It's all Orange… or is it all Blue?

Today we’re going to play the colour association game – I’ll say a country and you tell me what colour springs to mind.  Netherlands.  Orange? Blue?  Or some other colour?  For your faithful correspondent it’s absolutely orange all the way however should one ask the same question of his lovely travelling companion the answer is blue and white.  What was your answer?  Having earnestly discussed such important topics the two inhabitants of Harvey have concluded the following.  The difference is… sport!  (yes, of course it is).

You see for me in the orange corner, I’ve grown up watching Dutch teams at the football world cup every 4 years, resplendent in their orange strip. This applies also to other sporting events, more recently a Dutchman by the name of Max Verstappen who is a top Formula 1 motor racing driver.  Every time there is a big football game or home grand prix, all you see in the stands is a sea of orange, vociferously supporting their hero.

However for those for whom sports holds little interest, the colours associated with the Netherlands (so I’ve recently learned) are blue and white.  The reason?  Delft Blue pottery – yep apparently that’s as Dutch as clogs and windmills and therefore, for those less interested in sport, blue becomes the defining colour for this country.  To further complicate matters, the Dutch flag is in fact red, white and blue just like the French except with horizontal stripes and in a different order.

Our first taste of Holland (which we’ve learnt is a subset of The Netherlands, i.e. a couple of provinces but not the whole country) was at Maastricht.  What a lovely town, as usual we found ourselves wandering the cobbled streets and checking things out before finding somewhere to relax for a quiet refreshment.  The lovely Anita actually went in a few hours earlier for a little bit of retail therapy (and time away from Dave therapy 😊) before showing him all the places she had found including cheese shops and such excitement!  Dave was able to amuse himself by publishing the previous edition of this blog and also a cave tour underneath the Fort St Pieter which was well worth the visit.  Hard to believe locals have been quarrying stone there for over 700 years! On the last morning in town we tracked down a flies (pie) shop recommended by friends who knew the area and what a good tip it was – the foodie of the family was certainly delighted to try some local specialities (and not only her I can tell you!).

Following this we had a few days back in Antwerp so our lovely patient could attend medical appointments.  It was really nice to see Tom and Caroline and their family again, they are always hugely hospitable when their kiwi friends pitch up and we were treated to one of Caroline’s specialties, a delicious Flemish stew!  First medical stop was the surgeon, Dr Declercq who was very pleased with the patient’s progress – new x-rays showed the bone was knitting well and range of movement returning.  Tom was kind enough to refer us to a physiotherapist colleague of his who we were able to see twice while in town.  Anne has been just so helpful, fitting us into her busy schedule and designing a treatment programme that allows us to continue travelling.  The patient has around a dozen different exercises to complete each day while Mr Amateur Physiotherapist now has some rudimentary training in a couple of manipulations which are done in Harvey 3 times per week.

All of which means The Travelling Woodies are indeed off again and very excited to have our adventure back on track.  Just up the road from Antwerp is the city of Rotterdam where we found a most interesting parking spot for Harvey.  Take a look at the photo below and you’ll see that his big bum was sticking right out over the water for a couple of nights (our bed in fact).  Good luck to any ratbag who tries to steal these bikes! 😊  Although the weather was rainy and cold for our day visiting the town, there was plenty to explore including a boat trip out on the harbour.  Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe and the sheer scale of it is mind boggling.  To put things in perspective, the Port of Auckland moves around 1 million TEU’s (twenty foot equivalent units) in a year and covers 55 hectares.  Whereas Rotterdam moves around 15 million TEU’s and covers almost 8000 hectares.  It’s a city very much focused around the port and associated industries so the boat trip was a great way to hear about the history and see most of the main landmarks.  Another highlight was a visit to the modern indoor Markthal (marketplace) which is renowned for its architecture and design – the perfect rainy day activity!  Thanks to a recommendation from the local wine bar proprietor the previous evening, we next sampled the local specialty; poffertjes – delicious tiny pancakes smothered in butter and icing sugar (yum yum!)

We hummed and hawed about whether to visit Utrecht and in the end were delighted we’d made the effort for a couple of reasons.  Firstly, it’s a really neat little town – loads of students and bicycles every which way you look!  The unique feature of this town is the main canal which is actually one story below the street level.  This means that you have what could best be described as basement waterside bars and restaurants – such a different concept and a real treat to get amongst.  The second happy reason was an evening catching up with Joren.  You may recall we met a bunch of South African youngsters at the Irish pub in Antwerp for the first test against the springboks a few weeks back.  Well, Joren and I had stayed in touch and it turns out he works in Utrecht and was keen for a catch up so the 3 of us spent a most enjoyable evening at one of the aforementioned basement establishments 😊.

Next stop (and from whence your humble correspondent finds himself faithfully scribing as we speak) is Amsterdam.  Did I mention bicycles earlier?  Netherlands in general and Amsterdam specifically is known as the bicycle capital of the world, but one really can’t comprehend just how many there are until one has seen it.  At the central railway station there are a number of massive multi-story bike parks, but not only there – everywhere you look there are bikes.  The damn things are actually quite a hazard for the uninitiated, they seem to come at you from all sides and you have to be very careful when walking to not inadvertently dawdle into one of the many cycle lanes and get run over!  Amsterdam is everything you would imagine; vibrant, buzzing with atmosphere and a very young demographic (as most of the large cities seem to be).  There are in fact more canals here than in Venice and they form a multi-ring-road type pattern encircling the city – last evening we were wandering around the city around dusk and it was just delightful.

By reputation, Amsterdam is known the happenings after dark and a stroll through the city after dinner found that the smell of marijuana was very much more prevalent than tobacco.  Passing through on our way back to the camp site the red-light district lived up to its billing with many young ladies in shop windows selling their wares and many other questionable offerings available to the throngs of passers-by.

Sadly the Anne Frank museum (which has over 1 million visitors per year) is booked out until next week so we won’t be able to visit one of the main attractions in town.  However as we speak the lovely Anita is off at the Rijksmuseum to get her fill of Van Goghs, Rembrandts and Vermeers and there are some markets we’ll be visiting together later this afternoon.  Your author is looking forward to ‘when in Holland do as the Dutch do’… and shortly will be riding his bicycle into town to get amongst the chaos!  Speaking of bikes and the lovely Anita, today she took the first tentative steps to get back on the horse (or bike as the case may be).  A short ride around the campground proved that the shoulder still isn’t flexible or strong enough just yet however it was encouraging and I’m sure she’ll be back in the saddle again before too many more weeks have passed.

So on that exciting note we shall leave you for the time being and wish you all the best.  In the next week we’ll be ticking over the 6 month mark since the start of AWH – thanks for sharing the journey with us!

With much love!
The Travelling Woodies

canal below street level in Utrecht

Maastricht, map of the more than 200km of tunnels

cave painting of a visit by Napoleon

our favourite pie shop!

house boats in Maastricht... including one brick & tile!

massive sunflowers growing out of a couple of drains!

I only had one beer :-)

Harvey has a big bum!

our boat cruise was on the Abel Tasman - now there's a name we recognise!

Rotterdam canal on a rainy day

Utrecht canal from street level

in The Netherlands there is a chain of stores called New Zealand Auckland. started by a kiwi, around 20 outlets, very nice gear. Who knew!

catching up with our mate Joren

3 story bike park at Amsterdam Centraal 

Amsterdam canals #1

Amsterdam canals #2

Amsterdam canals #3

Amsterdam canals #4

Amsterdam at night

Anita found a bookshop in what was once a church

Harvey at home with the windmills

Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam