Whistle Stop Tour

Late last Friday night, you would have found Lauch and I shivering outside the Rotterdam airport in the misty rain. I had snaffled his scarf and was coming to the sudden realisation that England is not alone in having snotty weather at this time of the year. Hooray for Robbert, who came to whisk us away to his and Esther's amazing new house.




Esther drove (in a car! no bus!) Thijs, Nils and I to the beach near the Hague. Sand! I had forgotten how long it had been since I walked on sand. The horizon here is amazing, it disappears blurrily off as if you are looking towards the edge of the world. The boys had a great time chasing waves and filling their gumboots with sand and sea.


I think this is the most beautiful place I saw this weekend. It is an avenue of trees in the Hague that has been in the same place for 800 years. The current trees are 80 years old and were all yellow. Leaves fell as we watched.



I also loved Delft, a little OLD town, dating from the 13th century. It's famous for Vermeer and Delftware, beautiful blue-painted pottery. We ate proffertjes - small round pancakes with strawberries, dusted with icing sugar.



Both these photos were taken from either side of a bridge. Note the leaning church! Robbert says that it is leaning more than the leaning tower of Pisa.



And lastly, Esther, Robbert, Laucn and I wandered through Rotterdam. I discovered Iitala - a Finnish design company. We visited the Holland America Line headquarters, in the photo, above right. This place used to be where American immigrants came to in Holland, but now it's a hotel with a restaurant and barber downstairs. The place has an old America vibe, not surprisingly. Imagine eating such things as clam chowder and hotcakes here.

A million thank yous to Robbert, Esther and their boys for letting us stay and introducing us to proffertjes, cute Dutch towns and the joy of filling your shoes with sand.