Bonjour, yes we are here safe and sound along with the half of NZ that wasn't at Disney when we were there.
By the way, here's the answer to the celebrity question.
It was Jason bloody Gunn!
Friday, October 19, 2007
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Amsterdam and................Windmills?? PART 1
Actually, Windmill (singular) - Yes this is about the only windmill we saw in the entire of Holland - instead they have replaced them with those great big wind farm monstrosity's! How disappointing!
It's fair to say that Kevin especially was very sad to leave Germany and was skeptical on what Amsterdam would bring us, after staying in small quaint little towns we weren't sure if the big city would be right for us. We arrived a little panicky as had no accommodation and again 6pm was rolling around quickly, but we soon found a gorgeous hotel just off the "high end fashion street" and decided to splash out! A beautifully quiet hotel with friendly helpful staff and a great bed!(always important)
So after checking in we felt much better and headed off for some dinner, but first cocktails and 'bitterballs' this is a dutch thing and is the norm for them before tea.
Kevin almost got run over aimlessly looking around at the town by not a car but a bicycle! They are everywhere, there is at least one for every person in Amsterdam, in fact many people have two bikes and they ride everywhere. Driving is just hard work so it's much better to just park up! So if you can't beat em, join em ..... and that's exactly what we did....
But then it was fair to say that it wasn't at all like you felt intimidated on a bike.....................................
So we toured around the whole city on bicycles which is by far the best thing to do. There are truely just bikes everywhere 1.6 million of them in fact and pretty much no car parking just bike parks?? 
- This pic is seriously a parking ramp - in fact three story's of one and it's all for bikes! Also the older and crappier your bike is the better as it's less likely to get pinched!
- This pic is seriously a parking ramp - in fact three story's of one and it's all for bikes! Also the older and crappier your bike is the better as it's less likely to get pinched! The Dutch are apparently some of the most calm and laid back people in the world, well the ones in Amsterdam at least. I'd have to agree - we felt so 'chilled out' the whole time! :)
More on Amsterdam later including the tour of the Heineken Brewery! I have to get ready now as we are off to PARIS! Au Reviour for now!
Illness and broken laptops
We didn’t say too much but both of us were pretty crook during our time in Germany.
Rachel had the same chest infection as Erika and had it since Hawaii so after 2 weeks of coughing and wheezing we finally gave up and went to a German doctor. I was 2 days into the same thing by then so we seriously stocked up on good antibiotics and pretty much what ever we wanted.
The doctor was nice enough, but pretty much just asked us what we thought we needed it and then wrote out the prescription.
He was quick to tell Rachel that the antibiotics would “ruin the anti-baby” pill.
Then he did a deal on the consultation and chat fee and we paid 30 Euro for both of us. Judging by the nurses reaction we either got a great deal or he scammed us big time, I have no idea which.
Then we went to the Apotheke (chemist) but they didn’t have all the drugs we ordered so we had to wait until the next day. The bill for our stash was another 116 Euro.
Anyway after a few days of that washed down liberally with the local Rhine Valley Chablis and Riesling we were feeling fantastic again!
In the meantime I also broke the screen of my laptop. Hence the lack of updates!
The easiest way to describe my frustration is if you get a piece of paper and stick it to your screen covering all but 20% of the left hand side. Then try and work. You are typing away with nothing happening because an alert message has come up on screen but you can’t see it. Trying to scroll down a page is an especially character building exercise.
Well finally today I was able to do something about it. Quotes in Amsterdam to get it fixed ranged from 800 to 1000 Euro with a wait of a week and a decent replacement laptop with the operating system I needed was starting at 1500 Euro.
So to Rachel’s horror I bought a 20 inch monitor instead for 200 Euro instead and while it works great I will concede it’s pretty big and may not travel well.
Just using the computer now is quite an exercise and sitting in a café using their free wireless LAN is a less attractive option unless I bring the monitor and associated cords with me.
Rachel had the same chest infection as Erika and had it since Hawaii so after 2 weeks of coughing and wheezing we finally gave up and went to a German doctor. I was 2 days into the same thing by then so we seriously stocked up on good antibiotics and pretty much what ever we wanted.
The doctor was nice enough, but pretty much just asked us what we thought we needed it and then wrote out the prescription.
He was quick to tell Rachel that the antibiotics would “ruin the anti-baby” pill.
Then he did a deal on the consultation and chat fee and we paid 30 Euro for both of us. Judging by the nurses reaction we either got a great deal or he scammed us big time, I have no idea which.
Then we went to the Apotheke (chemist) but they didn’t have all the drugs we ordered so we had to wait until the next day. The bill for our stash was another 116 Euro.
Anyway after a few days of that washed down liberally with the local Rhine Valley Chablis and Riesling we were feeling fantastic again!
In the meantime I also broke the screen of my laptop. Hence the lack of updates!
The easiest way to describe my frustration is if you get a piece of paper and stick it to your screen covering all but 20% of the left hand side. Then try and work. You are typing away with nothing happening because an alert message has come up on screen but you can’t see it. Trying to scroll down a page is an especially character building exercise.
