Today started out well. We left early enough to be on the first train. Then we had to get off the train at Heerenven to ride the bus to Steenwijk because they were working on the rails. That wasn't so bad, very organized and a nice charter bus. Then we got on the train to Meppen and there we had to get off because someone had been hit by a train between Meppen and Zwolle. Apparently it was becoming a common occurance. Now, I am very sorry that someone was hurt by the train, and I hope and pray that they were ok and not killed. So the complaining coming is not without respect for the person injured. But it was a really bad day from this point. They told us that the earliest the trains would be back up and running was 1:30. They began bussing people. But it was chaotic. There were only 3 or 4 busses at first and a thousand people in the parking lot. It was unorganized craziness. Every time a bus pulled up, the masses of people shoved their way to get on board. We stood there for almost 2 hours and finally we went to get some lunch and take a break from the craziness. Then we went back to see if we could get on a bus. By then the crowd was down to a few hundred. We were finally to the spot where we could get on a bus and a train police man was finally directing people. We were about to get on the bus and the police man said "this is the last bus." This was almost 3 hours being stuck there. We were able to get on but I was almost in tears from the whole thing. We made it to Zwolle and ran to catch the train to Rotterdam, but almost as soon as we got there, it was cancelled. We had to wait another half hour for a different train. At this point, we had given up on getting to see any of Brugge and were just hoping we could catch a taxi to our hotel before they quit coming to the train station. We finally made it to Rotterdam and got our tickets to Brugge. That took another couple of hours and lots of train stops and transfers because we had missed the last high speed train. When we arrived at the train station, we were able to get a taxi, went straight to the hotel, and went to bed. What a frustrating day!
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Friday, October 25, 2013
Sneek-October 25
This morning we took our time getting up and ready. It was about a quarter till 10 when we finally went downstairs. For breakfast, they had some Special K. There were two jugs of milk, all written in Dutch of course. I asked Scott which one he thought was skim milk and he told me I definitely wanted the one with the red cap. So I poured it onto my cereal. I chose....poorly. It was nasty, bitter milk. Apparently, buttermilk. Poo!
After breakfast, we walked to the Sheepvaart Museum (Maritime Museum). It was a pretty cool museum, with a lot about the shipping history of Sneek and general history of the area. There was a whole room dedicated to skutsjes, which is the type of boat Scott's great grandfather and great great grandfather sailed on up and down the Frisian waterways, and also the type of boat Scott's grandfather was born on. They were called "roof boats" because there was a tiny cabin on the roof where the family lived. There was a replica of one of these cabins in the museum. As many as 8 people would live in there.
We also learned that when babies were born on the boats, they went to the nearest town and registered the birth, that's why Scott's grandfather is listed as born in Lemmer. Children growing up on the boats went to school in a separate room just for these kids, so when the boats stopped in towns up and down the waterways, the kids stopped in for school. We learned that the picture of Scott's grandfather with his classmates is not in Sneek, and was most likely a small town along the waterways. There was a skutsje outside of the museum, too. All of it was very neat!
After the museum, we walked around exploring and took pictures of the waterpoort.
We had lunch at this fast food place across from our hotel. Scott went to order my lunch and accidentally ordered two chicken sandwiches because he held up his index finger while ordering, which means 1 in America, but two in Europe. He forgot to hold up his thumb.
After lunch, we went to the library and below is an archives section where the Sneek historical society was busily working. When I showed them the pictures of Scott's grandfather and other documents I had, they got so excited. One little old man pulled out his magnifying glass, trying to see the documents on my Iphone. It was hilarious and fun to watch how excited they all got. One of them kept pushing buttons on my phone trying to see more and messing it up. Unfortunately there wasn't enough time for them to do any research, but I got their card and they told me to email them with my info and they'd try to look up information for me.
After this, we walked all the way back over to the train station to see the National Modelspoor museum (train museum). It was full of model trains, of course, and was a kid's dream.
On the way back, we stopped at a bakery truck on the side of the road that was selling all kinds of fried dough treats. We got two oliebollen, which Scott said could be the treat his dad used to enjoy from his mom's kitchen growing up. It was yummy, like a fried dough ball you'd get at the fair or a doughnut.
