BarbaraTVan: BARBARA STAYS AT HOME

THE NETHERLANDS

Well what a pleasant surprise!!!

We woke to find we were docked at the Port of Amsterdam on a beautiful sunny day. This was it, the cruise was over! We had our final breakfast on board and then went and packed the rest of our gear. We left it in the corridor as instructed and then toodled up to the top deck for coffee, while we waited for our Dutch hosts to come and collect us for the next chapter of our holiday.

The farewells were a bit surreal, it's amazing how quickly people become a part of your family in such a short time. Everyone was going onto other adventures, so it was sad and exciting at the same time.

We were waiting on the dock when a black car slowly drove in with the Aussie flag flapping out the window ☺ I think this is for us!!! It was GM's cousins Sineke, Ton and Barbara. After loud greetings and hugs, we headed out of Amsterdam for a big drive to Rijssen......about an hour and a half away.

We stopped along the way at Hoorn, a quaint little place where we had a coffee and enjoyed the little harbor,

Wouldn't want to be around if it ever falls down :-O

then we stopped at a massive outlet centre that was like a small town. I bought myself a watch and had a wander around. It was a very warm day, and then we were off to Rijssen, which was to be our base for the week.

Rijssen was a city in the province of Overijssel, although nowhere near as large as the cities we have here. It had a laid back country feel to it. Could have been because of the markets that were happening nearly every day. We were about 1/2km from the city centre, and not too far from the motorway.

It was a very pleasant contrast to Holland. The land was still flat, but so green and lush with crops and beautiful big leafy trees and flowers everywhere.

Our hosts were extremely welcoming and generous, full of suggestions for places that we might be interested in during the short time we had.

We went for a day trip to the bottom of the country, a place called Budel in the province of Brabant, just near the Belgium border where we caught up with a few of GM's relatives. We stopped for lunch along with one lot of rellies who owned a dairy farm in Oploo.

Our wonderful hosts for lunch, Barbara, Anton, Louisa & Juan

Things sure are different there than they are in Australia. This is where you truly see the scale of land available. We waste an awful amount of land with our huge houses and massive yards. An Australian luxury, but not smart economics. The cows were all kept in an open air barn, which I imagine would be closed off in winter.

Moo!!

The floors are grid-mat and there is a robot that goes around pushing all of the poo underneath so the cows aren't wallowing in it. The cows looked surprisingly happy and very healthy. They have a computerised dairy that is automated. The cows go in when they're ready to be milked. There is a little treat for them to eat while the robot does it's thing. The cow I saw looked absolutely terrified, and I imagine I would be the same if I had to go in there and have those things grabbing at my teats!! ☺

Then off for afternoon tea with some more rellies ☺

Barbara, Ton, Jan, Fia, Tonnie & Auntie Anne. A very pleasant afternoon.

Their garden was just amazing and we had a lovely afternoon in the sun.

Another day was spent in an outdoor museum called Openluchtmuseaum at Arnhem where we saw the styles of living and housing from the different provinces throughout the years.

This was a great place. Fascinating and pretty. I found a lolly shop full of old style lollies, so I loaded up with a few different sorts for my step father ....... he's a Dutchie and a bit of a sweet tooth ☺

We went for a visit to the Canadian War Cemetery at Holten. A beautiful, but poignantly sad place where we found a couple of Aussie Diggers graves. War is such a horrid waste of life. L

There were quite a few of the unknown soldier.......I found these terribly sad.

I think one of the main highlights of the trip for me (besides the people we met) was discovering a hill!!!! Yes!!!! Netherlands actually has a couple of them. One is 60m above sea level and called a mountain!! Holterberg Mountain!!!! This tickled me a wee bit ☺ `

On top of Holterberg Mountain

With Sineke on Holterberg Mountain

It was also covered in heather, which made it seem quite familiar ☺

We had dinner at Hotel 't Losse Hoe's with the lovely young newlyweds Andreá & Martin, more of GM's cousins. Thoroughly enjoyable night, and great food, oh yeah, the wine wasn't too shabby either ☺ The restaurant was on a hill......pretty special for this country ;-)

We stopped in at Enter, a little yuppie place a couple of kms out of Riijsen. They make clogs here, and have a giant clog,

and yes, we did the tourist thing and sat in it and had our pics taken. I must admit, I really do like playing the tourist!!!

Too many choices!!!!

We saw the bridge from the movie "A Bridge Too Far" and GM took a couple of pics.....he was quite excited!!

We went for a coffee at an old Dutch Farmhouse called Erve Brooks that has been converted into a park and restaurant.

