holland Keyword
Rotter-DAAAAMMMN!
Thanks to my Queen’s Day posse my last night out on the town in Holland ended up being one of the best nights out I have had on the Odyssey. Not only was I surrounded by 6 gorgeous girls all night but they provided entertainment for the whole of Rotterdam. I couldn’t stop smiling.
The girls took me from club to club. We saw a girl fight at ladies only night at the Cinema, burned the dance floor at Vibes and did a ridiculous amount of free shots at some bar I forget the name of, unsuprisingly.
All in all, a great night. For those who adhere to the “fotoz or it didn’t ‘appen” rule: marvel in awe of the beauty of the Queen’s Day Posse!
Good Advice
I visited Amsterdam during the start of the week, and while I did indulge in some of the city’s many vices I did not invest of the services of the many beautiful women in the windows of the Red Light District. I would like to think it may have been because of this bit of advice I found in the official Amsterdam tourist guide.
“If you visit one of the women, we’d like to remind you, they are not always women”
I think there’s a take home message for everyone right there.
Queens Day
Just a few photos from Queens Day. I’ll write up a proper article and update this post in a couple of days. For now: I am off to Amsterdam!
UPDATE: Alright now! I am back from a great couple of days in Amsterdam. I hope you’ve all had time to peruse the photo gallery and are probably wondering what the hell was going on. Well let me tell you.
Queen’s Day or “Koninginnedag” in Dutch is (usually) a day of great celebration in the Netherlands. Occuring every April 30 it is one of the countries few national holidays. It celebrates the Queen’s birthday and unites the whole of the country in revelry. While not exactly the current Queen’s birthday (she was born on January 31st, making me and my Aunt Beatrix birthday buddies) it has a bit of history surrounding its position on the calendar. Originally the celebrations were held on August 31st, starting from 1885 in celebration of Princess Wilhelmina’s birth, but was later moved to April 30, the birthday of Queen Julianna. Since then Queen’s day has been on that date, making it more of a celebration of the Royalty than a specific birthday.
The day is full of celebrations. Markets are opened everywhere, turning the country into one massive garage sale. Everyone decks themselves out in orange and the partying begins. This years celebrations were marred by a certain idiot driving a Suzuki Swift through a crowd of people killing himself and six others in an attempt to attack the royal family. Most of the official events were canned although a lot of people still hit parks, clubs and bars not to be dissuaded from partying by the horror of the morning.
Myself, Martine and a few of her friends found ourselves at a big party in Rotterdam, which is where all the photos came from. The girls were full of energy garnering a lot of attention from other party goers. I didn’t drink all that much, had some lunch and Martine and I were back in Waddinxveen by around 9pm. I had a great Queen’s Day and I can throughly recommend checking out Holland around April 30th!
Madurodam
Kitsch is one of those words that is bandied about a little too freely. It has gone from being a word used to describe tasteless or overly sentimental “art” to becoming a label slapped on everything from stripper pens to pop art tissue boxes. Cheese on the other hand is, in my opinion, a much better word for describing these things. Pieces of work created with the complete understanding of their lameness are cheesy. The cheesy grin your sibling puts on in all your family photos is a great example.
When Martine and Marion took me into Madurodam the first word that popped into my head was cheese. The place seemed to be the biggest, cheesiest place I had ever come across. Opened in 1952 Madurodam is named after a Dutch war hero. It is a collection of models showing the major highlights of Holland in 1:25 scale. I looked down over the minature representation of Holland that spread before me and I could practically smell the mature cheddar that lay in wait. But then something magical happened. I fell in love with the place.
The closer you look in Madurodam the more you see. The detail that goes into every inch of the place is exquisite. Each building is absurdly detailed, right down to individual bricks. Trains run around and through the miniature country side constantly. Cars drive around tiny streets. Little figures engage in imagined arguments and ogle hookers in the itsy-bitsy red light district.
We spent hours wandering the park, finding new things to look at with every turn. I still marvel at the detail put into the buildings. If you didn’t know better, looking at some of my photos you would think I was standing in the streets taking photos of real places around Holland. Seeing them in real life just validates their accuracy. Check out my photo of the Peace Palace from my first day in Holland, and compare it to the shot of the miniature.
