rotterdam to Maastricht. The town still seems to be standing, well, the train station at least (I had to swap trains at Eindhoven, and had one minute to do it in). There also seemed to be a nice golf course there too!

Anyway, I have a train to catch to Brussels. I'm spending a week in Belgium with Elise, before I head to Nice, France.

Love,
Lis x.

Why I don't like hostels.

I wasn't really that excited about staying in Hostels while I'm travelling in the first place, but they are so affordable and I thought probably a great place to meet fellow travellers.

The first hostel I stayed at, in Arnhem, was pretty nice. It was surrounded by forrest, and the room was clean, and I was only sharing with 2 other girls (they were both in Arnhem for a dance audition, and were lovely girls) and we had one bathroom and toilet and 2 sinks between the 3 of us (although the room did sleep up to 7 people). There seemed to be a couple of school groups also staying there, and yes, it was annoying having the group of about five 14 year old boys standing in the hallway outside the room next door to me, calling out to the girls who were staying in that room and playing music on their ipod, but as I couldn't understand a word they were saying (they were talking in Dutch) it didn't really bother me that much.

The second hostel, in Den Haag, was similar to the one in Arnhem. There were 8 of us sharing this room, and again, we had 2 sinks and one toilet and shower between us all. Again, it was a little annoying when the woman in the bed opposite me started snoring (and farting), and when I was awoken at god know's what time by 2 of the girls who were staying in the room, who came back late from a wedding (they were Aussies by the way) and the Asian woman who got up noisily at about 5 o'clock in the morning mumbling to herself something about "time to worship" and "rotten Americans" (this is what it sounded like to me, at least, she may have been saying something completely different in Chinese). These were all slightly annoying, but again, didn't bother me too much, as I accept it as being part of hostel life. The toilet smelling like about 200 people had urinated on the walls, did bother me a little.

Last night, I arrived at my room in my hostel and found that it had no ensuite, and that beween however many girls that were on the floor, we would share 3 showers and 3 toilets, plus about 6 sinks. This is not really such a problem, as I don't think there are many people staying in this hostel at the moment, and at any rate it was no problem getting a shower this morning (and the toilet is a lot cleaner as well). It was highly annoying when I did my laundry last night and found that my clothes came out from the washing machine sopping wet because someone before me had pressed the "no spin" button (and ok, I will take the blame for that for not checking first), and because I could only wring them out, before putting them in the drier, they took about 2 hours to dry! But these are all things that you just deal with, and accept as being part of the cheap price of a hostel.

Why I don't like hostels, has more to do with one of the girls that I shared a room with last night (and I'm guessing I will again tonight, unless - hopefully- she checked out this morning). I was sorting out my clothes that I wanted to wash when this girl, Maree, from Greece (or France, she said she was part Greek, part French, but didn't say where exactly she came from) opened the door to the room and then just stood in the doorway looking at me as if I was a piece of dog poo. I looked up and saw that there was a guy standing behind her and said "Hi, are you right?" because they were just standing in the door way, and Maree said " Can we get in please?" So I shifted my bag a little for them, although, really, it wasn't in the way and they could have stepped around it. So while I was sorting out my stuff, the guy was saying things to Maree like, "they should have mixed rooms, really, shouldn't they? I don't know why they don't have mixed rooms". Then the guy (Mark, from the UK, but has been in The Netherlands for a few years) began talking to me and started telling me how his room mate was also from Australia, and he was pretty lonely, and maybe I should go and say "hello", and also, did I know that there are lockers downstairs in the basement where I can put all my valuables?

I gathered up my clothes and left them and headed down to the basement to do my laundry. Once I had put my clothes in the washing machine, I had let it start washing for about 20 minutes, when I realised that it was going to be going for about another 40 minutes, so I went back to my room to get a book. I was a bit worried about going back in, as I was a bit suspicious as to what Mark and Maree were up to, however, as another girl was leaving the room just as I got back to the door, I figured it would be safe. When I got in there though, I found that Maree was in the bed opposite mine, and it was pretty obvious that there was someone else under the covers! I grabbed my book and left pretty quick smart. I didn't return to the room until I saw them later, sitting at the bar.

