The Holiday continues - France and Switzerland

 

Letter No. 267

Dear all,

A continuation of our Christmas holiday!

Day 12 – Amsterdam to Norfolk (UK) We had a very early start this morning and Ubered to the airport at 5:30am. We were flying to London Stansted. We were quite outraged that the coffee shops (or pretty much anything) did not open until 7:30am but managed to get a coffee just before our flight which was sorely needed.

The flight was less than one hour and it took longer to get our hire car. I am constantly amazed at how inefficient car hire pickups are pretty much anywhere in the world! It was about a 1½  hour drive to Dersingham in Norfolk, very close to Sandringham. We went straight to Chris (Katie’s brother) and Julie’s house for morning coffee and arrived at 11am. Katie cried.

We went to the Rose and Crown pub (their local) about 2pm for a quick drink. We then went back to our Air BNB for an afternoon nap. Julie made us a fabulous dinner that evening - it is so nice to have home cooked food after eating out so much! We had a lovely evening before being tucked up in bed by 9:30pm.

Day 13 – Norfolk Jess moved on to Luxembourg today and Matt was still in Berlin. We had another fabulous breakfast whipped up by Julie before going on a short drive to Sandringham Estate. We went for a walk in the forest with Stanley, their lovely dog, followed by coffee in the estate gift shop. Katie was quite hoping to run into the King who was still staying at the Estate but sadly we missed him. All the Royals had been to church at Sandringham Church the day before but we would have missed them by an hour. Katie spent an extraordinarily long time in the gift shop looking at all the merchandise.

We dropped Stanley home and went on to Old Hunstanton Beach which was a short drive away. The beach was very good with lovely yellow sand (rather than the normal cobbles) and could have been in Australia if not for the biting wind and freezing sea. We had a nice walk along the beach before a quick pub lunch back in Dersingham. The telephone box in the village had been converted to a street library so I went down to have a look - ours is much nicer!

We had another afternoon nap (I could get used to these) before a cheese and charcuterie board dinner and a movie with Chris and Julie.

Day 14 – Norfolk Today Jess was in Luxemburg and Matt was in Berlin. We had breakfast with Chris And Julie again and then went for a drive to see the countryside around Norfolk. We drove past the village of Anmer and Kate Middleton’s family home on the way to Burnham Market. Burnham is a beautiful little 17^th century village with lots of beautiful shops. Katie bought more clothes to punish her overloaded suitcase a little more. I have no idea how she is going to fit it all in. It was a bit rainy so we had a nice long coffee in the local pub, The Wolf Inn, next to the fire. We drove on to Hunstanton Lodge for a lovely late lunch before heading back to Dersingham for an afternoon nap. We had dinner and a movie at Chris and Julie’s in the evening.

Day 15 - London Jess moved Strasbourg and Matt moved to Prague today. We moved to London. We had a morning coffee with Chris and Julie and said goodbye’s before setting off. We drove about an hour to Cambridge and decided to have a wander around the centre of town. It is quite compact with all the famous university buildings within the centre. We walked around and saw all the main sights in a little over an hour. The buildings are so beautiful and many built in the 16th century. We saw all the main college buildings. Each college seems to have its own church so you trip over a church on every corner. There are a ridiculous number of them!  

We then drove on to Katie’s uni friends (Julia and Chris) in north London. It was really lovely to see them. We arrived about 3pm and had a nice walk in the local park with their lovely dog Milly before dinner in.

Day 16 – London Today Jess is in Strasburg, Matt is in Prague and we are in London. Katie was having a day out at lunch with a group of her old Uni friends, Nicky, Mei-Mei, Julia and Eleanor. They all met at a small village north of London which was about an hours drive for all of them. I was left to my own devices for the day so caught the Tube into central London and went to the Natural History Museum. It is really an astounding building, so beautifully constructed with animals carved into the sandstone walls, columns and arches everywhere. Even more astounding is that it is totally free!

The child in me went to see all the dinosaurs first. I arrived at opening time and was one of the first into that section. By the time I had my fill of dinosaurs the line to get to that section was 100m long and full of children. I also got to explore some of the other sections of the museum I had never been to before when we have gone when Matthew and Jessica were little - geology, rocks and minerals which I really liked. A great display on earthquakes and volcanoes and a fabulous vault with millions and millions of pounds of diamonds and other precious stones and metals. I spent three hours there before a quick lunch and short walk down to Harrods.

