Amsterdam central train station

Dom Kerk in Utrecht

Hey everyone, Some good news...we found a campervan on Monday and caught the train down to Utrecht to pick it up and start on our way on tuesday, only to arrive and realise the guy expected us to pay for everything in cash?!? So we were put up in the nicest hotel I have ever stayed at in order to make withdrawals over two days, it felt a little criminal. It was quite a fun delay...enjoy the photos from last week.

A castle type thing with a moat and immaculate gardens

Our picnic lunch somewhere in the bush east of Nunspeet

Trying to remember how to ride with no hands!!

Results pending...

As I sit here and type at the Nunspeet Bibliotheek we are waiting for confirmation for van hire.  Finally!  It's been a bit of a struggle and our patience has been severely tested.  If it all goes well, we'll have a van to pick up tomorrow in Amsterdam...

We haven't been sitting around all the time though.  On Saturday dad took us out for the day on the train to see a bit more of the counrty.  We headed to Utrecht for coffee, applecake, and the local market; took in some of the harbour and a beer at Rotterdam, trained through the Hague and Haarlem, walked through Amsterdam again and revisited Leidseplein, where we spent our first afternoon in Europe.  And back to Oma's by 11pm.  It was pretty tiring but well worth it.  We'll post some more photos soon, I promise.

The great car search

Hey All,

A very quick update...we have spent the last few days searching for a car to rent, it hasn't gone well and both of us are pretty discouraged, most places don't rent out anything small anymore. We nearly booked with wicked vans but would have had to drive from here to London in one week, then fly to Ireland to pick up a different van, plus it was right hand drive...Thats really about all. We will put some photos up soon.

Love Mel

Simon's Oma's next door neighbour's sister knitted me a scarf...

Hello all,

Its been and interesting week. We caught the train from amsterdam to nunspeet (I lost my ticket and had to try to explain that to the ticket man who didn't speak english) to stay with Simon's Oma for 5 days until his dad arrived to help us organise a car and show us around the Netherlands a bit.

Oma has fed us some pretty heavy dutch food, basically carbohydrates with some stewed pears or apples thrown in. We have done a lot of riding, a lot of riding, a lot of riding. This included lots of picnics in the 'forest', which seems like a bit of messy botanical park to me, learning to ride (drive on the right) in a country where there are very few lines on the road, seeing people wearing clogs for real and farmers using actual old school scythes in the paddock (like Death in Terry Pratchett). We have explored some pretty awesome 'historical' towns thanks to the friendliness of dutch neighbours and their willingness to drive us round and buy us fish and appelbak and give us scarves from their sisters...

Since Bert arrived we have been doing lots of neccessary things like organising to hire a car, (we aren't able to buy here =( ) getting a sim card for emergency calls and finding second hand bikes to take with us. I haven't minded too much because it has rained the last two days. Today we drove from Nunspeet to Emlichheim (in Germany) and are staying the night with Simon's Aunt and Uncle. They are great, he is a chef so we are eating well! And it is nice to meet some of Simons other family seeing none of them live in Tasmania.

Well thats it, I miss you all, and I miss the drama of Australia (in the scenery and the people) but there are some awesome things here (24bottles of pilsner for 7 euro, and a quarter circle of bree for 4 euro...)

First impressions

 A typical view of Amsterdam.

A not-so-typical view of the Heineken factory.

Well, where do I start?  I think the standout thing so far has been how it feels to be here in the 'Old Country.'  In some ways The Netherlands feels a bit foreign, which I guess is to be expected.  There are things that are polar opposite to Australia.  We're staying with Oma Bultman in Nunspeet.  If Nunspeet were in Australia it would be the undisputed 'tidy town' champion.  Everything is carefully ordered and neatly executed.  You should see the gardens, oh the gardens.  It is foreign.

And yet in many ways it feels so much like home, at least in terms of the culture and our heritage.  At cafes coffee is served with a complimantary speculaas cookje, the default cake to eat with your coffee is appelbak, you get mayonaise with hot chips and you can buy hutspot from the supermarket!  It's how things should be.  (And it doesn't sound strange to hear everyone speak dutch...it just doesn't.)

Staying with Oma is great.  We've been for a couple of rides on her bikes already, seen the town centre and all the shops and cafes, and even met her neighbour.  But I do feel a bit disappointed that I don't speak dutch any better than I do (which is poorly).  It's difficult talking with Oma but we are slowly getting better at understanding each other.

Dad arrives here on Sunday afternoon and we're looking forward to that.  It'll be really nice to see some more of the country with someone to show us the good spots and answer our questions!

That's it for now.

From Australia to Amsterdam

We're here and we're OK!

Half way through the 24 hours we spent in the air I decided 3 things...the world is very big, I hate flying on airplanes and I dislike public transport (on our first day, in melbourne, we got onto a tram only to realise we couldn't pay with notes. I got back off the tram, only to realise that Simon was too slow and I stood there in the dark waving goodbye as he disappeared)

However, we finally arrived in Amsterdam. It was 25 degrees and sunny. The streets are incredibly wide and mostly lined with beautiful trees, as are all the canals. And the buildings!!!. There are bikes and scooters everywhere and everything has right of way before cars - its awesome. I don't know if it was just the relief of finally being off the plane that was talking but the atmosphere on that Sunday evening was completely relaxed and happy. We sat outside a pup/cafe in a big square near our hostel and had beer and croquets in the sun, some men started playing music near by, the trees were green, and guys rode by with their girlfriends perched on the back of their bikes...very mellow

I think that if the Hobart city council puts some of the plans by Gehl (dutch architect) into place in Hobart it would do wonders...Imagine if people actually liked going into Hobart for fun!!

Well I best go get ready for our candlelight canal cruise,

Mel

Riots, Rebels and a Sudden Change of Plans

Dear Friends and Family,

On Tuesday the Australian government issued a 'do not travel warning' in regards to Northen Uganda and Sudan (and the wildlife park where we were going to stay on our way back from Farajok in Sudan). There has been rioting in Kampala, Uganda (where all our supplies were coming from) and rebel groups have increased their activities (kidnapping/robbing cars etc) along the route we would have been travelling. There has also been some difficulties contacting our people already there (please pray for their safety). There may also be some backlash from the assassination of Osama bin Laden. For these reasons the trip has been postponed, although the building of the church/school in Farajok will continue with the locals there making good use of the supplies/materials that our churches and schools have sent...

Instead of postponing our trip to Europe, Simon and I have bought it forward and will still be leaving on Friday. It's been a big day rearranging flights, finding overnight accommodation in Melbourne, and trying to understand why Emirates wont let us fly in different classes for different legs of our journey.

As sad and as frustrating as it is to not go and help our Christian brothers and sisters in Sudan I still look forward to landing in Amsterdam and enjoying some traditional Dutch hospitality from Simon's Oma!