Australia

The last couple of weeks I’ve been on a business trip to Australia and Singapore. The flight to Sydney was pretty grueling. Its 12 hours from Amsterdam to Singapore. I had to kill 3 hours in the Singapore airport and then another 8 hours on to Sydney. With an 8 hour time difference, it’s a recipe for serious jetlag. I arrived on Saturday night and fell asleep quickly. But on Sunday, I didn’t have any energy and my stomach was feeling rebellious.

I spent Sunday in my hotel room reading tourist brochures. The hotel was in a suburb and not really close to any of the sight anyway. And it was raining. Its fall in Australia, but the temperatures were still pretty nice (high 60’s/low 70’s).

Monday through Thursday was spent working – I was helping with an internal training course. On Friday, I played hooky from work. I changed to a hotel in the downtown area very close to the Opera House. Armed with my list of things I wanted to do, I hit the town.

I had planned to take a harbor cruise, but when I looked at the schedule, I decided that a whale watching tour would be more fun. Dennis doesn’t like boats very much so whale watching is an activity best done on my own. We actually saw quite a few whales. They were humpback whales on their annual migration. Even more fun than the whales were the dolphins that played around the boat racing and surfing in the wake. Who can resist such playful creatures?

After the tour, I went to dinner with a couple of people from work. We went to a seafood restaurant in the harbor with a view of the Opera House. There was a light show going on that involved projecting images on the building. It was really spectacular -but hard to photograph.

On Saturday, I took the hop-on / hop-off bus tour of Sydney. These kinds of tours are hokey, but if you are short on time, they are a good way to see the main sights and learn a little bit about the city. I hopped off at Darling Harbor and went to Wildlife World. This is a new exhibit right next to the famous Sydney Aquarium. I love the fishies, but I really wanted to see Koala Bears! Wildlife World is not a regular zoo because its all indoors. They have all the creepy crawly poisonous spiders and snakes as well as the typical Australian cuties. The Koala exhibit is on the roof and I arrived just in time for the presentation. As soon as the zoo-keeper entered the enclosure, one of the little koala bears climbed down from his tree and walked around the fence line. He was super-cute. I also saw the kangaroos, lots of different birds, and wombats. I don’t think I had ever seen a wombat before. They are kind of like badgers in size and shape. Funny looking critters!

My other priority in Australia was to buy opals. I’ve always liked opals and I have a pair of opal earrings that I love from the opal mine in Idaho. I have mostly given up on buying jewelry because I don’t want to finance the conflicts in Africa. Since almost all of the world’s opals come from Australia, they are pretty much conflict-free. I managed to find a nice pair of earrings that weren’t too expensive. I also found a kangaroo charm for my charm-bracelet.

On Sunday, we headed to Singapore for the next training session. Singapore is HOT and HUMID. On Monday night we went out for a group dinner. Inexplicably, it was a Spanish restaurant and we had to sit outside in the courtyard where there was no hope of a breeze. I was OK at the beginning of the meal, but by the end I was melting. The food was just as yucky as you would expect from Spanish food in Asia. The next night we went out for Chili Crab – the national dish of Singapore. Mercifully, we sat inside in the air conditioning. It was much better. And Chili Crab is one of my favorites.

By Thursday, I was ready to get home. The flight from Singapore to Amsterdam leaves at midnight. I was glad that my colleague told me that you can pay for ½ a night in the hotel and check out at 8:00 pm. I was able to walk around Singapore a little bit, have dinner, and then shower in the hotel before my flight. On the plane, I fell asleep before take-off, woke up long enough to recline the seat and slept for 8 hours straight. The jetlag coming home was not nearly so bad in part because I was so happy to be back home!

Long Holiday Weekend

Thursday was a holiday here in the Netherlands (Ascension Day) and Dennis also had Friday off. Naturally he didn't realize he had a four day weekend until Tuesday so we didn't have time to plan anything special. But I was able to take Friday off and the weather has been fantastic! Sorry, no pictures for this post. If you want to see how beautiful it is, you'll just have to visit!