Harrods was heaving and just as expensive and fantastic as I remembered so I didn’t stay too long before I went for a walk in Hyde Park. I ended up at Admiralty Arch, a war memorial and tribute to the Duke of Wellington. They really don’t make statues like they used to! I then caught the Tube back to Julia’s house and had a rest while waiting for Katie to get back from lunch. She arrived at 5:45pm as they all went after lunch shopping. Katie bought more clothes that won’t fit in her suitcase!

Katie only had a 15 minute turn around and we were off in our car to see ABBA. We parked at a nearby shopping centre and had a short walk to the London Olympic Village. Westham United has taken over the London Olympic Stadium and the ABBA arena is a purpose build venue (for ABBA) right next to it. We had tickets in the dancefloor and were about five people back from the stage. It was without a doubt the BEST show or concert I have ever seen. ABBA members were all 3D holograms and were so realistic you could not tell them apart from a real person. The show was just like a real concert with large screens to either side of the stage which were exactly in sync with what the holograms were doing on stage. The close ups were amazing, you could seem fine hair on arms, minor skin marks, jewels glinting on costumes in the light. It was almost unbelievable. There was a live band playing music in some numbers and the real people were a pale imitation of the holograms! At the end the ABBA members came and talked on the stage at the age they are now but as a hologram. The light show was amazing as well. It was a small stadium for 3000 and purpose built. As we were so close to the front all of the lights went totally around our field of vision. If you are in London - GO, the show will never tour. We had a short trip back to Julia’s and were in bed by 11pm.

Day 17 – London  Jessie was training to Geneva and Matt is still in Prague today. We spent a day being tourists in London. We caught the tube in to town and walked to Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard. It was very crowded and a bit over rated but we did see it. We walked on to the Churchill War Rooms which is the underground bunker which  was the command centre for the British running WWII. The staff walked out the day after VJ Day and didn’t return for almost a decade. In the 1980’s it was turned into a museum and it pretty much the same as the day they walked out after the end of the war. Some rooms (there were about 100) had been turned into a museum for Winston Churchill’s life which was fascinating. It was amazing how small and cramped the rooms were and the map room with paper maps on the walls and little pins stuck into them indicating the position of forces was such a low tech way to command such a huge conflict. We had about 2.5 hours including lunch. It was really interesting and something we had never done before.

Afterward we walked to Horse Guards Parade where they do the trouping of the colour, The Mall, Admiralty Arch, Trafalgar Square, Piccadilly Circus and Oxford Street looking at the lovely old buildings, Christmas window displays and beautiful shops before training home. After a shower and change we went out for dinner at a lovely upmarket Greek Restaurant with Julia and Chris and Eleanor and Bernard, Katie’s uni friends. It was a lovely meal and we made it home to bed by 11pm as we had an early flight the next day.

Day 18 – London to Geneva Jess was in Geneva and Matt was in Prague. We left Julia’s at 7am and drove to London Luton Airport and flew to Geneva. We arrived at our hotel about 2pm and after a quick rest went down to Lake Geneva. All public transport seems to be free for tourists in Geneva and we went for a ferry ride across Lake Geneva in a lovely little yellow ferry. We went past Jet d’eau, a spectacular 140m high fountain in the middle of the lake. We arrived at the far shore and the first five blocks up the hill seemed to be totally comprised of watch shops - it was Switzerland after all. We went into the old town area which was full of beautiful old buildings (obviously). We went to St Pierre Cathedral and walked up 157 steps (I counted) in a tiny stone spiral staircase to the top of the tower. We went up the north tower, through all the bells in the bell tower and down the south tower with spectacular views over the old town and Lake Geneva. We messaged Jess and Kyel and asked if they would like to meet us for dinner. They were in the Red Cross Museum on the other side of town but said they would so Katie and I had roast chestnuts and hot red wine in the old town square - it was cold - while waiting for them. We had a lovely meal in a Rosti restaurant overlooking the square before heading back to our hotel. Matthew arrived from Prague about 9:00pm so we didn’t see him until the next day.

