Easter Weekend

Firstly, Easter weekend and the week before was the first good weather we have had since leaving SA! (Except for 3 days in Dubai, but technically it was winter there.) The sun shone and it was a comfortable 18-22°C every day that week and sometimes a bit warmer. Easter weekend was especially pleasant. Places like London and Paris had been quite warm for at least two or three weeks before Easter but here it only warmed up the week before Easter. Also, we noticed a big change in the scenery in a short space of time around Easter. In the 10 days or so before Easter everything suddenly became green. The difference was even more noticeable when I got back from 10 days in London. The trees are looking fuller now and the leaves are a darker green, not that fresh Spring green. Unfortunately, the good weather didn’t last. We have had some cold snaps since then and some rain. Generally the sun shines but the wind cools it right down. But we are nearing the end of Spring so the weather can only improve! The sun is only setting at about 9:30pm at the moment and it is still light-ish until about 10ish. Fantastic!

Anyway, back to Easter weekend.

As we’ve said before, Good Friday is not a public holiday here. Very strange but there you are. So as a normal work day, Justin went to work and we had a quiet evening together at home. Friday night is usually ‘koopavond’ when the shops are open until 9pm but on Good Friday they all closed at 5pm, that was probably the only difference. Quite sad.

Saturday we went exploring in Delft! Yes, that’s the place where the blue and white delftware comes from. A few people that Justin works with live in Delft and one of the guys, Jan‑Willem, offered to show us around a bit. Sights we saw include the Oude Kerk, the Nieuwe Kerk, the Old Town Hall, the Market Square and the old city walls with one of the original gates. We also had a walk along the canal and saw the first baby ducks of the season! All fluffy and little, very cute. We were also introducing to the ‘terrace’ which is basically a square surrounded by many pubs and cafés where you can sit and have a munch while enjoying a beer. Needless to say we spent a bit of time at the terrace =)

On Sunday we made our second trip to Keukenhof. The gardens were looking so beautiful and different to the first visit a month before. All the tulips were blooming this time and the fields on the way to and surrounding the gardens were in bloom. Fields of colour, it was really amazing! However, the gardens were already showing wear. Strips of grass along the edges of the walk ways had been replaced all over the garden, people pay no attention to the ‘please don’t walk on the grass’ signs. The gardens were really busy though; we preferred it when the gardens were quieter.

Monday was a holiday, tweede Paas Zondag, and we spent the day in Amsterdam. We passed many more beautiful tulip fields on the train on the way there than what we had seen the day before. Fields and fields of colour, it was magical! Amsterdam was really busy being Easter weekend and all. There was also a funfair set up in Damrak Square. The sun was shining and we enjoyed the last of the blossoms falling everywhere. Lots of people were on boats on the canals and there was a feel-good atmosphere in the air. We enjoyed walking around the city and the only touristy thing we did was go to the Rembrandt house Museum.

This is the house the artist bought when he was doing well as an artist. He lived and worked in it until he couldn’t afford the mortgage anymore and it was repossessed. We enjoyed wandering around the house and imaging how he and people lived at that time. There was a kitchen at the bottom level followed by a reception area and room for displaying work and receiving customers on the next level. The next two levels are where he worked and kept his collections of treasures. There was also an interesting and informative demonstration on how etchings were made and how prints were made from the etched plate. We were expecting more of his work to be on display though. There were a lot of prints from his etches and some of the original plates on display but not many of his paintings. There was a lot of other artists work on display as Rembrandt used to sell work for other artists too. Not much of the original furnishings are on display as the household contents were repossessed along with the house but a list of what it contained has survived and the house has been furnished according to what it originally looked like. Although the museum was a bit different to what we expected, we really enjoyed the visit.

We also bought some new tulip bulbs at the flower market street area in Amsterdam. Since our first attempt at growing our own tulips didn’t work out so well, we decided to try again. We kept them in the fridge for a bit to simulate winter conditions. Justin got some new soil and planted them while Bron was in London and they are already growing! It only took a week or two for green shoots to appear above the soil. It’s amazing! It’s always so rewarding growing things =) There aren’t any flowers or buds yet but they are still growing and I’m sure they will get there. Watch this space!

All in all we had a kewl Easter weekend. We missed Easter Sunday lunch at Granny‘s but it sounds like she made a big meal and had a good time anyway. We were very jealous!

This weekend is Nationale Molendag or National Windmill Day. If it is not raining then we are planning to head down to the UNESCO World Heritage Site Kinderdijk where there are 19 windmills. Even if the weather isn’t that great it should still be kewl to head out and see the windmills.

Hope you have a kewl weekend too! Stay warm and dry!

x

The leaning tower of the Oude Kerk 

Jan-Willem and Bron in front of the Old Town Hall

Justin and Bron in front of the Nieuwe Kerk

The old city wall with the only remaining gate

The 'draaiorgel' at Keukenhof

Blooming tulips! 

