My second week in Holland

As you might have already guessed from the previous posts, I have not been sitting still while being in Holland. So many things to see and do, and people to catch up with. 

For those who have travelled a lot, or who have visited their home country again after immigrating elsewhere, you get a lot of offers from friends/family that you can stay with them etc etc. But you might appreciate how tiring it can be to visit everyone and sleep in 30 different beds in 1 month.
For this reason, we settled ourselves in Edam for the first 2 weeks. Its nice and central to where we used to live, and lets be honest, Holland is not that big, so driving to a different provence doesn't take that long.
While procrastinating from my thesis (a few months ago), I googled: cheap accommodation in Europe.
And one of the websites that came up was Airbnb.com. I am in love with this website! Go, have a look.
Pretty much in every country you can think of, people have put on their own house, a room in their house, their sleep out in their garden, etc etc, on this website, and you can rent it. For the same price of a hotel room, and often a lot cheaper as well, you could rent a whole house! I sent this link to my mum, because obviously i was way too busy trying to finish up my thesis, and she found a super-duper-gorgeous house in Edam. We had a lovely 2 weeks in that house.

Our little house and little car

Perfect place to enjoy the sun

We enjoyed several dinners in those chairs watching boats and rowers go passed

very steep stairs to go upstairs :-)

Friday 31 August, a day in the Efteling

The Efteling (or wiki page) is one of the oldest theme parks in the world. My friend Karen picked me up in the morning and we drove the 130 km south. The weather forecast wasn't that flash, which was actually a blessing in disguise, as it was very quiet! Believe it or not, but some days, you will have to cue up for 40 minutes to go in an attraction.... The longest wait we had was not even 10 minutes. As a consequence, we had been in every attraction by 3pm. Had a great day, and enjoyed a jummy ice cream :-)

the entrance. The efteling opened up in 1952, and now exists 60 years.

wooden roller coaster. So much fun!

Holle-Bolle Gijs. He says: papier hier (Paper Here). Yes, just a fancy rubbish bin who only wants paper...

The house of Hansel and Gretel 

Jummy ice cream

Saturday 1 September

A day of visiting. Mum was picked up in the morning by a friend, and later in the afternoon I picked her up. They are farmers in Jisp, and have a lot of land. However, to get to their 'paddocks', Piet takes his boat. It is such a lovely area in Holland. In winter time, when the cows are in the sheds near their house, when it is cold enough, you can ice skate for miles there. Such a great place. 

Anyway, I had not seen them for more than 9 years. Had a good afternoon catching up, and taking pictures. They also hire out little rowing boats. 

After we left, we visited the Beemster, where we lived for 14 years, including our old house. We finished the evening by my mum's cousin, and had a lovely dutch meal. 

The rowing boats you can hire

Piet leaving to milk his cows 

The shed that's attached to their house. The cows no longer stay here in winter, but i can remember when they did. The smell is still the same ;-)

my old house. Volgerweg 93, Zuid-Oost Beemster

Picture taken from 'our' bridge. In winter time, people will ice skate here. 

This is the Beemster Fort. This was build in the WW1, to defend Amsterdam.  Beemster - Amsterdam is roughly 20 km. A few years ago, they started to renovate this to become a restaurant and day spa http://www.fortresortbeemster.nl/

Delicious!