On Thursday, we took a long bike ride (46 miles). We went on one of our regular routes around Flevoland - more of training ride than a site-seeing ride. On Friday, the weather was a bit cooler with a chance of rain. We headed to Arnhem to see the Hoge Veluwe National Park. I had been there with Mom and Dad and realized that this was a place that needed some more exploration. Dennis and I hiked from the park entrance to the art museum (which was closed the day I was there with Mom and Dad). It was about an hour walk through the forest. The birds were singing and the pine trees smelled amazing! The art museum was established by a wealthy family who collected paintings from French and Dutch artists and then donated everything, including the park land to the Dutch government. It was a really nice collection of Van Gogh and other art from that period. While we were walking through the museum, we noticed that it was suddenly very crowded. We heard some strange noise and finally realized that it was pouring rain outside! There was even thunder. After the thunderstorm, we went outside again to see the outdoor sculpture garden. The sculptures were placed at random through the forest which made for an interesting walk. Every time the wind blew, the water would fall from the trees. But the sun was out and everything had that fresh-rain feel to it. We hiked back to the car without encountering any more rain.

On Sautrday, we took the kayaks out on one of the nearby lakes. We had been kayaking in the area before, but hadn't explored the lake yet. We shared the water with everything from sailboats to yachts. There were some islands with campgrounds so people had parked their boats and had their tents set up on the shore. With the long weekend and the warm weather, it was pretty busy on the lake. Dennis and I were finished by about 2:00. As we pulled the boats out of the water, we noticed the clouds coming over. The rest of the day was cloudy, so I guess we were super-lucky!

This morning, we took another bike ride. Our goal was sight-seeing this time. We wanted to find a place to put the kayaks into the Vecht river. So, we planned our bike ride along the Vecht. This is a very scenic area to bike around. We saw hoardes of other bikers. We stopped in a historic town with a little manually operated drawbridge. The operator actually had to open and close the traffic gates himself. He said good morning to us both times that we stopped for his bridge. There were also a few castles along this route. The weather was sunny and mid-seventies and we were really enjoying just being outside. We rode for about 37 miles, but it took a long time. We had to stop and look at a lot of things along the way. Some of the bike paths were pretty narrow and hard to get a lot of speed. But I think we found a couple places to put the kayaks in and park the car, so it was a successful trip.

Now I'm trying to get packed for my trip to Asia. I am leaving on the 29th for Australia, New Zealand, and Singapore to give a training class on some new ingredients that my company is launching. I'll be gone for 2 weeks. I've been out shopping for clothes the last couple weekends to make sure I have summery clothes for the hot weather in Singapore. Australia should be similar to the temps we are having here, although it will be fall instead of spring. New Zealand will be difficult because it's already getting pretty cold. How do you pack for 3 different climates in one suitcase? So far, my answer is lots of layers. As long as it all fits in the bag!

My other dilemna is what to wear on the plane. My first travel leg is from here to Australia with a stopover in Singapore. It's like 27 hours of travel. I'm not sure any clothes are comfortable after 27 hours on a plane. I'm considering bringing some sweats to change into for night-time. I'm kind of dreading the flight, but I'm really looking forward to seeing Australia and New Zealand! I'll try to post while I'm traveling so we can keep up to date.

Queen's Day

All of us in the silly orange hats they were giving away at the train station.


Party boats were popular


Flea Market example

Loads of party boats

These girls were very festive dancing in their orange dresses

Queen's Day in Amsterdam:

Queen’s Day is huge holiday in the Netherlands. Officially, it is the celebration of the Queen’s birthday. The first Queen’s birthday celebration was on August 31 for Wilhelmina. It was moved to April 30 for Queen Juliana. The current Queen, Beatrix, whose birthday is January 31, wisely choose to continue with the celebration on April 30. It is said that the weather on Queen’s Day is always beautiful. This year was no different.

