What’s this?
I cycled past this today. It’s the weirdest bug I’ve ever seen
Amsterdam: city centre
We went into the city centre today. Man it was so busy. I guess I always thought Amsterdam would be a chilled out place but it’s like a street party or something here. I think with it being Saturday and the weather being nice probably made it a bit more chaotic. It’s pretty easy to…
Amsterdam
We arrived in Amsterdam tonight. Cycled around 60km or so in the blazing sunshine. We were greeted by a dude hanging out the first floor window – Nat, who has kindly let us stay here in his student appartment for a few days. It’s nice not sleeping in a tent!
Us? Camping? Never.
Cycled just south of Leiden last night. Found a little deserted car park with a little wooded area just off a back road and pitched our tent.Cooked dinner and just about to eat when this police car came round the corner into the car park where we were sitting. They both came up to us…
The Hague: the most photographed building
Popped by the Peace Palace this morning, it’s the most photographed building in The Hague, so I thought I would join in. The guided tours weren’t running which is a shame cause I kinda wanted to see inside. We went to see the Panorama Mesdag instead. This guy, William Mesdag, painted 360 degrees around, 14…
The Hague: a tower view
Cycled from our luxurious campsite to Den Haag (The Hague) today. Probably only took an hour to get to the hostel, Yorplace. Nice wee place though. It’s like a surfer dude place, where people walk around in sandals and talk really slow. It took me a while to move from the free massage chairs. After some…
Delft
Visited the small town of Delft today, about 10-15km South-East from the centre of The Hague. It’s a lovely looking place, and some of the buildings were spectacular. Canals criss cross the city, lined with narrow cobbled roads and little back lanes. Like everywhere in Holland, bikes dominate. We really struggled to find somewhere to camp tonight.…
Finally some touring
Today Owen and I finally hit the road, said goodbye to Rotterdam and got some cycling done outside the city. It was only 25km or so from Rotterdam to Delft, including getting lost. Was good to actually get some miles down though. When you start a tour and your still in the same place 5 days…
Meditation
This was a nice gathering in the park next to the Boijman’s Museum. I’ve never done anything like this before but it was quite good. I can’t say I felt enlightened or anything but I definitely felt more chilled out. I did burst out laughing when everyone started humming in tune. After we sang a…
The end of DEAF, the end of free food.
DEAF, or the Dutch Electronic Arts Festival was great. There was so much going on there it would be impossible to write it all down. The exhibition hall, where most of the volunteers worked wasn’t busy today so we had time to look round all the exhibits for free. There was one which I found…
Wild Camping
Wild camping in The Netherlands is illegal (90 Euro fine). So you do need to pick your spots. I can only afford to stay in hostels some of the time and couch surfing only goes so far so inevitably, I need to camp at some point. I do feel bad about dodging the ‘tourist tax’ (do…
A Job in 24 hours
Well a job of sorts. Owen took me to where he had been volunteering today – The Dutch Electronic Arts Feastival, or DEAF – as it turns out they were looking for more staff. So they put me on the till and information point, which is funny because I don’t speak the language. Not only…
Hello Rotterdam
Stayed in the hostel ‘ROOM‘ tonight and man, what a place. At first I thought it was a bit boring. Probably because I was in a room full of French people that refused to speak English. But after a drink at the bar, I think the staff took pity on me and invited me out…
Ferry to Holland
If your looking for a cheap way from London to Amsterdam or Rotterdam, Stena Line do a rail and sail deal for £39 plus £4 for a bike here. The ferry has free wifi, reasonably priced bars and a bunch of other stuff like a casino, cinema and restaurants.
Leaving Home
Five hours on a train is enough time to get settled into the idea of not settling for a few months. Especially the last 20 minutes of the journey I spent sitting at the station, trapped on the train, because I couldn’t lift all my bags from the luggage rack to the door before they…