Holland

I’ve decided to postpone blogging the trips to Norway and Denmark and get on with the latest trip to Holland as it is fresh in my mind.

We arrived from London’s Luton Airport to the Schipol Airport (Hollands main international airport) at around 10pm on the Thursday night all ready for our 5 day tour of Holland.

We decided to take a punt and stay in one of the House Boat / Hostels on one of the larger water passages in Amsterdam. It turned out great. There were 2 rooms with a bathroom and Kitchen/Living Room to share, so there wasn’t much noise to put up with. Over the 5 days we had to different sets of travelers come in to the boat. The first was a very young boring couple from England. The second group was 2 blokes from the Isle of Man who's main consumption during the time we saw them was hooch. They were the biggest cone heads I’ve ever met. They would sleep till the afternoon most days, go out and buy a heap of weed and then sit there and smoke weed and play cards (mainly in silence) till 2 or 3 in the morning. To be honest they were pretty weird. I think there mums and dads may have been brother and sister!!! If you know what I mean.

Anyway, the boat was clean and well organised and I would recommend it anyone. Here is the web site http://www.marie-anns-houseboat.com/.

Amsterdam itself was very picturesque. The lovely canals lined with on old buildings made a great back drop for a meals or a beer at one of the many pubs and restaurants. We did most of the tourist type activities such as visiting both the Van Gogh and Rembrandt Museums and also Anne Frank House. As I am not much of an art person I found Anne Frank house much more interesting. The more I tour Europe the more I learn how much trouble the Germans have caused.

That's me hiding by way....

The fourth day of our trip was dedicated to tracking down some of my Dutch heritage. Armed with an email from my Auntie Katherine (the eldest of my fathers siblings) I got on the train from Amsterdam to Haarlem determined to find Schoollaan Street were my father lived the first 2 years of his life and the Church were my great grand parents where buried. We arrived in Haarlem and took another Bus to Bennebroek. From Bennebroek we we’re pretty much lost so we asked the Bus Driver if he knew where either the Church or Schoollaan street was. Unfortunately, he did know where the street was but he did know of the church. He was so helpful that he announced the directions over the PA on the bus when we got to the stop. Being such a champ, I figured we might even be related. Anyway, we got off the bus headed down the lovely country road toward the Church. The name of the church was right, but unfortunately they had just renewed the grave area and we figured that the Otte graves may have been renewed. I was still satisfied that we had found the place.

The next mission was to find Schoollaan street which to our surprise was the street just down the road from the church. Unfortunately the number 42 had been demolished ahead of some new construction , but hey, we took some photos anyway.

The rest of Haarlem was lovely. Slightly less busy than Amsterdam. We saw our first proper Dutch Windmill here.


On the last day of the trip we ventured to Lieden which is south, south west of Amsterdam.

Leiden is mainly a University town, a bit like Oxford. We were there on a week day during the Uni holidays so there wasn’t much happening. The town itself was again more beautiful than Haarlem and Amsterdam due to the canals and the buildings.

All in all there were 3 things that made Holland a great trip for me.

• the people were very friendly and happy to help where they could.
• the towns themselves were aesthetically beautiful and made for nice relaxing meals and beers.
• the fact I could find some heritage brought me a small sense of belonging. However, I am definitely more of an Aussie than Dutchman AND PROUD OF IT!!.

So………the next post will be back to the previous trip finishing in Norway and Denmark.