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Amsterdam, The Netherlands

31/8/2010

Amsterdam's canals - and bikes, lots of bikes!

We weren’t exactly up and out early but we did make our Hotel breakfast and our train had us into Amsterdam before lunch.

The scenery from the train was nice but difficult to enjoy as there was standing room only on the train. Amsterdam was hosting a sailing festival so the harbour area we passed was full of tall ships.

The station was undergoing some refurbishment so walking out to the street was a bit disappointing – all fencing and bustle!

We headed straight down to Dam Square and watched some of the street artists. The Royal Palace was boarded up for renovation also but the square remains a very impressive landmark.

We wandered towards the Anne Frank museum and house, crossing the canals and tree lined streets that make Amsterdam visually special. Molly and Julia were keen to see the Anne Frank museum so they queued up and then went in whilst I wandered around for a few hours. It is not that I don’t respect the story of Anne Frank, it is just that I have been before and queues bore me………

Before Julia and Molly went in they saw another carnival. I think it is the 4th of our trip. This one was quite different, being that the floats in the parade were actually, um…..well, they were floating. Giant clogs, African drummers, Italian sports cars and pirates were all floating past as aprt of the summer celebrations.

Julia and Molly were very impressed with the museum and it has been greatly improved since I was there with Julia 7 years ago. It is amazing how it connects so well in Dutch society, promoting tolerance and understanding.

We headed back to the station late in the afternoon, explaining the “Coffee Shop” lifestyle and how in Amsterdam you can “window shop” for almost anything! Molly loved it and her high expectations of The Netherlands had been realised. She was not a big fan of the tiny staircases in Dutch terrace houses though!

We finished our day with another night in Hilversum and a meal of a Dutch tasting plate and of course fries with mayo!

Who knows why the Flintsones (and Rubbles) are boating down a canal in Amsterdam? Do carnivals and parades ever make sense?!

Crazy, skinny houses, almost square and with the narrowest spiral staircases you can imagine.

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Five Countries in One Day

30/8/2010

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Bard's Cottage Commonwealth War Cemetary, Belgium

Ypres Cathedral

Somehow, we found ourselves back in the South East of England, this time at Ramsgate, ready to take a ferry to Belgium. Not just any ferry either, the cheapest ferry crossing I could find, at only 59 pounds! Maybe that was how we came to be in Ramsgate at 11.00pm at night?

The crossing was nice and the ferry had a sleeping lounge with business class type seats. Somehow though I wasn’t expecting two hours sleep to get me through the day…….

Whilst not exactly carefully planned, I worked out that with clever driving, careful navigation and the planets being aligned, we could actually turn our cheap ass crossing into a well timed visit of Commonwealth memorials at Ypres – dawn is always a good time to think of the sacrifices made by those who went before us.

We dis-embarked on time at about 4.30am and headed South East. To be honest, I had no idea how central Belgium was to the fighting along the Western Front. So many of the towns we visited in Belgium in our one day dash westward were names that were very familiar to me – but I must guiltily admit to having always assumed they were in France, inclusive of WW2 sites.

So starting at Ypres, after two U-turns and some confusion in the breaking dawn, we spent the day soaking up memorials to the fallen and to Liberation.

First stop was Bards Cottage cemetery, a Commonwealth War Graves site. It is one of many in the area and at dawn was typically moving – a reminder of how crazy the first World War was and how well Western Europe remembers the fallen.

In Ypres town centre we were amazed at the beauty of the town cathedral and then spent some time as the Sun rose, reading through the names of the fallen that are listed at Menin Gate. I can’t imagine what went through the minds of Australian soldiers – 2 years on the Western front, 10,000 miles from home, fighting for a free world at an age when they should have been leaving school, finding a suitor and starting a family (or maybe they should have been on their “gap year”?).

We left Ypres and drove westward towards Luxembourg. On the border is a Belgian town called Bastogne and I could recall it from military literature I had read in my youth. We battled the impatient peak hour flow of traffic on motorways and decided on taking the secondary routes, as much for my sanity as for the views! Each town we passed through was increasingly more scenic and when we arrived at Bastogne in the late morning, we were impressed with our chosen destination. Every town square should have a large choice of café’s and restaurants, a tourist information centre, a car park and of course, a Sherman Tank!