And so that is why I don't like hostels. I didn't think that there would be people there who were so inconciderate of others. I haven't yet booked my accommodation in Paris, and was planning on staying in one of the hostels there. Now I am not so sure. So I would like to emphasise my previous invitation: If anyone would like to meet me in Paris for 7 nights from June 18th - June 25th, I would be delighted to share a hotel room with you (as long as you don't bring strangers to our room). This is not a completely selfish invitation: although, yes, sharing a hotel room will work out much cheaper per person than getting a room on my own, by then it will be nearly 2 months since I left, and I will be looking forward to seeing a familiar face! Just let me know, and I'll book the hotel!

Lis x.

Rotterdam

Hello again!

Well, lets see... Last time I wrote on my blog I was staying in Groningen for the night. It turned out to be a bustling little town and in hindsight, it would have been nice to have spent another night there. It is home to the second oldest university in The Netherlands, and as such, is full of young people. I had dinner that night at a trendy little bar just near my hotel in the Grote Markt. It had red wall paper and lots of pictures on the wall and there was a piano on a platform above everyone in the corner of the room, which was accesible only by a ladder. The meal was pretty good too- I ordered steak with champignonsaus, as the menu was in Dutch, and it was about the only thing that sounded familiar (Steak with Mushrooms).

The next morning when I woke up it was raining. Again. I took a train to Arnhem and decided to find my hostel first and dump my bag before heading to De Hoge Veluwe National Park. I decided to follow the signs to the tourist office (there are a lot of signposts here in The Netherlands- one for cyclists, one for pedestrians and one for motorists). From that little exercise, I worked out that in some cases it is just better to find your own way to your destination on a map than to follow the signs, especially when you are lugging around all your worldly possessions on your back. The signs took me on the scenic route to the tourist office, through the centre of the town, past lots of shops, down some nice little streets, and eventually to the tourist office (which of course, I walked straight past). If I had just consulted the street map in the first place, then I would have walked directly down the street about 200 metres to the tourist office.

The nice lady at the tourist office showed me on a map where my hostel was, then told me which bus to catch to get there, and where to catch it from. So, I caught the bus, got off at the stop that I was told to get off at, then followed the sign down the hill to the Stayokay (there is a chain of hostels here in The Netherlands called Stayokay). It wasn't until I had walked about 500 metres in the pouring rain, and consulted the map on the side of the road, that I decided that I was in fact heading AWAY from the hostel. You are probably all wondering by now how I manage to tie my shoes of a morning, and why I don't wear a badge with my name on it, just so I don't forget who I am, but HONESTLY I'm really not that bad at following directions- the sign to the stayokay was pointing in the WRONG direction! When I finally got to my hostel, I was absolutely drenched, and it was still pouring with rain, so I decided against catching the bus back in to town in order to catch another bus to the park, and just stayed at the hostel instead.

The next morning looked to be a lovely day, the sun was shining and there was no rain. By the time I got to town, it had started spitting. I took my bag to the luggage lockers at the train station (fantastic invention, those luggage lockers) and caught the bus to De Hoge Veluwe National Park. By this stage, it was no longer spitting, but raining gently. I entered the park and hopped on one of the 1200 free white bicycles that the park provides and started cycling to the Museum which was in the centre of the park. The park was a lot bigger than I expected. It is actually around 20 kilometres from one end to the other and there are more than 40 kilometers of cycling and walking paths. Halfway to the museum (which was a 12km ride from my entrance), it started to pour with rain, so I was pretty wet by the time I got to the museum. The museum was ok, but a little disappointing after the museums in Amsterdam. It is really just an art gallery and it is amazing what some people class as art- there was some pretty weird stuff in there! Unfortunately, as I wanted to catch the train to Den Haag that afternoon, I didn't have time to cycle to the hunting lodge which was on the other side of the park. It didn't really matter though, by the time I left the park, there was torrential rain, so I wasn't really in the mood to add an extra 10kms to my bike ride. By the time I got back to the entrance to the park, I was soaked to the skin. I didn't get to see much wildlife in the park, just the one deer which leapt across the park in front of a couple who passed me on their bikes, and was gone in a flash. I'm pretty sure it was a deer, I asked the couple at the entrance if that was what it was and they claimed that they hadn't seen it.

I caught the bus back to Arnhem, collected my luggage and caught the train to Den Haag. Saturday was National Mill Day here, when all the working mills open their door to visitors. On the train ride I saw 4 windmills all in a group and they were all going. It was a pretty awesome sight.

