Last winter Best Beloved waited by the door to take photos of me as I returned after being caught in a snow storm. This year I returned the favour. Best Beloved was out purchasing serious supplies – (I think wine), and returned in rather snowy conditions. The photo was taken on 4th December. The effect [...]
Trams in Amsterdam are run by the Gemeente Vervoerbedrijf (GVB for short. It means, as far as my limited Dutch can assess, “Local Government Transport Business”). On Thursday morning, 25 November 2010, I caught a Number 9 tram from Amsterdam Central Station to Alexander Square. I don’t remember the exact time – shortly before 10:00 [...]
On Saturday we did go and watch the Irish play the All Blacks at “The Tara Irish Pub” on Rokin in Amsterdam. There were hundreds of bicycles and people everywhere on the way which is unusual and it was very difficult to negotiate our way through the crowds and the bicycles to proceed to the [...]
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Yesterday, early evening, Friday 22nd October, we were in Amsterdam and were looking for and found the map shop – Pied a terre, to start finding maps for our proposed bike ride from the Netherlands to Switzerland. We found said shop. Said shop is huge with more maps than you could ever ever imagine exist [...]
Continue reading about What – No worthy International Rugby today!!
On Sunday we went for a short, meandering bike ride, ostensibly to pick blackberries between Haarlem and Sloterdijk. We were armed with containers for the blackberries, sandwiches and liquid – a couple of cans of beer and fruit juices. Yes we picked blackberries, Yes there were plenty, but we were wearing sandals and that is [...]
Queens Day / Koninginnedag : or is it Orange Crazy Day – for the House of Orange. The shops are full of Orange merchandise right from 1st April – not just for the week prior to the big day. My memory from last year is obviously a bit out of tune. Is that short term [...]
Any New Zealander in Maastricht would look at this sign and say – wow! what a sale – everything is free. A New Zealander looking at this sign in Amsterdam would say why do I need a Urinoir? The pub / cafe beyond the sign should have a toilet and that is where I was, [...]
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This is the News from the Netherlands Grandad and I have been on a bus tour which included a stop at a wooden shoe factory. The tour group included people from many countries so the tour guide told us about the sights we passed along the way in a number of lanuguages. He spoke in [...]
Gathering Unaccompanied luggage in the Netherlands end August 2008 Yesterday we tracked down our unaccompanied luggage at Schiphol Airport. What a saga. On Wednesday which is when the luggage was to arrive – even though when it was originally organised in New Zealand we expected to collect it when we arrived in Amsterdam ourselves on [...]
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