1. We're going out to the Dandenongs on the weekend for 2 days of walking (present to myself for my birthday)! Yay! Here's a map of the route we plan to walk and here's the lol!B&B where we're staying on Saturday night. Looking forward to it!
2. Here's a cool article about walking from the mainland of the Netherlands to Ameland. We stayed on Ameland with my family in early January 2009, and it was lovely, but I can't imagine doing this walk at that time of year, with all the ice we could see in the water! Maybe we'll get to Ameland again one day and do this...
Showing posts with label ameland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ameland. Show all posts
3 June 2010
13 January 2009
AMELAND TO AMSTERDAM
SATURDAY
J woke up feeling rather sick – sore throat, blocked sinuses, yuck. This is probably due to a combination of jetlag and long plane flights, the super cold weather, stuffy and overheated rooms, and being surrounded by sick babies and children. Saturday was family day, and so the place was packed. There was something like 150 people at het Zwanewater for the best part of the day. We don’t have any photos, as there was a professional photographer going around and snapping pics most of the day. Saturday night was party night. Some people went to Nes for a birthday, while others stayed in. Most of the slagroom was asleep by 10pm, but the last person got to bed at about 4am.
SUNDAY
Sunday was verrah cold! We tried to go and get some flu medication – we caught the bus in the freezing wind into Nes, but everything except the restaurants was closed. It was bitterly cold and a bit rainy, so we abandoned our half-arsed plans to go and investigate another village and went home instead.
J spent some quiet time in the corner editing photos and talking to the various people who came along to watch over my shoulder, then we helped S & P make dinner. D had a rest in the slagroom, then we played card games with several cousins before dinner. A lot of people had left during the day, so the evening was a much quieter affair. Later in the night we looked out the window and noticed it was snowing! A couple of us ran outside in our PJs for a minute to watch it come down in soft, silent whirls.
MONDAY
Some of the slagroom party were leaving on the 8:30 ferry, so the room woke up at around 7am. A small amount of snow had fallen overnight, and it was freezing outside – even the Dutchies agreed with us on that! We had a nice relaxed breakfast, then J followed the lead of a couple of cousins and snuck into the good bathrooms in the tower suites (vacated the day before) for a shower that didn’t involved pressing a button every 30 seconds, and which could be adjusted in temperature to decently-hot instead of only-slightly-above-lukewarm. LUXURY! J felt almost human – a sick human, but human nevertheless! We finished packing and took our bags out, then decided at the last minute to make some rolls for lunch, which meant we were a but rushed and didn’t quite get to say goodbye to everyone before we were hurried into the van and driven by Nico to the ferry. Whoops!
We took the ferry and bus with cousin J, aunt and uncle S & P, and E and F’s family. E answered our questions about the island, the surrounding water, and Dutch culture. He actually owns a windmill (wind turbine, rather than an old Dutch windmill!), and was given a grant to construct it, but now apparently the government has decided that the turbines are wrecking the landscape and so they’re not renewing licences. I find this sad and a bit odd. It’s not like there’s much landscape to see, anyway – it’s so flat! (Joking, joking!)
S & P left us at the train station, so we went on our way to Amsterdam (with one transfer) with Julia. We enjoyed the frosty, icy scenery (and found lots of places where we thought wolves might be lurking!), J had a nap, and a few hours later we went to our hotel and J went to hers. We agreed to meet up later that night for a curry – we’d all been hanging out for some spicy food for days!
We were staying at http://www.wotif.com/hotels/hotel-nicolaas-witsen-amsterdam.html Hotel Nicolaas Witsen, which is on Nicolaas Witsenstraat, NOT Nicolaas Witsenkade, as a friendly local pointed out as we were wandering in a slightly lost manner along the canal. It was adequate, but nowhere near as nice as the Lloyd Hotel, and although there were no smoking signs everywhere the place still had the unmistakable scent of cigarette smoke throughout. However, it was a private room at last, and we both showered and had a nap before we set off for the Indian restaurant Balraj, on Haarlemmerdijk. We were joined by J, her sister A, and A’s partner C (all members of the slagroom), and we were all satisfied with our filling meal. It was maybe not as spicy as we would have liked, but delicious nevertheless (we should have asked for hot curries given that we were dining in the land of bland).
We also had the amusing experience of being told that it was illegal to sell pseudoephedrine over the counter – instead, we got a nasal spray, which works in the opposite way as a decongestant, and also received instructions in Dutch-English on how to use said spray. Fun times! Anyway, we were almost herded back into the hotel by various locals, who were very excited by the idea that it was going to be minus 15 degrees during the night. We missed that, instead falling into a lovely NON-BUNK bed and sleeping. Mmmmm, sleep.
