Holland

Day 1 London - Holland, Sunday Sept 12

 We woke about 4.30 this morning and just as well we did as we did not end up getting a wake up call.  There was plenty of time to get ready and we headed off, in the dark, to the Trafalgar Centre to meet up with our tour group.  Simon, our tour guide finally arrived and as most of the people, on our tour, stayed at the Holiday  Inn the previous night there were only six of us to be processed and we were very quickly on the bus.

The tour was being lead by Simon Nottingham, a senior tour director for Trafalgar.  The rest was made up with the bus driver and 48 tourists comprising of 6 New Zealanders (4 from Wellington, 2 from Auckland), 6 Australians, 2 families of Asians (8 in total), a couple from South Africa and the rest were Canadian or Americans.  The age range was from 12 - 88 years.

We were soon on our way traveling through  the South of London, reaching the terminal early to catch the ferry (Pride of Burgundy) over the English Channel to Calais in France.  This took about 1 1/2 hours but was a calm trip and we were able get wonderful views of  The White Cliffs of Dover.  It was a brilliantly clear day so they looked amazing.  These cliffs were very significant as a landmark for the soldiers returning to England, during war times, as they realised they were nearly home.

 We met our first friends very quickly, Wendy & Alward from South Africa.  Chris got up-graded to being Doctor, which stuck throughout the trip. (All he did was open up a camera and turn the heart of it - battery- around the right way!  He was named after the South African brain surgeon and many of the people on the tour believed it for awhile!!

We left the ferry and traveled through France then Belgium, where we stopped for lunch. The journey took us through quite different country while traveling through the Netherlands (Holland) and we saw a number of beautiful windmills, all individual in character. The highways were 3/4 lines wide on each side and  30 feet below sea level. In Holland they drive on the opposite side of the road to New Zealand. About mid afternoon we arrived  in Amsterdam and went straight onto a canal / harbour / river cruise.  This took about 2 hours of cruising through the many canals seeing some amazing sites.  The houses are all tightly built packed in together and are supporting each other.  If one house was removed the rest would fall over like dominoes.

There are many boat houses along the canals which are all decorated with their own theme and character.  Some are very up market but others show real signs of poverty.  There are very few cars in Amsterdam due  to the high population per land mass so everyone rides bicycles.  Along the canals there are bicycle parking buildings, not car parks.  I wonder how you find your cycle amongst all of those?          

The old buildings and walls are made of tiny bricks, supporting the many bridges we passed under which cross over the endless man-made canals.
At conclusion of the cruise we walked to the 400+ year old Haessje Claes Restaurant which, many years ago, was the home of a Dutch sailor.  We were served a traditional Dutch meal and drinks which was different and didn't entirely agree with my stomach, or maybe I was just tired.We then went for a night walk to the Anne Frank memorial and the 'Red Night' area.  Smoking 'Pot' in Amsterdam is legal and it was very potent in the air, hence,is sold in lots of shops.

As our accommodation in Amsterdam had been double booked so we drove back to Hague, arriving at the Novotel Hotel about 10p.m.  We were all very tired but had seen so much and met so many nice people on the first day of what stacks up to be be a very fast pace but educational tour, especially with the wealth of knowledge Simon expresses.