While every town has Queen’s Day celebrations, Amsterdam is where the real party is. We rode the train into Amsterdam around 10:00 am thinking we would be on the early side of the party. We were wrong. The train station was a mad-house. As we left the station, there was a guy handing out bright orange hats. Orange is the official color of the Netherlands, taken from the name of the royal family, the House of Orange, even though the flag is red, white, and blue. We put on the orange hats just to keep in the spirit of things.

Our goal was to walk to Vondel Park at the far end of Amsterdam near the Rijksmuseum. We figured we would sit and have lunch quietly in the park before we worked our way back to the train station. Everything went according to plan except for the park not being quiet! I think everyone had my same idea.

The main feature of Queen’s Day is that it is a free market or a huge flea market. Anyone can sell anything on the streets that day. It’s like a city-wide garage sale. There were some large booths selling clothes and souvenir junk, but mostly there were people selling their used household goods. Some kids were out selling pop and home-made treats, too. We sampled the poffertjes or mini-pancakes slathered with butter and powdered sugar – yum!

Apparently one of the best ways to enjoy Queen’s Day is to be on a boat. The canals were choked with party boats full of people. We stood on the bridges and watched as the boats went by. With all the beer being consumed, there was the obvious problem of not having bathrooms on these boats. We laughed as we watched one guy pee into a bottle. He was trying to be subtle about it turning his back away from the other people on the boat, but I’m pretty sure about 1000 other people were watching!

Queen’s Day was definitely one of the highlights of my parents’ visit. It was something you have to experience to believe. It was sad to note that on this very festive holiday, someone tried to kill the Queen. It happened in Apeldoorn, not in Amsterdam. Some crazy guy decided to drive his car into the back of the bus carrying the Queen. He actually missed hitting the bus, but ended up killing 8 people and himself.

Exploring Near and Far

Old building in Brugge


Dad in the sidewalk cafe.



Dad in the kayak.


Boats near Naarden Vesting.

Baby lamb -in Dutch it's a lammetje.

Heron near Naarden Vesting.

On Saturday, we decided to drive to Brugge Belgium for the day. Belgium is known for chocolate, beer, and lace. We made sure to hit every one. We arrived in town in time for lunch after a 3 hour drive. Lunch in Belgium is a true joy and we found a tiny restaurant with a great lunch special.

With full and happy tummies, we made our way to the lace museum. We looked at the displays of traditional hand-made lace and some machine-made samples. Then we walked through the live demonstration area. There were several rooms full of people making lace. One room had the old ladies like you would expect. Another room had middle aged women taking lace-making lessons. The third room had young girls – they were the fastest! To make the lace, they have at least 20 spools of thread that they knot in a kind of complex braiding motion. As they finish each knot, they use a straight pin to hold it in place while they make the next knot. While they work it looks like a forest of pins and a tangle of threads but somehow it turns into beautiful patterns with flowers, windmills, and peacocks. I’m sure Dennis was thrilled by this museum.

We took a canal tour and learned a little bit about the city. One building was dated 1675. Another building housed retired lace workers. But after we saw all the old ladies at the lace museum, we seriously doubted that they ever retired. During the canal tour, they pointed out a couple of places that have beer-making tours. Since Mom and Dad don’t like beer, they partook in another local past-time – sitting in a sidewalk café and watching the people go by – while Dennis and I took the brewery tour. After the beer, we bought chocolate to take home and then found a restaurant for dinner. We looked for a place that serves mussels, another Belgian specialty. We figured our little tour covered all the best things in Belgium.

After a really long drive home (they have road construction here, too), we decided to do nothing on Sunday. It was pretty rainy in the morning, but the clouds cleared away in the afternoon. Dad wanted to test-drive the kayaks, so we took them over to Naarden Vesting. Dad and Dennis paddled around while Mom and I walked. We enjoyed looking at all the baby lambs and nesting birds. It was a very relaxing Sunday and typical of what Dennis and I normally do on Sundays.

