THE NETHERLANDS

A few other highlights of our time in the Netherlands – pre and post bike tour

Brabant

We flew from Jordan to Brussels (Belgium) since we planned to spend the first bit of our time in Brabant, my old stomping ground and birthplace. Ironically it is actually quicker to fly to Brussel and travel from here to Brabant then it would be to fly to Schiphol in Amsterdam.

My aunt and uncle Marieke and Wim live in Brabant and were kind enough to pick us up from Brussells and bring us to a motel in Breda, where we spent our first four nights. During these four days we had a great time touring the area with Marieke and Wim. We visited the Beekse Bergen Safari Park, toured my birthtown Waspik, explored Breda by bicycle and spent plenty of quality time with the Whanau.

There was one unfortunate incident with some ‘gluten free’ Chinese noodles. Wim explained in detail during the order with the Chinese takeaways that the meal needed to be gluten free. When the takeaways arrived, the noodles looked AMAZING. They also DID NOT look gluten free… So Wim called them again, just to be sure, and the re-assured us that it was totally fine! Spoiler alert… it wasn’t!

We then headed to our home away from home – Wassenaar. This was with my aunt and uncle, Monique and Paul. They had been at our wedding in New Zealand so it was lovely to see them again, and be able to stay in their beautiful house by the beach. After a few months on the road, it was awesome to be in one place for a while to catch our breath.

This was also a great base for us to explore more of the Netherlands, enjoy the Dutch summer and catch up with friends and family. A quick summary of some of the highlights we remember below…

Madurodam

One really unique place we visited was Madurodam. This huge model replica of various parts of the Netherlands attracts people of all ages. The extensive miniatures depict life in the Netherlands in 1:25 scale and you can wander through the various areas, each in perfect detail to recreate the nation’s most iconic attractions. We could even peek in the windows of the Rijksmuseum and see tiny reproductions of the artwork hanging on the walls. There are also a ton of interactive exhibits featuring wind power and Holland’s windmills

Escher Museum

Museum Escher in het Paleis – a permanent schowcase of Escher’s work (1898 to 1972). He is famous for drawing impossible situations and optical illusions.

Panorama Mesdag

We took a virtual trip to the seaside at Panorama Mesdag Museum. This ‘circular’ panorama painting is 120 metres long, 14m high and the diameter is nearly 40 metres. We climbed a staircase and emerged in a circular room, all around us was this panorama depicting Scheveningen in 1880, pretty impressive!

The International Criminal Court and the binNenhof

Well technically we didn’t actually go into the ICC but we biked past this every time we cycled to Den Haag and had a gander at what was going on. We did however have a tour through ‘The Binnenhof’, courtesy of our friend Joep. This place is the oldest parliament building in the world still in use.

Musuem Voorlinden

A private musuem of modern and contemporary art located in a huge estate in the dunes of Wassenaar.

Food

Me trying to showcase all my favourite dutch food (most of which I can no longer eat), favourites being croquetten, bitterballen, poffertjes and worstenbroed.

Also, gluten free McDonalds!

Wassenaar

Cycling to Wasenaar to pick up beersies, lazing by the pool and catching up on blog entries at Monique and Pauls house.

Beaches and dunes

Biking and running through the Meijendel. This popular dune park was nestled right between our house in Wassenaar and the North Sea. We spent heaps of time running and cycling through the dunes to the beach – with a few cheeky visits to the Pancake house ‘Boerderij Meyendel’. I actually remember cycling these dunes and having pancakes here as a kid!

We spent a few days at the beach in Scheveningen – easily reachable through the dunes from Wassenaar. This is one of very few beaches in the Netherlands and gets absolutely PACKED on sunny days. You are lucky to find a spot on the sand with enough space for your towel… The iconic pier here is quite famous and even has a bungee jump at the end (we didn’t fall for this expensive tourist trap). On hot days, we found ourselves a spot here and enjoyed watching the Dutch attempt to surf the tiny waves that Scheveningen had on offer.

TIme with friends

It was awesome to spend some time with Joep (NZ/NL friend) around Den Haag and Gouda, and cycle around the dunes and eat pancakes with Sean’s childhood friend Matt.

We also sampled the Dutch public transport by catching the train to Utrecht to BBQ with Rianne and Bas – the friends we made in Sri Lanka.

Delft

Exploring Delft – famous for its University. My cousin Carlijn goes here so we spent some time with her, and went to the Ted Delft conference.

Amsterdam

Some nights visiting my Cousin Olaf in Amsterdam. He gave us a tour of the city, the gardens, the hospital (his work) and some coffee shops. We also ate pistachio icecreams and ventured into the Banksy ‘museum’. This was after a very long wait to get a hold of one of the ‘shared’ bicycles that are available to residents. A handy tool, but not when there are never any available. In our second visit to the Netherlands (post Georgia) we were lucky enough to witness Olaf graduate his PHD in Groningen and celebrate with the whole family.

Uitgeest

We spent a few nights with my very old friend Nicole, and her partner Klaas in Uitgeest. They took us kayaking through the canals, we visited Alkmaar to sample the cheese and croquetten and drank plenty of wine. They also took us to a ‘small’ dutch football party. Spoiler alert – it was NOT small and involved bouncers, $1 beers, and a small bike accident while cycling home inebriated (apparently this is a right of passage in NL)… In our second visit to the Netherlands (post Georgia) we visited Nicole and Klaas again and got to see their brand new house and kittens. Nicole also took us to see Bergen aan Zee – another Dutch beach.

Down the Rabbit Hole

We managed to nab some ‘secondhand’ tickets to Down the Rabbit Hole, a notorious 3 day music festival. My cousins Olaf and Carlijn and and our friend Joep were all there with their respective groups of friends, so we were able to gatecrash a few parties and make some awesome memories before leaving for Portugal.