Diemen near Amsterdam

Diemen near Amsterdam.

Our next stay is in Diemen, a satellite town of A'dam. In the meantime we are in possession of an OV kaart, which can be automatically uploaded, so we can use it for travel by bus, train and tram. The bus stop is next to the apartment, which we will call home for the next 7 weeks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First we went to explore our surroundings, we have a great natural park on our doorstep, the Diemen polder, which is great for walking, and we used our OV kaart to hire bikes near the train station and went bike riding in the area.

 

 

BIKES!!!! They are the most used mode of transport and I must say a very healthy way to move around. You can "park" them any where, provided you can lock them securely, and there are lots of facilities to do so.

 

Because Diemen and A'dam are so centrally located we used the opportunity as well to catch up with friends and relatives. We went for a ride in the nature reserve " Park de Hoge Veluwe " with my niece Simone. Fantastic, you park your car, grab one of the "white" bikes and start pedaling, park the bike when you want a rest and pay a visit to the museum, pick up another bike and be on your merry way. All for free!!! Great fun especially when the weather is just glorious.

 

 

 

 

 

It was great to catch up with my niece Jeltsje, sister of Simone, and especially for her birthday, she turned 65. Again, beautiful weather, so we celebrated outside with a BBQ and enjoyed the company of her son and partner with their 2 adopted children. She has a beautiful "backyard ".... with a view to envy, it reminded me of one of the paintings of Renoir.

 

 

 

 

 

We were able to help Mirjam (daughter of my brother Piet) out with babysitting. She was not allowed to do heavy lifting after the birth of Femke. Lourens enjoyed reading to Hanna, 2 years old.

Amsterdam, well what can I say........... Wonderful history, ambience, multicultural , really a great city, and I am not biased here !!!

Central Station, almost always the starting point of our adventures in Amsterdam.

 

 

With Anneke, a friend from high school days, we went to the new Eye Film Institute, een new film museum, opened not so long ago. Very interesting architecture .

 

 

Of course we did the touristy thing , visited the Begijnhof, the Rijksmuseum, with it's wonderful paintings by Rembrandt, the famous Night Watch, and others and Van Gogh museum.

 

 

 

 

We took a little peak in the Red Light district and went throug the smallest little street (100 cm ) in town.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And just enjoyed the street scenes, having a drink at the various terraces and watch the world go by......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We enjoyed the boat trip on the canals, and visited "het Scheepvaart museum" one of Lourens' great interests.

 

 

 

 

Last but not least, we went for a wonderful walk through "het Vondel park", named after Vondel, a famous dutch writer, comparable to Sheakspeare.

A beautiful park, we very much enjoyed it, although they need to pay a little bit more attention to the roses in the rose garden........

 

 

 

 

 

On our return we enjoyed a well earned beer/wine with the famous Dutch " bitter ballen ".

 

 

We have another week here in Diemen and hope to visit het Anne Frank huis and the Westerkerk and the Palace on the Dam.

By the way, the school year has about finished and when the student has completed the exams, he/she raises the Dutch flag and hangs the school bag under it.....Hooray, holidays.....!

Well that's it so far, I hope this epistle has not been too long so it won't get too boring.....

Greetings from us, Lourens & Simone.

 

Veldhoven.

Dear friends,

Here goes, finally sorted out the way we are going to "blog".

After a long, long flight we arrived at Schiphol airport and were welcomed with a big bunch of Tulips, they just came into season!

It was still rather cold for the time of year and it took us a while to get used to the climate. We have an unusual cold start to spring and summer, so I wear my winter gear! Don't know what I will wear during winter here.....

 

 

After a few days of settling in we paid a quick visit to mainly our closest relatives and as one of my brothers lives in the north of Holland, namely the Province of Friesland, I used the time to pay a quick visit to the place of my birth, Hallum. On the way we passed the " Noord Oost polders", where both Lourens and I spent most of our youth and from where we left on our adventures overseas.

 

Tulip fields in the Noord Oost Polder.

The farmers grow them for the bulbs and as soon as the tulips are in full bloom, they are " beheaded " so most of the nourishment goes to the bulbs!

 

 

It was great to catch up with my brother Wytse who lives in Friesland and together we went to visit the little cottage where I was born.

 

 

I love the countryside here, the wide open spaces, with the sheep grazing on the dyke and the horses grazing near the flood lands of the Waddenzee.

 

 

 

Interestingly, did you know that the Pilgremage to Santiago the Compostela starts in the north of Friesland near the little town of St. Jacobi Parochie not far from the little place where I was born?

 

 

 

 

My brother Wytse and me at the start of the route of the Pilgremage.

 

 

The map of the route of the Pilgremage.

 

 

 

 

Back to Veldhoven.We promised to look after the animals of Lourens' sister, Carin and her husband Poul, while they went with their camper on a 2 week holiday. She is the artist in the family and they live on a very old little farm turned into a cottage which is over 200 years old.They have a beautiful garden which displays many of her art pieces as wel as a veggie patch, where we enjoyed the first pick of the asparagus crop. The season is from early May till the middle of June. Yummy! It was great to see the trees and flowers turn greener and greener as we moved from spring into summer.

 

 

 

 

While there we celebrated Motherday and I received a beautiful bunch of flowers all the way from Australia

 

 

 

 

 

 

I managed to visit a Quilt exhibition as well, which was very interesting . Similar , but bigger than the one in Perth

 

 



 

 

 

For a day or so we could leave the dog Lara, the cat Roos and the chicken to the watchful eyes of the neighbors while we paid Carin and Poul a visit while they were "touring" the country side.

 

 

 

They did a lot of bike riding. There are many routes set out with detailed maps. A wonderful way to spent a holiday in the country .

 

 

Speaking of bikes.......... Well that will be my next story!

Take care and till the next time.

 

Lourens and Simone.