HOLLAND AND DENMARK

Hi again! We are now reunited with Noah, who was not part of the first leg of this trip in France and Belgium. He was on a 4-week canoe trip up to James Bay instead! So RAAD became RANAD once again on a train platform in Brussels. Of course we provided Noah with a care package of chocolates from Belgium and then we all hopped on the next train to Amsterdam.

In both Amsterdam and Copenhagen, we rented bikes to use for transportation. This allowed us to see a much broader range of both cities, and to get out of the city for a day in each. The bike lanes in both cities are really everywhere. We all had to get comfortable with bike traffic, merging and changing lanes, as well as keeping up with the pace in the bike lanes. On a couple of times we got yelled at, and in particular in Copenhagen on the last day, Rob got yelled at for passing someone too slowly. Oops.

Of note, in Copenhagen, the traffic lights are timed for the cyclists, so that you really do have to keep up with the pace so that you can keep getting the green lights (and not piss the other riders off).

In Holland, we cycled up to Edam…yep, like the cheese – all on bike routes that are extremely well marked. We were able to take an alternate route back that had us cycling on a 10 km dyke next to the sea. Beautiful! We saw lots of windmills along the way – the modern kind.

In town, a couple of locals had told us about this brewery (Brouwerij) on the edge of town (and on the ride back to our apartment). There we stopped for amazing beer, sheep’s cheese and ox sausage!

On another occasion, on the recommendation of our friends Steve and Sandy, we stopped off for pannenkoeken (pancakes….actually more like crepes if you ask us) one evening for dinner just before we headed over to the Anne Frank House.


Of course the Anne Frank house was very moving. They have done a beautiful job of conveying a very sad and disturbing story. In parts it’s a bit sparse, but this is in part to honour the wishes of Otto Frank, Anne’s father, but it also allows one to focus more on the personal story and not overwhelm most people, particularly those who might be new to the information.

Last thoughts on our time in Amsterdam – we took a great walking tour to get some of the history and checked out the Van Gough museum, another sad story. We trekked through the red light district a few times but did not have any of the “coffee” in the “coffee shops” while we were there. We know some of you might be disappointed, and for that we are truly sorry. For those who don’t know what we are talking about, uhhhh, think Amsterdam…..??

Next we flew from Amsterdam to Copenhagen, but not without getting into some trouble first. We were in row 5 and early to board the plane. Suddenly an announcement came over the PA system asking passengers to be seated once they found their assigned seats, and then specified, “Would the gentleman in aisle 5, please be a darling and sit down and stop stowing away his baggage, so other people can get on the plane.” It turns out the darling he was talking to was Rob.

In the state of Denmark, nothing was rotten (#shameless Shakespeare reference). And we all agreed, the people are really quite striking. We cycled through Copenhagen (after another amazing walking tour to get the history etc.). On the second day there we went to a neighbourhood called Christiania, a hippie commune started in the 1970s in an abandoned military post and around a small lake.

A few of the rather makeshift buildings there were covered with grass for insulation; there was a market-place with a lot of crafty stuff, and aging hippies at the cafes. There are two rules in Christiania: No photographs and no running. The no photographs made sense….too many marijuana deals going on. As for no running, we can’t figure that one out…safety conscious hippies?

On our last day in Denmark we cycled to a small fishing village south of the city, called Dragør, which was apparently one of the coastal towns involved in the saving of over 95% of Denmark’s Jews during the Holocaust. They were smuggled across the straight to Sweden in fishing boats and various crafts. From Dragør we had a clear view of the new bridge to Sweden.

We took an overnight ferry out of Copenhagen to Oslo – also not without getting into some trouble. Aviva decided to pass some of her time aboard the ship doing a mock business presentation in the conference room. She wrote pie charts and time lines all over a magic board when suddenly one of the head honchos came in and scolded Aviva (and Diane, an innocent bystander).

Latest pet peeves:
1. It started in Belgium (we first noticed this in a restaurant in Brugges, when we met up with our friends James and Laurie for dinner), and continued in Holland and Denmark. Namely, when in a restaurant, servers refuse to give you tap water, forcing you to purchase bottled water or some other beverage. At least in Holland, once you buy a beverage, they will give you tap water, but in Denmark, one server told us, “I don’t sell tap water!” We told her we didn’t need to buy it, she could just give it to us….she declined.
2. Also to do with water – why do some Europeans still insist on showers with no curtain/door??! In Holland and in Normandy our apartments did not have any way to keep the shower water from spraying literally all over the washroom. Even when they do provide an enclosure, the shower floor is flush with the rest of the WC, so the water seeps out all over the floor. At least, they provided a squeegee so I guess you get to clean yourself and the WC – a sort of 2 for 1.
Our conclusion…in North America, we’re spoiled when it comes to how we handle water.
So next stop, Oslo, or as they say in Hamlet in a minute, “Norway’s taking over this bitch!”

Love,
RANAD