nether nether land

Keukenhof

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Mum and I returned to NL to find spring in full bloom! I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again - Europe in spring is simply the best thing ever! 

To celebrate spring’s oh so momentous arrival, Mum and I checked out Holland’s biggest and best flower show, Keukenhof! Let’s think of it as Floriade further north. 

It was so so SO freaking gorgeous. Brilliantly coloured flowers, gently rolling hills and a sparkling pond make up the exhibition area, as well as greenhouses named after current and past Kings and Queens. Wandering the carefully groomed paths, we walked through wafts of lovely scent (yay for hyacinths). I think I took 200 pictures in just a few hours, it was just a really wonderful afternoon.

A few funny things happened too. We had a lovely few glasses of wine in the warm evening sun, but not till after joking with the waiter about being lushes. Hilarious! (:S) I’d also say I threw out the curve on the average age of Keukenhof’s visitors - at least a quarter of the visitors were confined to wheelchairs. 

As much as I enjoyed Keukenhof, having also been cycling in actual tulip fields makes an interesting contrast. Keukenhof is a tourist friendly nicely packaged version of tulips and the Dutch spring. Cycling through the fields is spectacular, it also means fences and tractors and cars and busy roads. So I guess they both have their pros and cons, right? 

Ma mere et moi en Belgique - Brussels and Bruges

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Mum and I based ourselves in Brussels for few a days after our French adventure. We weren’t exactly lucky with our apartment selection in Brussels but we managed. We had a day’s sightseeing in Brussels, in beautiful sunshine-y weather. Then we headed to Bruges for a day. Yes Bruges is a terribly touristy little town, but it’s also super sweet and picturesque and you really can’t visit Belgium and not go to Bruges.

We did a nice little boat tour of the canals, which though I’ve been to Bruges before I hadn’t done. The tour was actually pretty awesome, very funny and informative. The highlight was definitely seeing the ‘most photographed dog in Bruges’ who apparently sits in the sunny window every single day possible. Isn’t he cute?! We also gots lots of interesting architecture commentary. We walked around the highlights of the sites (see my last excursion to Bruges here) - I was pleased that I remembered my way around quite well! I took mum to the brewery and we enjoyed the sunny courtyard, and we went to the Begijnhof (remember - place for single women to live in peace, similar to nunnery) which was just stunning, filled with afternoon light on fresh blooms. 

All in all, while we enjoyed Brussels, and had a very delicious meal on our last night (with our Reims champagne!) we weren’t sad to head back to NL. Brussels is pretty rough, in a way that you really don’t find in Utrecht. Also, in NL I know what I’m doing - I know how the trains run and whatnot and sightseeing is not quite as exhausting, you know? 

Next post - Holland in bloom! 

Ma mere et moi en France - Loire Valley and Reims

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Bidding adieu to Mont St-Michel, Mum and I drove east towards the Loire Valley and it’s famous chateaux. We spent the afternoon and night in Amboise, a sweet little town. The weather was really beautiful so we spent a good chunk of time sitting in the sun which was lovely. And we planned our chateaux route for the next day! 

Based on Rick’s suggestions we chose to visit Château de Chenonceau and Château de Chambord. First up was Château de Chenonceau (also known as the Ladies Château as it has frequently been owned by women, and they’ve done most of the renovations/landscaping that make it so magnificent). The whole place isn’t open, but the rooms that are beautiful. There’s a chapel, saved during the Revolution by using it to stack firewood. Lots of impressive tapestries and wallpaper, including one room dressed entirely in black, including black wallpaper flocked with silver tears, which was decorated by a widow after the death of her husband. The kitchens are huge and very old timey - lots of brass pots and scary cleavers. The ballroom, which used to house sculptures now at Versailles, was used as a hospital during WW1, and as a means to escape to Vichy France in WW2 - the ballroom spans the width of the river that marked the border. The gardens were also stunning; it so nice to be there when lots of flowers were out, and there’s a maze! All in all Château de Chenonceau was really excellent to visit, though do be prepared for it to be overrun by tourists and (American) bus groups. 