Fields of colour! 

Leafy green canals in Amsterdam

Statue of Rembrandt in Amsterdam

Royal Weddings and other London sights

I had a good week in London with Shell and Graham but the time just went so fast! Whenever we make plans to go to London I always intend to go to lots of places and do lots of sightseeing, but it doesn’t always work out that way. Something happens on the way there and by the time we get there we feel like a vegetables and all we want to do is vegetate! This was the problem in January which led to so many late mornings and I had the same problem now. I still got out quite a bit but didn’t get through everything on my to-do-list. But it was cool to spend time chilling with Shell and Graham. Thanks for having me over guys! It was kewlest =)

Things I did and highlights from the week are:

-          The National History Museum

-          The National Gallery

-          Seeing Will and Kate at Trafalgar Square

-          Walking around the city centre the day before the royal wedding

-          Evensong at St Paul’s Cathedral with Cambridge’s Clare College Choir

-          Having a haircut!

-        Walking in the Wimbledon Common and having drinks on the lawns of the pub in the last rays of the day

-          Saturday morning breakfast at the pub

-          Visiting Justin’s cousins Mike and Nicola and meeting their new son Aidan

-          Visiting Tanya and Mike and meeting their son Aaron who is almost a year old now

-          Chilling with Shell and Graham

-          Lunch on the Thames and a lazy Sunday afternoon walk along the river

-          Camden Town

-          Oxford Circus

-          Portobello Road

-          Tate Britain Gallery with Gary

The city was a lot busier than when we were there in January. There is a lot to be said for travelling around in winter! It was much quieter and more pleasant visiting the tourist spots and attractions. Think there were also extra tourists around for the royal wedding. The Brits went absolutely mad over the royal wedding. There were big screens set up at Trafalgar Square and other places and a lot of people turned out to watch the day’s proceedings from there. Walking around the streets in the afternoon of the wedding we saw lots of street parties on the go, people celebrating the royal wedding and an extra day off work. I’m not really into Royals too much but the wedding fever was very catchy and if it got people together like they haven’t done before then I suppose it is something to get excited about (apparently braaing with your neighbours isn’t very big in the UK). It was nice to enjoy the city in Spring though. Everything is green now and the city has a totally different feel to it. 

Thursday already and time to head back to Rotterdam. One of the main aims of the visit was to fetch the all the stuff we left behind in January. No mean feat let me tell you. I had an overloaded massive suitcase (on wheels!) in one hand, a huge box with a feather duvet in the other hand, a small daypack on my back and of course my normal handbag. Negotiating stairs was not easy but thanks to a few friendly and helpful people I made it to Brussels in one piece! One of the most exciting parts of the week was to find that the trains between Brussels and Rotterdam were running again, hooray! Much relief as the thought of catching 4 trains home was not appealing. It was still quite a long mission day but I made in the end and now we have our coats and duvet safely home. The duvet really attracted a lot of attention along the way! lol. I’m really glad we had backpacks for our Europe trip, lugging a suitcase on wheels would not have been great, especially for all the stairs at train stations.

Justin in the meantime was enjoying his bachelor week alone as you can see in his Queen’s Day blog. This weekend he played his first cricket game of the season, a warm-up game for 'the beating bats'. His side lost but he had some tidy figures at the end of the day. He opened the bowling and finished on 2/27 after bowling 7 overs, not too bad considering the opposition made 239 runs in 35 overs. He bowled two wickets and made a catch on the field. His batting wasn’t too great but for the first game in 10 years, well done boib! Cricket games are now every Sunday until mid-August.

On Sunday we made our last trip to Keukenhof for this year. The tulips are looking quite tired and are at the end of their season now. Keukenhof still looks ok as they staggered bulb planting so there would always be flowers for the two months the gardens are open. But you can see where extra flowers that have been waiting in a hot house have been added and where strips of grass has been replaced. It’s amazing how many people ignore the please-don’t-walk-on-the-grass signs; the grass is quite dead in many places. We probably won’t get a season pass again but it was nice to see the garden at different stage during the season. Next time we might go once but are keen to do more cycling through the actual fields. It’s difficult to time it and say when is a good time to go as we have realised how short the season it is but it is really pretty and worth seeing!

Next weekend is National Windmill Day and we are planning on visiting the windmills at Kinderdijk. But more of that next time!

Hope you are all well!! Have a good week!

x

PS: Thanks for the 2000+ hits! =) Easter weekend post still to come!

The new haircuts! 

Chilling on the lawn outside the Crooked Billet near the Wimbledon Common

Baby Aidan Graham Goemans

Mike and Aidan

Mike, Tanya and Aaron

Koninginnedag overleefd?

"Dag justin. Heb je je eerste koninginnedag overleefd?"