We still had a lot of time left before dinner, but we had pretty much done everything there was to do, so we went back to the hotel to rest. Very rare on these kinds of trips!
Tomorrow is a long day of traveling again. We have to ride the trains for about 5 hours with 4 stops again to our next destination. We must start early!
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Haarlem to Sneek- October 24
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| Ready to face the day with my trusty backpack.. |
Anyway, it was a short 20 minute ride to Haarlem on the oldest train rail in The Netherlands. I only saw one old fashioned windmill, though.
Haarlem was a surprisingly metropolitan town. Right next door to the Corrie ten Boom house is an H&M. We only had to wait aout 20 minutes for the English tour. All of the people in our group were American girls. The tour was very interesting, the tour guide drew me in with te hstory of Corrie ten Boom and her family. We saw the hiding place, Corrie's room was teeny tiny. It is amazing that 6 people were able to hide in that tiny wall space for so long. This tour was definitely one of my favorite places so far.
After the museum tour, we looked for a place to eat lunch. Unfortunately Roger's favorite sandwich shop was no longer there. Instead, there was a "Sassy boy" store. Sorry Roger! We found another place instead, which wasn't my favorite but Scott liked it.
The rest of the day we spent traveling to Sneek. I think we had 4 train changes, it was crazy. We had to run to catch one of the trains, the time between was so short. Thank goodness for our backpack luggage!
All told, it took us about 5 hours. When we got here, we still had to walk to our hotel. When we walked in, we must've looked a sight because the guy at the counter looked surprised at me and Scott knocked a bunch of hangers off of a rack with his backpack. That was hilarious!
Our hotel is located in/over a restaurant. So we ate a nice dinner downstairs. During dinner, I asked the waitress to look at the picture of Roger's dad in front of his school. She told us that there used to be 4 waterports but 3 of them were destroyed in WWII. So, it could have been any of them. She suggested we go to the library, where they have archives and can possibly help us. So exciting!
Wednesday, October 23, 2013
Walking day- October 23
This morning we woke up around 8:30. We got ready and had breakfast downstairs. We met the owner of the hotel, he told us that the hotel was originally built by a wealthy merchant who traded his goods using his boat which he moored on the canal outside of the building. It came into the owner's family in the early 1900s and has been a hotel ever since.
We had croissants, cheese, and soft boiled eggs for breakfast.
The breakfast room.
So today was nothing but walking. Ok, we did sightsee and go to museums and stuff, but we literally walked from one end of the city to the next to the next. We walked 5.9 miles not including all the walking we did in the museums. No wonder my feet hurt!
Anyway, the Scheepvaart Musuem was our first stop. It is a maritime museum and it is super cool. There are interactive displays, a replica Dutch East Indies trading ship (The Amsterdam) to climb on board and explore, and interesting artifacts from old Dutch ships. We spent most of the morning and a little after lunch there.
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The Sceepvaart museum    |
After that, we went to the Dutch Resistance museum. It was very interesting to see what the Dutch went through during WW11. It was also quite sad.
After that, we went to the Heineken experience. It was a lot different than the last time we went, a lot more to see and do. It was fun, but we were a little sad that they got rid of the beautiful tasting bar.
For dinner, we had Indian food which is right around the block from our hotel. It was yummy, of course!
On a side note, I've been having technical difficulties uploading pictures so sorry for the weird formatting.
Zombie day- Oct. 22
We arrived in Amsterdam at 7:00 am. It was still pitch black dark and a bit creepy. The first thing we did was get cash out of the ATM since our hotel only takes cash. Then we tried to get our tickets for the train into Amsterdam but the machine wouldn't take our cards. Apparently the new thing in Europe is this chip in it with a special PIN number to work. We ended up having to pay cash. We realized much too late that we should've hung out in the Sky lounge until it was late enough to take our bags to the hotel. Instead, we walked in the dark to our hotel and sat on the steps till the manager/owner? got there to open up. It wasn't too bad, it was actually cool watching all the people zoom by on their bikes on their way to work.
Our hotel is super old. It was built in 1632. Our room is on the 3rd floor (although the manager told us it was the first floor, lol!) and is called "The Rembrandt." How cute! The floor is sloped toward the front of the building. Did I mention that it was old?