Den Haag is the home of Rolf, one of the Dutch guys that I met on my 4WD tour of Kakadu, so he kindly showed me around the town for a few hours, pointing out the important sights such as the Knight's House and The Peace Palace, and several of the Royal Residence's. He had to go to a wedding later in the evening, so I had dinner on my own at an Indonesian restaurant. Indonesian restaurants are very good over here, as Indonesia was one of the Dutch collonies. After dinner, I headed back to the hostel, and had a reasonably early night.

Yesterday, I visited the Mauritshuis in Den Haag- The museum which has the painting of The Girl With The Pearl Earing by Vermeer- and Escher in The Palace (an old royal palace has been converted to an artgallery showcasing works by Escher, the famous Dutch graphic artist). In the late afternoon, I caught the train to Rotterdam. The lonely planet said that "it's pretty hard to get lost in Rotterdam, due to there being so many landmarks" and for once, I had no trouble finding my hostel (I confess, I did have a bit of trouble in Den Haag).

I found a great Tapas restaurant called Marias, not far from my hostel, and had a lovely meal, before heading back to my hostel to do some laundry. This morning I have been to the top of the Euromast to see the view of Rotterdam from 189metres high, and had a nice walk through Het Park. There was a golden retriever at the park called "Pastrami" and she was about as obedient as what Eric is! She was having such a lovely time swimming in the pond, chasing the ducks, that she was not going to come out no matter how much her owner called her!

Now, although I don't have much room in my bag (well, no room really), I think I am going to go shopping, as I am in need of a little retail therapy after last night (see next blog)! Then I'm going to check out the Museum Boijmans van Beuningen.

By the way, if anyone would like to come and see me in Paris, I'm planning on staying 7 nights there from 18th June- 25th June, and would love to share a hotel room with any of you (I'm a bit put off hostels at the moment)!

Love,
Lis x.

ps. more pictures to come when I find another computer that lets me put them on.

Tulip Tour

Hello from Groningen, in the North of The Netherlands! I'm not quite sure what possessed me to include Groningen in my trip, or at least why I would travel to Groningen from Texel without at least putting in a night somewhere else in between. I arrived at my hotel here tonight at 5:45pm, after 5 and a half hours of travelling (bus, ferry, bus, train, another train, and yet another train, it sounded so easy and quick in the Lonely Planet Guide), and I plan on leaving early tomorrow morning in order to get to Arnhem and spend most of the day at Hoge Vellue National Park (not sure if that is the correct name for it, pretty sure that the Hoge is right, not conviced about the Vellue, but if you're really interested you can look it up on a map of the Netherlands, and in any case I'll correct myself in the next blog entry), and being as I found this internet cafe pretty much as soon as I arrived, I really won't be seeing too much of the town in the light.

So, for those of you who haven't been talking to Mum, Dad or Nicky, I made it to my tulip tour! I was very excited when I asked a man who looked to be in charge of a barge which had a lot of bikes on it if I was in the right place. He showed me a list he had and I pointed out my name on it, so he showed me my room on the boat and explained that once everyone was on board at 1pm, we would start the engines and have tea and coffee and be on our way. He was our skipper, Ad. Our tour guide's name was Marcel, and he was a tall, bald man from the Netherlands (he said he lives in Maastricht and offered me a place to stay when I visit there if I need it- I've already booked a hostel). He had one normal blue eye, and one white eye in which the blue iris was faintly visible, and I kept trying to work out if he could see with it or not, and if it was a corneal defect, something he was born with or something he acquired (I think it is the vet in me), but of course, I didn't ASK these questions, that is something you just don't do - not even at the pub after a few cherry beers.

So, we left at about 1:45 pm. We had to wait for Jimmy, a man from the UK who's flight had been delayed about 3 hours. Marcel actually rode to the train station to meet him and took an extra bike with him to speed things up a bit- that is one way to avoid having to find the barge on your own!

Our first stop was at Spaarndam, the home of Hans Brinker- the little boy with his hand in the dike that saved all of the Netherlands from flooding. In case you didn't already know, this little boy never existed. He was made up. By an American woman. But he has become the symbol for all dike workers in the Netherlands. We visited his statue, then rode a few kilometers to Haarlem. We nearly had our first casualty on the way- David, a man from the UK, nearly crashed into another rider coming from the opposite direction. Marcel had told us on our debriefing that noone wears helmets here in the Netherlands, and not to do it, just be careful, so there were only one or two of us in the group (those of us who value our brains quite highly, and maybe a few of us who are aware of our slight uncoordination on a bike) who were wearing our helmets that we were told to bring with us by our booking group. There were a few more the next day who decided to wear their helmets (including David).