After lunch we headed into Luxembourg. Lots of pretty villages in mountain valleys and memorials to the allied soldiers who liberated the country. We found the cheapest fuel in this part of the world could be had in Luxembourg and that a day or a week could easily be spent in the little villages surrounded by mountains.

By now we had basically been traveling for 24 hours, having left Yorkshire the afternoon before. Our aim was to get to the Arnhem area of The Netherlands so that we could train in to Amsterdam the next day. To do this we had two options: back through Belgium and North into Holland by motorway or cross into Germany through back roads and wind our way North to motorways further into Holland. By going through Germany we would have driven through 5 countries by the time we got to The Netherlands, all in one day. That little achievement and the fact that Belgium motorways had not been very pleasant earlier in the day helped us decide.

We had afternoon tea in a beautiful town square, posted some cards from Luxembourg and headed off, crossing several rivers and mountains and then coming into Germany.

Despite having a fairly recent Michelin road atlas, not every road turned out to be as we expected – an hour into Germany and we were on motorways. Obviously Autobahns are famous throughout the world but this motorway was only signposted for 130km/h so pretty normal for Europe.

Apparently though, in Germany, it is pretty normal to ignore the speed limit and go as fast as your German or Swedish car will go – but it certainly helps to keep you awake after a long day.

We covered distance easily, despite a couple of traffic jams. We passed into The Netherlands and headed North. Julia had an idea that we should stay closer to Amsterdam so we headed that way. She navigated us through some really ugly satellite suburbs as we got closer, much to my delight after a long day, but then discovered the beautiful town of Hilversum, just 15 minutes train ride from Amsterdam. After 6 laps of the town we eventually found where the Hotels were and we were in for the night, ready to see Amsterdam the next day.

Menin Gate, Ypres

Bastogne town square, complete with Sherman Tank and Willy's Jeep

Welcome to Luxembourg, please have a nice day

Irsental, Germany. Next stop, The Netherlands

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The Party - a small detour

28/8/2010

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Sue, Julia and Molly dressed for the party

The White Cliffs of Dover - more obvious in the afternoon then when we last arrived here at 2am in the morning

We left Normandy on a lazy Friday afternoon……yep, some how timed our travel to coincide with the “workers”! Oh, the humanity!

Anyway, we were off to the region of Amiens, to visit WW1 battlefields and to stay at Cambrai. We found the French freeways effortless but very expensive. 20 Euros for an afternoon drive is quite a lot and more than any other country we have experienced.

We had a couple of options as far as a route went so with some last minute indecision and some might say fate, I decided to run North of Amiens, missing both it’s ring road and subsequently St Qentin – at least I think that was why we went where we did!?

Then, my trusty navigator, Julia, noted that we were actually quite close to Calais……..and here in lies a story.

Julia’s sister had arrived in Cornwall the day we before we left, 2 weeks earlier to our current journey, so we didn’t get a lot of time with her, noting that we would see her again in Vienna. However she was having a house warming party for her new house and we had considered turning up to surprise her – there would be extended family and friends we hadn’t seen for ages so it seemed like an all round good excuse for a party. But ferry prices from the Normandy region to Plymouth, nearest port to Cornwall, were very high. From Calais they were not so expensive but getting to Calais and then from there to Cornwall seemed a bit extreme……

And here we were, quite close to Calais. Wondering just how easy it would be, I offered my trusty travel companions the chance to put it to the vote. Party tomorrow or WW1 battlefields and continue on to Belgium………..2-0, party it is then.

It turns out that ferry travel is easy. Turn up, buy tickets, queue for a little while, drive on, cruise to Dover, take photos of the white cliffs and then drive off. Remember you are in a left hand drive car, remember you drive on the left of the road, and follow the signs towards the west country. Easy!

By now it was 8.00pm on a Friday night and my worry was we would end up past Southampton without any available accommodation at about midnight. Of course the other worry was driving to Cornwall on a Saturday – the dreaded change-over day for holiday accommodation.

So just short of Southampton we stopeed for the night at about 9.30pm and figured the next day would be easy enough.