Dutch Tulips

Fields of tulips.


Inside the flower garden.


One of the more popular designs.

Mom and me.

In the sun, some of the flowers glowed with color.

The trees were also in bloom.

I have not been posting lately because I’ve been busy running around the Netherlands with my parents. Mom and Dad timed their visit for the spring so they could see the tulips. April also seems to have the best weather – not too warm and not too wet. Since my parents lived in France for a while, they have seen most of Europe. Even though they were in Europe more than 40 years ago, the historic sites really don’t change that much. So we focused our site seeing on the country-side, smaller towns, and lesser known museums. As usual, I will have to break up the trip into smaller portions, so keep checking for more posts.

The first full day of their visit, the weather was sunny and perfect for a trip to the tulip gardens. The Keukenhof is a world famous garden featuring tulips and other bulb-flowers. It’s only open for two months of the year and the tulips are only blooming for a couple of weeks. It can be very crowded (mostly with Japanese tourists) on the weekends, but it’s OK in the mornings and on weekdays. The garden is a 45 minute drive from our house. It’s closer to the ocean and tends to be a little bit cooler. For Mom and Dad from Arizona, it was quite COLD!

As we drove up to the park, we saw some of the farm fields where they grow the bulbs. The farm fields are like very colorful corn fields. It’s strange to see. The park itself is divided into smaller plots that are planted by different garden companies. It’s a way for the companies to really show off. Some of them get really creative with the layout. Others just rely on the flowers themselves. We took tons of pictures, but we were not able to photograph the smell.

I do have to make one complaint about the tulip garden. They charge a 13.50 euro admission charge and then they have the audacity to charge an additional 50 cents to use the bathroom! It's very Dutch to charge for the bathroom and I understand it in some places (like the train station, for example). But I was really annoyed to pay for the bathroom after we had paid admission to the park. The saying, "They get you coming and going," is especially true here!

Kayaking

Heron on the shore, killer swan on the water.


Dennis loading the kayaks on the car - not a job for short people!

Homes along the canal.



Dennis on the canal near our house.


After a week of absolutely gorgeous weather during which Dennis and I were working way too hard, we had a disappointing weekend that was cool and cloudy. But at least it wasn’t raining and at least we weren’t working. Phew!
On Saturday, we decided it was nice enough to go kayaking even though the sun was not scheduled to make an appearance. Dennis got the kayaks on the car – a process that only takes about 10 minutes. We drove over to the boat launch at Naarden Vesting, just a few minutes away. We explored around the vesting and then paddled back into Bussum. We were able to paddle just a block away from our house. It’s too bad that there’s no way to get the kayaks into the water that close to the house. It was cool to see the nesting birds up close. One swan came swimming out to us. As it came closer, I realized that it was being pretty aggressive and was coming right towards my boat. I figured I could beat it with the paddle if it attacked, but it finally backed off as I past the nest it was guarding.
We paddled for about 2 hours and realized that we don’t’ go very fast. Dennis ran the numbers on the GPS and figured we travel about 3 miles per hour. That’s about the same as walking – slowly.
We left the boats on the car Saturday night, but decided to go biking on Sunday morning. We rode about 30 miles and had a great time. It was cloudy and foggy most of the ride, but as we got back to the house, the sun came out. We decided to get some lunch and then take the kayaks out.
We put the kayaks in at the same place in Naarden Vesting, but this time we paddled down another canal. First, we went past the bird sanctuary where a pack of swans was hanging out. There was also a heron on the shore. After that, the canal ran along side a bike trail and between farm fields. It was not very picturesque, but we were able to see tons of people walking, running, roller blading, and biking along the path. It was very soothing and relaxing to paddle slowly in the sunshine. After two days of paddling though, arms were starting to feel like lead.
When we got back from kayaking, Dennis and I went out to dinner with one of my co-workers here from the US. We walked around Bussum a little bit before heading to the restaurant. There was a carnival in town and it looked like all the little carnivals they have in the US. Even the signs were all in English. We also walked by a restaurant that looked like they were having a wedding party. There was a party tent set up outside the place and there were dozens of people dancing and partying. That’s a lot of activity in Bussum on a Sunday evening!
When I go to work tomorrow, I’m sure I’ll be happy to sit at my desk and get some paperwork done. With all the paddling and biking, I’m exhausted. To me, that’s a good weekend.

