Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
In June/July 2007 we had the wonderful privilege to tour Holland, Spain and France for nearly 3 weeks. This was one of the most enjoyable and memorable family holidays we had and I am sure the memories will stay with us for a long time. We first visited Holland for a couple of days, staying in d*** Gerdzen's flat in Nieuwegijn near Utrecht. I left a week earlier to lecture at BSn in Buren and the family joined me later.What an experience for the children to experience the freedom of movement using the local bus service and the trams. Who will forget the sight of 1000s of bicycles at the Utrecht station! We had access to Dick's Saab and used that to travel to the tourists places like Marken and Volendam. On the Sunday we visited Volendam we walked into the 500 year centenery of one of the bordering towns. It was a huge festival and residents were all dressed up like the Middle Ages. Clowns, witches, archers, all were there. One should have heard the childrens' comments and their reaction when they saw this. Adriaan, then 8, told me later he was qutie scared and thought it was how it really was! Holland was a wonderful experience, the "gragte" in Amsterdam, the "Seven Wonders of Holland" - the Laken cows, the ferry over the Rhein river, the old town, the "Waterlinie" where the Dutch conqured the Spanjards in the 80 year War, were all very interesting.
After a week the excitement grew as we boarded the train to Schiphol to fly with Vuelling first to Alicante and then to Xavea where we stayed for 7 days with Mitch and Ena. It was a wonderful reunion to see them after so many years - they were in many ways like parents to me and Almarie - and grandparents also to the children. Mitch was in fairly good health, but had been struglling for many years with illness. I knew it was the last time we would have seen him, he died early in 2010. We had such a wonderful time in Xavea. The first night Ena ordered us a delicious paella. We celebrated Adriaan's 8 birthday by treating the children by renting Jetskis and going out for a 45 min tour out onto the Mediterreanen sea - we would forget Adriaan''s face when he saw this and took the jetski back to Xavea.
We left Xavea for the north of Spain where we slept one night in Olot.. The next day we left for France to visit the beautiful old city of Carcasonne were we spent two nights in a budget hotel a short distance away from the old castle. We had a wonderful meal one evening in the old castle - trying out the Languedoc casserole, one of the famous dishes of the regions' cuisine. Carcasonne was a real wonderful experience. We explored the French rural countryside and drove a number of the minor roads which are used with the Tour de France.
We left Carcasonne travelling through the French Pyrenesse mountains to Andorra, a principality which is famous for its ski resorts and duty free shopping. We stayed one night in Andorra and left the next morning for Sitges, Spain where we stayef for 3 days with d*** and Yvonne Gerdzen.
This was a memorable family holiday and one that we will never forget.
- comments