Wrong! By 10.30am the next morning we were in a car park called the A303. So we took the Stone Hange exit, admired the magnificent monoliths from afar and continued on towards the west country on a variety of back roads. It also gave Julia and Molly a chance to shop for some cocktail dresses and accessories without rushing around at the last minute.

Despite taking our time, we still encountered several more car park situations as we progressed west but eventually made it in time.

There was of course the question of accommodation and keeping our arrival a surprise. Given that the new house is basically in Julia’s parents front yard, family wasn’t an option. We called her parents friends Sue and Dave and sure enough they were happy to hide us for the afternoon and then introduce us as their guests when we were to arrive at the party. One small problem was that their house is half way between Julia’s parents and her brother’s house so it would require a quick unload when we arrived.

We made it with an hour to spare, did a very quick drop off and then hid our little French car in a public car park just to be sure – French guests at Sue and Dave’s would take some explaining and might give us away!

Molly and Julia (particularly Molly) loved the chance to put a cocktail dress on and before we knew it, we had gone from visiting WW1 battlefields to surprising friends and family at a cocktail party in Cornwall. Julia’s sister, Mum and Dad were very surprised as Sue and Dave introduced their uninvited guests and we went on to have a lovely night. Molly was an excellent cocktail waitress, taking orders, mixing and serving right through the night. It was certainly worth the effort to see so many people we would otherwise have missed or who may have already seen but might not again for several years.

From Cornwall we thought we would drive to Yorkshire and get the overnight ferry to Holland. Therefore we booked in for two more nights with Julia’s God-parents Maureen and David and treated them and their daughter Bev’ to another night at Aakash, the World’s Biggest Indian Restaurant (actually according to their literature it is the world’s biggest Asian restaurant!). We also fitted in a lunch with Julia’s Aunty Margaret at the Hunsworth pub where Margaret used to take her Mum (Julia’s Great Grandma) each week.

On the way North we managed to coordinate a flying visit to see old friends from when we lived in Malaysia. We used to see Chris and Sarah and their boy James almost every day so catching up again after a few years was great. They have the addition of 4 year old twins, Isabelle and Edward, as well so things in their lives had changed a lot. They also have the addition of Chris’ lovingly restored Series 2 Land Rover so that became a large part of the afternoon as we raced around the Cotswolds, drinking pints on the banks of the Thames and getting fish and chips from one of their old haunts. Edward getting very wet was also a big part of the afternoon but what 4 year old boy wouldn’t turn wading across a stream into a full dunking of pants and shirt!??!

All up several very worthy detours and now on to the Low Countries……..

Chris with his lovingly restored Series 2 Land Rover - at home in an English village

With David, Maureen and Beverley in the World's largest Asian Restaurant

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More from Normandy

22/8/2010

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A few pics from Normandy.

In front of the main memorial. The number of visitors was amazing - the French people clearly value the conribution made by the allied army

Some of the 9,000 American graves at Omaha

The site of the allied floating harbour at Arromanches

Sunset over the apple orchards and town square at Cambremer

BBQ Cambremer style! Lots of fire, then lots of smoke, wait a little while then eat. No horse, lots of pork and some sausage.

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Normandy

20/8/2010

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The Church at PontL'eveque, post D-Day fighting and the break-out from Normandy

Today, one of many buildings (and entire towns) re-built after 1945

We stayed a night at Charles de Gaulle airport – a curious airport with seemingly dozens of terminals joined by trains, buses and walkways. No doubt a good set-up for most as you only go to one terminal per airport visit – normally.

For us it was a bit of a maze but eventually we found the terminal with car hire and the terminal with hotels (in our price range!) and made a night of it, before heading off towards Normandy the next day.

We were of course on the wrong side of Paris so we had no idea how to get to where we were going. First stop Carrefour, the French equivalent of Woolworths and Big W, all rolled into one huge building. Fortunately the Michelin road atlas we got was in all Euro languages so we now knew where we were going….sort of.

Quite by accident we went through Chantilly and discovered a magical castle come stately home with a huge horse training estate, race track and a town.

We also discovered that McDonalds really does have Le Royal burger and that in France McDonalds, you can serve yourself! Well, the ordering part you do yourself anyway!