Spring is Sprung

April 1 is the beginning of the warm season here in the Netherlands. We changed to Daylight Savings Time this weekend. The daffodils are in full bloom. And April 1 is when the seasonal businesses like kayak shops start having extended hours and are open on Sunday. At least that’s how it is at the kayak shop we visited on Saturday. We were trying to beat the rush by shopping a week before they extend their hours.

We did our grocery shopping early on Saturday so we’d have plenty of time for the kayak shopping. Of course, the weather was nasty – cold, rainy, and windy. But the forecast for the week was looking good, so decided to buy the kayaks no matter what the weather. We got to the kayak shop about a ½ hour drive to a small town on the other side of Amsterdam. We found a friendly store employee and he really helped us pick out the best kayaks for what we want to do. We had been looking at the brand-new one-person kayaks and had it narrowed down to a couple. But we wanted to make sure that we got the right size boats for each of us. Rather than let us buy the new boats, the guy brought us outside to look at the used kayaks. He had one that was perfect for Dennis. I tried a couple of them before I found what I liked. Since they are molded plastic, it really doesn’t matter that they are used. They don’t wear out. The guy also helped us with paddles, life jackets, a dry-bag, and all the junk to secure the boats on top of the car. They even helped us put the kayak carriers on the car! As we were doing that, the sun miraculously came out.

I asked the guy if we could take the boats out from their dock for a test drive before we took them home. He agreed and we quickly ripped the tags off the life jackets and got ready. We got out on the water without tipping over or sinking and we happily paddled for about an hour before heading back. It was too bad that we forgot the camera. But stay tuned because we’ll be sure to get some pictures next time!

We got the boats loaded onto the car with a lot of advice and help from the store guy. I was surprised that driving with two boats on top of the car was no problem. I’m sure the gas mileage sucked, but the car handled just fine. I just have to remember to go into any parking ramps with the boats on top! At home, Dennis rigged up a way to hang them from the ceiling of the shed. We now have 5 bikes, 2 kayaks, a work bench, and very large chest freezer in the shed. Maybe I should take a picture of that!

On Sunday, we woke up with sore shoulders so we decided to go for a bike ride. It was sunny, but only about 45 degrees and a little windy. We dressed warm and headed out. Our first order of business was to find a good put-in for the kayaks where we would also be able to park the car. We located a good spot along the Naarden vesting. This should be ideal because it connects to a couple of other large canals so we can really go far if we want. We also rode our bikes along the Vecht river and Spiegelplas lake and found a couple more put-ins. Can you tell that I’m totally excited about the kayaks?

After the bike ride, we had lunch and warmed up a bit. The sunshine was still holding. I tore Dennis away from his computer and reminded him that we can’t waste any sunshine in this country. So, we went for a walk in the heather. When it’s cold and sunny, the heather is more popular than the forest. The heather areas are grazing land for cattle and they have lots of walking paths through them. There are small rolling hills with heather plants growing low to the ground. With few trees, you can really soak up the sun. About the time we finished walking, the clouds came over. It’s still dry and weather forecast for the week looks totally awesome. They are predicting 60 degrees by Wednesday and no rain for the whole week. With the time change, we should be able to get the bikes and the boats out during the week. I’m just not sure how I’m going to get Dennis away from work on time so we can go out and play.