That is the question I was asked after the annual Queen's Day festivities which were held yesterday. For a question like this, there is no simple 'yes' or 'no'. So here goes...

It starts with getting decked out in orange.

And heading to Amsterdam, the city of pretty houses...

and canals.

Except something is amiss today. There are pirates about.

And the flags all have extra orange bits attached.

You see today (April 30th) is the Queen's birthday. Not the current Queen, her mom. Seems the current Queen's birthday is in winter and nobody really fancies the idea of having a festival in winter.

Festivities are hosted all over the country, but the biggest festivities are in Amsterdam. I've been told there is live music to be enjoyed. Just follow the crowd...

Of course on the way there is lots of other things to enjoy. A funny law that the Dutch flaunt on this day is that anybody is allowed to sell anything on the side of the road on the Queen's Birthday. No permit required and no taxes need to be paid. There is a lot of junk for sale!

And then you get stalls like this one...

Of course we are in Amsterdam so those cookies could have anything in them. My guess is that not too many people finish four cookies in a minute. 

Back to the task at hand: find the concert arena. If the crowd are starting to wonder all over the place (something to do with the cookies maybe?), then follow the signs. 

Just watch out for the dancing Hari Krishna's when crossing the road.

And we are back on track.

Of course some people will never make it to the arena. That is just the way life is.

And finally I made it!

This first act is not bad. A few english songs and a beat that gets your feet tapping. Although I am sure I have seen that hat somewhere before. Could that be David Kramer? Surely not!

Next up was this okie. For a brief moment I closed my eyes and was convinced that Kurt Darren had entered the stage. And then the crown started singing along. I'm not sure that I am ready for this!

Kurt Darren the second was followed by a dutch rap trio. I'm not a rap fan by any means, but these guys did a good job of making other rap artists sound really good! A few more acts and I knew that it was time to move on. So I ditched the concert arena and went in search of chicks to take photos of.

Much better! Time to carry on exploring Amsterdam, after all, the whole city is transformed into one big festival.

By now the canals were getting really busy. Think rush hour.

The music was thumping here. Every boat had a sound system that was trying to outdo the boats around it. This music was far better than what I had just come from. But even when a boat did play something a little less than kosher, it didn't matter because 10 seconds later you were listening to the music from the next boat. 

And yes there were lots of people taking in the vibe.

Leaving the canals I came across a few other parties...

And ultimately realised that nobody is able to escape the festivities that are part of Koninginnedag.

At the end of the day, heading home on the train, I felt that the day had been a good one. Others on the train might have been feeling a little less sure of that and perhaps felt that they were taking this ride home instead.

But I was feeling strong and decided that the next day would be spent cycling through the tulip fields.

CYCLING THROUGH THE TULIP FIELDS

And that is exactly what I did today. I headed by train to the Bollenstreek. It is a 30 km stretch between Haarlem and Leiden and is home to Keukenhof (which you may remember from previous blog posts). Having been to Keukenhof last week and seen how great the fields were looking, I decided it was time to see them up close. So I rented a bike, got a map showing me the way through the fields and to the coastline. It had been a while since I had seen the sea and was starting to feel the withdrawal symptoms. 

The first part of my adventure involved getting a bike. Since the Bollenstreek area is such a big tourist destination, hiring a bike is quite easy. I was given a gents bike. This is not too different from a ladies bike, except maybe slightly bigger? And a ladies bike is not very different to a 'ouma fiets'. Now an ouma fiets is unlike anything you will have seen in South Africa. It generally has one gear and you sit as if you are sitting down for tea. It is not for racing! That said, I made my way out on my 25 km route with map in hand. 

The first few fields were really not worth writing home about.

Pretty, but not the fields and fields of tulips that I had seen a week earlier. Carrying on, I came across a lake...

and then a small airfield with a glider about to take off.

Carrying on a bit further, I saw a few more fields, but still not post card stuff.

At this stage the beach was calling. The problem though was that the map seemed to be missing quite a few roads, and road names, and important details like land marks. But the ride was fun and I carried on and came across this field.

Way more impressive than anything else I had seen today, but I was now only 1km from being back at where I started and I still hadn't seen the sea.

I decided to give it another go. Back on the bike I headed out again. According to the map, I had covered the 25 km, but somehow missed the turn-off to the beach. For a while it was looking good, and then I reached the Free State border post (at least that is the way I read this sign), and I had that feeling of 'Dis niet lekker'. 

But this is the Netherlands and not South Africa, and even if you do manage to find yourself in the Free State here, your guaranteed to be within a stones through of the coastline (I think it has something to do with the fact that the whole country is no more than 300km by 300km). And then I found it...

. 

And it was great! Windy, but great!

The adventure was a good one, but now it was time to head home for a beer.

And to write this blog, which is thirsty work by the way.

And so to answer the original question: YES! I survived Queen's Day, I survived Queen's weekend, and I'm looking forward to doing it all again next year.