J woke up feeling rather sick – sore throat, blocked sinuses, yuck. This is probably due to a combination of jetlag and long plane flights, the super cold weather, stuffy and overheated rooms, and being surrounded by sick babies and children. Saturday was family day, and so the place was packed. There was something like 150 people at het Zwanewater for the best part of the day. We don’t have any photos, as there was a professional photographer going around and snapping pics most of the day. Saturday night was party night. Some people went to Nes for a birthday, while others stayed in. Most of the slagroom was asleep by 10pm, but the last person got to bed at about 4am.
SUNDAY
Sunday was verrah cold! We tried to go and get some flu medication – we caught the bus in the freezing wind into Nes, but everything except the restaurants was closed. It was bitterly cold and a bit rainy, so we abandoned our half-arsed plans to go and investigate another village and went home instead.
J spent some quiet time in the corner editing photos and talking to the various people who came along to watch over my shoulder, then we helped S & P make dinner. D had a rest in the slagroom, then we played card games with several cousins before dinner. A lot of people had left during the day, so the evening was a much quieter affair. Later in the night we looked out the window and noticed it was snowing! A couple of us ran outside in our PJs for a minute to watch it come down in soft, silent whirls.
MONDAY
Some of the slagroom party were leaving on the 8:30 ferry, so the room woke up at around 7am. A small amount of snow had fallen overnight, and it was freezing outside – even the Dutchies agreed with us on that! We had a nice relaxed breakfast, then J followed the lead of a couple of cousins and snuck into the good bathrooms in the tower suites (vacated the day before) for a shower that didn’t involved pressing a button every 30 seconds, and which could be adjusted in temperature to decently-hot instead of only-slightly-above-lukewarm. LUXURY! J felt almost human – a sick human, but human nevertheless! We finished packing and took our bags out, then decided at the last minute to make some rolls for lunch, which meant we were a but rushed and didn’t quite get to say goodbye to everyone before we were hurried into the van and driven by Nico to the ferry. Whoops!
We took the ferry and bus with cousin J, aunt and uncle S & P, and E and F’s family. E answered our questions about the island, the surrounding water, and Dutch culture. He actually owns a windmill (wind turbine, rather than an old Dutch windmill!), and was given a grant to construct it, but now apparently the government has decided that the turbines are wrecking the landscape and so they’re not renewing licences. I find this sad and a bit odd. It’s not like there’s much landscape to see, anyway – it’s so flat! (Joking, joking!)
S & P left us at the train station, so we went on our way to Amsterdam (with one transfer) with Julia. We enjoyed the frosty, icy scenery (and found lots of places where we thought wolves might be lurking!), J had a nap, and a few hours later we went to our hotel and J went to hers. We agreed to meet up later that night for a curry – we’d all been hanging out for some spicy food for days!
We were staying at http://www.wotif.com/hotels/hotel-nicolaas-witsen-amsterdam.html Hotel Nicolaas Witsen, which is on Nicolaas Witsenstraat, NOT Nicolaas Witsenkade, as a friendly local pointed out as we were wandering in a slightly lost manner along the canal. It was adequate, but nowhere near as nice as the Lloyd Hotel, and although there were no smoking signs everywhere the place still had the unmistakable scent of cigarette smoke throughout. However, it was a private room at last, and we both showered and had a nap before we set off for the Indian restaurant Balraj, on Haarlemmerdijk. We were joined by J, her sister A, and A’s partner C (all members of the slagroom), and we were all satisfied with our filling meal. It was maybe not as spicy as we would have liked, but delicious nevertheless (we should have asked for hot curries given that we were dining in the land of bland).
We also had the amusing experience of being told that it was illegal to sell pseudoephedrine over the counter – instead, we got a nasal spray, which works in the opposite way as a decongestant, and also received instructions in Dutch-English on how to use said spray. Fun times! Anyway, we were almost herded back into the hotel by various locals, who were very excited by the idea that it was going to be minus 15 degrees during the night. We missed that, instead falling into a lovely NON-BUNK bed and sleeping. Mmmmm, sleep.
7 January 2009
AMELAND: NEW YEARS EVE
We woke to a landscape made strange with a heavy frost. The ice grew like stalactites in delicate crystals off the remainder of the frost from the day before. Everything was frozen!
