We had the most wonderful time with Anneke and Els who received us with open arms and made us feel so completely welcome as they dropped everything and focused their energy on taking care of us. We had a wonderful afternoon sipping wine in the sunshine on the garden patio of Wim’s amazing estate home. Walking through the streets of Hillegom we experienced Oma’s old neighbourhood and even visited their childhood family home. We had a great day exploring “The Hague” with Add providing the expert driving and tour guide services. The Hague is a very sophisticated and fascinating international city that really did impress us. We had a quick visit to the new King’s (Willem-Alexander) palace and even saw the Prime Minister (Mark Rutte) give an official send-off to a German dignitary at the Binnenhof Castle (Home of the Dutch Parliament). We ate “bitter ballen” and “salted herring” on this day, but not at the same time; both were new and tasty experiences. The next day we had tea and treats with Hedy and her son Jan in their beautiful family home near The Hague. Once again we were received as family and treated with such warm hospitality that we felt immediately at home. We had such a wonderful experience these last few days, we only wish that we could have shared this special time in Holland with Oma, Bob, Katie, Lia and Cam. It has been such a privilege getting to know this side of our new family in Holland, I hope that someday soon we get the opportunity to reciprocate their kindness in Victoria.

I don’t think we wasted a moment of our time in Amsterdam. Our Hotel was in the most central location possible and when we weren’t chasing down an activity we were wandering through the lively streets, alleys and cannel’s of old Amsterdam. Just walking about is great entertainment in this city and absorbing all the activity and beauty becomes a challenge in itself. We did take-in a few choice activities that all turned out to be well worth the time commitment. We spent the better part of a day going through the famous “Rijks Museum” and actually coming close to doing justice to about sixty percent of it. We took a trip to the “Keukenhof” gardens that’s open only during the tulip season and it truly is a large and magnificent display of tulip flowers. Our cannel boat trip was fun, educational, and a great way to spend some time on a rainy day. Anne Frank’s house turned out to be a surprise for me. First, just getting in was a challenge, unless you really like standing in long lines. We went during the dinner hour and the lineup was somewhat reduced. It truly is a remarkable story of courage and strength and it does take on a stronger sense of reality when standing in the secret rooms where Anne wrote her diary and this family hid from the Nazi’s for two years. One of my favourite activities was the early morning trip we took to the amazing 100 year old “FloraHolland” flower market. This is the largest flower auction on earth and it supplies much of the world with fresh flowers 365 days a year. It’s massive and looking down on the huge and efficient shipping and receiving operation reminded me of watching worker ants with important missions scurrying about on an ant hill. If the buyer and seller are at opposite ends of the complex, a 15 kilometre overhead conveyer delivers the large flower wagons for them. Can’t imagine what the day before Mother’s Day would look like in this place. The red light district was also impressive and entertaining in a different kind of way, but I’ll leave that one to your imagination. Bicycles, bicycles and more bicycles. Bicycle parades! Everyone seems to ride bikes and use public transportation which gets you anywhere quickly and efficiently. Unless you mess-up. When returning to our campground we got off the train with our big bags and asked a very nice bus driver for instructions. Trying to be helpful, he dropped us off at a golf course that we tried to describe to him. The problem was, there were two golf courses in the area. Of course it was the wrong one and now we found ourselves quite a distance away from “home” without any further bus services for the night. Not many people were still around the club but two young golfers spotted us and when they realized our predicament, without hesitation, they offered us a ride. With golf clubs and travel bags packed to the roof we all squeezed into their small car and they drove us all the way to our campground where they wouldn’t even consider compensation for their efforts, Real gentlemen, and for some reason, they made us think of Cam.

Everything  went according to plan as we met-up with Bert and Camilla at the friendly “Amsterdam Hotel” just a stone’s through from Dam Square and a short walk from the main central train station. This hotel is just across the street from the park where Bert and I bought our old VW van in 1972. In that van we traveled all over Europe together with me at the wheel and Bert expertly navigating an impossible road network long before the days of GPS. Here in Amsterdam we forged many great memories and now 42 years later we get the opportunity to share some of them with Margot and Camilla while adding even more to that collection. Thank you Bert and Camilla for flying all the way from Edmonton to make this reunion happen.

