Aye, that's us: May 1996 Netherlands

Our Netherlands Trip

we had set our alarm for 5am!!! taxi arrived 5.30, and flight took to the airways at 6.30am. and we were there for all of them....(didn't sleep much the night before but!!) Got into Schipol by 9am, and had jumped on a train by 10.30 -- it is one of those wonderful places where there is a train station just under the airport that will take you everywhere -- so you don't have to get into the city before you think about getting out again... We zipped around Amsterdam and out into the countryside, and before long we were jumping out at Zwolle...It is a fairly big city, but has a decent size old city centre. We had booked a hotel for 2 nights, seeing as though it was a Netherlands long weekend. The Saturday market was in full swing when we got there at lunchtime, and our hotel was in the midst of it --out the second floor window (top floor) there were stacks of flower stalls, cheese stalls and fish (cooked and raw) stalls.

So, back to the holiday.... Our hotel in Zwolle was fine.. and great Dutch breakfasts -- boiled eggs, lots of fresh bread and croissants, gouda cheese, ham and other meats, jams (including that horrid stuff that the yanks like -- the hazelnut chocolate spread), and fresh fruit.(and 'help yourself' to it all on the platters) The only thing is that they don't drink (normal) tea.... they have all manner of strange fruit teas that are drunk hot (but not with boiling water) and definitely NOT with milk. I dug deep in the pile of tea bags and managed to find some English breakfast. They do drink lots of coffee, so Mal was well chuffed. I think that the brekkie's went downhill after Zwolle.... in Middleburg, our Pension lady gave us a small platter with a couple of slices of cheese and meat, plus the boiled egg and some fresh bread rolls and slices. -- the only potable tea she had was lemon (I just couldn't make myself try the kiwi tea!!). However, the Leiden breakfast, at the posh(ish) hotel, was a small platter of cheese and ham, and sliced bread. They did have real tea, but NO boiled egg, and NO fresh bread rolls... BUT Mal did get stuck into the utch delicacy of those little coloured sticks of 'sugar' that you put on your bread (like 'fairy bread') -- they even had chocolate ones, so he was dead impressed..... he tells me that if you look hard enough in the van der Peet (our mates in Melb) pantry, you will actually find some in there!!!

So, as you can observe, the brekkie's are a vital start to the day, and are a nice change from the fry-ups that you get over here in the B&B's.

We booked in for 2 nights at our hotel in Zwolle -- it is right at the end of the market street, and we had to wind our way thru all the many stalls to get there in the first place. We had bought a 3-day train pass to use over the week with the travel we intended to do. So, we jumped up at 8.30am for our breakfast on Sunday morning in the hotel... the waitress couldn't believe that we could be up so early on a Sunday (if the truth be told, neither could we!!!). We were off to the train station and jumping on a train heading north into Friesland by 10am... things to do, and places to see.... We jumped off at Leeuwarden, and then caught a chuggalug ('snell train' is the Dutch term for slowies) down to Hindeloopen -- it's down on the 'coastline' of the huge inland sea created by the huge dyke that was built. It used to be quite a busy little port, when the real boats could get to it, but nowadays it is a busy little harbour with stacks of pleasure craft that crowd into it. It is a quaint little village, with lots of canals and cute little bridges in it, and the graveyard even has some New Zealand airmen buried there, from the 2nd world war when they were shot down in the area. The harbour has a few expensive eateries, and then there are the fish 'caravans' -- just like the caravans selling the pie and chips at the shows in Aus. They sell all sorts of fish - herring, mackerel, scampi, and other more local stuff...and, of course FRITES!!! and mayo!!

So, that's where we had our sustenance from!! After a couple of hours wandering there, we walked the mile back to the train station, and headed back to Leeuwarden .... and then jumped on another snell train and headed due west -- back to the same coast line, but north of where we had been before, and on the outer side of the huge big dyke...

It was much the same sort of town, although somewhat bigger, and had a ferry port for the ferries that head out to the Friesian Islands that run along the north coast of the Netherlands [ for those of you who want to know the difference between Holland and The Netherlands..... Holland, well North Holland and South Holland are actually two of the provinces(out of about 8) that make up The Netherlands. These 2 form the east coast provinces (apart from the very south, which is part of Zeeland), and are basically the northeast bit above Amsterdam, and then thru to Rotterdam..]

... back to where we were... after a couple of hours traipsing around Harlingen, we jumped back on the snell train, and 'snelled' our way back to Leeuwarden, and then on an Intercity back to Zwolle. The north is very 'wet'.... there is water everywhere, and canals and waterways just meander all over the place... you look out from the train, over the fields, and see a sail boat, under full sail, 'sailing' thru the fields -- but it is on one of the many waterways- usually about 10 metres wide -- it looks most bizarre...

