Europe - books, river cruising and flight sims!

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks to some further searching, due to chaos of seat availability and pricing, we've finally got tickets with Cathay Pacific. We have a 9 hour layover in Hong Kong on the way, which is not ideal, but we'll find a lounge to relax/nap in. I think I can get us into the Amex lounge, so we'll find out.

Just need to organise the bus to and from Sydney, then start thinking about what to pack!

If you can get into the Amex lounge in hong kong - super lounge by the way with an exceptional bar - they have showers!

 

[Drakecula]

Huizen was nice, though it being a Sunday everything was shut. But it was a gorgeous day, and we went for a walk through the nautical quarter and into the old town to just enjoy the architecture of older buildings.

After lunch we joined the tour out to Zaanse Schans, an open air museum that maintains the historical buildings and showcase some traditional Dutch crafts such as clog making and cheese making. The tour was in German, but I didn't want to miss out on getting to the museum. So even though I didn't understand the guide, I got some of the gist, and looking at the buildings and enjoying the scenery can be done in any language.

Today we stopped at Emmerich, back in Germany again. Another sleepy little town, but we wandered through anyway. The wind was blowing a bit, so we decided to just spend the day on the boat in the warmth. But not before buying a bunch of gummy candy at a local shop. Treats to take home!

Have still had no issues with seasickness, so after a few days, I think it's definitely safe to say river cruises are a win.

We're sailing back to Cologne, and we'll disembark tomorrow and then it'll be off to our last destination of the trip, Almere.

 

[Drakecula]

Rotterdam pics

 

[Drakecula]

Huizen pics

 

[Drakecula]

Zaanse Schans pics. I really liked this place and could have stayed longer but was on the tour schedule, but I think we saw enough. If you're visiting Amsterdam and are interested in old architecture/history, it is pretty cool.

 

[Drakecula]

Emmerich pics. It was a nice enough spot, but not that much to see/do which is why we mostly spent the day on board relaxing.
There is a Katjes outlet if you like vegan gummy candy and they're priced really well, so that's worth a visit if you find yourself here.

 

[Drakecula]

Almere is quite nice, weather wise it's similar to Canberra. We're staying at a Holiday Inn Express which is right near the train station (no train noise though) which is handy. Our first day here the morning was spent helping them flight sim crew build some equipment for their stand at the show.

The afternoon was spent doing laundry.

Second day I left Daniel to keep prepping with flight sim crew while I hopped a train to Almere Centraal to have a wander. There's a nice outdoor shopping centre and I found a cat cafe! So had to stop in.

 

[Drakecula]

I am now back home - was a bit slack in keeping this up to date, oops. Let me fix that.

I had a day in Amsterdam after the wander in Almere. We've been to Amsterdam before, stayed a few nights on our RTW trip in 2019, but it was still nice to wander. It's a gorgeous town, and the weather was again magnificent. I had a request from a friend to get a random duck from Amsterdam, so I was on a mission. Little did I realise there are several shops dedicated to rubber ducks (who knew?) but found one and procured said duck.




I also had noted that on Fridays, there is a book market on Spui St which is also home to several bookstores, including a few that stock English books. So that was fun to browse. A mix of old and new books, as well as some in English too.




I found a pub for lunch to get krokets (a Dutch treat I usually only get at Christmas with family) and then found another cafe later for a huge slice of apple pie! Yum!



The trains in the Netherlands have been easy to navigate - you can just use your credit card to tap on/tap off. Easy peasy. The station boards are easy enough to read station names, and Google maps was good for figuring out point A to point B as sometimes the fastest option required a station transfer.

 

[Drakecula]

The following day MrD had an early start (had to be at the venue by 8am) so I voted for a sleep in and figure it out later for me. The flight sim crew had several cars/vans between them so I figured I'd make my own way out later. But then I realised I didn't have a pass, and I didn't want to bother them for something since I was just a hanger on, so I had a lazy day at the hotel instead.

I wandered to Jumbo, a Netherlands supermarket chain, and picked up some lunch. I don't know about anyone else, but I LOVE browsing supermarkets in other countries. It's just fun seeing what they stock on shelves and have available. Bakery goods were so cheap, and the range of meats and cheeses! I stocked up on stroopwaffels for gifts at only 60 cents a pack - bargain, and delicious. They also had a huge selection of hagelslag (sprinkles) which again is a treat I reserve for Christmas morning breakfast. I picked up a small packet that had smaller different flavours inside to try some new ones to me. I've only ever seen the dark and milk options in Australia and only one brand. Amazing. Christmas will be a bit more exciting this year, trying new flavours!

 

[Drakecula]

I think we're up to Sunday now, the last full day we had. MrD went again to the show, while I voted for visiting Keukenhof, a famous garden that had just opened for the season a couple of days prior. I knew it being so early that a lot of flowers would not yet be in bloom, but I figured it would still be worth it. And it was. The park was huge and I think I was there for a good three hours wandering around and taking it all in. Again the weather was fantastic and it was just so nice to wander through the gardens.



As suspected, lots of garden beds had just the green stems, not many tulips in bloom just yet, but some varieties were out, and other types of flowers had bloomed. There were several indoor flower displays and I saw so many tulips there.
If you've been to Canberra for Floriade, it's similar in that there are garden beds full of tulips, but this place was so much bigger. Though Floriade gets points for having a theme each year and the beds being planted in new designs.

The area around the garden park includes the famous rows and rows of tulips you see in photos, but you can only see bits from within the park. I guess I could have gone outside to view more of them, but it was still cool to see the small bit that I could.

 

[Drakecula]

Monday saw us say goodbye to everyone and head to the airport (again via the train, easy to navigate). The flights home went smoothly enough - the pics of food are on MrD's phone and I haven't got a hold of them yet - but they were similar to what I'd taken photos of earlier in this report. Standard Y fare, though I recall one mustard chicken dish with potato and spinach was really good. Another dish I got was spicier than expected so didn't eat much of that. Bread rolls were a bit dry.

There was a minor hiccup upon arrival at Hong Kong, apparently we'd gotten in a bit later than anticipated and some people had been rebooked. We were thrust new boarding passes as well, but we hadn't been rebooked (except later when I had access to emails, I'd learn we had been rebooked to a later flight, then rebooked again back to our original flight).

So a little chaotic, and we'd missed going through the transfer gates with the people on our flight, so we got stuck in the queue instead of being hurried through, and then the transfer gates glitched, so we got marched to another set, but we were found on the other side by Cathay staff who rushed us over to the gate. We were the last to board so I felt a bit guilty holding up the plane, but I don't think it was our fault, just a bit of chaos and bad luck.

We got to Sydney and had no issues with declaring our Dutch cheese (wax sealed and also wrapped in plastic). We had to wait a bit for our Murrays bus, and finally got to the Canberra bus station at about 130am. Home around 2am.

Best thing is, I've still got another week off work! Yay!

 

[MEL_Traveller]

We got to Sydney and had no issues with declaring our Dutch cheese (wax sealed and also wrapped in plastic).

Same for us a few weeks ago. Bio security not remotely interested in it!

Which makes me wonder if we could have just brought back the big balls of waxed Edam cheese without the cellophane wrapping? They were only €16 for a 1.2 kilo ball at Albert Heijn at the airport!

(Tip is to buy your cheeses and snacks at the supermarket landside at AMS, inside the same cheeses were 2-3 times the price, supposedly ‘duty free’.)

 

[Drakecula]

Yes we'd bought our cheese in country, not at the airport duty free. Much cheaper! Also, we were at a store that had tastings for nearly every cheese, so we could select our favourites