Bonne année

We hope everyone had a happy and safe Christmas and New Year. We’ve been on a road trip, so there’s lots to write about.

We spent a few days in London for Christmas. We drove to the ferry near Caen, sailed to Portsmouth, drove to London – 12 hours door to door. The weather was very English, (except for Christmas Eve where the sun decided to make an appearance). Nobody does a Christmas lunch like the English and we went to a traditional pub and ate too much. As you do on Christmas Day.

Next day we headed off to Harwich and, because it happened to be on the way, we stopped at Colchester. So glad we did as it’s a pretty town, helped by all the Christmas lights and the fact that they were at their best in the darkness, albeit being 4:30 pm.

From Harwich, we caught the overnight ferry to Hook of Holland and then drove on to The Hague. First impressions were – it’s flat, very flat, so many hot houses everywhere, quite easy to navigate around and Dutch people speak excellent English.

The Hague is the second largest city in Holland but you wouldn’t think so based on lack of traffic and congestion (it’s all about the bikes – more on that later). There’s plenty to see in The Hague and would love to return in warmer weather to check out some of the parks and gardens. One of the highlights for us this trip was The Peace Palace, home to the U.N.’s International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Court. This was built after the 1899 Hague Convention to house a court to end war. Ironically, it was officially opened in 1913, just prior to the commencement of WW1.

The other highlight was the Mauritshuis Gallery. This smallish gallery has the work of some pretty famous artists on display including Rembrandt and Vermeer.

The painting that we knew best at the Gallery was Girl with a Pearl Earring. Here’s an observation about that…..when we visited the Louvre, we were constantly directed to where we could see the Mona Lisa. The impression is that you haven’t been to the Louvre unless you have seen her – even if it’s from 50 metres away, behind security glass and over the heads of the hundreds of other people standing in front of you. The Girl with a Pearl Earring is, arguably, just as famous and yet, in the Dutch way of doing things, you could stand a couple of metres from the painting, take photos of yourself with her, and share the experience with a dozen or so other people. And for a fraction of the cost. Easy.

Not far from The Hague is Delft, famous for the pottery. Back in the day, there were many Delftware potteries dotted all over Holland, but today there is only one remaining and it’s more of a tourist attraction than anything else. We could see the pieces being hand painted and could walk through the workshop. The hand made and hand painted pieces are exorbitantly expensive, and most of what you see in souvenir shops are mass produced. You can imagine our surprise when we found there was a shop on the way to the exit. Will enjoy using my cute little teapot.

Next stop was Gouda (pronounced how-dah – with the ‘h’ sounding like you are trying to cough up a fur ball). During the summer months there is a cheese market on Saturdays but not during a very cold day in December, so we stopped in at the Tourist Info centre and met a very interesting lady who explained to us about the production of the different types of Gouda. So, of course, we bought a couple of samples and managed to lose them somewhere before we got them home. A good excuse for going back there.

We then spent a couple of days in Utrecht. This was suggested by our French teacher who grew up in Holland and went to university in Utrecht. It has been described as a smaller scale of Amsterdam with many canals winding through the city.

We visited the flower market which was quite small, but there were flower stalls dotted around town selling mainly tulips. Would love to see this is peak tulip time. It was just a lovely city to wander around and take it all in.

 

We also visited the Rietveld Schröderhuis, an amazing house in the suburbs that was finished in 1924. It was decades before its time in terms of design, versatility and using open spaces. It is quite small and you must pre-purchase tickets so they can limit numbers of visitors. Everything in the house was custom made, from the different sized windows with matching shutters, furniture (see pic for models on display), even the radiator pipes were designed to be horizontal rather than vertical as the designer thought that looked better.  Every downstairs room had running water (unheard of in 1924) and an external door. Hard to describe but very well worth a visit.

And then there were the bikes. They were everywhere and that seems to be the main form of transport. The towns and cities are really designed for bikes, with plenty of cycle lanes, parking spots for bikes and car free areas. The bikes themselves are nothing special, just basic models that are left out in all sorts of weather. Most cyclists we saw were not specifically riding for exercise or leisure, it was just their way of getting around. And it makes a huge difference to the traffic congestion. I kept taking photos of almost empty roads, hard to believe that these were in some of the biggest cities in Holland during peak times. Admittedly, it was between Christmas and New Year when many people may have been on holiday, but still….

 

Then it was time to head back towards France and we stopped overnight at Bruges (or Brugge/Brugges/whatever) in Belgium. Perfect example of a place that has become a victim of its own popularity. It was very pretty, but crowds were insane.

 

Last stop before we headed home was Lille, in France but just near the French border. Speaking of borders, what a non event. Way back in time, border crossings in Europe meant passport checks, currency exchange and (sometimes) visas. Now it’s like driving from one Australian state to another – a sign saying welcome to ….. and you’re in.

Anyway, Lille was lovely. Town square was still lit up with Christmas decorations still up and gearing up for NYE. We stayed at a beautiful hotel (thanks Lee) and said goodbye to 2018 and an amazing year of travels.

Bonjour till next time

L & M