Amsterdam

Nikki and Vivie went off to the Rijksmuseum this morning. I had already been two years ago, so I decided to have a morning where I kept my foot up. The walking around Matera meant that it was still really swollen, It doesn't help that I have a piece of glass in it as well which I can't get out. So I caught up on my blog and did some research on Sicily - my next port of call!

Nik and Viv came back at midday, so we then caught the Metro to Ikea. Went mad in Ikea, I wish they had that store in New Zealand. After a couple of hours wandering lost in the store, we made it back to the hotel to drop off the shopping, then walked to the windmill brewery.  A very pleasant walk along the canals...

This is the Botanical Gardens over the road from the hotel. We are paying it a visit tomorrow...

 We found some Herons... Birding with my cellphone. I'll be taking my big camera over to this canal in the morning!

We also found some Pink Flamingos!  The zoo is just round the corner from the hotel as well!

Amsterdam even has a Tyrannosaurus Rex...

Quite a lovely walk really...

Our destination - the Windmill Brewery. I ordered a Wit Beer, the only beer I really like.

Others were more adventurous... From left - Erin my nice, Sue, Anne and my Mum.  I don't think she drank any beer but I can't be sure, I was too busy finishing mine!

We then took the Uber taxi to the Amstedam Pancake House. Here are all the Carter Clan in one long table... The Carters, The Carters, The Carters and the Carters. Way too many to count on one hand!

Once we had finished our pancakes (I had the Spinach, pinenuts, olive and Feta), we then walked back to the Hotel. Having a quiet night in preparation for the big night tomorrow night!

Exploring Amsterdam - Day 2

Today we were once again a bit slow in the morning.  Steven, Nikki and I took a Uber to the Microbes Museum after breakfast - which ended up around 11.30am!  The Microbes Museum or Micropia was fascinating. We spent a couple of hours looking down microscopes and playing with interactive technology.  My favourite part was watching how Probiotic soaps worked, as opposed to antibacterial soaps.  I also loved the bedbug - taken with my cellphone down a microscope...

As soon as we finished in Micropia, we used antibacterial wipes to wash our hands cellphones, bag handles!  It had got us paranoid of bacteria!!

Afterwards we walked to the Coffee Salon to meet up with Michel and Anne.  It was a bit of a walk, and although I asked directions twice, I was always in the right direction which is pretty good for me. This is the Amstel River which we crossed. I have photos of the same river from a couple of years ago.

After a great Flat White at the coffee salon - probably the best flat white I've had for a while, we walked back into town, passing this beautiful remake of Rembrandt's 'Night Watch'.  It was really well done, and lots of people were getting photos..

Then it was through the flower markets, stunning place, all along the canals.  Shame I can't bring Tulip bulbs back to NZ - there were so many of them!

Then it was to the Canal House museum where we learned about the history of Amsterdam and how it was built, and in particular the foundations and why some of the buildings are leaning.

This is one of the canal houses that are on a lean.  Michel assures me that although it was on more of a lean than most, it's held for several hundred years so it's fine!

 Another walk - still stopping to take images because Amsterdam is really beautiful.

 Then to the Belgian pub where all we had a much needed beer after all our walking...

 I had the Raspberry Beer.  It was divine - intense flavours.  Probably the best beer I've ever had.

Anne then insisted Nikki and I tried the Cherry beer.  It wasn't as nice as the Raspberry, but it got better the longer it was open!

After that one, I also tried the Peach - which was also fabulous.  And before anyone say I would have been drunk - these beers were only 2.5%, so I was fine. On the other hand, I can feel my veins still full of sugar!

On way home we called into the supermarket again and Anne got the ingredients to make a dutch dish - sausages and mash!

Tomorrow I'm off toBarcelona!

Kinderdijk and Gouda, Netherlands

I fell asleep immediately the night before, and woke up thinking I had had 8 hours – felt so refreshed – to only find it was only 1.24am! Gah. Fell asleep again and woke at 5.00am. No getting back to sleep after that so gave up and worked on my photos.

Anne cooked an amazing breakfast of French toast stuffed with berries and yoghurt for all of us. We then got a taxi to the Hertz Rental car place and hired a car and set off to the Kinderdijk.

The Netherlands put on a stunning day for us to see the Windmills at Kinderdijk!   

The boat cruise I wanted to do wasn't running that day, so instead we walked along the canal..  We even found some fungi. Kicking myself I wasn't carrying my macro lens!

At the end of the canal, we hopped onto one of the boats that was working and hitched a ride back to the visitors centre. 

I got Anne, Jay and Gordon to pose for me...

Such a beautiful place...

Back into the car and we then went to Gouda.

Gouda is another very old town and very beautiful.

We also stopped for lunch and I ordered the eggs.  It was huge – 3 huge slices of bread, lots of cheese slices and 3 eggs.  I ate the eggs and cheese and felt my arteries harden with every bite!  The bread - I couldn't eat!

We stuffed ourselves trying all the cheeses too - so many cheese, so little time!

Cheese was even hanging on the power lines...

After wandering around gouda, we drove back to Utrecht, parked the car near Anne's apartment, then wandered into town for a beer.  Michel met us, and I was taken to this great beer place that is a converted church. I tried a Berry Beer – it was amazing – 3 types of berries-  and the beer was red.  Best beer I’ve ever had.

I could only fit in one though and I was getting chilly so ordered a hot chocolate.

We then walked through Utrecht and went to a Surinam restaurant for dinner.  More Surinam beers and beautiful food – I had a chicken satay starter only, but I was not hungry so that’s all I could manage.  Although weakened and had some ice-cream floating in advocaat and mint liqueur – yum!