The ice on the irrigation channel, which had cracked under heavy use (bikes, chairs, skates, stomping, kids, adults), had refrozen. I took a few more pictures, and was joined by my aunt A for a bit.
After breakfast, Dan and I walked into the nearest village, Nes, with my aunt C and cousin L. The walk is around 2-3kms, but it took us a while because we kept stopping to take pictures!
We met my . . . great aunt (?) T on the way in, and she pointed out the Southern Wright whale jawbone and translated the information sign. In town it was too cold to do much but peek at the old buildings with dates in wrought iron on the outside (17something, 1625, 2001), laugh at the fact that the name de Jong was on the de Jong restaurant, the de Jong bottleshop, and the de Jong bakery.
We stopped in the bakery for chokalatemelk and olliebollen (Dutch new year ‘oil balls’ – a kind of doughnut), then went to the bottle shop and purchased some new year whisky (a bottle of Oban 14 years).
It seemed to be getting colder and colder, and so we set off home. Once we got out of town, we opened the whisky and had a swig to warm us up.
Just off the road was a paddock that was completely iced over, and people had been skating on it for a couple of days. This is pretty special for Holland, we’ve heard, as people haven’t been able to skate on natural ice for over a decade. We headed over for a look, and I was yet again amazed at how easy the skaters make it seem. Even the kids holding onto chairs look more coordinated than I think I’d ever look! At any rate, we went for a good long skate. C and I posed for a photo as we went around . . . heh.
That afternoon was laid back – Dan had a nap, then played with my cousins A, C and E, and I drank whisky with my cousin C standing around a little bonfire we’d made outside. Later in the afternoon, I helped out with dinner by making golden syrup dumplings (though they didn’t turn out so great because we possibly used half non-self-raising flour – we couldn’t read the packets! – and there weren’t enough eggs). Other people made more olliebollen . . . I ate so many. Erk!
It does amaze me, having lived as a vegetarian for 10 years and having a vegetarian house, that so many people base their meals around a big bit of meat with some veges. I guess it’s easier to make a huge bunch of roast chicken and a huge bunch of boiled vegies than to do a meal with all these things combined. Still, it’s kind of odd – the very different diet played havoc with my skin and gave me headaches for the first couple of days . . . or maybe that was the cold! DID I MENTION IT WAS COLD?!
I was shattered after dinner and fell asleep, but not before making Dan promise to wake me up at 10 so I could meet people and be part of the fireworks at midnight. Waking up and getting up at that time was the most difficult thing I’ve done on this trip (which is a good thing, I suppose!). We had a bit of a whisky-off between the Canadians’ Canadian Club and our Oban, chatted a bit, and then went outside at about 11:50 for a countdown and toast. People had bought masses of fireworks, and we set them off for something like half an hour – fun, and slightly scary being so close, but awesome. I’ve never been directly underneath fireworks going off before, so that was a pretty cool experience!
The ice on the irrigation channel, which had cracked under heavy use (bikes, chairs, skates, stomping, kids, adults), had refrozen. I took a few more pictures, and was joined by my aunt A for a bit.
After breakfast, Dan and I walked into the nearest village, Nes, with my aunt C and cousin L. The walk is around 2-3kms, but it took us a while because we kept stopping to take pictures!
We met my . . . great aunt (?) T on the way in, and she pointed out the Southern Wright whale jawbone and translated the information sign. In town it was too cold to do much but peek at the old buildings with dates in wrought iron on the outside (17something, 1625, 2001), laugh at the fact that the name de Jong was on the de Jong restaurant, the de Jong bottleshop, and the de Jong bakery.
We stopped in the bakery for chokalatemelk and olliebollen (Dutch new year ‘oil balls’ – a kind of doughnut), then went to the bottle shop and purchased some new year whisky (a bottle of Oban 14 years).
It seemed to be getting colder and colder, and so we set off home. Once we got out of town, we opened the whisky and had a swig to warm us up.
Just off the road was a paddock that was completely iced over, and people had been skating on it for a couple of days. This is pretty special for Holland, we’ve heard, as people haven’t been able to skate on natural ice for over a decade. We headed over for a look, and I was yet again amazed at how easy the skaters make it seem. Even the kids holding onto chairs look more coordinated than I think I’d ever look! At any rate, we went for a good long skate. C and I posed for a photo as we went around . . . heh.