Next up we headed to Château de Chambord. The day started to turn a little bit at this point, adding to the somewhat foreboding atmosphere. The Château is incredibly impressive, with all the chimneys and the sheer size of the place! Inside was cavernous and freezing, and not as richly restored or decorated as Chenonceau. The highlight was climbing the double helix staircase and then wandering around the roof. The park is huge and still home to lots of boar/deer etc, though we didn’t catch a glimpse of any. Again, well worth a visit, especially if the day was better cycling in the surrounding forest would be lovely. The place is massive, so even though there’s lots of bus groups/school kids/tourists, it doesn’t feel that crowded. 

That night we spent in Tours as we had an early train the next morning. We were said to say goodbye to our lovely (automatic and GPSed) car! Tours seemed fine, though to be honest we didn’t see much of it, having had a big day and an early wake up call we stayed close to our hotel. 

Then it was off to Reims! We had to transfer through Paris on the Metro, but that actually worked out fine. Reims had been a somewhat last minute add to our itinerary so we weren’t exactly sure what to expect. Firstly, we stayed at an absolutely terrible hotel in that the owners are stark raving mad, so don’t stay here! However, it was a pretty good location. That afternoon we managed to track down some lunch and explore the recently done up Reims center. We visited the Cathedral (where the Kings of France were crowned) and hit the shops for a little while which was fun. Then we visited our first champagne house! Yay! We visited Taittinger first and were shown around by a very poshly accented English girl. Taittinger was quite cool to visit as it is built in on the ruins of an old abbey where monks used to make champagne! A tour at the champagne houses involves an overview type promotional video, and then a walk through the underground chalk tunnels where thousands of bottle are stored, learning more about the production process. Of course the tour concludes with a glass of bubbly so all in all it’s a pretty nice way to spend an afternoon! 

The next day, after an unintended detour through a graveyard dragging our suitcases (oopsie!) we visited Mumm (Moome). We did an even better tour there, again with a poshly accented English girl (I sort of want their job but clearly will have to improve my speech). The grounds and buildings at Mumm are very impressive, lots of beautiful art. Their caves are bigger than Taittinger’s, with something crazy like 20 miles of tunnels. We were lucky to visit on a weekend when its quiet and there are no golf carts busily driving up and down the “Champs-Elysees” of champagne houses. After this tour we had two glasses of champagne (what better way to start a Sunday?!) and perused their gift shop. We liked the Mumm tasting more than Taittinger, both Mum and I were surprised to like the sweeter champagnes more than the dry. Mum and Dad actually drank Mumm at their wedding so it was pretty cute that we got to visit! 

Reims was a nice little stop over. I don’t think you really need more than one night as there isn’t heaps to do apart from the champagne sites. We found it a little tricky to get around as the houses aren’t super central, and taxis were a bit hard to come by. And of course, because the hotel staff were so crazy we had to carry our bags with us from 10:30 check out until our train at 2 - hardly ideal but we managed. 

Sadly that’s the end of our French adventure! I’ve two more posts coming up, about our time in Belgium and then our adventures in Mum’s last few days in NL. 

Ma mere et moi en France - Mont St-Michel

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Upon leaving Bayeux, Mum and I did an excellent coastal drive along the Norman and Breton coast, near Mont St-Michel to St Malo, then we had two nights in Mont St-Michel.

The drive was pretty excellent. We had a lovely beach views most of the way, and drove through oyster farms and along cliffs. We stopped a few times and explored teeny seaside towns and walked through nature reserves to the beach. We made it St Malo, an adorable walled (yes WALLED) town for lunch. Very touristy, but still pretty cool. We had crepes for lunch on the ancient ramparts, and then walked along aforementioned ramparts admiring the view. There was quite good shopping in St Malo too, so we picked up some nifty souvenirs, like salt water caramels :)

After getting hopelessly lost and travelling in circles for a while because construction meant the GPS lady couldn’t give us accurate directions (bah!) we made it to Mont St-Michel. Mont St-Michel is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Christendom apparently, so it is a crazy tourist scene, e.g. to get to our hotel’s parking lot we had to punch in a pre-arranged code! There isn’t really a town per se across from the causeway to Mont St-Michel, but a strip of hotels. Bit sterile and weird, but an “experience”. Our first night was pretty quiet. We ate at our hotel and then mum chillaxed while I walked the length of the causeway (couple of ks) out to Mont St-Michel, snapped a few pictures and caught the free bus back. 