Our aim was to get to Cambremer where our very good friends from when we lived in Malaysia have a house in a little French village. By a stroke of Luck Bruno was there longer than planned so we had decided to visit as soon as possible, partly the reason we left Paris before actually seeing the sights.

Regular visitors at the web-site might remember Bruno, Chrystel and their boys Remi and Guillame from such memorable blogs as the “tandem bikes around a Singaporean park” and “how many people can you fit in a 2+2 sports car in Singapore”!??!

As it turned out we missed Bruno and the boys when we arrived by about two hours but did find the house and made ourselves at home, deciding to stay on until Bruno returned in several days time.

Cambremer is a small village dedicated to growing, eating, destilling and drinking apples. Apple cider, apple liqueur and apple whisky (Calvados). It has a market on Sundays and our first morning we woke up to this – a town square full of pigs, chickens, people dressed as peasants and French folk music. Dancing takes place about every hour and various products are for sale, mostly apple based! Of course there is a plentiful supply of (really) smelly cheeses, sausages (fitting of a similar description as the cheese) and of course French sticks (which in France they call baguettes!! Go figure?!!?).

We visited other small villages, found the locals very friendly and when Bruno returned he took us on a tour of the Normandy beaches. We finished at the American Memorial and cemetery. It is an inspiring and at the same time solemn piece of land overlooking Omaha beach. Omaha was considered the most difficult of the allied landings and as it was the landing site for two US Divisions it is a fitting location for the memorial. I always thought that the USA returned their war dead home for burial but discovered that next of kin were given the option in Europe of a burial site in situ or at home. There are 9,000 graves at Omaha.

In the evenings Bruno entertained us with his BBQing skills and by offering a large variety of aperitifs to finish off the evening. My favourite was the apple ice-cream with calvados as topping. Fruit and whisky ice-cream!???!!!!

If only we had 4 weeks spare to work on our French – who knows, maybe we would grow to like the “aroma” of soft French cheese?

A fairly typical memorial in a small French village.

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London to Paris - can it get an easier........

20/8/2010

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We managed to book some tickets in advance at a very cheap rate for a Eurostar crossing to Paris. We planned for a Friday afternoon getaway from London because we had to allow enough days in London to get Molly and I Brazilian Visas……….I would otherwise suggest NOT traveling into Paris on a Friday afternoon!

The Eurostar station at Kings Cross-St Pancras is excellent – modern, well serviced, free wi-fi, helpful staff. It is actually very similar to flying except you can take whatever you like on the train – sandwiches, extra picnic bags……fluids etc!

You do French immigration checks at the station, board the train and then less than an hour later you are looking at the French countryside…..granted it does look a lot like British countryside but you get the point.

And then you arrive at Paris Gare du Nord – Paris North Station. Of course at first you think the train has gone further than Paris, maybe as far as Nairobi or Kinshasa. In many ways it resembles a zoo and some of the smells are similar. People are going in all directions, people asking if we speak English just want money, not assistance, the plethora of French language instructions at Eurostar London are not reciprocated here in Paris, and as with many of our journeys, we have NO PLAN!!!

We walked outside and it was a bit scary, walked back into the station, no better, then thought about just getting a Hotel room and escaping the madness…….NO, can’t do it, let’s get out of here. 30 minutes of pacing around and queuing later and we finally had tickets to Charles De Gaulle Airport – guaranteed to have car hire and be far enough away from Paris city to allow us a clean getaway to the country. We knew Paris would always be there for us to investigate.

In the absence of photos from our eurostar trip I offer this, from Regents Park, London. This is a Scandinavian Troll - out and about with members of the Troll Spotters club.....true story!

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London…..this is England??

12/8/2010

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Ceremonial Guards at St James Palace

In the Gardens at Buckingham Palace after an afternoon in the State Rooms - as you do!

London’s burning!! Well, not quite, but if Hyde Park is anything to go by then it could burst into flames at any minute! Dry, dusty and courtesy of the middle-eastern boys playing soccer every where, it didn’t look unlike an immigration detention centre in the South Australian outback. Although more Burkhas seem to be worn in Hyde Park.