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| Scott in our hotel room with the sloped floor. |
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| Our cute, old hotel on the corner. |
After dropping off our bags, we dragged ourselves to the Anne Frank house and got in line about 30 minutes before it opened. There were only about 15 people in front of us. By the time it opened at 9:00, the line stretched around the block. We were glad we went ahead and went there first.
the Anne Frank house
Afterward, we took a canal cruise on Holland International. Scott and I were so tired and the boat rocking was so lulling, that we kept nodding off. I don't remember half of it!
After that, we dragged ourselves to a restaurant near our hotel, Cafe van Zuylen. I had a panini with goat cheese, honey, and apricots (oh and ham). It was sooooo yummy! Scott had the "healthy sandwich" which basically was a big multi grain roll with ham, cheese, egg, lettuce , and tomato. We joked that maybe "healthy" really meant "hearty." We had a corner seat by the window and people watched.
After lunch, we came back to the hotel and took 3 hour naps. It was awesome! I felt a little better when we got up.
For dinner, we ate at this fancy schmancy Belgian restuarant, Lieve. It was also soooo good. When we walked in, we had to choose our "atmosphere": living room style (basically normal meal), baroque (little samples of everything, served family style), or the elegant (4 course meal). We chose the living room. We sat at a little lounge area while they set up the table. My first course was chestnut veloute with a garnish of bacon and roasted hazelnuts. Scott had smoked whiting with roasted celeriac and a relish of beetroot. For my main entree I had grilled sirloin of black angus and Scott had baked steak of deer. We both had Belgian fries, with mayo, of course. For dessert (yes, we couldn't resist) I had parfait of hazelnuts and Frangelico with caramel sauce, and Scott had mouse of dark chocolate with a biscuit of pink pepper.
I think we will sleep well tonight. :D
Travel day-October 21
Today was a long, long day. Scott and I didn't sleep very well the night before, I guess we were both excited and anxious. The wait for the flights wasn't so bad, Scott used his Delta credit card status to get us cheaper access to the "Sky lounge" so we could be more comfortable. The actual flights weren't bad either, very little turbulance. I loved our comfort coach seats, especially since we were in the first row and I had so much room to stretch my legs. But neither one of us could sleep on the flight. The plane was cool because they had just redone the inside so it was like a new plane!
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| Scott patiently waiting in the sky lounge. |
Monday, October 21, 2013
Packing
So Scott and I decided to travel like we did in the old days and only take a carry on suitcase and personal item. We wanted convertible backpacks with wheels. The one I got, the Osprey Ozone Convertible 22"/50L, looked great on the website. I ordered it, and then soon realized how really small that was. The 50L isn't just the size of the large backpack, it's the size of the large backpack and removable day pack. I did a lot of research online about how to pack so lightly for 17 days. I picked out coordinating tops and pants that I could mix and match. I tried to pack it all. It was too much. Bit by bit, I had to remove pieces of clothing and made several sacrifices. For instance, I'm going to have to wear my socks twice. I also had to take out my dress because the shoes were just too big, even though I got the smallest flats I could find. And I had to switch my extra bag to a thin nylon bag that hopefully will hold up! But in the end, I got it all in!
I'm pretty proud of myself! I don't know how I did it, but I did. Here is my packing list:
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| Here is my suitcase with everything in it, my toiletry bag is to the left, extra day bag/purse, hat, and even my pink bunny slippers. Scarves are rolled up and line the sides. |
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| I removed the top layer and you can see two packing cubes and one of my sweaters. The blue packing cube holds my shirts, the red one holds undies. The black one holds socks. |
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| And here it is, all zipped up and ready to go. |
- 2 pair of pants, plus the jeans I'll be wearing
- 3 tank/camis
- 1 tee shirt (I'll be wearing) to use as a pj tee shirt, too
- 3 blouses
- 2 sweaters
- undies and socks
- 2 belts
- 1 pair of pink bunny slippers
- 1 pair of pj shorts
- 2 scarves, 1 hat, 1 pair of gloves
- 1 extra bag for souvenirs
- 2 wine diapers
- plug adapters
- electronic stuff
- puzzle book
- copies of tickets and hotel confirmations
- medicines
- liquids bag
- money, passport, etc
- snack food
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