We’ve had a good day’s sightseeing in Copenhagen today.  Getting in to the city was straightforward – we cycled down to the main road and left the bikes in the racks at the bus stop and then caught the 350S bus – about 30 minutes in all.  Armed with the Pocket Rough Guide to Copenhagen, we strolled around pretty much all day and saw a lot of the main sights – Tivoli Gardens, The Little Mermaid, Nyhaven harbour, the Amalienborg royal palace, the Citadel, The Radhus and The Latin Quarter plus lots of other grand buildings including Folketing (the Danish Parliament – you know, where Birgitte works in Borgen!)

As in all cities, there’s a lot of construction going on – new metro stations seem to take forever to build and make the place look really messy – cranes, diggers, scaffolding, big holes in the ground, paths closed.  We saw a fair bit of all that today.

The names of places are weird and wonderful – we arrived at the city’s grandest square (well it will be again in 2017)  called Kongens Nytorv (King’s New Square) and strolled through the main shopping area (Stroget) and saw a Renaissance palace, The Rosenburg Slot.

We didn’t go into many shops, but the ones we did were like little art galleries – George Jensen, Royal Copenhagen, the department store Illums and of course the flagship Lego store.

For lunch we bought four different ‘smorrebrod’ – little open sandwiches on rye bread with delicious complicated toppings.  They were yummy.

The day’s other highlight was the teenage girl frenzy around Hotel D’Angleterre where One Direction were staying prior to a concert tonight.

The title sounds like something out of Game of Thrones but it was in fact our Sunday drive from Germany to Denmark – and what a nice drive it was.

We left around 10.00, stopped for diesel, and the then headed north on the A1 towards Puttgarden.

We had booked a ferry crossing over to Denmark using the roll-on roll-off ferries that form part of this motorway. In fact the ferry takes trains as well.

We arrived early, went through the self service check-in and waited in line 3. In a matter of minutes we were boarded, ushered off the car deck and were sailing. It must be the fastest loading of a car ferry ever. Forty five minutes later we were in Denmark, driving towards Kobenhavn.

Barb had made a picnic lunch and as the weather was particularly nice we stopped at a picnic area. A real wow of a lunch – salmon salad, tea and fresh fruit.

The last part of the drive was very straightforward and we arrived at Cottage Farm B&B by mid afternoon – in time to check in, set up the bikes and go for a little explore.

Fans of ‘The Bridge’ will recognise this.

The room here is quite small but does have a fridge and microwave so we are still able to feed ourselves and not resort to restaurants. Barb had prepared supper in advance which heated up nicely and we sat outside on the wooden decking/patio feasting on spicy chilli, sour cream and nachos. The Danish beer finished off a treat.

Tomorrow we shall set off in search of Kobenhavn.

Just a one night stopover north of Hamburg on our way to Copenhagen but what a little gem. The drive from Bergen was really easy and the 20 mile section across the Afsluitdijk early on was really interesting. Built between 1927 and 1933, this dam or dijk blocked off the Zuiderzee and created the freshwater lake IJsselmeer. They’ve built a motorway on top of it and it connects North Holland with Friesland. Check it out on Wikipedia.

We would normally search out an Ibis when en route but we found this apartment on Booking.com and as it was just a short distance from Autobahn 1 we decided to give it a try.

It’s actually a large one bedroom apartment which is an annexe to someone’s house in a very leafy suburb of Hamburg. It appears to be a bit of a wow and we intend to return for a night on our way back, en route to Berlin.

It’s really well equipped with a king size bed, large shower room with huge rain shower, living room, kitchenette with fridge, cooker, dishwasher etc and a lovely patio with a private garden.

We were surprised we could book it for a one night stay on a Saturday – it certainly beats the the Ibis and it’s cheaper too!
We’ve visited the local Netto and bought a few things and are now sitting on the patio with drinks, nibbles, super fast wifi watching a red squirrel run across the decking.

I can’t end this post without a mention of Holland’s 5-1 win last night. We were fortunate to be in the local bar for the first half – the place erupted when Van Persie scored – and we watched the second half back at the apartment surrounded by football house parties, barbecues etc. Every time Holland scored, there was a mass of noise – the fun continued well into the night after the final whistle. What a way to end our stay in Holland – we really enjoyed it and I’m sure we will return.