That afternoon was laid back – Dan had a nap, then played with my cousins A, C and E, and I drank whisky with my cousin C standing around a little bonfire we’d made outside. Later in the afternoon, I helped out with dinner by making golden syrup dumplings (though they didn’t turn out so great because we possibly used half non-self-raising flour – we couldn’t read the packets! – and there weren’t enough eggs). Other people made more olliebollen . . . I ate so many. Erk!
It does amaze me, having lived as a vegetarian for 10 years and having a vegetarian house, that so many people base their meals around a big bit of meat with some veges. I guess it’s easier to make a huge bunch of roast chicken and a huge bunch of boiled vegies than to do a meal with all these things combined. Still, it’s kind of odd – the very different diet played havoc with my skin and gave me headaches for the first couple of days . . . or maybe that was the cold! DID I MENTION IT WAS COLD?!
I was shattered after dinner and fell asleep, but not before making Dan promise to wake me up at 10 so I could meet people and be part of the fireworks at midnight. Waking up and getting up at that time was the most difficult thing I’ve done on this trip (which is a good thing, I suppose!). We had a bit of a whisky-off between the Canadians’ Canadian Club and our Oban, chatted a bit, and then went outside at about 11:50 for a countdown and toast. People had bought masses of fireworks, and we set them off for something like half an hour – fun, and slightly scary being so close, but awesome. I’ve never been directly underneath fireworks going off before, so that was a pretty cool experience!
4 January 2009
AMSTERDAM TO AMELAND
After posting the last entry, we slept very well - right up to the alarm! We checked out and then got a free breakfast to take away from one of the kitchen staff who told us to GO AWAY, then winked at us as we left with pocketfuls of bread and boiled eggs to eat at the station.
We arrived at Amsterdam Centraal with plenty of time to spare, and ate our breakfast before we hopped on the train for the 45 minute trip to Lelystad. A bike path travelled alongside the train track most of the way there, sometimes veering off to go through towns or around fields. You really could ride around the Netherlands without much difficulty (though I’d personally avoid doing it in such cold weather!). We saw a little wood with lots of deer, several paddocks of sheep and more of cows – but mostly we saw A LOT of ice. Nix was very excited to see so much whiteness! We were even more excited to see some people ice skating on the wee canals around Lelystad . . . real European winter!
J picked us up at Lelystad ("Are you Australians?"), where S and P got off the same train. It was an hour and a half drive, but we went through a little town where people were skating on a pond (a bit bigger than a football/soccer field), so we had to stop and go and have a look. J was very excited, and insisted that we go out on the ice. We were a bit timid, but it was awesome! Underneath the ice we could see the water still moving and the reeds waving around.
That was a nice break in the drive, and even so we arrived at the ferry terminal in Holwerd with plenty of time to spare. We got our tickets and I had a mocha at the café – this wasn’t entirely intentional, but it was what appeared in my cup after I pressed some random buttons in an attempt to get a hot chocolate. It was quite OK with a couple of sugars in it. We also ate apple cake. Om nom nom nom nom.
The ferry itself was comfortable, cheerful and huge. The population of Ameland is something like 3000, and the ferry is licensed to carry 1200 passengers. Clearly the island was more of a tourist destination than we were lead to believe. We braved the freezingness to go out and have a look at the surrounds as the ferry wove through the shallows (a movement you couldn’t feel at all below deck). The horizon was blurred in the haze, but we could see Ameland approaching in the distance. At one point we went through a patch of ice, and I amused DB by telling him that we were surrounded by icebergs. Apparently because there are no currents in this area, and the sea is so shallow, the only movement is the up and down of the tides, and so ice forms quite easily on the surface.
At the other end, J had arranged for her father to pick us up, and he whisked us away to het Zwanewater, where come the weekend upwards of 120 people would be staying. We were slept about 6 to a room, and the place was very warm, with a few different lounge/common areas and a big kitchen. We put our stuff down and had a cup of tea and a bite to eat while saying hello to people.
In the afternoon we went outside and explored a bit. There is an irrigation channel/ditch running alongside the driveway (it smells of frozen cow dung . . . at least that’s what we’ve been told the smell is!), and it was frozen over, so a bunch of kids (both young and old) were skating and sliding and stomping on it. The sound of ice cracking beneath your feet is quite disconcerting, let me tell you!
***
Today (Sunday) is our last full day on the island, and as we both have colds we are going to go hunting for painkillers and decongestant in the village. We’ll upload more pics and stories of our stay in the next few days when internet connections are easier to come by! This family is full of Mac fanatics, and so we have about 34879 computers connected to wireless internet. Heh.