Well finally today I was able to do something about it. Quotes in Amsterdam to get it fixed ranged from 800 to 1000 Euro with a wait of a week and a decent replacement laptop with the operating system I needed was starting at 1500 Euro.
So to Rachel’s horror I bought a 20 inch monitor instead for 200 Euro instead and while it works great I will concede it’s pretty big and may not travel well.
Just using the computer now is quite an exercise and sitting in a café using their free wireless LAN is a less attractive option unless I bring the monitor and associated cords with me.
Rugby
We watched to semi finals in Irish pubs in Amsterdam.
A bit surreal really watching the Poms win (Bastards) in the red light area, then the next night seeing SA win while we were sitting in the “Coffee shop” district.
Hard to watch, especially when the BBC commentator asked his off sider what you would call the 7th and 8th play off game.
His answer; “The Bledisloe cup!”
It was hard to enjoy a beer listening to that.
A bit surreal really watching the Poms win (Bastards) in the red light area, then the next night seeing SA win while we were sitting in the “Coffee shop” district.
Hard to watch, especially when the BBC commentator asked his off sider what you would call the 7th and 8th play off game.
His answer; “The Bledisloe cup!”
It was hard to enjoy a beer listening to that.
The last week.
Right then, after a week in cyber wilderness we’re back on line…. kind of.
Hopefully I will finally update Germany, tell you where we went and post some cool photos.
Bonjour from France btw!!!
We drove today (Monday) from Amsterdam down to Amiens in Northern France with a stop over before hitting Paris tomorrow.
Rachel is going to cover Amsterdam; I’m told I had a great time!
Amiens is smack bang in the middle of the Somme area which has great significance for NZer’s particularly from WW1 and the Battle of the Somme. As we drove thru it this evening the Autumn fog/haze covered much of the historic battlegrounds and it was bloody weird.
Both of us commented on the spiritual feel to the place before we knew where we were and the significance of the paddocks we were passing thru. The pictures and old footage I have seen of the Somme showed soldiers knee deep in mud fighting across trenches and barbed wire. It was not hard to imagine today and I couldn’t help but wonder just what gets ploughed up every year as the farmer works his land.
Seeing the line where the front was in 1916 was very humbling indeed.
Amiens is nice enough, about the size of Rotorua perhaps but like much of Europe we have seen is under serious development at the moment and the town centre actually looks like a war zone with the entire centre area being developed all at once. Our GPS didn’t handle it at all and with most of the streets blocked off or converted to one way it’s fair to say the in-car tension was high!
We actually arrived in Amiens at 6pm, but didn’t get to our hotel, hungry and thirsty, until after 9pm.
We checked in and went straight to dinner before going to our room just after 11pm. I decided to clear my emails, update here etc, but the reality of being in France soon kicked in.
YES, they do have free wireless LAN if you have a local cell phone connection. If not you can buy a 24 hours all access connection with unlimited use.
"OK", I said "I will have one of those", but no.
They do not /cannot sell the connections between 11pm and 3am.
No reason given, they just don’t.
If I had bought it at 10.59pm, I could use it all night, but after 11pm I can’t buy one until after 3am.
Sacre Bleu!
Hopefully I will finally update Germany, tell you where we went and post some cool photos.
Bonjour from France btw!!!
We drove today (Monday) from Amsterdam down to Amiens in Northern France with a stop over before hitting Paris tomorrow.
Rachel is going to cover Amsterdam; I’m told I had a great time!
Amiens is smack bang in the middle of the Somme area which has great significance for NZer’s particularly from WW1 and the Battle of the Somme. As we drove thru it this evening the Autumn fog/haze covered much of the historic battlegrounds and it was bloody weird.
Both of us commented on the spiritual feel to the place before we knew where we were and the significance of the paddocks we were passing thru. The pictures and old footage I have seen of the Somme showed soldiers knee deep in mud fighting across trenches and barbed wire. It was not hard to imagine today and I couldn’t help but wonder just what gets ploughed up every year as the farmer works his land.
Seeing the line where the front was in 1916 was very humbling indeed.
Amiens is nice enough, about the size of Rotorua perhaps but like much of Europe we have seen is under serious development at the moment and the town centre actually looks like a war zone with the entire centre area being developed all at once. Our GPS didn’t handle it at all and with most of the streets blocked off or converted to one way it’s fair to say the in-car tension was high!
We actually arrived in Amiens at 6pm, but didn’t get to our hotel, hungry and thirsty, until after 9pm.
We checked in and went straight to dinner before going to our room just after 11pm. I decided to clear my emails, update here etc, but the reality of being in France soon kicked in.
YES, they do have free wireless LAN if you have a local cell phone connection. If not you can buy a 24 hours all access connection with unlimited use.
"OK", I said "I will have one of those", but no.
They do not /cannot sell the connections between 11pm and 3am.
No reason given, they just don’t.
If I had bought it at 10.59pm, I could use it all night, but after 11pm I can’t buy one until after 3am.
Sacre Bleu!
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