Amsterdam

Cycling the Tulip fields 19/20^th April

A fortnight after our skiing trip, we were off again, and this time to ride through the tulip fields in the Netherlands. Like many of my travel ideas, this was something I wanted do ever since I saw it on one of the Oz travel shows.

We haven’t been to Amsterdam since our first time, during our honeymoon. Joe recognised the central station immediately, not much has changed in the 5.5 years or so. We walked through the streets and stopping at local markets and trying the local feed… needless to say, the croissants (French influence) and the sausage rolls (German influence) they did very well. After we settled into out hotel, we took to the streets, after admiring the canals, we soon discovered, all the canals looked the same, so we took it pretty easy, just wandering the streets and soaking up the atmosphere.

The line for Anne Frank’s house was so long, luckily we booked our tickets online, so we skipped the queue. The museum itself (the house Anne lived in) didn’t have much as most things were destroyed once they were found, however it did leave a dampening feeling as you creep through the area that was occupied by the family. We all felt we had to whisper, as if we also had to be very quiet. Anne's room was quite small and I enjoyed seeing all the pictures she decorated the wall with. Although I always knew Anne was always a real person, it just really hit me that all the horrible things that happened weren’t so long ago. It made me think the human race can be so cruel. I left with an appreciation of how this little girl’s diary has touched the hearts of so many around the world.

We awoke to a glorious Sunday morning, as we packed up and got ready to make our way to the Keukenhof garden, the largest tulip festival in the world. The tulip festival is a huge tourist attraction, there were people everywhere! It’s actually very similar to the Floriade in Canberra, however spread over a larger area. After looking at the millions of flowers, we hired our bikes to explore the tulip fields. We rode along the fields which resembled carpets of colours. Most of the flowers are grown for their bulbs, as apposed to the flowers for the florist. We had a great time; even we took a wrong turn and ended up at the beach! We rode like mad to get the bikes back to the shop and catch one of the last bus back to the airport.

As we climbed into bed, exhausted after our ride, and flight back to London, I was happy I got to cross off “riding through the tulip fields” on my “things I must do” list.

Skiing in the French Alps - Chamonix Mont Blanc

Lisa and I recently got our first taste of skiing in Europe, and our destination? Chamonix Mont- Blanc in France. On this trip we went with our friends Ed and Lyn (fellow Australians living in London), who like us, have not skied since our last ski trip back in Australia some...... 8 years ago! so as you can imagine, we're quite rusty on our beginners level skills, and also being 8 years older, we're not as brave and as fit as we used to be.

The first day, we went up to Les Houches (Elevation 4280m) where we warmed up with some 'Green' runs. This was so easy and everyone picked up their skills easily... it was a nice and gental slope. After a few hours, we headed for our first 'Blue' run, and boy, the 'Blue' run in Europe is more difficult than the Australian Blue run. For the rest of the afternoon, we spent on our arse or face planted in the snow!

Day 2, we went to try and conquer Chamonix!... We headed for Les Praz ski field (in Chamonix) which started with a 15 minute cable car ride up the mountain. We all headed for the first of 2 green runs available on the whole slope. The first beginning part was a steep downhill slope that was narrow, and freaked everyone out a little. "You call this a Green run? oh hell!" and down we went. Lets say Lisa tried it once, and that was then end of her skiing (still tired from the previous day ;) Lyn went a few more times, and retired. Ed and I flew down the Green runs and enjoyed it heaps. We chickened out on the Blue runs though, as old age and tiredness caught up with us :P
We headed back to Chamonix town center, where we then made our way up to explore Mont Blanc, with the use of a cable car of course which took over 30-40 minutes to get to the top. Mont Blanc (Elevation 4810m) is the highest mountain in Western Europe, and is the highest mountain I have ever been up. It was so high, that Ed and I started to suffer from altitude sickness (I know I definitely was) but the girls were unaffected, which I was thought was quite strange... it possibly came down to the fact that they didn't expend as much energy as we did skiing. When we finally got to the top, the view was absolutely breathtaking (literally!), absolutely worth the trek, but being so cold, and so high up, we only spent a short time up there and made our way back down the mountain, back to a level where I can breath normally again.

On day 3, we left Chamonix and headed to Annecy, small lake town in France. A little piece of paradise that was picturesque, not over run by tourists, and had a great little French fresh produce market dotted along small back alley's. To me, it was the perfect town to live in. We all got some French tarts/pastries from a French bakery, barely stepped away from the store before we devoured the food we bought, right in from of the store owner, who just smiled with the satisfaction know we enjoyed his pastry & tart.
Day 4, we spent the day discovering Lake Geneva, and walking through the old city. The most distinctive thing you can see, in Geneva, is the fountain in the middle of the Lake, the signage of expensive watch brands, such as Rolex, Patek Phillipe, Frank Muller, ....swatch! :P The city was a little sleazy (due to the presence of prostitutes, thanks to the presence of rich businessmen), food was expensive, and not really that nice. Geneva, the home of the European Parliament, the home of expensive watches, designer clothing stores, a center for business, but in my opinion, not really a place to go on holiday.