If you’re in De Haage, check out Madurodam. As I put in their guestbook, it’s: “The most fun you can have in Holland with your pants on!”
Keeping the Sea at Bay
As most people know, a large part of Holland is completely below sea level. In fact: where I sleep is still around a meter under sea level, even though I am on the second floor. The lowest point of Holland is around 7meters below. To maintain a country that is constantly at risk of flooding is not an easy task. Huge engineering projects have been created to keep the sea out of Holland. Constant pumping of water is required to keep the land dry and the people safe. The landscape is crisscrossed as far as the eye can see with Dykes and Canals.
I had the chance to see some of the major storm doors that are placed along the Dutch coast line. The first I saw was the Oosterscheldekering, a part of the Delta Works that protect Zealand from flooding. The doors are a huge series of gates that can be opened and closed during storm surges to protect the coastline.
The next storm barrier I saw was probably the most interesting piece of engineering I’ve seen in Holland. The Maeslantkering is one of the largest moving structures in the world and automatically closes when needed. The huge white doors are rolled out into the centre of the waterway, pivoting on massive ball joints and are sunk onto concrete footings. Photos don’t really do justice to how big this thing is.
Walking around the Netherlands you are constantly reminded of Holland’s war with the sea. It is a country living on borrowed time. One day, inevitably, the sea will reclaim the land, but not before the Dutch try every possible method to stave off its advance.
Family History
Possibly the one reason I included the Netherlands on the Odyssey is that I have family history here. With a surname like VanderHeyden it is no suprise that I have dutch heritage on my Dad’s side. Dad grew up in Holland until he was around 13 years old before immigrating to Australia.
It has been interesting seeing the house where Dad was born and the neighborhoods he haunted back in the day. I saw his parents flat and visited his Aunt and cousin. It has been great learning more about the country that part of my family came from and it makes me wonder what it would have been like to grow up here, surrounded by water and cold.
Busy
Some people have complained about my lack of updates of late, and they are perfectly right to do so. I have neglected the Odyssey. Normally brimming with new and exciting adventures, the site has become a stale backwater festering with a quagmire of posts about drinking and lame stories of dead dogs and rocky outcrops.
Writing on the road can be hard. It is often difficult to be creative and most importantly: interesting after a day of adventuring. Most often I pick up the laptop with good intentions but all I want to do is sleep. One thing to note is that, while my lack of updates may have fallen over the last week, my days have been plenty busy.
I am in Holland now, having arrived at Schipol on Monday last week. The weather that day was beautifully warm and sunny, especially compared to the misery that was London weather. The good weather hasn’t let up since I have been here, which I am told is quite strange. My first week in Holland saw my Dad’s friend Paul taking me all over the country to see various sights. Storm doors, places in my family history, beaches, famous cities and towns. We even rode a good 50km’s on a pushy. We caught up with Henk, Jenny and their daughter Jessica in Olddorp where I dunked my toes into the freezing north sea. I caught up with my Dad’s Nephew and his Aunty and saw the tulips.
On the weekend I attended a party for one of Paul’s friends birthdays and had a great time playing Wii with kids and old’s alike. I helped Paul look after a garden of one his friends and on Sunday had a drink at a restaurant with Marion and Martine near where I am staying at which Paul lost his camera. I met Paul’s son and his wife and I cooked schnitzel for the lot of ‘em.
This Monday Paul had to go back to work, so Marion and Martine became my guides. On Monday they took me to the wonderful Madurodam where I saw all of Holland in just a few short hours. Tuesday was Martine’s Birthday so the day was spent celebrating that in the sun. Wednesday we adventured to Amsterdam where I walked the red light district, attempted to apply for my Italian passport and did a little shopping. Thursday I relaxed, gave Marion a hand with getting some plants for the garden and had an icecream at Boskoop.
So as you can see I’ve been pretty busy. I’ll try to write up some articles about some of the more interesting things I’ve just mentioned so expect to see them in the next few hours. For now: enjoy some of the photos I’ve taken from around Holland!