We’ve left Germany (for now) and entered beautiful Holland where we’ll be meeting up with our dear friends Bert & Camilla who will be flying over from Edmonton. In 1972 Bert and I bought a VW van in Amsterdam and travelled 18 European countries together. Now, 42 years later, this will indeed be a very special reunion for us. It will be a wonderful opportunity for the four of us to have some quality time together creating new memories and sharing a few more glasses of smooth Heineken beer without having to worry about the bar tab this time.
We are also really looking forward to touching base with more of our new Dutch family members via Anneke and Els whom we got to know at Cam and Lia’s wedding last summer. Having an opportunity to explore some of the local area where dear Oma spent her early years will be a fun experience too. We do plan on being in Holland for some time but over the next week or so our focus will be on exploring Amsterdam with Bert and Camilla and therefore my blog will be put on hold for a bit. Hope to have some good pictures and stories when we’re back on-line.

On the “blogging” road for two months now and I’m already running out of adjectives to describe the incredible beauty of what we’ve experienced. I read that the Heidelberg Castle ruins were worth seeing… what an understatement. We were taken by surprise and completely blown away with the impressive remains of this 13th century gothic castle. It’s picturesque setting is perched above the old town which happens to be the location of Germany’s first University.  We usually try and limit our photo taking but Heidelberg is so impressive we completely lost our shutter control. We had a traditional meal in the village before settling down for the night beside the beautiful  and busy river Neckar. The next day we hooked up with the Rhine river and stopped for the night in a place called Andernach. Again, our travel books didn’t even mention this medieval gem with it’s high stone walls. Kathy, you and Blaine need to drop everything and bring your bicycles here. You can ride this fascinating river valley on designated bike paths and at the end of your day have a great choice of food and lodging. You may want to consider this trip for the Fall when every little Rhine town celebrates with a local wine festival. Driving into Cologne we once again scored a great camping spot right on the Rhine river. This area has roots that date as far back as the Roman occupation. We boarded a small river ferry to the city centre and there visited the famous Cologne Cathedral. We actually managed to climb all 509 steps to the observation deck of the right tower, just as surprising, we paid for the privilege. Personally speaking, I think the rooftop view of the Cathedral itself was more fascinating than the city scape vista.
We’re still having SIM card and campground WiFi issues. Discovering that 1GB of data disappears very quickly when blogging and using FaceTime.  Download speeds are usually terrible and data caps are very common so I’m really missing my high speed cable connection at home.

While I still have some semi-reliable access to the internet I thought I would slip in a quick post for some of my car enthusiast friends. Today we planned on a quick visit to the Mercedes-Benz Museum and ended up spending most of the day there despite the fact that we were rushing ourselves. I’m sorry to say Brad and Cam, and all the other BMW fans in the crowd, that the magnificent “sales centre” BMW Museum in Munich doesn’t hold a match to the “true blue” automobile Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart. Yes, we did have to pay a few Euros to get into this amazing building, but with audio guide in hand we spiralled our way down 7 floors strolling through Mercedes history from the first gas engines and vehicles to run on land, water and in the air to countless other automotive exhibits. Enjoyed a close look at the first motorcycle ever built. This truly is a wonderful museum with priceless pieces of art and technology at every step of the way. Most of the day, I was thinking of how much my good friends Rhys and Marcel would have enjoyed this visit. For any car buff this museum is a great destination, for a Mercedes car buff… this is Mecca. Stuttgart is where Benz and Daimler pioneered and built the first automobiles in1886 so Mercedes roots run very deep here and seemingly dominate the entire area from manufacturing to sports and leisure. I have included a shot of the Mercedes Arena taken through the shaded window glass inside the museum, unfortunately you can’t see the Porsche Arena beside it. It may sound like this place is all cars and nothing else, but in fact I know Stuttgart has many other attributes, I just can’t see past the cars… sorry.  If you look closely at the picture of our camping site, you will notice the banked concrete curve of the Mercedes test track only meters away… Cool!

