Stroopwafels, Windmills and Secondary Smoke Inhalation . . .

Below is our long overdue Netherlands Adventure.  Funnily enough we are now in the Czech Republic and have traversed a few more countries inbetween.  I will endeavour to update asap.  Please bare with me - it will be worth the wait.

Ahhh The Netherlands - what a wonderful country. 
Everyone cruises along without a care in the world - especially on a Saturday after visiting a Mellow Yellow Coffee Cafe.  And before you all gasp in horror - no we didn't expose the girls directly to the 'Scented Smoke' Cafes of Amsterdam.  But no one can help inadvertantly smelling the sweet clouds as you walk past open doors. 
More about Amsterdam later - our journey to the great city was a multitude of adventures in itself.

We'll start with our first camping stop, Camping de Paal, a 5 star kids resort camping ground set in a forest over the Belgium border near Eindhoven.  With its own farm, adventure playground, indoor and outdoor pools complete with waterslides, jumping pillows, a man made sand dune area with pirate ships and water pumps, bike trails, fresh hot baguettes, red squirrels and bunnies, mini playgrounds within each camping 'glade' and some pitches with their own bathrooms built into the earth - our girls were in heaven.  Then we went and checked out the amenities - Oh My Gosh!!! - where we ooohed and aaahed over the coloured glass block walls and showers with dinosaur heads while a fellow Dutch camper looked on and laughed at us. Not forgetting the onsite Restaurant, Winkel (Shop), Laundrette and Theatre (which put on daily performances all in Dutch) and the clowns that were waiting at the gate to wish us a safe journey as we departed.  We spent a fabulous 3 days here and we all LOVED it!  Camping de Paal rocks!  We've utilized the whole campground except for the organized entertainment because we couldn't understand any of it and the restaurant because we cooked for ourselves.  Other than that we've played at the man made 'gold town' beach, jumped on the jumping pillows, walked the walking trails spotting woodpeckers and queer toadstools, we've ridden our bikes around, petted the farm animals, played at the adventure playground, used the laundry, bought hot fresh baguettes at the Winkel and spent hours in the pools and on the waterslides.  Best of all I got to catch up with Alexis - after 13yrs it was like we'd seen each other only yesterday, and she joined in all the fun with us and thought the place was UNBELIEVABLE.
Camping de Paal has been a fantastic holiday in the first third of our big adventure where we have been able to stay put, not have to drive and there's enough to keep everyone happy.  For the size of the campground and the number of people who come here it was surprisingly quiet and private and we never felt crowded at all (except when the sun shone and everyone headed to the pool!)  We even hopped on our bikes and rode into Bergeijk (dubbed the chicken town by Glenn because the pronouncing of it sounds like the squawk of a chicken) using the purpose built bike path.  The weather was perfect, about 24C, a little cloud with patches of blue and lots of sunshine.

The Kinderboerderij (Childrens Farm)

The jumping pillow at the edge of the sand dune park.

Just one of the dunes with what we called a 'gold town'.

When I took this photo of Taashi and a little Dutch girl on the jumping pillow
I had to look twice - it looks just like Mel and Freya!

Taashi chilling out in the outdoor pool.

Tilly poses on the edge of the outdoor pool.
The bottom of the pool was a fabulous really heavy duty 'fabric' that was soft to walk on.

The spouting whale and our favourite water slide in at the back.

Glenn checks out the mountain bike track - just another activity we found in a section of the campground.

After 13yrs nothing has changed - Alex and I.

Our next stop was the lovely town of Delft - famous for its Delftware Pottery.  Our camp site was within 15mins walk of the old town with its Markt Square and wonderful melodic bells that chime every 15mins and within 5mins walk of an enormous Ikea!  Were we excited - you betcha - and once we'd set up camp amoungst numerous nationalities we were on our way to Ikea for a couple of hours look see and to compare it to home - the major difference being that it is much cheaper!
An amazing thunderstorm set in overnight, its claps of thunder and heavy rain competition for the rock concert that was booming around the area and its large fireworks display at about 1am.  Sleep was hard to come by (except for sleeping beauty aka Glenn who slept through the whole thing).  I lay awake listening for the girls which when they did call out I couldn't hear above the torrential rain anyway.  Suffice it to say we all had a big sleep in the following morning only to be woken by a really loud Kids Club cart being wheeled through camp, decorated with garlands of fake flowers and bunting and booming dance music from a very loud stereo!
With the skies clearing we risked a walk into delightful Delft with its pretty canals, stunning spires, cheese shops, bakeries, souveniour shops and Royal Delft Ware.  We had a wonderful time walking along the canals and looking in the various shop windows though not much was open because it was Sunday and refreshingly on a Sunday in Europe everything closes.  We all sampled cheeses and munched on pastries and as a special buy for our home we purchased an original Delft Ware pottery vase for only 49.50 euro.  It wasn't as expensive as some of the beautiful pieces we saw for 1000's of euros but it suited us and we all loved it.  As we were leaving the Royal Delft Ware shop someone broke a 575 euro windmill of which he was being asked to pay for half of it.  Just as well we'd asked the girls to walk through the shop with their hands in their pockets!

One of the pretty canals that wind their way through the streets of Delft.

The heart of old town Delft.

A pretty little side street.

Outside an antique shop we spotted these traditional clogs.
Alex told us that farmers are the only ones who wear them anymore,
although they are supposed to be really comfortable (?)

This green weed covered alot of the canals and was a feeding fest for lots of little ducklings.

Looking from the 'expensive' section of the Royal Delft Ware shop down to the 'souveniour' section.
Our piece came from the window display.

The spire that stands tall over Delfts Markt Square.

 I quickly snapped these gentlemen frequenting the very public pissoir on a street corner in Delft.
Right next door to this a beer festival was taking place in a small square. 

From Delft we drove north of Amsterdam to the cheese market town of Alkmaar.  Unfortunately the cheese market was on a Friday and we were going to miss it, but we soon discovered there was so much more to Alkmaar than just cheese.  This was the first town we had come across where all the roads had dedicated cycle lanes and there were bikes everywhere.  So many cyclists it made our heads spin.  Everything has to give way to bikes - cars, pedestrians, birds.  They rule the streets and you don't mess with them.  The town itself was wonderful with the compulsary Markt Square and Cathedral but also with a large canal running through its centre and lots and lots of skinny little streets lined with cafes and shops fingering off the canal in all directions.  An old town but a very large old town - the biggest we had seen so far.  As it turned out we arrived on one of the last days of Luna Park.  All the main streets had been converted into a carnival for the school holidays.  It was utter chaos with themed rides, candy floss vendors, shooting galleries and even a giant water slide.  It was completely surreal.  Beautiful old buildings with leadlit windows sitting on cobblestoned streets clashed with strobe lights, blaring carnival music being piped out of shaky speakers and the carnies themselves with blue jeans, white T's, slicked back hair and a cigarette hanging out of their mouths or tucked behind one ear.  Not at all what we'd expected but fun to experience.
In comparison a couple of days later we hopped on our bikes and rode for 30kms around the surrounding area.  With map in hand we cycled through the Dutch countryside down little roads dotted with horses, farms and even a couple of windmills, into a lovely wooded area with dedicated cycle lanes and stunning architectually designed homes on farmlets set in fairy like woods awash with dappled sunlight, to Bergen aan zee - the town of Bergen and its beach side boulevard where we stopped and parked our bikes next to the dunes with hundreds of other bikes and walked down to the beach for morning tea.  A huge beach with lovely soft white sand that contrasted vividly with our suntanned toes.  Just off shore there were 40 or so huge wind turbines out at sea - sunk into concrete(?) with their arms turning madly producing lots of green power.  Local kids were burying themselves in the sand up to their necks and some brave souls were having a swim in the North Sea.  The last stop on our epic ride was at another beachside spot called Schoorl am zee where we all had a much deserved ice cream and where we discovered a GIGANTIC sand dune in the centre of town (?).  Probably one of the best bike rides we have ever done !!!

The butterflies we had fluttering around our 'carpark' camping pitch in Alkmaar.

One of the forests we rode through on the way to Bergan am zee.
Most of the riding was on designated bike paths as big as roads.

12km into the ride and we hit the sand dunes.

Bike parking is at a premium at Schoorl am zee (a beach only accessible by bike).

Bergan am zee - our halfway stop on the ride (15km)

This is the lifeguards sign at Bergan am zee.
They also fly black and white flags for swimmers.

The ENORMOUS sand dune in the middle of Schoorl town.
The main shops are just behind Taashi.
 It's a hell of a climb to the top - but kids slip, slide, run and fall all the way to the bottom, bowling over anything in their path.

One of the canals leading into Alkmaar.
 

All roads from Alkmaar lead to Amsterdam - and so that was where we headed next.  A whole 36km south.  I could sit  here and write pages and pages on this eclectic city but a picture (or 2 or 20) say so much more.  I will, though, post below a story Tilly wrote about the Saturday afternoon we spent in Vondel Park.

THE CRAZY PEOPLE OF VONDELPARK - AMSTERDAM   September 1^st 2012

A True story
By Tilly

Have you ever seen a grandpa wearing a frilly nappy?  We did.

Today we went to Vondelpark and I couldn’t believe my eyes!  He was wearing a frilly blue and white top, had a purse, and had a big nappy!  He was like a giant baby.  Plus we were only 2 metres into the park!