Friday evening – we’re all packed up and ready to hit the road in the morning. Holland play Spain in the World Cup at 9pm so we’re going to stroll down to town to see if we can watch it with the locals.

We’ve got an overnight stop booked for tomorrow in Ammersbeck in Germany. When we emailed to confirm our stay, they seemed never to have heard of us! We sent our bookings.com information through but are awaiting a reply – well it is Friday 13th today! We’ll probably end up in an Ibis again.

Anyway, it’s goodbye (tot ziens) to Holland – we could easily stay longer, it’s lovely here in Bergen – close to the sea and woodland, cycle paths everywhere, great for Amsterdam and friendly, English speaking people. We felt really at home at Nannette’s apartments – Anna and Meis who run it are delightful and work hard to make everything comfortable. It’s all very IKEA but really well equipped with lots of little thoughtful touches – hooks on the bedroom and bathroom walls, drying rack, extension lead with multi plugs, cushions for outdoor chairs, vase etc etc.

I think I will always remember the little garden here – it’s been a real treat sitting on the terrace watching birds and bees and occasionally harvesting herbs or lettuce from the veg patch. They obviously have the knack of growing flowers and shrubs here – Dutch soil and know how I expect.

Our last three days have been the usual combination of cycling, (including a 24 miler through the tulip fields – a bit much for me, got a bit grumpy) and sightseeing. We did the local art gallery here in Bergen, The Kranenburgh, and the museum in Alkmaar which had a really good exhibit on Spain v Holland in the 16th century. Which brings me back to tonight’s footie!

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Our guide book and two different people we met in Amsterdam recommended a trip to Haarlem about 40k south of here so we started up the Volvo for the first time in over a week and drove down there. First though, Derek had a 10.20 dentist appointment. He cycled off at 10.15 looking glum and was back 30 minutes later, smiling but 90 euros poorer. His broken, loose filling was out, what remained smoothed over and all should be well until next month when he sees our dentist in Wellesbourne to get it fixed properly.

Haarlem was an attractive town with waterways, lots of trees, pedestrianised streets and appealing shops. We strolled about, had lunch outside in one of the squares and then headed for The Frans Hals Museum which is located in a grand old almshouse with a big central courtyard. It had a good audio visual presentation and lots of his portraits especially the huge ‘Civic Guard’ paintings. Like good tourists, we had tea and apple cake in the cafe and I bought souvenir placemats, coasters and a notepad.

We drove home in the rain – it reminded us a bit of UK driving – just as busy though not as aggressive. With his immense knowledge of football trivia, Danny had informed us that nearby Alkmaar had the fourth best team in Holland and play in The Europa League like Spurs.

We saw the stadium on the way home so took a photo.

It’s quiet back at Nanette’s now that the bank holiday weekend is over. We did a bit of food shopping, made pasta with salmon and broccoli for tea (followed by strawberries, raspberries and slagroom) and sat quietly outside listening to the birds chirruping.

Our third trip into Amsterdam – we cycled to Alkmaar after breakfast (muesli again!) to catch the train in showery rain on a humid bank holiday Sunday with a picnic in a rucksack – not the best circumstances, we knew.  We had a slight panic about the train tickets – a new type which had to be scanned in and out.  We found the train about to leave but no scanning post.  The platform official hadn’t seen the new tickets before, told us not to worry and, a bit of a comedian, slapped the tickets on his forehead to ‘scan’ them.

Had a chat to two Dutch girls on the train who were on their way to the Pinkpop festival where The Arctic Monkeys were headlining.  We set off from Station Centraal on foot, stopping to buy a nice little framed black and white print of a Dutch bike and to have coffee and a second breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon on our way to the Van Gogh museum.  The sun was out now and it was getting hotter.  There were huge queues but our Museumkaarts put us in a fast track lane and after about 20 minutes, we were in.  It was exceptionally good – lots of paintings in cool, uncrowded galleries and interesting information about the different styles he used in his short career.

