June 2000 (My first letter home to Australia)

Went to the Kroller Muller museum and it was really good. I saw a lot of famous Vincent Van Gogh Paintings and it was fabulous. They had works there by other Dutch painters and sculptures too and also a couple of Renoir and a Pablo Picasso. The museum is set in a National Park and at the gate you can choose to walk, drive, or ride one of the free 1000 bicycles to the museum which is a distance of 9km each way. We rode bicycles and it nearly killed me. I was so sore by the end of the day but great exercise I suppose. The National Park is absolutely beautiful and all the trees are covered in moss. It really took my breath away. The air was so crisp and clean too. It was incredible.
Also went to the zoo which is unlike any zoo in Australia. They try to have the animals in a wild environment as much as possible and you view them from walkways. This is how they had the giraffes, rhino’s, zebras, etc and in 2 separate wild enclosure were the cheetahs and the lions. They also have this huge closed in domed area which has been set up like a real bush or rainforest area and in there are otters, dugong and that sort of thing and the birds fly free around your head including flamingo’s. Off to the sides are a couple of smaller halls. One is an ocean environment and it is totally amazing how they have set it up to be exactly like the ocean for the fish and you view it all through glass. The other hall is a desert environment where they have wild boars, rattle snakes etc although of course they cant get to you. However the birds can and there is even a vulture flying around your head. It was magnificent. That day was very wet and averaged 12 degrees all day so I didnt get to see all the normal zoo part. It poured down all day.

Apart from the zoo and the museum, I haven’t done a lot of sightseeing yet apart from visiting a few towns and looking around the shops. I love looking at the buildings. I walked into the shopping part of the village here and bought a couple of things for myself. I even asked the grocer about pumpkin in Dutch (pronounced pompoon). I don’t think it is possible to get it at all in Holland and I am really amazed about that. I was very proud of my solo outing. I have driven a few times and what an experience that was. I continually felt like I was in the wrong place and it was very scary. I am getting quite used to the driving now though but haven’t ventured further than the nearby town which is 10 minutes away by myself. Went to a farmer’s shop that sold pet rabbits. They were gorgeous. I liked the black ones with floppy ears. Oh yes, and they do sell wooden clogs everywhere. In the hardware stores, at service stations, etc. Apparently farmers still wear them and they are supposed to be good for you to wear them. Have also been over the border to Belgium. The borders don’t exist here anymore and you can go to any country whenever you like with nobody to stop you. All that marks the borders now is a post that is permanently up and a sign that tells you that you have now entered that country. In Belgium, you immediately see a difference in the house styles and everything.

The TV here is excellent. They have satellite TV with a lot of the stations that Australia gets on pay TV including MTV etc. The shows are mostly shown in English too with Dutch subtitles. Except the ones from the German stations that is. The Germans like to dub over the shows in German. I was watching some of Home Improvement before that had been dubbed in German and it is not good. What is good though is that here they have at least one of the Star Trek shows on every day of the week. That I really like.