This was a beautiful place, and the kids are able to interact with the farm animals. The buildings and way of life in the earlier years seemed quite cosy to me. The traditional tiles on the walls were just beautiful and I do love the Blue Delft.....there's just something quite lovely about it.

The brass & copper pots and jugs help to make the place look so warm. The drive there and back was beautiful with great big shady trees lining both sides of the road. I didn't get bored with the scenery, I think I will always be amazed at just how beautiful it is ☺

We spent a rather thundery afternoon at the Paleis Het Loo (the Royal Palace) where we did a tour of the Grace Kelly exhibition and saw her amazing clothes and jewels.....such class ☺, but weren't allowed to take photos.....I wasn't even allowed to try on her shoes!!!! Not Fair!!!!

and then the Palace itself.

The Stables

It was beautiful in there and some of the displays were amazing.

The gardens were gorgeous, except the Kings garden. It was just a big expanse of lawn with a tree on it.

The Kings Garden

I don't think he spent too much time there! The skies had opened up by the time we had finished there, and we got a little wet getting back to the car, but it was well worth it. Unfortunately King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima and the girls weren't in residence at the time, so they missed out on meeting us. Oh well, maybe they'll be luckier next time!

GM and I went for a wander into town on our final day there and had a couple of beef croquettes ....This is the main cause of my weight gain!!!! These things are just divine and the cheese ones aren't too bad either!!!! and of course the Stroopwafels didn't help......a couple of wafers soaked in a salted caramel style sauce.....OMG!!!!!!!! You can get them in Australia, and they can be hard to find, but they're a lot smaller and not as heavy, still pretty good though ☺ We went for a lovely walk around cemetery

and said farewell to the rellies they have planted there and then to the "Castle" just down the road.

It looks more like a manor house, and the gardens are just lovely, but it was sad to see the empty beer cans and rubbish where the local youth go to hang out to drink. Such disrespect for the lovely things in this world. The problem is obvious wherever you go, not just the Netherlands.

The diet was distinctly Dutch, and cooked quite differently than we do at home. They use a herb called lovage (similar to celery) in a lot of their dishes. Not a common herb here. The pickled red cabbage is used quite a bit. It is much nicer than sour kraut, and is now an integral part of our eating habits. It is also one of those "super foods" and is a wonderful side dish hot or cold.

Vlaai - a South Netherland Dessert that Tonnie served us for afternoon tea.
Hooley Dooley, this is the best apple pie I've ever had!!!!!

There seem to be motorways everywhere and the roads are in fantastic condition.....even the dirt tracks!!! Could be because there are no hills, so not quite the need for traction like we do. I struggled hugely with the language, as it didn't seem to relate to English or Latin and I found very few words that sounded familiar. I had absolutely no sense of direction, and struggled to follow maps. There were roads going everywhere, even around in circles.

The European Union has opened up trade, so the motorways are absolutely mental with freight trucks. These trucks are not allowed on the roads on a Sunday, unless they made it across the border before midnight on the Saturday. The majority of the trucks we saw came from Poland & Germany, but there was the odd one from Romania, Italy, France, etc. We didn't see any from Russia, but they could have been keeping a low profile as the Ukraine Air Disaster happened just a couple of weeks before we had arrived and there had been an embargo put upon them. This was affecting the tomato exports, as the majority of crops were grown as a Russian export, and the tomato farmers were facing massive losses by having to let their crops rot.

Our final night was spent at Ribhouse Texas, an Amerikaans Grill Restaurant at Boekela, just near the border to Germany, which was a fabulous restaurant, with lime margaritas and massive steaks.

Very serious business these margaritas ;-)

They put peanuts out in there shells and you just throw the shells all over the floor. I think it helps condition the timber, and I felt a little guilty when I first did it, but got used to it in no time ☺

Our last morning, we were up and out very early to catch our flight from Schiphol Airport at 8.30. It was about an hour and a half drive, and the whole family made the effort to get up early. We were about to head off onto the last leg of our holiday......my part of the world.....Bonnie Scotland!!

The Netherlands was a wonderful place, full of lovely friendly people, gorgeous countryside and amazing food. A very pleasant experience for both of us and somewhere we would recommend to anyone. Most of the people are quite tall, so we were like a couple of runts!!! The Rellies that own the dairy farm are normal size, so I felt less of a freak around them ☺

The climate for August is quite warm and humid, the mozzies are ferocious, but I managed to survive only because our hosts had lavender in the garden....works a treat on mozzie bites!!! Our hosts, well they couldn't have been more welcoming and generous if they'd tried. All in all, a wonderful week full of new sights, sounds, tastes and memories.