Then we saw some green people and they looked like aliens.  They had actually painted their skin green. 

We walked along the path through the park, sat down and set up our picnic by a widish river.  Opposite us was a crazy guy that loved soccer.  Mum said, after we calmed down from laughing, “He looks like the coach from Survivior.”  Then Dad started laughing again.  So we called him ‘The Coach’.  He was doing lots of funny exercises like yoga stretches, kicking his ball up on his knees and head, and he kept sticking his chest out with his chin up and strutting around like a model.  The people here were as crazy as peanuts.

When we were finishing our sandwiches I found a tent peg, put some bread on it, then used it as a fishing rod.  When I put it in the water ducks came.  The water made the bread all soggy, so I put a chippy on it which went soggy too and tied some grass to the non-hook end and held it by that.  I was building up my rod every minute, finding funny bait (like nuts). 

Taashi spotted a girl with bunny ears with a ‘T’ on her t-shirt and someone else, possibly Mum, spotted a guy riding round on a bike, waving a wand around.  He looked like a wizard and he was searching the bins about 4 metres behind us.  Dad felt sorry and sad for him, but he said quietly “Harry Potter isn’t in there Sir”.  He said that because he looked like Peter Pettigrew.  We all started laughing.

We had some chocolate mousse we bought.  Yum!  It was yummier than lemonade (almost).  We had no spoons, so we used the lids of our drink bottles (me and Taashi), Mum and Dad used the lids of the mousse.

All around us people were playing guitars. NICE!    All around us people were smoking.  YUK!

Through the trees we could see a church where a wedding was going on.  So, Taashi and me walked then ran over onto the river bank and Taashi took some photos (with Mum’s camera).  One photo had all the men with their hands in the air.  It was a funny photo but it was blurry.

When we got home our feet were as smelly as mouldy milk because we had walked ALL day.

Today was a great and funny day, but we’ll never get the smell of smoke out of our noses.

The pedestrian congestion on Amsterdam's streets.

One of the many AMAZING grafitti walls we photographed in Amsterdam.

The crooked houses on Amsterdams canals.
Glenn thinks they look like toys or a painting.  They don't look real.

The craziness on Amsterdam's streets.

The eclectic colour found in Amsterdam's Waterlooplein flea market.

The beautiful floating flower markets.

We found this piece of art painted on the back side of some concrete stairs
down a little cafe street.  We all stopped and looked at it in awe.

The characters of Vondel Park - just like in Tilly's story.
Check out Peter Pettigrew on his bike with his wand!

Taking in some culture at the Rijksmuseum

Taashi and Tilly on their Gordan the Warden art treasure hunt.

Glenn gets close and personal with some of Rembrandts works.

The UNESCO listed Kinderdijk Windmills were a must stop.  Once we had parked Swifty up and offloaded our bikes, we rode the 2km to the site and then spent an hour riding along the canals where you can line up windmill after windmill.  It was a fabulous (free) exhibition with most of the windmills still inhabited. And very Dutch!

We lucked a day with little wind and so the reflections were fantastic.

There are nineteen windmills listed in this area.
Pretty hard to photograph all at once but there are a few here.

The old and the new - both working side by side.

Our last stop in the Netherlands was at the Hoge Veluwe National Park, the largest National Park in the Netherlands.  Covering a grand total of 55sqkms it sounds tiny - but - the only way to get around is by bike.  And so, we got on our bikes and rode, through tundra and forest, the 6km to the Kroller Muller Museum found in the middle of the park.  It was truly a unique experience - riding through a National Park to one of the world's finest and most famous museums.  And what a museum it turned out to be - full of more Van Gogh's than we thought we would ever see in our lifetimes and with an incredible contempory outdoor sculpture park (that by itself covered 25 hectares) we could have spent days exploring.  As it turned out we only had hours, and we had to ride the 9km back to camp, so we explored as much as we could - vowing that one day we would all return.  Below are but a few of the countless pieces of art and over 150 sculptures on display.

This was one of our favourites.
Made entirely of ribbons tied to a large fishing net and relfected
in a tiled mirror beyond it, this piece was created
by an artist in the 1950's

Renoir's the Salon.

Some of the locals taking in the Van Gogh rooms.

Taashi was taken with Van Gogh's work . . .

and Picasso's.

The girls loved this piece hanging in the trees in the middle of the forest.

We can't even begin to tell you how big this was, and although not one of our favs
we all appreciated the work gone into it - and it was a fun climb all over piece.

There was a sign next to this piece.
In Dutch and English it clearly said 'Please do not touch'.
A dutch man and his wife went up to it and shook it as hard as they could?
Secretly we hoped it would fall down just to see what they would do!

Our picnic stop on the ride home from the museum in the middle of Hoge Veluwe.
It reminded us of Kruger National Park - but without the lions!