We stayed in Marylebone/Kensington area, a little bit like “Little Cairo” or something like that and initially a bit disappointing if you are looking for the London experience. But then again, this is London so I guess that is part of the experience.

Un-perturbed (well, maybe a little perturbed) we ventured out and did the tourist thing – went straight to Madam Tussaud’s. Eyeing off the 4 hour queue, sizing up the number of possible exhibits and physically feeling the weight of the rather hefty entry fee, we decided that like so many world tourist attractions, Madam Tussauds is best viewed from a distance!

However as Richard Harris stated in “The Unforgiven”, people act differently in the presence of Majesty – when faced with similar queues at Buckingham Palace, we did not turn away. Nor were we disappointed. The Summer opening of the palace is well worth it and very well done. For the first time we all made use of the free headphone guided tour and had a great experience. No Royalty but I’m sure my day will come….

After a couple of days we were all really enjoying being back in a big city, although why people choose to live in them is beyond me – oh, yeah, must be something to do with money! Given house prices in London people must make lots of it working there.

Whilst Hyde Park was a bit disappointing we did do some paddle-boating on a lake at Regents Park, found Downing Street, wandered through Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and Soho, and even went to the theatre……

Being in the West End a night at the theatre seemed appropriate so off we went to see Legally Blonde – The Musical! We didn’t even know it was a musical but sure enough it is – and it is a really good one. Lots of singing, lots of over-acting and some great characters. A true London experience.

We managed to catch up with an old friend (or is that a friend from a long time ago?) who we hadn’t seen for 10 years. Pete was visiting from the North, via Khartoum, Spain and soon to be Cairo (again) but was at his daughter’s in North London. Following his directions we took the tube and then a bus and found a nice suburb and his charming family – unfortunately we missed Trudy and Charlie-Mae so may need to stick to our original plan of visiting Cairo………..

Anyway, it was great to catch up and once again we wondered why we don’t make the effort more often – silly world with it’s silly busy-ness!

We left London happy chappies and hopefully re-charged for the adventure ahead.

A Former London Pub - not sure what that writing says now!

'Allo, my name is Michael Caine.....

Molly waiting for Mr Cameron so she can offer some advice on man made climate change and peace in the middle east

The British Museum - an amazing day out

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Cornwall Pics

12/8/2010

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Some more photos before moving on to London.....Molly has some carnival pics on her blog.

Grandad takes the Matchless for a spin around the backyard, Louis and Henry were just along for the ride.

The family that eats pasties together....................at Portreath fuelling up for the coastal path route back to our cars.

Molly and Grandma at Penzance harbour

St Ives, a truly stunning village near to Hayle

What do you call a maze of corn......a Maize Maze of course!

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Cornwall

12/8/2010

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A family dinner - note there is just juice in front of me!

Soon after arriving in the UK we all realised that we couldn’t wait to get to Cornwall and be stable for a few weeks. No early mornings to catch trains, pack bags or find hotels.

So it should be no surprise to any of us that we stayed a week longer than planned and had a VERY relaxing time in Cornwall. We caught up with family and friends, went to the beach, ate pasties, drank cider, played football and cricket with Louis and Henry (Molly’s cousins) and explored some parts of Cornwall we hadn’t seen before. And every morning we woke up knowing where we would be that night, how we were going to get there and what we might encounter along the way! As I say, very relaxing.

The highlights were little Cornish pubs in places like Marazion and Penzance, walking in the woods and coastal paths around Portreath, getting hopelessly lost in the Maize Maze (with Julia reliving nightmares from the movie “Children of the Corn”!), discovering new towns East of Falmouth across King Harry’s Ferry, pub crawling in St Ives and of course, the Hayle Town Carnival (or to be more correct, Ye Olde Heyl Carnivel). Nothing like a bunch of Cornish famers tearing up and down the main street in their tractors, towing trailers full of children whilst men dressed as women run alongside them! Well, we loved it so I am sure you would have too!

At St Mawes, across the bay from Falmouth after exploring the Southern Cornish coast

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The Uk and Ireland in a week..................

12/8/2010

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The World's biggest Indian Restaurant........in Clackheaton of course!!??!