The next morning was Mont St-Michel morning! Rick advises starting early to avoid the mad crowds so we headed over on an early bus (free buses run from the parking lot and the hotel strip across the causeway to the base of Mont St-Michel). And then it was time to hike! To visit the abbey at the top of Mont St-Michel one has to wind their way through the only street of the tiny town on Mont St-Michel. It’s very narrow, and paccckeeed with tourist targeting tat shops, and, of course, tourists. After 15 or so minutes of uphill walking, you get to a big set of stairs to the entrance to the abbey. You should take a few moments here and enjoy the view back over the mudflats and the causeway. Once inside, there’s MORE stairs to get into the abbey proper. Seriously, it was a walk and a half on a very warm sunny day. Mum did not love the stairs so much, but it was worth it once we were in. And we saw all sorts of mad tourists doing it, including one guy lugging a pram up every set of stairs! 

We did an interesting audio tour of the abbey. It’s pretty nice, you can visit the church, the kitchens and dining room, the cloisters and whatnot. They brothers and nuns have mass there everyday so we watched them set up their (hardcore) kneeling stools for mass. There is a lot of interesting history on Mont St-Michel. It’s considered a very holy place (being dedicated the archangel Michel after all) (apparently the 4th most important to Christians which I thought was surprisingly high, no?), and was visited by Kings of France. Pilgrims have been visiting for many years, and until the causeway was built it was a treacherous journey involving timing the tides for your trip across the mud flats (another way to prove your faith!). After our tour we took a very leisurely walk (downhill yay!) along the ramparts, out of Mont St-Michel. I had an ice cream and came the closest to a religious experience on Mont St-Michel as possible for me. 

We relaxed that afternoon - the grounds of our hotel were nice, and we poked in the few shops along the hotel strip. Mum bought a photograph of Mont St-Michel under snow, and I bought a stripey Breton shirt (yay tourist tat!). That evening there was an incredible sunset for us to enjoy over dinner, and then I dragged Mum out on the bus to the base of Mont St-Michel again, so we could take night pictures. It’s gorgeous lit up, much more magical than the pictures show. 

So that was Mont St-Michel! We probably didn’t need two days there, but it was a relaxing couple of days. And while it was a little weird, being essentially stuck in this tourist land for 36 hours, it was still very enjoyable. Mont St-Michel was also our last day in Normandy, which was sad! Mum and I found Normandy beautiful and welcoming and we didn’t really want to leave. The next day was a big drive to Amboise in the Loire Valley and that means my next blog post will be…. chateaux! 

A day cycling through the tulip fields 

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This past sunny Friday arvo led some friends and I to go cycling in the search of tulip fields. We took the train from Utrecht to Leiden and then rented the oh so handy OV bikes (available at most stations in NL) and set off. The ride out was a little boring, and we got a little lost (ha! of course!), but then we zeroed in on Lisse, the town nearest to the Keukenhof flower show and ground zero for tulip fields. 

My heavens it was lovely! We had a picnic on the side of the path and then I drove everyone nuts by needing to stop every few seconds to take more photographs. But the depth and range of colours was just astounding. We’d turn a corner and have fields stretching ahead of us filled with a rainbow of flowers. We cycled through wafts of glorious scent (imagine living nearby!). It was just, in every possible sense, completely wonderful. 

Our plan for our ride was to travel a nice little circle, so from the fields near Lisse we headed towards the beach. We rode through lovely countryside and then had a wee break on the nicest beach I’ve been to in NL. While the water was an absolutely unholy freezing temperature, it was still lovely to be on the sand in the sun. Then we continued on through more lovely countryside, more flowers and blossoming trees till we were back in Leiden. All in all, we cycled just over 40ks! By the end of it, I had a pink face and sore butt, let me tell you! 

I’m really starting to think that just maybe NL in spring makes up NL in winter… 

Ma mere et moi en France - D-day beaches

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The D-day beaches really surprised us by being an excellent tourist destination. We left Honfleur and drove to Arromanches, right in the centre of the D-Day invasion, then worked our way along the coast, visiting the American and German cemeteries, and Omaha beach.

Arromanches is where one of the temporary ports were built to stage the invasion. Supposed to only last a few months, the remains of the port at Arromanches can still be seen, and there’s even an old gun on one, to add to the ambience… The D-Day operation itself was an incredible feat of engineering and bravery, and I highly recommend reading up on it further.