After dinner the first night (our cooks name was Marieke, and she made the most delicious dishes every night), we went on a walking tour of Haarlem. It was liberation day, so a lot of people in the streets partying. The good news is, although I didn't get to see the Red Light District in Amsterdam, I did get to walk through The Red Light District of Haarlem (sorry Kim, my pure mind has now been corrupted). The Red Light District is much much much smaller than that of Amsterdam, and much more controlled. We did see one girl sitting in a brothel window in a short skirt and push-up bra who waved and smiled at us as we passed (we also passed several very young looking boys who were standing out the front watching and calling to her). After the walking tour, we had a drink in one of the local pubs. I had a St Louise Cherry Beer, and I have to say it was great! Much nicer than regular beer.

The second day of the tour we rode to Keukenhof Gardens, where we saw tulips, tulips and more tulips! As well as a variety of other bulbs and flowers. It was a very beautiful, and HUGE garden. We spent 2 and a half hours there and still didn't see every inch of the park. After lunch, we cycled past some fields. Alas, as it has been an early spring here in most of Europe, most of the bulbs have already bloomed and died. We only saw 2 fields and they were not as spectacular as I was hoping. Oh well, maybe I will just have to come back next year for another look. The fields that we did see were still very pretty though.

On the third day of the tour we visited a working windmill and a cheese farm (that makes Gouda Cheese). It was pouring with rain on this day though, so Marcel modified our tour a little so there was not so much bike riding (and a few of us made good use of the modification to spend an hour or two in a Pancake House in Leiden eating).

On the last day, we got up bright and early and visited the Flower Auction at Aalsmeer. This is a huge building full of rows and rows of trolleys which are full of flowers of many varied colours and varieties. The flowers here are auctioned to all over the world, and the prices set the prices for flowers around the rest of the world. Here, something highly amusing happened (at least to me it was highly amusing, to the girl in question, I think it was a little frustrating).

There was a group of 4 Canadian women on our tour, 2 of which work for the Canadian Embassy in the UK, 2 of which work for the Canadian Embassy in Stockholm, Sweden. One of the women who works in the UK, Shannon, decided that, instead of waiting for the rest of the group outside the auction, so that we could all ride together to the barge, in time for breakfast and to pack our bags before sailing back to Amsterdam as planned, she would ride ahead of us to the barge so that she could have a shower before breakfast. Unfortunately, she didn't tell Marcel what she was doing. If she had, she would have discovered that the boat was actually in a different place, in the opposite direction to that which it had been when we left it that morning. Unfortunately for her, by the time she discovered that the boat was no longer where we left it, the rest of us were nearly at the boat, and unable to wait for her, as the boat was on a tight schedule to pass through certain bridges and locks at certain times. Marcel tried to organise for her to hitch a ride with another tour group which was half an hour behind us, but for some reason or another, she missed this group as well. It was quite comical to hear her voice screaming down the line of the phone to Marcel. She ended up hitching a lift with a nice business man and his wife who were headed back to Amsterdam also. I found the whole thing quite funny, although I did feel a little sorry for her when we did eventually meet up with her at the dock in Amsterdam, I think if it had been me, I would have been in tears. But then again, why not just wait for the rest of the group?

The tour was great. They were a great bunch of people, and I hope to keep in contact with at least a few of them. We were a mixture of Americans, Brits, Canadians and one Aussie (me).

After the tour, I had lunch in Amsterdam with Janene (my barge room mate), Josh, Jessamyn and Jimmy (people from the tour) before heading to Alkmaar where I spent the night. Yesterday morning, I got up reasonably early in order to catch the train to Den Helder, then the ferry to Texel (one of the Wadden Islands). I think I saw more fields of flowers on my train ride to Den Helder than what I saw on the Tulip Tour! It made me think that it must be so exciting if you rode the train to work everyday, to see the first bulbs of spring in the fields and knowing that winter was over.

