Netherlands

Firstly I must thank Soren for the loan of his train discount card! It saved me a load of money, and was definitely appreciated!

Hurdegaryp, in case you haven´t heard of it (!) is a small town of about 2000 people to the west of Leeuwarden in the north of the Netherlands. It´s in the middle of Fryslan, the only semi-autonomous province in the Netherlands. English is almost entirely understood, but very rarely spoken. All the street signs are bilingual - Dutch and Fryslan.

And so it was that I was picked up at Hurdegaryp station by Duurt (a friend I met in Singapore). We dropped off all my stuff and headed into Gronigen´- the ´big town´ 45min drive away that DJ, Jelle and Oscar all study at. Gronigen is known as the largest town in the north of the country, and has an impressive bell tower that looms over the rest of the city. This tower, known as Martini Tower, was our first stop before grabbing some chips (fries with mayonnaise are fantastic here!) and meeting Oscar and Jelle for dinner. It´s been a long time since I last caught up with these three - over a year - so it was great to relive old memories!

The next day Duurt and I cycled to Leeuwarden - about a 20km roundtrip I think. This was the first time I had cycled in probably 10 years, and boy did I feel it the next day!! Oh, and I had muesli for brekkie. That might not sound that amazing, but I really dislike muesli back home, but this stuff was sooo good. I think it was a home-blend though, so I can´t exactly bring any home with me

Once in Leeuwarden, Duurt and I rode all around town (it´s not exactly huge!) and visited the Freis Museum - the Fryslan national museum. It´s dedicated to preserving the Freis culture and has excellent exhibits on all the unique aspects of their history - like the Terps. The Terps are the old-style villages that used to exist here, and cover a large area. Now they account for the many small hills in Leeuwarden, having been covered over in the 2000 years since they were last used.

After a quick drive to the coast for an amazing sunset (my first real sunset in a long time actually) it was time to say farewell to Duurt and his family. Thanks again for having me, and for being so generous as to let me stay in the caravan (!! - believe it or not the first time I have ever stayed in one!). And Happy Birthday again to Duurt´s mum for August 3.

PS: For photos of Hurdegaryp, Leeuwarden and Groningen, click here

As seems to be normal when I´m left alone I didn´t leave the house till 11am this morning! Not that it mattered when everything is so close by.

I walked to the Rijksmuseum, and having pre-purchased my ticket online (Thanks Nat!) I bypassed the enormous queue and went straight in. I´m not a huge fan of art galleries - personally I find them tedious - but this one was fantastic. Partly because it was small (only one wing is currently open) but predominantly because the layout is not by artist, but rather historically/thematically. Thus the paintings had context and were much better for it, IMHO.

After lunch at Museumplein, the big square outside the Rijks- and Van Gogh Museums, I headed into town for the Amsterdam Historische Museum (AHM) to find out more about the town´s past. It´s a fascinating story, revolving mostly around the canals and land reclamation. In that regard Amsterdam shares a lot with Singapore. The most interesting part of that museum for me though was the Anne Frank exhibition. AHM isn´t the Anne Frank House, so the focus was instead on her letters and in particular those ones that didn´t make the book. They gave a great insight into life for Dutch Jews before WW2 broke out.

The final museum I visited was the Church Museum, located in a secret Catholic Church in the middle of Amsterdam´s infamous Red Light District. The District itself is one of those things visitors kinda have to do, but I did it begrudingly. Along with many Dutch I see it as a sad inditement on society that such a place continues to exist. I guess every city has its ugly side, but for it to be a tourist attraction is kinda wrong. And it´s just so ... well ... public. Everything, and I mean everything, is on display.

But onto the Church Museum - built when practicing Catholicism was banned in the Netherlands, it´s an amazing display of ingenuity under pressure, and well worth a visit.

My final touristy act in Amsterdam was to take one of the ubiqituous canal tours, which was surprisingly good. The commentary, in true Dutch style, was quad-lingual with English coming last. Thus when we were told about things, they were usually past us!

And there you have it, Amsterdam in two days without once visiting a ´cafe´ or getting stoned!

PS: For photos of Amsterdam, click here

After a fantastic breakfast of Old Amsterdam Cheese and jasmine tea, Nathalie and I headed into the centre of town to go exploring. Soren was meant to join us, but he unfortunately has loads of work to do at University in Delft.

It took me all day to get my bearings, but I think they are slowly improving - there are loads of winding roads all throughout the city and it is mighty confusing navigating them all! Thank goodness I have Nathalie as a host, or I think I'd just resort to using cabs everywhere! Add to that the nonsense that is driving on the right hand side of the road, and you've got a recipe for disaster! But luckily nothing happened and all is well

The first stop was Foam - the Photographic Museum in Amsterdam. It first appears to be quite small, but opens up into a huge space with a great courtyard cafe. Really interesting exhibitions, including one about a Belgian neo-Nazi and another involving what we hope are dummies of stillborn babies in test tubes. Creepy stuff. The most important exhibition though was of colour and b&w photos from the 1930s Depression in America. The juxtaposition of colour and b&w is amazing - even though the photos are of the same people, you immediately feel as if the family in the b&w photo are poorer. Interesting, huh?

The 2nd museum was one that was recommended by my cousin Andrea and was the Versetsmuseum (Dutch Resistance Museum). The ongoing theme in the Netherlands with regards to the war is one of positivity - 'look how we undermined the enemy'. Quite an interesting stance, really. The most interesting section was on the various methods of 'resistance' - ending with an essentially unanswerable question: what constitutes 'resistance'?

The rest of the day was spent walked around the Artis area (and watching a crisps commercial being filmed), the Munt, Dam, Liedseplein and Vondelpark - essentially the rest of the city centre.

Slowly but surely it's all making sense!