Bike Riding

G’day mates,

Yeeehhhh!! Finally!! I did it, I managed to make two movies so come on and have a look;

From previous stories you know that we love Belgium Beer!! Arch, we are here now a while and I can tell you, we have been drinking a lot already. You know what the consequences are?  I look like I’m already 8 months pregnant but if you look at my face you know it can’t be true..... too old haha!

The only solution is this; Bike riding…...

I love bike riding in Holland as I already told you you don’t have to weir a helmet and the whole country is used to bikers so its pretty save. There are several ways to find your way through the country and my favourite is “het knooppunten stelsel” I will explain;  you buy a map from the region you want to bike in and you can make you own route by following the figures in the circles.

Here you can see we are at circle (knooppunt) 60.....

 Just write down the figures on a piece of paper, stick it on your handlebar and just bike form one figure to the other. Between two circles is the distance mentioned so you can make your route as long as you want. 

You come at the nicest places, I lived in this region for 44 years and now come at spots I never knew they were there. Look at this nice little farm with homemade Marmalade and Honey.....

 horses come by.......

typical dutch houses with thatched roofs......

also typical dutch; Windmills

another one......

just keep on biking.....

(movie)

Then we pass another nice little farm, look how old it is.....

a totally different house......

we keep on biking until this intersection were we can choose from 5 roads (and a track), of course I knew which figure we had to follow.....

(movie)

and we pass castles.......

and nice little towns with beautiful alleys.....

but also very old barns.....

and nice rivers.........

So, that's it for now mates, I hope you enjoyed these typical dutch views but of course this is not all you get to see from Holland, there is much more to tell and see so hang on in there.....

See ya next time.

Cheers!

A little bit more patiënt !

G'day mates!

I've got good news, and I've got bad news.

The good news is that I've started a new story for my blog but the bad news is my new computer.
Not that the computer is not OK but because I've got windows 8.1 now, the windows movie maker has changed too. I've been spending hours already to figure out how it works so that sets me back again.

Anyhow I'm working on it and will be back soon. In the mean time enjoy this relaxing view of our caravan "park", this is what I see when struggling with my films.

Be patient because I'm confident it's worth while waiting for!

Cheers!

Sorry

G'day Mates,

I know I ought to give you a new story, its about time isn't it?? The problem is I don't have time at the moment. But on the other hand I have so much to tell and show you that I have to pinch some time somewhere, I will do my utmost.

Anyhow, for now you have to be patient as  tomorrow our day is filled with appointments and Tuesday we are going on a mini cruise to New Castle and we will be back on Thursday. Friday and the whole weekend is filled with visits again but I will try to make a story anyhow.

I've got bike riding stories, a Western Weekend and by then of course the mini cruise so just keep on looking I will be back as soon as I can.

A little forecast for what is coming;

Till Soon!

Cheers!

Sad

Exactly after one week when I was with my sister in the small church in Arnhem for that marvelous concert, I found myself in a church again last Friday night. For me that's not normal as I'm not religious. This time it was for the farewell meeting of one of our "old" neighbours from the village we still have our house. She lost the battle against cancer.

We still are in contact with a lot of our "old" neighbours and we hadn't seen them yet, except for a few, but this was not a nice opportunity to meet each other again. The Church was crowded because she was a nice person and the performances of the family were beautiful and courageous.......

Sylvia was only 56!

Enjoy life while you can.......

 

Stressed Country

Well people, I can tell you that we now are sure we are back in Holland! Crikey, why are these people so stressed?? I was nearly killed by a lunatic in a car who was so in a hurry he nearly crashed into me. Let me tell you what happened:

I was on my way to my sister on my bike and I drove in Vorden, the little village were we are staying close by at the farm, when 2 men in a van who had to do some road working, set up a blockage on the other side of the road I was riding on. That lunatic came to that blockage and drove passed it onto my side of the road with a angry face because he was annoyed by that blockage and obviously was in a hurry. I though he would stop for me but I can assure you he definitely didn't intent to, so I jumped off my bike onto the pavement which saved my life. Unfortunately I was so shocked I forgot to take his number plate.

Anyhow  I'm still alive and made it to my sisters so we could start having our sisters day, and that was very nice so let's forget the accident and just watch some pictures of our nice day.

First of all we went to Arnhem by train because my sister lives close at the station so that's very handy! besides that, we love having a few drinks haha!

We did a lot of site seeing in the shops haha and exhausted we dropped onto a terrace for a drink and feet ventilation!