Day 19 – Geneva to Meribel (France) Everyone is in Geneva. I got up early and walked over to Matthew’s hotel and helped him with his bags. We left them at our hotel and went out for breakfast before checking out and catching the train to Geneva Airport. Jess and Kyel met us there and we had a bus transfer to Meribel in France. We arrived about 2pm and found our chalet. It was a lovely three-bedroom chalet with large kitchen and dining room with views out onto the snowy forest. We spend the afternoon wandering around the village, getting our ski gear and lift passes for the next six days of skiing. We all went out for dinner in the village at a cheese fondue restaurant and overloaded on cheese again, it was yum! We had a nice evening catching up on what the kids had been doing while we had been apart.

Day 20 – Meribel Kyel, Jess and I set off skiing together and Matt and Katie went separately. It was Kyel’s first time skiing so I went to help Jess get him started. We got his boots and skis on and up the first chair lift and half way down and I left Jess and Kyel to it. I was quite surprised how quickly he picked it up. We all skied the easy runs while Matt and Jess went straight to the black runs. Unfortunately Katie had a bad crash with a stupid snowboarder who ran into her. She slightly injured her knee and was a bit shaken so after lunch she decided to have the afternoon off. The ski maps were quite poor and it was difficult to arrange a place to met for lunch and actually get there so we all made it for lunch but arrived spread out over an hour.

I also had a bad crash, just tripped over my feet and heavily landed on my face. My goggles were pushed into my left eye and I gave myself a black eye!

Day 21 - Meribel Lovely day of skiing again. We thought we had arranged a place to meet for lunch but all of us failed to find it and we all ate separately. Need to try harder. Kyel picked up skiing more quickly than anyone I have seen and was already skiing faster than me by the end of the day - much to my annoyance!

Day 22 – Meribel More skiing. We arranged to meet for lunch at the top of the mountain but only Matthew made it there as they closed the most convenient gondola to get there just before the rest of us managed to get there. The rest of us had lunch at a lower restaurant. At 3pm we all met up at La Folie Douce. It was and apres ski place with live band and bar. It was pretty wild. The kids were all dancing on the tables in the snow! Katie and I just bopped on the dance floor it was weird but great fun. Unfortunately everyone had to ski down the mountain still and it was snowing very heavily so Katie and I only had two drinks and left the kids to it, luckily they all made it back to our chalet. That evening the kids went to a spa for a few hours. It was a fun day.

Day 23 to 25 - Meribel Three more days of skiing. We ventured over to the adjacent valleys - Courcheval and Val Thorens. The whole ski area is enormous. It was just not possible to do every ski run. Matthew made it to the top of Cime Caron which was the highest point in the Three Valleys Region at 3200m. Kyel made stunning progress from a complete beginner to advanced skier in only a matter of days. He did a few black runs towards the end of the week. Jess had a spectacular crash when she was on her own on a black run. She skied into very deep powder snow, fell over, lost a ski and couldn’t find it. A bit of digging and she managed to unsnow it but the slope was so steep and the snow so deep she couldn’t get it back on. She decided to scoot down on her bottom throwing her skies in front of her. Two Irish lads came to her rescue and helped her get her skis on and told her to ski through the powder in their tracks. She felt a bit silly but was glad when she got back on piste and proved she could ski on the black run!

On the last day Katie and Matt went to La Folie Douce - a bar with a crazy dance party with singers, band, dance show, fireworks, smoke machines and general mayhem set against a snowy sunset mountain backdrop. She may have had one or two champagnes while she was there and had to still ski down the mountain. I had had to ski over to the other side of the valley to give the room key to Jess who wanted to go back to the room so didn’t make it. It is very annoying only having two keys for five people and we are mostly skiing separately or in pairs.

I dumped my skis and caught a bus up to a slightly lower bar, Rond Point, and Katie skied down for another champagne with me. We stayed for about an hour but wanted to leave before it got dark as Katie had another short ski back to apartment. Katie recommends a few drinks before skiing but I am not sure that is good advice.

Despite having cheese pretty much every meal, as the French tradition, we decided to have a cheese fondue for the last night. It was yum but I have eaten enough cheese for the whole year already! We all agreed Meribel and the Three Valleys were an awesome place to go skiing. We had a great week.