We had our little picnic in the shade in Museumplein and then walked to Vondelpark – Amsterdam’s only big, green space.  It had everything – lakes, playgrounds, a theatre, cafés and it was absolutely buzzing with people enjoying the holiday sunshine.  We haven’t seen a single collision yet despite bikes, pedestrians, skaters, dog walkers and kids all out and about.

The other big museum in the area is The Stedelijk – a gallery for modern art – so after a cold drink in the shade at their outdoor cafe, we strolled around.  By late afternoon, it was fairly quiet and had a lovely cool, airy feel to it.  The modern art was fun to wander past and beautifully displayed though often completely mad.  We got close up to a Jackson Pollock and could see the thickness of the paint!

A long day but we walked all the way back across the city via M&S Foodstore where we bought sausages and chocolate raisins. We just made it to the 18.12 train and then cycled home the last leg.  A really good day but a bit hot and sticky – we sat on the terrace for a quiet supper, had a long chat with Danny about his weekend in Stratford and slept soundly.  Tomorrow, I think we’ll stay here, catch up with work and take it easy.

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A fabulous sunny day in North Holland and it’s Friday so we are planning to visit the world famous Alkmaar Cheese Market!

From 10.00 until 12.30 huge slabs of Dutch cheese are checked, tasted, sold and weighed and then transported to local wholesalers. All this in a time honoured tradition that looked quite bizarre!

However, Alkmaar turned out to be a delight. Perhaps because of the weather but mostly because it was a bit of a wow.

We cycled from Bergen to Alkmaar, wandered through the first phase of shops and parked the bikes with hundreds of others. We soon discovered the cheese market. Not sure I can describe the goings on – perhaps the photos will help.

Basically, it was a wholesale cheese market where producers sold their cheese to wholesalers in a sort of ritual pantomime. Anyway – we enjoyed it and relaxed in the middle of this very popular tourist attraction.

Afterwards we strolled through the traffic free streets, found the Beatles Museum (didn’t venture in) had mid morning coffee and then decided to take a canal boat ride.

This was a 50 minute cruise around the canals of Alkmaar which, I have to say, was very very enjoyable. There was a good commentary in 3 languages, a boat full of tourists and simply delightful canals. However – we hadn’t bargained for the touch of comedy.

There were several nationalities on board – mostly German who were intent on enjoying themselves- good for them. As it was June 6th, I was tempted to bring up D-Day but decided not to spoil their fun. The boat went through a series of ever lower tunnels under bridges until we reached a point where we had to virtually lie on the bottom of the boat. The Germans seemed to enjoy this and started to become hysterical. This was quickly ended when a passing seagull scored a direct hit on some of them and covered them in bird sh*t. Obviously an allied seagull!!

We did get some nice photos however and on our return had lunch in the main square where the cheese market had been in full swing.

Another stroll through the shops – a gentle bike ride back to Bergen and home for tea.

Just so you don’t think this was all pleasure dear reader, we then did an hour of work updating a couple of websites and fixing some technical issues on others.

Off to the shops for more food (we bought a cooked chicken in Alkmaar for tonight’s supper) and a walk through the leafy lanes.

We still can’t get the hang of the local supermarket, Deens. When we first shopped we were told – no credit cards – cash only. Today we went through a lane that only took cards – but not ours!! That was fun – trying to pay cash in a card only lane.

Anyway – we think we have this under control now.

Winkel Central!

Back at the apartment we have the chicken and salad followed by fresh fruit and slagroom (cream). Well, this is Amsterdam! There are some great rude words in Dutch. Lots of slags, winkels and diks! A schoolboy’s dream!

This was a bit of a holiday day. It didn’t start off that way but we are definitely in the holiday mood. This is a long bank holiday weekend in Holland. The weather is set fair so I don’t think there will be much website work done until Tuesday when I have a dental appointment. Oh joy!

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Despite a few rain showers, we really enjoyed our second day in Amsterdam today.  We used bike and train to get there again and fortified ourselves with a really good midday breakfast at Greenwoods before getting down to some serious city sightseeing.  Had a chat to the English waitress who recommended a visit to Haarlem.

After adding up how much it would cost us to visit Amsterdam’s main museums and galleries, we decided to buy two Museumkaarts (a whopping 55 euros each!) which would give us free entry to all Dutch museums for a year!  

