The Woods: 05/2008

These days come around all to fast for the parents and all too slowly for the kids. The 3 year-old we brought out here is now 5... *sniff*

There has been much counting down to this day, about 3 months worth, intensifying in the last few weeks and resulting in a daily consultation with the calendar hanging in the kitchen to count the remaining sleeps until the big day finally arrives.

Well, it inevitably did. Hayley was in London for the big day, so the morning wasn't complete, but still, this was no reason enough to quell the excitement.

Let the unwrapping begin!

Oh, yeah! What next?

For some reason, Saz has really taken to the arty crafty thing, she wants things like weaving looms and knitting needles for presents.

At school, with the mates, some wonderful personal effort was made by the teachers - Hanka, Katka and Marian, who all went out of their way to make the day special - thanks guys!

Fun and games - the Queen is sleeping can't you see...?

And, now, my loyal subjects, lend me your ears...

I love having birthdays!

The obligatory junk food parade, Marian makes sure the revelers get some juice.

Classroom, complete with banners, streamers and happiness

When the girls favourite artist is on the hifi, there will be dancing, rock on Kylie!

Katka and Marian break out the formation dancing thing, I can't remember when last I saw the Makarena! If this is work, these two are masters!

Everyone follows the leader, even if the leader is folding the ironing :)

One butterfly cake and one happy birthday girl

Ok, use your imagination a little - it is a butterfly burning antennae and all

Saz and entourage. Amber is sulking off in the left dark corner of the screen, you can see her all crumpled up on the floor - this is what happens when she can't hand out the party packs.

Now, because mom wasn't around for the morning formalities, we did them all over again when she got home in the evening. Some special presents were left out just for the occasion.

When we returned from the Holland trip, Saz lost her Winnie Pooh somewhere on the metro or bus, and was shattered because of it. Still, if you will be careless, you will find it tough, we let her learn the lesson of leaving her most treasured friend for someone else to take home for the 2 or 3 weeks that elapsed between then and now. Many a tear was shed over this loss... breaks your heart it does.

We made her open the other presents first even though she locked onto the Pooh bear package in a second.

When asked what she thought it was, she was right on the money, and just look at this scene unfold - a golden bear emerges from the wrapping as does the biggest smile of the day.

What a huge hug for the home coming of her best friend

I can't let him go yet mom - poor Pooh getting hugged flat

Happiness is!

About a month ago, we decided to go away for a short trip before Geoff and Motherdux arrive later in May. We (the royal) set up transport, deciding to take the Euronight train from Prague to Amsterdam, and some accommodation, which was harder to find than we'd thought, and a chunk more expensive too.
Anyway, about 10 days before we were set to depart, Hayley and I were sitting at the dining-room table after the kids had gone down, reading, or something... suddenly it occurred to me that we mustn't forget to go on our Amsterdam trip! I sat up with a start and proclaimed to Bugz that we simply can't forget to show up for the trip, what with all the reservations made and what have you.
Understandably I got a bit of a surprised look from the spouse, who, after about 10 years with me, is not unaccustomed to peculiar utterances from time to time. Nevertheless, we determined not to forget our trip. (I was making notes to self... "Put it in your calendar, or you'll forget to go!")
Somewhere in the back of my mind it also occurred to me that, 2 years ago I would have known the precise date, time and detail of all travels to Amsterdam. But after 18 months of Euro-trotting I was left wondering if the travel is now so customary as to require a diary entry so that I don't forget to show up with a packed bag at such and such a time, date and place.
It seems that I, (the royal) am in an acutely privileged place to have travelled so much that new trips need to be diarised, lest they are forgotten!

