Holland

Holland

After months of planning, years for Ron we have started our European trip. A pretty uneventful flight straight through, Auckland to Singapore, 4 hours in the airport then onto Amsterdam. Once in Amsterdam found the train station and then headed to our friends in Maastricht. We inadvertently had booked flights that arrived in Amsterdam on the Queen’s Birthday which was a holiday. Our hosts had suggested that we just get on a train and get down to Maastricht as the trains would be really full in the afternoon as people returned from the celebrations for work on Friday. The Queen’s birthday is actually a previous Queen’s birthday and is celebrated on the day. A very pleasant 4 hours and we were there. The countryside is just beautiful in its bright spring green colours. There are bright yellow fields of rape seed and lilac at every turn, white and various shades of purple. We were told on landing that it was 7 degrees C but it was 7am in the morning. A beautiful clear day followed.
We took a lovely walk in the countryside after a quick catch-up and a beer at the local golf course had us both recharged. Friday Lex had a golf tournament and Anne had to go to work so that left us to catch the bus into the city centre and explore something we really love. Masstrict is the oldest city in Holland being a trading place since 50AD. There are several parts of the city wall still visible and we walked them all built over a couple of hundred years from 1100. Old churches everywhere and the market square actually had the market that day. With it being a public holiday in both Germany and Belgium both only 30 minutes away there were people everywhere. Lots of different sausages and fish, fruit vegetables, furnishing fabrics, etc etc. Anything you could wish for in fact we managed to find a new buckle for Ron’s bum bag which he had managed to break in Singapore. At €1 it was much cheaper than replacing it.
Saturday we were taken to through Belgium to Germany to visit a really quaint little tourist town, Monshau, one building with 1584 written on the door made you realize how old it was. The place was full of cafes, restaurants and a large glass studio. The wine glasses were just out of this world but at €29.90 per glass they stayed on the shelf. There were also some beautiful water fountains made from copper which were locally made. Sunday a walk in the forest in Belgium where the trees were mostly Beech with a few Silver Birch thrown in all that amazing spring green again. So different from NZ forests with the ground here still covered in dry leaves from last autumn.