Day 26 – Meribel to Luzcerne We had to leave our lovely apartment in Meribel and catch a bus back to Geneva and then caught a 3 hour train to Luzcerne. The train was so relaxing, the seats were wide and comfortable and you could just sit in warmth looking at the snowy landscape go by. Matthew left us in Geneva and had one night there while we went on.

Our BNB in Luzcerne (Switzerland) was a lovely apartment in the old quarter on the top floor. The lift was so ridiculously small it could only fit two people and one bag or one person and two bags. It took us four goes to get everyone up. Kyel and Jess were staying with us.

After a late afternoon wandering around the old city centre, we split up for the evening. Katie and I had dinner at an English Pub and Jess and Kyel had Thai. We are all cheesed out!

Day 27 – Luzcerne Matthew flew to London from Geneva. We did separate walking tours around Lucerne about 30 minutes apart. Katie and I started at the historic Train station, over the oldest covered wooden bridge in Europe which was built in 1406. It was really quite spectacular. They had triangular painting in every portal which were painted in the 17th century. Sadly a large portion of the bridge burned in 1993 and only 30 of the 146 paintings survived. We went on to the Jesuit cathedral which the guide said was awesome(it was) before waking back over another 15th century wooden bridge and to the walls and fortified towers which used to surround the old city. This lead to The Dying Lion statue, which is an enormous lion carved into a cliff. The lion has been spears - hence the name. It too was pretty awesome.

Just behind the lion was The Glacier Garden. We made an unscheduled stop here. We had “The Best Hotdog in Lucerne” for lunch (it was) in the cafe before heading into the garden. The gardens really were quite fantastic. There were deep wells carved into the rock by water flowing under the glacier which really was interesting. There was also an underground walk through a cave and up to the top of the hill giving a history of glaciers in the region which was really great. The most interesting thing was a mirror maze which was really fantastic. When Katie and I got more than two meters apart, we could see multiple images of each other in different directions and couldn’t work out which one was real! A museum was in the house that the original owners of the park from 1846. They really were obsessed with glaciers and there was sooo much info on them. I hadn’t realised there were glaciers in the Swiss Alps and even more interestingly how much they have receded since 1900 - a along way!

After a short rest at our apartment we went on to the Chateau Gutsch. It was a short walk over another 15th century wooden bridge, up a funicular about 150m to the hotel. They had a great bar overlooking the whole town and Lake Luzcerne. It was quite spectacular. Jessica and Kyel joined us just as the sun went down and we had a few rounds of cocktails watching the city lights come on. it was a celebration for our last proper night in Europe. We came back down the funicular and had a lovely Italian meal at a restaurant near our apartment.

Day 28 – Luzcerne to Zurich Matt is in London. We had a very slow start today  for our last day. We packed up and took our bags to a locker at the train station. Jess did a spot of shopping and Katie and I went to the Lucerne Museum which was interesting but a little odd. I went on to the natural history museum which was also interesting but a little odd as well. We the had a 1½ hour train journey to Zurich airport and then a short flight to Frankfurt.

Day 29 and 30 - Germany to Singapore to Australia. Frankfurt Airport is ridiculously big and had no travelators or trains to get from one terminal to the next so we have a very quick dash for our one hour layover to change planes. We let just after midnight and arrived in Singapore at 6pm in the evening. We then had a four hour layover and flew back to Australia. We landed at the Gold Coast Airport which was by far the worst airport of the 11 we had been to in the last month. Soooo slow. Bags took nearly and hour to come through and there were only two planes! We then had a drive back to Brisbane and arrived about 10am. It was a long trip back!

Cheers from Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica & Molly

Singapore and Amsterdam

Letter No. 266

Dear all,

We had nearly a month long holiday in Singapore, Europe and the UK over Christmas. Here is a a day-by-day account!

Day 1 – Australia. Today we had a morning finishing packing up and left about 1pm to drive to the Gold Coast. We were staying at “The Pink Hotel” in Cooloongatta. It was very twee and retro and everything was pink! We had an afternoon walk around the town and along the beach and up to the lookout point. It was a very cool afternoon for the longest day of the year so we didn’t swim. We went out for a belated birthday dinner for me to “Siblings” at Kirra. It was soooo lovely with a great ocean view. We had an early night as we had a very early start the next morning.