On with the chronology...
As aforementioned, a new experience was chosen for our route to Amsterdam, the Euronight! The kids love travelling in trains, even though some of the ones we've been on have been on the hellish side of uncomfortable, or just a bit dodgy. Our Italy trip was very train intensive and we got quite a good idea of where and when it's a good idea to train someplace and when not. The Euronight service is one I would recommend... If you get a cabin to yourself, with bunks.
The cabins each can sleep 6 with a triple bunk on each of the inside walls. I don't want to know what it must be like to be a single, (or even double) traveller, and have to share your cabin with 4 or 5 other people. The risks seem too high... its bad enough being saddled with a bad seat in a plane, between other people and trying to sleep, especially if the luck of your draw has put you between body-odour deluxe and cholesterol central.
This happened to me once on a flight between Jo'burg an Cape Town, where I had someone akin to Mike Skitter on the one side and another bulbous chap in khakis on the other. Not being that narrow myself, by the time we had taken off I was ready to leave the aircraft without a parachute and take my chances. Being sandwiched like that between these two guys who literally couldn't fold down their tray tables, but had to rest them at a precarious angle on their respective guts, I was forced up against each of them on either side. The sweat was already running down all the contact surfaces between us, when the stewardess saw the graying look of death coming over me, and by an act of grace offered me another seat on the plane! God bless her.
I shoehorned myself out, and drip-dried on the remainder of the trip.
Now, while you won't ever have to share your bed with an unelected stranger on a Euronight, you will be sharing a very small room with up to 5 other sleeping people, who will snore, fart, toss & turn. Furthermore, every time the call of nature sounds, you will have someone who hasn't showered climbing up and down the dainty ladder and using your bunk for support if you are unfortunate to be assigned the bottom or middle bunks.

Probably a much better deal than the same conditions on a flight, but then, flying shorter distances like the Prague - Amsterdam route doesn't require sharing personal secrets with your seat mates.
Needless to say, we secured a family ticket which gave us the cabin to ourselves, just as well because we would have had to either dart the girls, or continually apologise to the other inmates.
Amber and Sarah had a whale of a time doing gymnastics between the bunks, climbing up and down the ladder, opening and closing the bunks and, and, and...

This is what the roof looks like from the lower bunks...

The precarious ladder to the top which was worn down to its undercoat by the time we de-trained...

Small things really make long trips fun, the girls had a ball from beginning to end.

What luck... I got to share a cabin with an uber-babe...

When morning came, we had a long, relaxed early morning, and arrived in Amsterdam at about 10:30

Amsterdam is known for a few things, one involves a certain rouge district, then there are the canals, windmills, tulips and cheese.

You will hear about all but the first here, not because I can't tell you anything about it, but because it was not on our itinerary.

Everything floats in Amsterdam... except bicycles, but at our local metro stop, outside one of the house boats, a pair of Greebs had taken the liberty of an old, moored, windsurf board - interesting, mainly because of the proximity of the nest to people.

The other thing that floats in Amsterdam is unfortunately, garbage, of which there is a lot. Apparently the canal system is flushed a few times a week to let all the crap out, and new water in.

How's this for a life? Relaxing on a river home and watching the tourists floating by, taking pictures of you.

Ah! Spring is sprung in a very pretty city, I prefer it to Venice!

Jewel of the Seas was moored in the harbour and our tour boat went right by it - this boat is flipping huge, and I had to wait until we were far away from it before I could (almost) get the entire vessel into frame.

Guess, what (the again royal) we did as soon as we got home...?

Start looking at where Jewel of the Seas cruises! You can tell where this is going huh? Something off the Florida coast perchance... Oh Yeah.

Typical tourists

The three girls in my life outside the Italian joint where we supped on Pizza and pasta. See how excited the baby girls are with the prospect of posing for a photo?... c'mon already!

The girls burning off some energy in one of the urban play-parks, very festive outdoor atmosphere, kids and parents playing all kinds of games, soccer, hockey even - you get nothing like this (from a community / social perspective) in ZA, which I think is a pity.

A view down a nameless canal, only posted because its nice!

Just as with Italy, there are a lot of leaning buildings here, but, unlike Italy, most of them are actually intentionally built that way. Every house or building here has a hoisting beam in the front so that large items can be moved in and out of houses - the staircases just don't cut it, being very narrow and steep. The forward tilt in almost all of the buildings is ostensibly there to aid the lifting - so that your grand piano doesn't grind its way past the other floors en route to your window.

Me and my hunny

As I mentioned previously, there are some things quite characteristic of Amsterdam, one that didn't get any air previously is the millions of (mostly shitty) bicycles EVERYWHERE. As also mentioned, these don't float very well, and, yes, incase you were wondering, we saw a few of them in the canals - don't park were you ought not to...

Outside the Ann Frank house

Pancakes are about to be had for lunch in a lovely pancake place, can't remember the name just now, but if you're in the neighbourhood, nip in for one - they are great.