After that we went to Pssst Amigo which is a Mexican restaurant in Arnhem. Fred is not very keen on Mexican food so when I get the opportunity to go to a Mexican restaurant with someone else, I'll take it of course and my sister loves it too.

As usual it was lovely!

In Australia we often watch Dutch television through the satellite and in one of the talk shows, for the Dutch people: "de wereld draaid door", a woman called Marike Jager was interviewed and also sang a beautiful song. She said she was going on a tour through Holland to sing in little churches because of the acoustics and that sounded very interesting. I booked one of the performances in the Waalse Kerk (that's the name of the little church in Arnhem), for the two of us and hadn't told my sister what we were going to do so for her it was a surprise. 

So we ended up in a church, at 10 o'clock in the night and the it was great;
(sorry, the pictures aren't really clear but it gives a bit of an idea)

Her songs are beautiful and for the people who want to know more here is a link;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marike_Jager

You can of course also find her songs on YouTube

The performance ended at half past 11 and we struggled back to the train station, our feet still sore from the long walk during shopping. Because we had to wait nearly 45 minutes for the next train to Zutphen, we decided to have a nice cool beer at the nearest pub and it was still nice weather to sit outside;
Sis is trying to find some music of Marike on her I-phone......

so we can enjoy it together during the journey back home.....

After all it was a marvellous day!!

By the way, I still like biking in Holland (The Netherlands), BECAUSE you don't have to wear a HELMET!! Yehhh!!

See Ya, Cheers!

Yes! I'm back!!

G'day Mates! Or should I now say "Goeie Dag mensen", haha, well I think it's better to keep it Aussie style...

Anyhow, as you can see I'm back and with a nice new laptop with windows 8.1. But anyone who has got a new computer, laptop, tablet or smartphone knows that it's not easy to setup these new devices, problems everywhere and I'm still struggling with a few things but no worries I'll get there one day. The main thing is that I can go on with my weblog!!

You already know we have arrived in The Netherlands and in the mean time we have setup our caravan. Our son, (you still know him from the holiday he had with us in Australia last year) and we, picked up the caravan in the village we used to live and were we have stalled our caravan at a farm.

Then we drove approx. 16 k's to another farm (what on earth do we have with farms lately) which has a little caravan park on one of the paddocks, and where we will stay for coming 4 months.

Luckily we had nice weather during the setup of the annex....

We're getting there.....

I told you in my previous story that we stayed with my sister and her doggie the first week, she's got a very nice apartment at the IJssel in Zutphen...

Zutphen is a very nice city of which I will make a special blog some time....

May I introduce you to her doggie; Pepper...

but at some stage you want to go to your own "house" so we went to the caravan and then the bad weather started, many clouds with rain in it....

and with cold weather, automatically traditionally dutch Pea soup comes into our minds and so Fred made a big pan with lovely Pea Soup, put everything on the stove to keep it warm....

Djee, it was soooo cold.....

and WET

The annex was leaking....

but even with this cold and rainy weather, there was some tough family who visited us anyway...

Fred's brother and his wife (I didn't had a proper picture of her but I'm sure you will see her later one of these months)....

We are now here for 2 weeks and it's starting to become better weather.....

Come, I'll show you a bit of our site and the farm.....

there are a few caravans already but most of the people went home because of this bad weather.

 The Netherlands is that small that even if you life on the other end of the country, you can be there in approx. 2 hours at the most.....

Here you can see that we are the only ones there, the little car of my sister, which we can borrow the time we are here, sits all alone on the car park..... 

On a Farm are animals;

Look at this; GEESE, right in the back, but not hundreds, only two (what I could see)...

OK, it's not Kangaroo Island but still...... 

Our caravan in the middle, on the back...

It's a nice spot, isn't it??

In Australia the autumn had began when we left but here the spring has started, clever he! We roll from summer into summer and skip the winter!

Of course we brought our Aussie flag, same purpose as on Kangaroo Island; then we can see were the wind is coming from but also, our visitors can find us easily....

The are some nice things in view coming months like World Championship Soccer in which our two beloved countries have to play against each other, so we are going to have a lot of fun, I'll promise you!!

Keep focused people!!

Cheers!

Short one

G'day mates,

We have arrived safely in the Netherlands but besides we are very busy, I also have ordered a new laptop as ours is already 6 years old and still has XP windows so I don' t dare to work with it anymore.  Please be patient and wait for my next story, I will try to come back very soon.

I can show you some pictures to give you an impression of our life and home for the coming 4 months.

The first week we stayed with my sister....

Some work in our caravan:

 

still a big mess!

 

OK I have to go again..

 

See you soon !