I was having trouble keeping my eyes open so headed back home to bed, while the others went out for a few more beers elsewhere. I was asleep before my head touched the pillow!

Bye Amsterdam - Until we Meet Again....

It was my last day in Amsterdam. Spring was finally here and the leaves had finally graced the trees. The sun was shining, so I packed up my luggage carefully, and once done, nipped around the corner to this little cafe on the canal and treated myself to a Dutch Pancake and a beer.  Sat in the sun, watched the boats ply the canal, read my book and generally just had a relaxing afternoon in the sun.

Jori came home from work and helped me to the airport.  Anne had unfortunately headed to her conference in Spain that morning. The one I couldn't get to because Flight Centre in NZ hadn't bothered to answer my emails!

Bye Amsterdam - until we meet again.

Which is happening sooner than I thought.

And one of the reasons I've hurriedly caught up to date with this blog..

Cos I'm heading your way again this Wednesday!

From Sofia to Skopje

We left the apartment around 9am, had breakfast at the hostel as it was included, then set the GPS to find Lalo Jewellery – an Israeli artist who specialises in Resin, who puts them all together in Bulgaria and has several shops in Sofia. Beth, my sister in law works for a company that imports them into NZ so I was interested  in seeing the range in Sofia.

We ended up in a the Mall of Sofia, found Lalo, and ended up  buying quite a few of these as presents for people back hone as they were different and reasonably priced.  After shopping for a while, we headed back to the car and started our drive to Skopje, Macedonia.

On our way to Skopje, we found a sign on the road pointing us to a monastery called Zemen, so we sidetracked and popped in there to have a look.  It was a beautiful day, sun was shining, and it was very warm. the entrance to Zemen Monastery...

Just inside were little knitted dolls hanging on the trees.  I'm not sure of their significance and would love to know.

Instead of typing everything out about the Monastery, I went for the easy way and photographed the sign...

Very peaceful around the monk's quarters...

The church was quite simple and he grounds were lovely..

Inside was very old - no photographers were allowed to be taken, but I took some sneakily with the flash off to have a memory of what I was seeing.

The floor was beautiful despite being broken, but it was also very smooth from years of wear..

Above the door at the entrance...

After spending about an hour at the monastery poking around, we headed back to the car and got on our way again.  We noticed this huge church with gold domes from the road, so detoured to find it. Along the detour we found an abandoned building...

Flat farmlands..

Little country roads...

And finally the church - which looked new, and still not quite finished.  No one was around, and there were no signs, so we didn't go in.  The gold domes certainly got our attention from the road though - glinting in the sun.

Our next stop was Kyustendil - a town in the far west of Bulgaria, and the capital of the Kyuestendil Provnice. The town is situated in the southern part of the Kyustendil Valley, near the borders of Servia and the Republic of Macedonia 90 km southwest of Sofia, and 130 km northeast of Skopje. The total population counts 44,532 people, with a Bulgarian majority and Roma minority. During the Iron Age, a Thracian settlement was located within the town, later known as Roman Pautalia in the 1st century AD. In the Middle Ages, the town switched hands between the Byzantine Empire, Bulgaria and Serbia, prior to Ottoman annexation in 1395. The town was liberated in 1878 from the Ottoman empire. It is named after Konsgtantin Dragas, a 14th-century regional lord.

Kyustendil is a national balneological resort at an altitude of 600 metres. There are more than 40 mineral springs in the town. The waters have a high content of sulfite compounds. These are used for the treatment of the locomotory system, gynecological and other kinds of diseases. The resort region includes several baths, balneological complexes and others.

Kyustendil is located at the foot of the Osogovo mountain and a well-known centre of blaneology and fruit growing. The fortress was built by the Romans. Thermae, basilicas, floor mosaics have been uncovered, and it is home of the oldest working thermal spas today.

We parked next to the Pirkova Tower, a medieval defense tower built in the 14th Century.  It looked veyr much like the one we visted in Trencin, in Eastern Europe, and I also saw a similar one in Zagreb. This one is four stories high and is a cultural monument of national significance.

This is a mosque next to the thermal baths complex...

Part of excavations of the roman spa...

The baths are still going, but have been modernised here.  It was way to hot to swim today so we didn't go in, but they looked a little slimy, and still very old fashioned.  All hte gardens/parks were totally overgrown and there were a few people about but not many.

Anne enjoying the sun as we walked around...

The back of the baths...

From Kyustendil it was only 20 minutes to the border of Macedonia and I still had some Bulgarian money to use up., so we stopped at a small shop just inside Macedonia who took Bulgarian money, and we used it up buying icecreams, beer, chocolate, and anything else we could.  We only had six euro worth, but it bought HEAPS.  The beer is cheaper than water in Macedonia!!

From here these are shots I took out of the window as we drove to Skopje.  It was a beautiful drive. Macedonia is lovely...  We stopped a couple of times to get the photos of the Red Poppies growing wild everywhere.

Nearing Skopja now, and the first time I've seen an overloaded motorbike myself. I've only seen other people's photographs of this kind of thing so I snapped this from the car as we were driving.

We got to our apartment at about 8pm, still light and sunny and beautiful. The apartment was on the top floor and was superb. Not bad for 40 euros a night for the three of us.

We then sat out on the deck, poured ourselves a beer and rested a bit...  This is the view from the balcony.

Beer was superb... and cheaper than water!!

After the beer was gone - we headed into Skopje to explore while the light was still good!