After another early start we hit the road, on route to The Netherlands. Given it was New Years Eve the tour guide had picked up four dozen German beers, which we would crack open to celebrate our nationality’s new year when the time struck. Of course, first up were the Kiwis and thanks to a wild idea I shared after a few glasses of Cab Sav, at 12pm we found ourselves standing up in front of the bus toasting NZ and teaching everyone ‘Ma is white, whero is red...’. So while you were all yahooing and ringing in the New Year in the glorious summer weather, we were embarrassing ourselves well and truly on route to Holland! People seemed to like it though and the great thing was, everyone had to do a performance so we got to give stick right back. The Aussies did the locomotion which was particularly funny as one guy was on the microphone singing, while the rest sauntered up and down the bus doing the locomotion. But rather than just do one verse and the chorus which would have more than sufficed, he proceeded to run through the entire song until his girlfriend had to run back up the other end and tell him to shut the hell up for goodness sakes! Japan, India and Malaysia followed, while the English, Irish and South Africans managed to escape given everyone was beyond caring by the time their new year’s hit at 11pm and 1am!
Aside from lunch, our first stop was in a little Dutch down called Zaanse which is a traditional windmill village, with the oldest working windmills. We took the token touristy shots, as well as tried on the gimmicky oversized wooden clogs – all fun and games.
Next stop was a cheese and clog making factory which was absolutely fascinating. We’d already been to a cheese making factory with Michelle in Seelisburg, but we found the clog making so enthralling! We watched a man carve one out of a block of wood in just ten minutes. We could have stayed there all day. To share our new found passion for wooden clogs, here are a few clog facts for you below... Things I’m sure you’ve all been dying to know:
• Thousands of people still wear the traditional wooden clogs, mainly as a working shoe as they are very functional.
• In traditional times you would be able to tell which area someone was from, simply by looking at the design of their wooden clogs.
• Today machines can produce 150 pairs of wooden clogs a day, but to create a pair by hand it takes around 1 ½ hours for professionals.
• It takes roughly five years to learn the art of clog-making.
By this stage it was around 4pm and we had just one final stop before heading on to Amsterdam to ring in 2011 – Volendam, which is a picturesque fishing village just out of Amsterdam. We only had half an hour here as people were starting to get antsy and wanted to get into party mode, but we absolutely loved it. The bay had frozen over, as had the rivers and it was crazy to see children walking up and down the river, without any concerns of falling through the ice. We weren’t game and instead opted for the bridges. We think we’ll come back to Volendam for the weekend as it’s just so stunning and quaint.
Our hotel is just out of Amsterdam, although it’s absolutely stunning and situated on one of Europe’s largest golf courses – 45 holes. Unfortunately there’s no golf for Brad as the course has frozen over, but we’ll no doubt hit the driving range later in the day.
After a smoked salmon and rib eye steak dinner, which left us all harping on about good it was, we boarded the Expat bus and ventured into Amsterdam. We were dropped off and told to meet back at 2am for a shuttle; otherwise we could get a taxi back which would cost around €60... As you can imagine, no one was really keen for this option! Greg, our guide, was doing a bit of a walking tour through the red light district and we hung around here for a few minutes, before venturing to Dam Square where we were collected by Niels, who had very kindly sorted out plans for us to attend a house party of one of his friends, complete with cocktails and fireworks. Alicia and Rob came too of course and we had a lovely night ringing in 2011 with new friends and old.
Before you know it, it’s 2am and we’re back at the drop off point, waiting for the shuttle. At this stage Niels decided to stand in front of the group and give everyone a little show about Dutch culture. He did a particularly amusing routine in which he detailed Amsterdammers attitude to tourists, saying that it’s up to us, as tourists, to give the locals a run for their money. By this he meant, startling the endless cyclists who were driving past by making funny noises, jumping in front of them and creeping them out – he demonstrated this, which had us all in stitches, particularly when one little, old, white-haired Dutch woman whizzed past Niels, shutting him down with a simple “F*** OFF!”Quite hilarious!
We have just two days left on this tour and it will certainly be sad to leave everyone, although we’re trying not to think about it just yet... We still have another day in Amsterdam, then a final day in Bruges to look forward to before we start moping.
Much love!
xx
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