Day 2 – Gold Coast to Singapore We left The Pink Hotel at 5am and were at the Gold Coast Airport by 5:10am. Much easier than driving from Brisbane that morning! The terminal is quite new and it was the first day that the coffee shop we had breakfast at was open. They were VERY disorganised! It was 7½ hours to Singapore and we arrived at 2:10pm and caught a taxi to The Fullerton Hotel - a beautiful old colonial hotel looking out over the Bay. Santa Claus had obviously visited the hotel and thrown up in the lobby! The amount of Christmas decorations were ridiculous. There was a huge tree made entirely of teddy bears and another one made entirely of wine and champagne bottles, tinsel and lights everywhere. We wandered around and looked at it all before going up to our rooms. They were very nice. The kids were impressed with their room! Katie had a luxurious bath while the kids and I went to the infinity pool and steam room to recover after out long day. In the evening we wandered down to look at the Merlion in the bay and the Marina Bay Sands Hotel which is very spectacular. We then went on the Fullerton Bay Hotel (sister Hotel) and had drinks and dinner at the Lantern Bar,  their roof top bar. There was a light show all over the bay at 8pm which was quite spectacular but we were all tired and were back at the hotel asleep by 9pm.

Day 3 – Singapore I got up at 6am to go for a run and was a little surprised it was still pitch black but went anyway. I did a lap around the bay from bridge to bridge and took some nice pre-dawn photos of the tall buildings. We all went down for breakfast about 8am and were all blown away at the decadence of the breakfast buffet. It was amazing! We had a long day of walking ahead so indulged. We were spending the day at Gardens by the Bay. It was about a 30-minute walk and we went through the Marina Bay Sands Shopping Centre which had 2.5 billion fairy lights and 223,000 Christmas trees! Santa had again passed by and been violently ill! It was really amazing. We went into the Gardens. We went to two exhibits, both in enormous free form glass houses. The first was the Flower Dome which was an explosion of flowers and Christmas themed displays (again). It took over an hour to go right round and then we headed to the adjacent Cloud Forest. As you walk in there is an eight-storey waterfall. The path winds around and through an enormous cliff with sky walks and beautiful plants. There was an Avatar exhibition and there were incredibly life-like models of all the fantastic Avatar creatures. The best was the Banshee which was animated and so realistic. It was so good! We made it back to the hotel in late afternoon and had a swim before heading out to meet our friends Craig and Kirsten Wiley who live in Singapore after escaping from the Melbourne lockdowns last year! We had a lovely Chinese meal at Clarke Quay after a short walk along the quay. It was really nice to catch up with them as we hadn’t seen them for more than 15 years.

Day 4 – Singapore I went for a run around Fort Canning on top of a hill nearby the historic district. The fort had lots of historic sites and building surrounding an active military base with great views in all directions. After a enormous breakfast we all had a short walk to the Asian Civilisation Museum. Matthew decided to do his own thing that day so it was the three of us for the museum which was really good. It had lots of artefacts recovered from shipwrecks around Singapore and a history of the trade routes around Asia. We then went on to Orchard Road to look at all the shopping district which was insanely busy on Christmas Eve. Lots and lots and lots of high-end shops. We went back to the hotel and arrived at the same time as Matthew and all went for a swim. That evening Matt and Jess went to the Singapore Night Zoo. Katie and I went and had dinner on Clarke Quay and when back to the hotel. They had Christmas Carols in the lobby around the 8m tall Christmas tree made entirely of teddy bears. It was really lovely. We followed this up by Champagne in the lobby bar. A very lovely Christmas Eve.

Day 5 – Singapore I went for an early morning run on Christmas morning around Clarke Quay and Boat Quay. The kids came into our room and we had presents and called family in Australia and the UK before breakfast. We tried to restrain ourselves at the buffet but it was quite difficult as it was so nice. Even though it was Christmas Day and a public holiday most of the shops were open. I spent the morning shopping for necessities while the family got ready for lunch. I was so hot when I got back I had to have my second shower of the day and completely change before lunch. It was a short taxi ride to “The English House” by celebrity chef Marco Pierre White (I hadn’t heard of him either). The restaurant was eclectically decorated and very interesting. We had a five-course lunch which was traditional English (obviously). It was very good. Singapore is VERY expensive for eating out and any type of alcohol. We cracked over AUD$1000 for lunch for the first time! It was really lovely though! Lunch went until 2:30Pm and we caught a taxi to Mr Stork a rooftop bar on Level 39. We met Craig and Kirsten for G&T’s and looked at the 360 degree view around Singapore. We went back to the hotel by 5:30pm, had a quick swim and had the evening in watching a movie in our room. A very nice Christmas Day!