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Salzburg was fantastic. From the moment we pulled into the well named “Panorama Campground” we knew that Salzburg was going to be special. The weather was perfect on our arrival with a cloudless blue sky and white capped Alps that framed the city like a beautiful painting. Mozart’s old home town was smaller then expected which seemed to promote a more cozy and intimate atmosphere. But, as we discovered later, the true splendour of Salzburg became crystal clear when we rode the old cog-train to the top of castle hill. The castle stands gloriously on a sliver of rock that overlooks and separates Salzburg into two main parts.  We’re not sure if we have ever seen a more spectacular view or setting. This castle was started in 1077 and was never forcefully breached by an enemy until it was surrendered to Napoleon in 1800 without a battle. You can easily see why this castle was considered virtually impregnable when looking “way-down” from it’s imposing fortress towers and walls. A fantastic medieval castle with breathtaking 360 degree views around, above, and below. Impossible to capture the grandeur of this place in a single photograph but It has been said that this is one of the most beautiful vistas on earth and we could easily be convinced of that. If you do go to Salzburg, you must visit the castle.  Just behind our campground we found the most incredible Bavarian style B&B (Rauchenbichlgut) with a traditional restaurant so we decided to give it a try. We got back to “BrumaRV” rather late in the evening but we had such a fantastic time. The very Bavarian atmosphere, wonderful local friendlies and a delicious 4 course home cooked meal all combined to make this our second most memorable meal so far (First prize to our Valentines Day fondue). Onward toward Munich, but Salzburg will be very hard to leave behind. 

If you’re looking for fashionable shopping, fancy cafe’s, fantastic museums, opera and theatre all wrapped up in some amazing architecture, then Vienna is definitely the place for you. A more refined and polished atmosphere by comparison to Prague but in our opinion, at the expense of some earthy personality. Great shops, great streets, great buildings and great branding… with prices to match all that grandeur. We did a lot of walking and exploring and found lots to do in our 3 days including a trip to the opera on our first night. I would love to report that we got all dressed up and sat in wonderful comfortable seats, but that would be stretching the truth just a bit too far. On our subway ride into Vienna we got talking to a wonderful young lad from Argentina that was on vacation with his family and he told us about the best deal in Vienna. It turns out that the renowned Vienna Opera House puts aside about 400 “standing room only” spaces for the jaw dropping price of 4 Euros (about $6) 90 minutes before each evenings performance. Considering that some legitimate opera patrons can pay 200+ Euros for a performance that sell out months in advance, how could we turn our backs on such an opportunity. We got in line for our tickets about 2 hours before the show and then ultimately stood for the entire 3 hour production of “Eugene Onegin” (A Russian Opera). I know it sounds like torture (the standing part) but the fact is we sat and visited and the time went by very quickly with virtually zero pain. Our actual viewing location, with it’s padded leaning rails, was fantastically located on the main level, dead centre of the house about 20 rows back. All-in-all, it was great fun and a great experience that we will never forget. The grand tour of the Royal Hofburg Palace with all it’s splendour was a wonderful way to spend the better part of a day. Topping the day off, Margot got her chance to take her mom’s advice and sample authentic, world famous, “Chocolate Sacher Torte” from the actual Cafe Sacher where it was invented in 1832. Off we go to Salzburg.

As we approached the Czech Republic we wondered what we’d find considering it was only in the 90’s that this country stepped through the “Iron Curtain”. What we discovered in downtown Prague was an eclectic mix of old and new where capitalism is thriving. There appears to be no apparent shortage of brand name establishments with willing spenders to fill them. But, as we left the central core of the city, our overall impression deteriorated slightly when driving through some well worn outer industrial areas surrounded by some obviously depressed neighbourhoods. I think however, the Czech Republic will very soon be “nose-to-nose” with some of their more highly developed neighbours to the West. We spent our last full day in old town exploring the Royal Palace and sampling some of the local cuisine before packing it in. On Thursday our drive along the secondary roads towards Vienna took us through some very beautiful countryside and farmland.