Holland

Hey all,

Well Holland certainly will never be forgotten for us, after an amazing win by the West Coast Eagles in the AFL Grand Final! We know that this is old news now, but time has just slipped by and no time to get this post up!

AMSTERDAM

Bikes lined up

We had Holland on our itinerary next. We were due to meet friends Caroline & Bill in south of Holland for a few days. When we found out that the Eagles were through to the Grand Final, we knew there was no chance that Bill’s little town would be showing the game. We searched on the net and found an Aussie pub in Amsterdam that was playing the game. We booked ourselves in to a dodgy hostel. We knew it was going to be dodgy because everything was booked out in Amsterdam that weekend and it was only a couple of days beforehand that we booked.

When we arrived, we realized why it was the only hostel available in the city! The stairs to climb up in to the hostel were short tiny little steps that you could only climb on your tippy toes and carrying luggage as well, what a mission!! Especially with Cam and his big feet! The room itself was absolutely tiny. There were three bunk beds squeezed in to the room and you couldn’t sit on the bed without hitting your head! The space between the bunk beds to walk in to the room was less than a metre! One toilet and one shower to service four bedrooms of six people! 24 people to one toilet and shower in the morning, what a nightmare!!! But it was in a great location very close to the city centre with views of one of the canels. Here is the view out of our room.

The day we arrived we headed to the Aussie pub Coco’s, to check it out. There were about 10 TV screens throughout the pub and we sussed out which one would be the best to watch the big game. We enjoyed some ‘Aussie’ food for dinner and Cam had frozen Heineken!

We had a great time in Amsterdam. We went to the Van Gogh Museum which was amazing. There was also a photography exhibition on there that was great too. We went on a river cruise through the canals which was beautiful. We even had the boat to ourselves for a while! It was very romantic. Cam enjoyed the local coffee shops! We found Amsterdam very touristy this time round and very expensive for food and drinks.

AFL GRAND FINAL

We left the hostel in the darkness at 5.30am. There were heaps of people on the streets heading home after a big night out! The street sweepers were

out cleaning up after the messy Friday night crowd. We took a cab to the pub, a black Mercedes no less! They have many flash taxis in Amsterdam. We bought our luggage with us to the pub and put it under the table. We sat back and Cam started drinking frozen Heineken at 6:00am! Bounce down was at 6:30am. We were surprised how many people packed out the pub! A big Eagles crowd turned out too. We were surrounded with Sydney supporters in the area of the pub we sat in. It was a fantastic game but man, what a nail biter. Our hearts were racing so hard and we, like everyone else, just couldn’t wait for that siren! We were so jealous that Mum, Dad and Matt were at the game. It made it that much harder to take in, because they were there, watching our team win the grand final and Nat wasn’t there..

We grabbed our cases and headed for the train station. We caught the train to Heerlen to meet Caroline and Bill. They picked us up from the station and we stayed at Bill’s for a few days. Caroline spoiled us with her cooking, she had prepared Thai chicken noodle soup and didn’t even know that that’s one of our favourite foods!

They took us to a place called Vaals. It is where the three countries, Belgium, Holland and Germany meet at one point.

Here we are standing in the three different countries! We went up a big viewing tower and looked out over the three countries. We then challenged the guys to a giant maze. Caroline and Bill had done this maze several times but it still took a good hour or so to figure how to get out! The girls won!!

The boys owed us ice-cream for winning, but the ice-cream shop was closed! We won’t let them forget that the girls win again! That night, we went for dinner at a local Dutch restaurant. Cam enjoyed rabbit stew. He insists it was good! The service was great and the food was even better.

The next day we went to a quaint little town in Holland. We bought some local souvenirs for family at home. We enjoyed liqueur waffles with ice-cream. There was an old castle on the hill. Very cute little town. Bill then took us to Aachen in Germany. Although it was Sunday and the shops were closed this town really impressed us. It had an amazing Cathedral and water fountains. Very nice. Caroline and Bill bought fresh fish from the market. The boys cooked up the trout on the BBQ. Caroline made a fresh green salad with strawberries. Very unusual, but nice! The fish was absolutely beautiful! We then enjoyed a big bowl of ice-cream!

After this the boys headed back in Vaals to play some Snooker. Needless to say it was not Cam’s night, but only beaten in the second game by the last ball.

To check out the rest of the pictures from this visit check out:

http://s108.photobucket.com/albums/n1/cambodian073/Holland/

We left very early the next morning to catch the train back to Cologne.

Coming up our last part of Germany and the trip to Perth via Singapore.

Cam & Nat