Day 6 – Singapore We had a day at Sentosa today. It
is a beach to the South of Singapore which is the southernmost point of
continental Asia. We caught a taxi and long cable car ride to get there. The
cable car was quite spectacular going over the harbour. We had a few hours on
the beach swimming in the warm water before a late lunch at a beach bar. We caught
the monorail and underground train back to our hotel. We had checked out that
morning but could use the pool, spa and change facilities to freshen up and
pack up our bags before heading to the airport for our midnight flight to
Amsterdam. We went a little early so we had time to go to see Jewel, a
spectacular fountain, light show around a diagrid structure housing a rain
forest which has been constructed between Terminal 1 and 3. It was very good. 

Day 7 – Singapore to The Netherlands By the time our flight left at half past midnight it had been a very long day! It was at 12½ flight from Singapore to Zurich. We had one hour  to transfer Terminals to get to our next flight to Amsterdam. It was VERY tight. We had to get a train and it was a long walk either end. We all thought it would be astounding if our bags made it as well. It was another 1 ½ hours to Amsterdam. Five minutes after landing, Jess was face timing her boyfriend Kyel who had landed 30 minutes before us, we met up with him at the baggage reclaim hall. Matt and Jess and Kyel were doing their own separate things in Europe until we met up with them to ski so we said goodbye and caught a taxi to our hotel. We were staying at “The Hoxton Hotel” in the Old Canals Area. The kids were staying in Backpacker Places spread out around the city closer to the party zones.

We had to have a coffee for an hour before our room was ready but by noon we had been showered and changed and ready for an afternoon out. We spent 3 ½ hours wandering around the canals. There are hundreds and very difficult to tell lots of them apart. There are LOTS of bicycles and the ride at breakneck speed and don’t stop for anyone. Most of the cars are electric and totally silent so you need to be very careful on the roads - a bit hard when you are gawking at everything! We walked through the shopping district (9 streets area), cite centre, red light district and went to Oude Kerk the oldest building in Amsterdam. It was a cathedral and the floor entirely made up tombstones. The oldest one we saw was 1591! It was a pretty impressive structure. I was pretty alarmed at some of the buildings though. A great many of them lean at alarming angles. The worst are when adjacent buildings, that were originally built touching lean in opposite directions and a gap up to 600mm wide open up at the fifth (top) floor!

We did think it was pretty funny seeing signs on the streets warning you not to buy drugs off sellers in the street, right outside a shop selling marijuana cookies and chocolate and magic mushrooms! We went back to our hotel for some down time but were feeling sleepy so sat in the lobby to keep awake. I went shopping for food and we had a picnic dinner in our room before going to bed at 7pm. It was a 43 hour day for me with at most 2hrs sleep on the plane so I slept like a corpse!

Day 8 – Amsterdam We tried to go to Anne Frank’s House in the morning but discovered that it was fully booked for three weeks! Should have booked ahead! Anyway we had a look at it from the outside and read all the information in the lobby. We then tried to catch a tram to the Amsterdam Museum. We were told that we could buy tickets on board the tram but by the time we worked out how to do that we were at our stop, so we got a free ride. The Amsterdam museum told the history of the city. Most of the houses and canals in the old city centre seem to have been constructed in the 17th century. There are apparently 1403 little bridges over the canals. Many of the houses have dates on the gable roof. The earliest we saw was 1619. The houses are mostly five storeys. They are founded on timber piles and many houses have settled alarmingly. Floors and walls with significant leans are the norm. The museum also told the History of the Dutch East India company and the slave trade which was also fascinating. We had a very late lunch and went back to the hotel. In the evening we went out to the Red Light District but it was rainy and windy so we didn’t stay very long.