We started off at Nieuwe Kirk, a de-sanctified church which was hosting The World Press Photography 2014 Awards – a really varied exhibition of winning press photographs – politics, world events, nature, portraits and sport.  Then we walked down through some pedestrianised streets admiring all the designer shop windows, specialist shops (hammocks!), loads of shoe shops including three branches of Manfield (a name from the past) and even an M&S food store.  

We took a few photos at the floating flower market, Bloemenmarkt, which still had tulips, even in June and then on to The Rijksmuseum which we really enjoyed.  It has had 375 million euros spent on its renovation in the last decade and has some hugely famous Dutch masterpieces by Rembrandt and Vermeer.  

It provided some really useful information boards about the big paintings so that you could have little art history lessons as you went around.  When we had explored all three floors, we had tea and cake in the rather posh waiter service cafe and then headed back to Centraal Station to catch the train.  We got a bit wet cycling home!

The Dutch language is really strange sounding though their English is impeccable.  There seems to be a lot of ‘dik’ and ‘winkel’ everywhere and the local paper is called ‘Spits’ – all very amusing!

While Derek headed out for a ‘2 hour’ bike ride (actually over 3 – those who know him will smile!), I had a quiet morning taking a few photos of the local area.  Nanette’s Apartments are on Dorpsstraat so I wandered up and down having a look at the different types of houses and shops on this street.  All the houses are individually designed and really well kept – it’s quite a busy little residential street with people bombing along the cobbled street on bikes all the time.  It’s amazing what people carry on bikes – our best sighting at the moment is a lady carrying two kids and a dog!

After lunch, we both cycled north to the next town, Schoorl, where we bought an iron and had a cup of tea. It was a lovely ride on paths through the woods.  We called in at the supermarket on the way back and filled my panniers with groceries.  Supper outside again – our terrace faces west so the evening sun is lovely.  We had salmon for dins – ever reliable, it tastes exactly the same whichever country you’re in.

We’re planning to head into Amsterdam again tomorrow but the weather forecast says rain!

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We spent yesterday settling in to the apartment here in Bergen – the area is very affluent and stylish with lots of beautifully designed houses with elegant front gardens.  I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many trees and shrubs and the weather has been good too so it’s all very lovely.  We cycled around the town a bit and then down to the beach which was quite busy on a sunny Sunday afternoon.  Everyone cycles here – no helmets or Lycra – bike lanes and bike racks everywhere make it all very easy.

Today was our first trip into Amsterdam.  We decided to leave the Volvo here and cycled to the nearby station at Alkmaar to catch the train into the city.  We coped ok with the two tier bike racks and the complications of buying train tickets and arrived at the very grand Centraal Station mid morning.  Outside the station however was less appealing – metro building works, noisy traffic and too much litter.  We made our way to Dam Square which our guide book warned us was ‘desultory’ and began to feel a bit glum – couldn’t even find a coffee shop we liked the look of.  Things brightened a bit when we found Greenwoods by the canal – I fancied everything on the menu (a rarity for me!) but we settled on eggs Benedict, coffee and orange juice.  We sat outside and started to relax a bit.  We strolled around the Nine Streets area of the canals past Anne Frank Huis (huge queues to go in), wandered round a market, bought some chocolate Florentines and ended up back at Greenwoods for tea and cake.  The train back was fine though we got a bit lost on the cycle home.  A quiet night in this evening sitting outside on our little patio.

So, we’re not sure what we think about Amsterdam – will probably head back in on Wednesday to look at The Museum Quarter and The Vondelpark. There are lots of museums we’d like to visit but at approx 15 euros per person entry fee for each one and lots of long queues, we may have to be selective.  The Old Centre where we were today wasn’t as pretty as we’d imagined and there was a lot of traffic noise and litter. 

Paying for things here has been rather contrary.  The supermarket here in Bergen doesn’t take credit cards.  When we tried to buy train tickets at the machine, it would only accept coins (tickets cost 28 euros!) so we had to go to the office (no credit cards).  When we bought some fruit in an Amsterdam store, we were told they didn’t accept cash but credit card was fine (3.50 euros)!

Anyway, more cycling and exploring tomorrow!

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