We arrived at Amsterdam Centraal with plenty of time to spare, and ate our breakfast before we hopped on the train for the 45 minute trip to Lelystad. A bike path travelled alongside the train track most of the way there, sometimes veering off to go through towns or around fields. You really could ride around the Netherlands without much difficulty (though I’d personally avoid doing it in such cold weather!). We saw a little wood with lots of deer, several paddocks of sheep and more of cows – but mostly we saw A LOT of ice. Nix was very excited to see so much whiteness! We were even more excited to see some people ice skating on the wee canals around Lelystad . . . real European winter!
J picked us up at Lelystad ("Are you Australians?"), where S and P got off the same train. It was an hour and a half drive, but we went through a little town where people were skating on a pond (a bit bigger than a football/soccer field), so we had to stop and go and have a look. J was very excited, and insisted that we go out on the ice. We were a bit timid, but it was awesome! Underneath the ice we could see the water still moving and the reeds waving around.
That was a nice break in the drive, and even so we arrived at the ferry terminal in Holwerd with plenty of time to spare. We got our tickets and I had a mocha at the café – this wasn’t entirely intentional, but it was what appeared in my cup after I pressed some random buttons in an attempt to get a hot chocolate. It was quite OK with a couple of sugars in it. We also ate apple cake. Om nom nom nom nom.
The ferry itself was comfortable, cheerful and huge. The population of Ameland is something like 3000, and the ferry is licensed to carry 1200 passengers. Clearly the island was more of a tourist destination than we were lead to believe. We braved the freezingness to go out and have a look at the surrounds as the ferry wove through the shallows (a movement you couldn’t feel at all below deck). The horizon was blurred in the haze, but we could see Ameland approaching in the distance. At one point we went through a patch of ice, and I amused DB by telling him that we were surrounded by icebergs. Apparently because there are no currents in this area, and the sea is so shallow, the only movement is the up and down of the tides, and so ice forms quite easily on the surface.
At the other end, J had arranged for her father to pick us up, and he whisked us away to het Zwanewater, where come the weekend upwards of 120 people would be staying. We were slept about 6 to a room, and the place was very warm, with a few different lounge/common areas and a big kitchen. We put our stuff down and had a cup of tea and a bite to eat while saying hello to people.
In the afternoon we went outside and explored a bit. There is an irrigation channel/ditch running alongside the driveway (it smells of frozen cow dung . . . at least that’s what we’ve been told the smell is!), and it was frozen over, so a bunch of kids (both young and old) were skating and sliding and stomping on it. The sound of ice cracking beneath your feet is quite disconcerting, let me tell you!
Today (Sunday) is our last full day on the island, and as we both have colds we are going to go hunting for painkillers and decongestant in the village. We’ll upload more pics and stories of our stay in the next few days when internet connections are easier to come by! This family is full of Mac fanatics, and so we have about 34879 computers connected to wireless internet. Heh.
23 December 2008
HOLY CRAP
OK SO THE WEATHER FORECAST FOR THE DAY WE GET TO AMELAND IS A HIGH OF ZERO AND A LOW OF MINUS THREE.
3 December 2008
NEXT TRIP, ARGH!
We will be leaving on December 28th for the Netherlands, and more specifically for Ameland for a kind of family reunion thing. We're looking forward to it, although we are both so busy with uni and Christmas retail work that we haven't really thought about if much. After Holland, we will be spending a couple of weeks in England, including a long weekend in a cottage in the Cotswolds. We return to Melbourne on the 20th of January.
It is going to be cold over there in the back-to-front season! COLDER THAN COLD CAN BE. We need to stock up on winter-type things. Do any of you Northern Hemispherians have suggestions? What kinds of trousers do you wear? Will I be OK with jeans over thermal leggings? Or are jeans crap because they get damp and really cold? Lots of thin layers, or a huge coat to take off inside (because central heating is much better/more existent there than here)?
Also, does anyone have a suggestion for a good hostel (with a double/private room) or good cheap hotel in Amsterdam?
Thanks in advance!
It is going to be cold over there in the back-to-front season! COLDER THAN COLD CAN BE. We need to stock up on winter-type things. Do any of you Northern Hemispherians have suggestions? What kinds of trousers do you wear? Will I be OK with jeans over thermal leggings? Or are jeans crap because they get damp and really cold? Lots of thin layers, or a huge coat to take off inside (because central heating is much better/more existent there than here)?
Also, does anyone have a suggestion for a good hostel (with a double/private room) or good cheap hotel in Amsterdam?
Thanks in advance!
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