Anyone for a floating restaurant? The sea palace is a huge Chinese restaurant - didn't eat there, but would love to - next time we're in the neighbourhood.

A replica of the Amsterdam - stunning boat, absolutely stunning. The boat was built for the Dutch East India company (VOC) and, after bad weather cut short several attempts to sail, she broke her rudder and went aground near Hastings in January 1749.

The replica here, moored off the Nemo science museum, was initiated as a project to ease unemployment. Going on board just makes you want to set sail!

As we were walking up to the ship, we saw this... Mobile bar.
Propelled by 10 seated patrons, pedaling away, with a huge barrel of (fuel) beer in front. There is space for a driver and a barman on the bike.
I can see one of these travelling between the rows of grid-locked cars on the way to a to a Bulls match, all painted blue, with some horns fixed onto the beer barrel, parafin pomp sakkie sakkie blasting out and 10 vet boere on the piss singing while they pedal. Its called "Het Fietscafe" (the bike cafe). Someone in ZA should go into business with some of these...

Approaching the Amsterdam VOC

On board... I don't know why, but I was really surprised at how thick the timber is. The hull timbers have got to be at least 30-40 cm thick. Many an oak had to die to make this baby, that's for sure.

The Captain and first mate, or is that 2 captains?

On board, looking out into the harbour, the Sea Palace is in the left middle-ground.

Down below, there are exhibitions where you can see how stuff was stored and transported, here the girls are lifting a heavy bag of cargo with a pulley - you wouldn't think this was a fun thing, but it kept them amused for ages. At one time they were the cargo while the old man did all the pulling.

We were winding down our visit when Sarah disappeared, after a search of the entire vessel, she was found below decks hoisting cargo...

The Amsterdam's Booty... not one that you can imagine shaking, but there it is nonetheless. Neptune is engraved on the right, the sea king, makes sense, and the god of commerce on the other, can't remember his name though...

Time to take in some serious culture, we visited the Van Gogh museum, I think more out of obligation to the legend than a critical eye for art (sorry). As can be expected no photos are allowed, which is a puzzle because if you do this Google search you get just about every piece the man ever made, and all the fascinating history.

He certainly was a colourful chap, and I loved seeing the way his work changed over time, how he was influenced,and who he was working with. Here's the Bee outside the Museum.

We found this stunning river-side restaurant and settled in for a few legendary pancakes.

Those pancakes are so good, it makes you want to jump!

This is what I mean by river-side restaurant - not a bad setting to relax and refresh.

I think we have now come to terms with being tourist mob-class on occasion, and we no longer wear disguises so as not to be identified with all the others, hanging over the edge of busses taking drive by photos of sights. There is just no avoiding it in some cases.

This was one of those days... a trip into the country just north of Amsterdam with visits to cheese factories, a clog factory, windmills, boat rides and loads of other touristy stuff.

Here are the babies in the bus on the way out.

First stop was at Marken where we got to see some pretty rural and traditional suburbia, how they used to live in the old days... this is an old fishing village and the houses are still done up the way they were in centuries gone by.

View right from the bridge

This must be a kids paradise, imagine the wetness and boatness that would be gotten up to in a neighbourhood where canals are about as prevalent as roads.

Village in background, babies in fore...

Lovely, lovely... (as done by Hercules Grytpype-Thynne, whenever he swindles Neddie)

Us, away from the tourist masses barely visible in the left of frame.
As we wend our way through the village, the narrow streets were literally packed with the tourists in our group. The locals seem very used to it, although it must be a little odd watching a camera-wielding river of humanity oozing through your village streets taking photographs of every imaginable thing.

We were to have a boat crossing from Marken to Volendam, here are the girls in boats of their own, well, one of the tourist shops at the wharf.

On the boat, Volendam in sight.

On shore in Volendam - this place is stunning, the homes here are really beautiful, not to mention the views, the water and the country atmosphere.

Holland signature

One of the old windmule - this one was used for pumping water I think. Apparently all the surviving windmills like this one are preserved as monuments.

Our visit to the clog and cheese factory was really enjoyable, we came away with stocks of each. I have to tell you, the cheese we got here is just amazing.
Amber sporting her new clogs - Saz bought some plain ones with the idea of creating her own design on them.