Our first stop in Holland was Rotterdam. It is home to a really old shipping industry and one of the largest ports in the world. We watched lots of barges going down the canal while we ate tea. The was alo a crazy barge on the side of the canal which was now a floating chinese restaurant / Asian supermarket / party zone!!!!! We went for a walk through the gardens, there were lots of 'Jed' parrots flying around. Here we also discovered FEBO a fast food place where all the food is already cooked and waiting behind tiny oven doors for you to put you money in the vendor and open them! The little chicken burgers are delicious! The eat a lot of croquettes here.We also tried some more frites (fries) but they were no where near as good as Belgium and the mayo tasted funny :(
From there we drove on to The Hague (Den Haag). It rained all night and all day, like serious rain where I considered the possibility we could find ourselves in a flood zone. Also found out the rain can come in the van through the heater when its on and we needed it on to keep the windows clear! Here we are on the motorway and I am pouring bowls of water and squeezing my teatowel out the window!
We then moved on to Amsterdam hoping to leave the rain behind. The rain on the way was so heavy they lowered the speed limit on the motorway to 50km/hr and had to close a lane because of flooding. By the time we got to Amsterdam however the rain had stopped. The next day we farewelled Ted for the day on the outskirts of Amsterdam and had our first day using public transport. It turned out to be quite easy and great to get around. Made a rather spread out city a lot easier to get around. We had 24hr tickets so could just jump on and off trams willy nilly whenever we wanted. We had a good look around and went to the red light district that night for a look before heading back to the van.
From Amsterdam we drove all the way back to the bottom of Belgium to Ypres. Ypres had intense fighting during WW1 and there is now a lot of war cemetaries and the 'In flanders fields' museum. We spent nearly 3 hours at the museum and then had a look around some of the 150 cemetaries including Tyne Cot, the largest which has a lot of NZers and a special NZ memorial area for 'the missing'. To this day farmers are still finding unexploded ammunition and other remnants of the war in their fields.
From there we drove on to The Hague (Den Haag). It rained all night and all day, like serious rain where I considered the possibility we could find ourselves in a flood zone. Also found out the rain can come in the van through the heater when its on and we needed it on to keep the windows clear! Here we are on the motorway and I am pouring bowls of water and squeezing my teatowel out the window!
We then moved on to Amsterdam hoping to leave the rain behind. The rain on the way was so heavy they lowered the speed limit on the motorway to 50km/hr and had to close a lane because of flooding. By the time we got to Amsterdam however the rain had stopped. The next day we farewelled Ted for the day on the outskirts of Amsterdam and had our first day using public transport. It turned out to be quite easy and great to get around. Made a rather spread out city a lot easier to get around. We had 24hr tickets so could just jump on and off trams willy nilly whenever we wanted. We had a good look around and went to the red light district that night for a look before heading back to the van.
From Amsterdam we drove all the way back to the bottom of Belgium to Ypres. Ypres had intense fighting during WW1 and there is now a lot of war cemetaries and the 'In flanders fields' museum. We spent nearly 3 hours at the museum and then had a look around some of the 150 cemetaries including Tyne Cot, the largest which has a lot of NZers and a special NZ memorial area for 'the missing'. To this day farmers are still finding unexploded ammunition and other remnants of the war in their fields.
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