I then caught a bus to De Koog, a town near the centre of the island where I was staying the night. I dropped my bags off in my hotel room (the nicest one I've stayed in since being in the Netherlands) and then bought some flemish fries for lunch. This was my first taste of flemish fries and I can't say that I can see what the fuss is all about. They are just chips with Mayonaise. After lunch, I hired a bike and rode to Eco Mare, an environmental museum and sanctuary for sick and injured birds and seals. I had a little look around and watched the seals being fed, before going for a ride around the dunes. I soon gave that up as a bad idea. Trust me to find the only hilly area in The Netherlands and think it might be a nice area to ride a bike. And a heavy, 3 gear bike at that! I think perhaps I should have brought my mountain bike along with me after all. I took a little detour and went for a ride around De Dennen (a national park/forest) instead. Much flatter. And that pretty much brings me to this morning, I think.

Thanks everyone for your comments and emails. I really enjoy hearing what you're all doing back home.

I think I can see a USB port on this computer, so I am going to see if I can download some photos for you to make this blogsite a little more interesting and colourful. Wish me luck...

Luv,
Lis x.

Amsterdam

Hi All,

Well, I have made it in one piece to Amsterdam! The flight was actually not as bad as I thought it would be - they keep you entertained by feeding you lots, and everyone has their own tv screen in the back of the seat in front, on which you can play movies-on-demand. I managed to squeeze in 6 movies plus had a few hours of sleep.

I had a couple of mishaps getting to my hotel in Amsterdam.
1. After having to buy something to get some change to buy a train ticket to Amsterdam Central Station, I had to ask the lady at the info desk where to catch the train from as the timetables and signs were just too confusing for me.
2. As the train approached Central Station, I stood up to put my bag on my back (thought I better do it before the train stopped as it takes me a while to find the coordination to lift the 20kilos onto my back and didn't want to miss my stop) however, as the train was still moving and with the momentum of the pack, I actually lost my balance a little and nearly ended up in the lap of the man who was sitting opposite me! He caught me though before I fell!
3. It took a little while to figure out where to buy a tram ticket from, but found my tram quite easily and got off at my stop uneventfully.
4. Spent the next 20 minutes or so wandering the streets trying to find my hotel which, according to the directions was only a 2 minute walk away (it actually is only 2 minutes away, once you know where you're going).

I think the maps of Amsterdam are defective. I'm sure there are streets here that aren't on the map. And just when I think I've got it figured out, and I know where I'm going, I realise that I'm actually travelling on a different street and in the opposite direction to what I thought I was! I seriously didn't think I was that bad at navigation, but I have so far gotten off-course about 5 times. Very confusing.

So after I found my hotel yesterday, and I was seriously starting to smell and in need of a good wash (after the 27 hours of flying and airports and the sweating from lugging my pack around), I was told that my room wouldn't be ready until 2 o'clock. So I headed to the Rijksmuseum (on Kim's advice), to check out Rembrandt's The Night Watch. So I headed to the museum (found it easily I might add) and spent a few hours looking around at the artistic history of The Netherlands. I then went back to the Hotel (it was 3 0'clock by then) and decided to have a snooze for an hour before having a wash and going out to dinner. My one hour snooze turned into 7 hours, so I decided to skip dinner and had a shower and went back to bed.

So today I felt much better and refreshed after a good night's sleep and headed to the booking office to book a tour of the red light district tonight. Unfortunately, as today is memorial day, there was no tour tonight. Bummer. So consequently I have time to type this blog and check my email tonight (not much email, please email me or leave your comments here, or I will start to feel unloved). After that I checked out Anne Frank's house (got lost on the way, and had to wait an hour in line). If anyone is planning on visiting Amsterdam, this is one you should definitely visit. I haven't read the book, but the tour was still very moving, and I'm going to have to read it in the near future, I think.

After lunch, I went to The Van Gough museum. I actually enjoyed this museum better than The Rijksmuseum- mainly because I liked the art work better. It of course featured his Sunflowers as well as many, many, many, many of his other works, and the works of some of his artist mates. My favourite was one of an almond tree in blossom that he painted as a gift for his brother when his nephew was born.

I also managed to squeeze in time to see Dam Square and the National Monument today. I have photos which I was going to download but I can't see anywhere on this computer where I can plug my camera into, so that will have to wait until another time.
Tomorrow I start my cycling tour. I just hope that I can find where we are supposed to leave from. I checked it out today, and I think I know where it is... hopefully my next blog will be about the tour and not say "I missed the barge".

Love,
Lis x.