And then there are the fields for the sheep and cows -- there are no fences - just a drain/small canal...... the 'plots' of small fields are all surrounded by water, and then there will be one gate standing by itself on the small piece of land which just happens to connect the two 'islands'.... [not good for the fence builders and suppliers!!! ]...

Next day, we were trekking way down south to Middleburg....it is just over the border from Belgium, and is on one of the ex-islands of Zeeland. There was a HUGE flood in the 1950's (Feb 1, 1953) which devastated most of The Netherlands, and made them think about what to do.... so, they built a huge dyke -- mind you, it was SO huge, that it wasn't finished until 1985!!! They also joined quite a few of the islands down in Zeeland -- to each other, and then to the mainland - to limit any further damage from any future floods... So, Middleburg used to be on an island 30 years ago, but isn't now...

It is a rather old town -- it's abbey was founded in 1120, but it didn't really pull its finger out until the fifteenth century, and then became involved with the wool and cloth trade. We booked into a Pension here, just near the town centre... Our intention down here was to hire some cycles and 'do' the area on two wheels...

Because we had train tickets, our cycles -relatively new, but with peddle brakes, and no gears -- (much like everyone else's bikes) only cost us $6 for the day, with $50 deposit... So, we set off for the day to explore the area... heading 8km north to Veere (it has amazing Scottish connections, 'cos the daughter of James I of Scotland married a local lord.... in 1444 !!! I knew you would be impressed!!) and there an amazing number of West Highland Terrier dogs around the area....owned by the locals.. It's like you expect Hamish Macbeth to be filmed there - instead of up near Skye, because of all the 'westies' around. Since the 'dyking' of the islands 30 years ago, the harbour is no longer, and a huge freshwater lake has been created -- and yes, there are lots of pleasure craft moored there...

We rode further north, and up along the Delta Project --ie, the big dyke.... that has sand dunes and the North Sea on it's west side, and huge manmade lakes on the east side. The walking/cycling path is along the top of it, while the road is down at 'lake level' on the lake-side... so the cyclists get the benefit of the reallywindy conditions on the top of the dyke!!, but also the view of both sides of it.... while the drivers only get the view of the lakes, and a dyke wall to the other side... We rode along the top of the dyke for some way, but because it was rather windy we turned back.... and got back onto the flat land of the 'ex-island', and went meandering back thru villages around the 'island' on our way back to Middelburg -- after a lunch of fresh bread, gouda and salami by the roadside, it was back on the bikes, and on our way(life is tough).... It was pretty fab, because there were bike paths for 99% of the way... so you didn't have to fight with the cars on the roads... We rode single breast on the paths, but the locals tend to ride double, and even triple-breast as they chat away to each other, with barely any room between their bikes.. I suppose once you get so used to riding you know the space you need, and because there is no great speed involved, there is really no need to be any great distance apart.

There are lots of Indonesian restaurants in The Netherlands -- as a result of the Dutch settlements of those islands many centuries ago.... There was an Indonesian restaurant mentioned in our guide book, so we trotted along there after our exhausting day in the saddle -- they had a $20/head buffet on offer for dinner, so we got stuck in.... there were a couple of other tables there, and they kept replenishing the many woks of grub.... The table next to us - I think they may have been locals -- went up and filled their plates 5 times.... I think we managed about 3 platefuls, plus a couple of jugs of red wine..... and slept well that night...(well, we had sore bums, and were a tad sunburned from the day's cycling)... So, next day - Wednesday - it was time to pack up the bags again, and head north to either Leiden or Utrecht - both old University cities, for the last 2 nights. Our train went directly thru to Leiden, so we jumped off there and into the Tourist office... They fixed us up at a great little hotel right in the middle of town, overlooking one of the canals -- because it is a Uni city, there are no cheapy Pensions, and the hotels are not cheap - otherwise they would be full of students... Leiden's university is claimed to be Holland's most prestigious [ that may just be a play on words, as it really only counts the Universities in Holland, and not The Netherlands) ...even so, it is a very old Uni - from 1574..... Before I get rather involved with Leiden.... we checked into our hotel, and then ran back to the train and 'snelled' over to Utrecht for a couple of hours..... It was a much busier city, with cycles going everywhere, and multiple amounts of bodies on each of them...

again, as everywhere -- lots of canals in the town/city.... We spent a couple of hours wandering around there and then decided to head home on the snell train.... I don't know if the hotel had done it intentionally, but they had given us the most expensive room --we had a mezzanine level with a couch, writing desk and a couple of lounge chairs, with an attic window that overlooked the canal (3 floors below), and the bed "downstairs".

The End


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