There was a very, very hot spell and I hate the heat. I usually look forward to winter coming and instead I got a double summer. Apparently you are lucky to get 10 days like that in a whole summer usually. I hope that is true of this summer although it was apparently the hottest June for 100 years here in Holland. I think I brought Australia’s climate with me. However, the past couple of weeks have been true to form with very cold, wet, windy, miserable weather J It was perfect weather for my trip to the coast. I had the most terrific time. First I went to Middelburg which is the town where my boss comes from. It was so beautiful. And the trip also happened to coincide with an annual festival in the town. I was so lucky. I got there and there were rides and all the stores had their wares displayed on the street and there were heaps of fresh produce. In the surroundings you could almost imagine stepping back in time and I was totally fascinated. First I went right past the town hall, which was the oldest building I had ever seen, and it left me breathless. It looked like something out of a fairy tale book. I took some pictures and walked on through the markets coming out at the old building I had heard so much about which is a well-known monument of the town. That was Long John. It is this huge clock tower and you can climb the 400 and something meters to half way up and have a look out over the town but I opted out for that walk J. Walked through the attached church and that and I just had to put my palm against the wall cause I couldn’t comprehend the age. The place was over 800 years old and the oldest thing I had seen in my life. Walked through to the courtyard and I just stood in awe thinking of the people that walked those corridors and around the courtyard all those years ago. This is exactly what I had wanted to see in Europe. Inside the building there is also graves in the floor of important city officials. It was amazing. Had lunch then at this terrific little terrace cafe where the cafe is on the other side of the road and you are sitting in the square. It was fabulous and lunch was delicious too. Unfortunately, just about everywhere you go has a time limit and parking meter and the parking attendants are on the ball so we only got the maximum 2 hours in this town and I was so disappointed.After Middelburg I went to this really old little fishing village called Veere and on our way through the town, noticed an old fisherman in his overalls and wearing his wooden clogs. Yes the old farmers, etc really do wear the clogs. Also saw some women in traditional costume and the old building here were just as beautiful and fabulous but I did not enjoy this town as much because it had been so modernised. All the old fishing vessels and the culture of the town had made way for yachts and tourists. The town is situated on a part of the ocean that the Dutch have closed off at both ends with a dyke and it has now become a massive freshwater lake. It is amazing some of the things the Dutch engineers have done. Absolutely incredible. Sat for a while on the grassy hill beside the lake and looked at all the old buildings and cobblestone roads on one side and the hundreds of sailing vessels on the lake on the other side. It was really beautiful but I still feel sad that a lot of the town’s history has gone. I also saw the biggest seagulls I had ever seen. They are huge here.

Then it was time to move on to the next island which is a totally man made island with a museum about the dykes and all the machinery but we didn’t have time to see the museum, just a quick look around the island. Apparently there is a boat trip included in the museum so planning on going back another time. After that, to Zierikzee which was another wonderful place. Managed to get free parking which is pretty unusual over here and walked up towards the centre of town and this place was real history in the centre of town with its very narrow cobblestone streets and the markets in the streets here also. These are streets that are too narrow to drive down and you can only walk through them. Stopped at this great little cafe with no other customers and ordered pancakes with strawberries and icing sugar. When they arrived I was dumbfounded. The pancakes were the size of a normal pizza on a plate exactly the same size. On top was 2 big scoops of cream, a pile of strawberries and heaps of icing sugar and it was also served with a bowl of ice cream. I was so, so, so full by the time I managed to get through them that I didn’t eat dinner that night. They were as tasty as they looked and as tasty as they sound. Went for a bit of a look around after eating and this woman came up and was pointing out all the good historic sites to see but of course everything was now shut as it was about 6pm. It is still broad daylight here till about 10pm.

On the way home I drove for a lot of the 2 hour trip along the highways and I did pretty good too. That is another thing you have to pay for over here. It is one guilder every time you use a shopping trolley but you get that back when you return the trolley. However you don’t get back the 25 cents you have to often tip when you use a public toilet. You have to leave your quarter coin on the plate. First time I had to do this was at the zoo. Absolutely everything costs here.

Went into Weert the other day and I saw my first real big shopping centre here. A shopping centre as we know it, which I was beginning to think, didn’t exist over here. I got a heap of postcards from Weert. One thing I have noticed here is that there are very few overweight people, they are all skinny and there are also no fast food shops. The one and only fast food shop I have seen is McDonalds and they are few and far between. I am still to find a KFC, Red Rooster, Sizzler, Subway, Pizza Hut, Dominos, Eagle Boys or any other fast food of any kind. Apart from McDonalds and a few cafes or snack bars, they just don’t exist here. The Dutch prefer to eat at home. I am told there is a couple in the major cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam but I am yet to see them. Oh, and the chocolate milk drinks and chocolate milkshakes taste very different and I am not sure I like them at all. And everywhere you go you are surrounded by bicycles or scooters. The traffic lights here have three go lights for pedestrians, scooters and bicycles. The bicycles also have their own lanes in the middle of the road. It is amazing and it terrifies me a bit when I am driving. They also have their own little traffic lights joined to the main ones. Absolutely everyone rides a push bike over here.