Day 9 - Amsterdam We went to the Rijks Museum which had paintings from all the Dutch Masters - Van Gogh, Rembrandt and Vermeer. The paintings were organised into centuries from the 17th (which was the best). The paintings were so realistic that some of them looked like photographs. It was really amazing how good they were. Matthew was at the museum at the same time with his friend Adam from London and they met us for coffee. We spent about 4 hours in the museum and only got around half of it! We had to have a very quick lunch and then went onto the Heineken Experience. It was a tour of the Heineken brewery but was very good. Apparently Heineken was the first beer to be imported into the US after prohibition ended in 1929 which really turned them into a global brand. It was quite fun. We went back to the hotel for a short break before we were off on a canal cruise. The cruise left at 7:30pm and went around a series of light displays at various points around the canals - The Carnival of Lights. They were very good but it was also really interesting looking into all the crooked houses to see what people were doing! A bit voyeuristic!

Day 10 – Amsterdam We had a tour booked today but it didn’t start until noon so we had the morning wandering around the shops. There are so many beautiful shops I am amazed they can all made a living. There were lots of speciality shops which only sold one thing - peanut butter in 14 flavours, rubber ducks in thousands of varieties, cheese, sweets, marijuana , beautiful art of photographs of your own irises! I stopped for coffee in a “coffee shop” I just had a flat white but everyone else was smoking marijuana! It was quite funny that smoking a cigarette was strictly forbidden but smoking a joint was ok. Outside the shop was a big sign telling you if was illegal to but drugs from street sellers but quite ok to buy them in the shop.

Our tour started at noon and it was a short drive to a clog making factory. We saw how they made clogs in the traditional method which was fascinating. We then had a short boat ride on a freshwater lake that was formed in the 1950’s by closing off a salt water bay. We were looking at the Dykes on the other side. It was quite alarming to see the lake on one side and the houses next to it 3m lower than the water level. Apparently 60% of The Netherlands is below sea level (up to 7m) and they need to constantly pump water from small canals put to bigger and bigger ones until the water flows to the sea. It they ever stop pumping, the houses will flood! I would not feel comfortable living below sea level especially when the water is so close and so much higher than your house!

We went on to a cheese factory and saw how they make Dutch cheese. There was a shop with tasting afterwards and I ate my body weight, or perhaps a little more, of cheese! Yum! It was a short bus ride to see some traditional Dutch windmills. It was blowing a gale and the windmills were going like the clappers! Windmills with Archimedes Screws were originally used to pump water up the canal system but it is mainly electric pumps now. The windmill we went to see was grinding peanuts to make peanut oil. It was constructed in 1627! The millstones were last replaced in 1820 and had worn down in diameter over the last 202 years to reduce from 5000kg each to 2500kg each. They could make the same amount of oil in a day that a modern factory made in 10 minutes so most of their income was from tourism. Watching the windmill turn the millstones was very medieval feeling! It was a short bus trip back to Amsterdam. Matthew and Adam came to our hotel and had dinner with us that night which was nice. The had been to see the same Windmills but on bicycle. It had been raining quite hard so they had gotten soaked to the skin so were a little late for dinner. Jessica and Kyel had gone to Brussels by train that morning so couldn’t join us. We had a lovely dinner with Matt and Adam in our very funky hotel restaurant.

Day 11 – Amsterdam It was our last day in Amsterdam and Matthew had a 4hour train ride to Berlin while Jess had a short train ride from Brussels to Paris. We spent to morning in the Van Loon Museum. The William Van Loon co-founded the Dutch East India Company in 1602 and became fabulously wealthy from trading slaves and sugar. They were also linked to the Royal family, were bankers and William’s grandson was the mayor of Amsterdam. Their house was built in 1672 and the family still live in the upper levels. The lower three levels are open to the public as well as the rear enclosed garden and coach house. The furniture and decorations are all 17th and 18th century. The bedrooms are enormous - about the size of our living room in Australia and four on each level. It was really good. We had a last mooch around the canals before heading back to the hotel to pack. We spent New Year’s Eve in our hotel restaurant, Lotti’s. We had a nice meal and stayed in the hotel lobby which had been transformed into a dance floor. At midnight we were in our room and watched the fireworks over the canals. There were a lot of people setting off some serious fireworks in the streets as well (which had supposedly been banned). These went on until at least 4am so we had a very broken night.

Cheers from Derek, Katie, Matthew, Jessica & Molly