The memorials and museums at each stop were wonderful - thoughtful, moving and very engaging. I wouldn’t say that Mum and I are particularly fascinated by war memorials or military history, and we are definitely not WWII buffs, but we really learned a lot, and found the whole experience very meaningful. The only distraction to the day was that everywhere we went (except the German cemetery, what a shocker…) was absolutely riddled with old white American tourists. Who were almost exclusively dressed in various military baseball caps, and kept saying things like “Oh yah, bloody Omaha, yah terrible” to each other, though they were far too young to remember it. Harmless, but sort of annoying. 

We spent two nights in the D-day beach area, at Bayeux. On our second day we explored Bayeux properly, which is a teeny but very sweet and picturesque town. We went to the Bayeux tapestry which was pretty great, and visited the Cathedral - which is the same size as Notre Dame if you’d believe it. I was a bit unwell, but Mum even went to a concert in the cathedral, but found it very very cold! We also managed to squeeze in a visit to Utah beach and its excellent museum on our second day in the area. 

The final reason we enjoyed our time in Bayeux so much is that the weather was amaze! So sunny and warm. Mum and I spent a few hours each day relaxing in a sunny courtyard which was just brilliant. Easily the best weather I’ve had since last August. AUGUST! It was bliss I tells you!

Ma mere et moi en France - Rouen and Honfleur

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Would you look at me, finally getting my act together and blogging about France! 

Mum and I started our French adventure by catching the train to Rouen. We had the afternoon to see the sights, including where Joan of Arc was burned alive, the church now on the same spot, and the impressive cathedral. Rouen has lots of historic buildings and so is a nice place to walk around. The afternoon was plenty of time to spend there though, as it does seem a bit rough (and it rained a bit)… 

The next day we picked up our car and drove to Honfleur. Honfleur is a gorgeous little fishing village - the historic basin for boats, lots of half-timbered buildings and cafes. We had a nice time, despite the miserable weather (the only day of bad rain we had!). Even better, we had a really delicious delicious VEGETARIAN FRIENDLY dinner at La Tortue that night. Easily the best meal we had all trip, it was four courses of deliciousness including a camembert cheese plate (camembert is made in Normandy). Oh so yummy. 

Next post - sunshine at the D-Day beaches

Konninginnedag! 

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Yesterday was Konninginnedag (Queen’s day) in the Netherlands - a national holiday celebrating the birthday of the Queen (actually her Mum’s bday, but still). And in 2013, it was also the inauguration of the new King and Queen. Needless to say, it was quite a day! 

Queen’s night, the day before Queen’s day (duh), is usually a big night of concerts and beer and partying - typical pre-public holiday shenanigans basically. A mate had hired a boat, so we spent a few hours cruising the canals of Amsterdam in style! Super fun! After we got dropped off we wandered the madness for a while. It was pretty nuts, tons of people, beer tents, free bands and crazy orange costumes everywhere. 

The next day was more crazy orange garbed people, beer and general frivolity. We started the morning gently, checking out the children’s free market at Vondelpark. Oh my freaking god, it was so adorable! Teeny tiny children selling old toys, busking, and generally doing anything they can to earn a buck. This is a long standing tradition in NL and by lord the kids take it seriously. There were lots of glum children sternly supervising their stalls and we all quickly run out of change due to all the serious young violinists and drummers.

We then headed over to Musuemplein where there were big free concerts and the inauguration ceremony was being broadcast (not a coronation because the Dutch royals don’t actually wear the crown). We watched all the foreign royals arrive and then excitement mounted for the new King and Queen. The King gave a long speech, everyone cheered a lot, and then they waved to Dam Square. We poked around more vrijmarkt tat and indulged in too many homemade baked goods before heading home exhausted! 

It was a really fun day, and very special to be there for the investiture of the new King and Queen. The royals are quite popular in NL and there had been a lot of speculation that Amsterdam would be crazy this year. We found that wasn’t really the case. Outside of the blocks directly around the Dam Square, where security was very tight, it was easy to move around and the crowds didn’t really seem that large. Maybe it was a bit overhyped so people stayed away? Or maybe we were just lucky with our location choice. 

Fingers crossed I’ll get to be in NL for Koningsdag (King’s day) (moved to April 26, King Willy’s bday, from April 30) some year soon!