Catching up with family and friends in Yorkshire was great, despite the rather solemn occasion. We stayed for a week with Julia’s Godparents, Maureen and David, not only two of our biggest fans but as we have holidayed together before it was very relaxing. We were only with them for a couple of hours before they dragged us and their daughter Beverley out to the world’s biggest Indian Restaurant for a meal! You wouldn’t expect to find it in Clackheaton, let alone in an old Church, but it was a pleasant venue.

We stayed a week in Bradford but knew we had to keep moving. Rather than return to Europe we decided to see the UK and Ireland, spend a few weeks with Julia’s parents and then head back to Europe in late July. So the plan was to head North to Newcastle, West along Hadrian’s Wall to Scotland and across to Northern Ireland by ferry from Stranraer.

Which we did………….in just a few days actually. We visited the magnificent city of York, had a very enjoyable night in Newcastle, bumping into friends of my relatives as we enjoyed Geordie hospitality in a Gateshead pub, and then a great lunch with my Dad’s cousin and her husband in Blaydon.

Hadrian’s Wall was impressive, followed by another Northumberland pub night and some great English weather the next morning to farewell us as we entered Scotland…….where the weather was equally bitter!

We tried to get the fast ferry to Belfast but found that the seas were to rough so after an hour half on the fast ferry we turned around and managed a berth on the slow ferry. Not that it takes long to get to Norhtern Ireland from Scotland, but one less hour on the Irish sea might have been preferable. Two football teams worth of drunk Scotsmen didn’t think so, cheering on every wave that broke over the bow and whited out the viewing windows in the lounge! Molly was green but kept her composure – the little fella next to us didn’t – nor did he keep down his fish and chips, rybena or orange juice…….

We hoped to get to Randallstown in Northern Ireland early enough for dinner. As the ferry got in after 7.00pm we weren’t sure. We soon discovered you can get to anywhere in Northern Ireland by dinner time if you set of by 7.15pm. We managed two laps by 9.30pm although still faiuled to find accommodation. I think the “troubles” there may have discouraged the B&B business………….

The thing that struck us most about our short visit to Northern Ireland was the prevalence of Union Jack’s, the lack of obvious accommodation and a strange passion for building oversized (3 storey high!) bonfires in the car parks of little town halls!??? Must have been the time of the year.

Next morning we went to the largest fresh water lake in the British Isles, Lough Neagh, did another lap of Antrim town and then headed South for Dublin. 3 hours later we were there!

Dublin is difficult to sum up. We met up with some friends, Joe and Elaine, who had lived down the road from us in Canberra and Joe very kindly gave us the full “Cook’s Tour” of Dublin, complete with his own tourist bus! The city is old but in many ways quite plain, having endured English rule and the mixed feelings that have grown out of that. Joe has a great knowledge of the city sites and gave us a great tour, inclusive of some time in Trinity College which is quite awe inspiring.

If in Dublin, find Joe through his Wicklow Tours website and see some amazing scenery. We drove up through Wicklow on our way out of Dublin and were impressed by the mixture of natural features combined with historical settlements. For us though, we were struggling to stop and see much as we felt compelled to keep moving as we knew that once in Cornwall we would be able to settle for several weeks – relaxation lay ahead!

We crossed back to Wales and stayed at Devil’s Bridge with Julia’s cousin Neil and his wife Anne. They have made a lifestyle choice and now live in a small Welsh village, surrounded by hills, forests and streams. The air was clear, cool and life is clearly not rushed – we had a great night, including a meal of Trout caught by Neil, with plenty of wines to wash the local fare down with.

After a day driving though Welsh drizzle, we spent another evening in Wales, this time watching a beautiful sun set at Jenny (one of Julia’s Aunts) and John’s house in Monmouth. Another relaxing evening and easy to see why people choose to move away from some of England’s economic and industrial hubs to enjoy the lifestyle of smaller villages.

Then despite our plans of seeing others, returning to the North and spending longer at every place we went to, we headed straight down to Cornwall from Wales.

For the 3 of us the need to stop in one place was getting stronger and stronger, particularly knowing how close it was to Julia’s parents, so it was inevitable that we would dash for Hayle and do our best to NOT live out of our backpacks for a few weeks.