Holland!

Holland! The land of windmills, tulips, and, ermm... well, we weren't sure really, but our friends Clare and Ian moved out there, so it gave us a good excuse to go and visit them and find out!

It was great to see Clare, Ian and the kids again, it seems like ages since they went out to Holland! Once we'd had a good catch-up, we got down to the serious business of sight-seeing!



First up was Kinderdijk. It was a bit wet and windy, but still very picturesque with all its windmills. We went inside one, and it was surprisingly spacious actually.

Hmm, thinking about it, we shouldn't have been surprised it was windy... building windmills there would have been a bit pointless otherwise...




Next was Dordrecht, a quaint old town with a nice harbour area.




Inside the cathedral. Think this was the execution of St Pancratius.

Rotterdam itself was nicer than we expected for such a big port. They did have a tendency for slightly weird architecture though...

It was about time we did something a bit more exciting for the kids, so we all took a trip to the zoo! Typically, Sharon made a bee-line for the bird show. Craig took note of this, and decided to get his own back with a route-march around the museums of Amsterdam when they got there...






...In the mean-time though, he had penguin friends to play with. If only he'd taken his prosthetic beak with him...





It was a really good zoo actually, with lots of stuff for the kids (and Craigs) to mess around with. Here's Aidan in a giant turtle egg.






After a few days with Clare and Ian it was time to move on to Amsterdam, so after a brief struggle buying a train ticket (ticket machines don't take cards, and don't take notes either... what do they take??) we were on our way.






Amsterdam was quite pretty with all its canals and old buildings... at least it was when it was dry... which wasn't often while we were there!






Rembrandt was one of the few famous Dutch people we could think of, so we thought we'd go see his house... This was his studio. Apparently he went bankrupt and all his stuff was sold, so there wasn't actually a lot to see in there, oh well!

Van Gogh was also pretty high on our list of famous Dutch people, so we went to the Van Gogh museum. Neither of us are big fans of his, but actually the museum was really good.




Then it was on to Anne Franks house. This was really good too, but in quite an upsetting way - it's really sad that after all that time and all that effort they were still captured and sent to the concentration camps.


We made the obligatory trip to the Rijksmuseum. It is currently being rennovated and half of it is closed, but actually that was quite good as it meant that they've shifted all the highlights into the bit that is still open, so you get to see all the good stuff and avoid all the dross! Like most of the museums in Amsterdam, you're not allowed to take photos which is a shame. Didn't seem to stop most people trying to sneak a shot of Rembrandt's "The Night Watch" when the guards weren't looking though!


You don't have to be in Amsterdam for long before you come across an important question...




Amstel?





Or Heineken???


So we thought we'd better go to the Heineken Experience and find out!





Craig didn't really want to leave!





...and made sure Sharon learnt how to make it before she left!





We thought we'd better make the effort to go to the "New" and "Old" churches (very imaginative with their names are the Dutch... and yes, we've already forgotten the Dutch words for old and new...).




Neither church was that impressive, to be honest, so we decided to cut our losses and go for a Chinese (surprise surprise) and then a wander around the red light district. Maybe not quite as cultural, but more of an education...

On our last day, Craig spent the morning trying to do his "poor puppy dog" look until Sharon gave in and agreed that we could go to see the big Alexander the Great exhibition that was on at the Hermitage.

Then it was off to stock up on Dutch cheese before heading off to the airport and home!

Next up - Malaysia and Singapore in a month or so...

Slovenia - Finally!

Yes yes, we went in May, but we never got round to uploading any photos... so here we go.

Slovenia was a lovely country actually. Very picturesque, lots of beautiful forest, lakes, mountains etc. The people were friendly, and it was very quiet and peaceful. Best of all, you were never very far from a cafe selling big wodges of cake :o)

This is the capital, Ljubljana. As well as having a cool name, this has to be one of the most laid-back capital cities we've ever been to. And considering the competition (Tongatapu for a start...) that's quite an achievement!

There's quite a large Italian influence, so as you'd expect, it didn't take long for Sharon to find somewhere selling giant pizzas...

...While Craig rooted out the local beer fairly quickly.

The Dragon Bridge. Having recently watched "How to train your Dragon" Craig had unrealistic expectations about being able to ride them and set fire to people... As usual, it was left to Sharon to be the voice of reason (ie to tell him not to act like a little kid).

Ljubljana Castle. Even their castles are peaceful affairs.

We got the bus up to Bled, and went for some nice walks through the hills around the lake.

The lake at Bled. It looked lovely and calm, it can't be too hard to row across that...

...Umm, yes it can! At this point Craig was still smiling... Within a few minutes he was looking whistfully at the little motor-boats zipping across the water... A few minutes later and he was ready to pass-out...

As usual, Craig had picked somewhere with a castle to visit! Bled Castle was quite impressively situated at the top of a rocky outcrop.

Inside the chapel of the castle.

The view from the castle (once we had recovered from the climb and didn't look so red and out of breath).

Next up was Postojna, which has an amazing complex of caves.

You get a little train-thingy down through the caves to start with... good job neither of us are tall, as it whizzed you past stalagmites (or tites?!) just a few inches above your head.

Once you were down there you could walk for ages through huge caverns, over ricketly little bridges over chasms, and lots of other cool stuff.

Near Postojna is Predjama Castle (or Pyjama Castle as Craig liked to call it). It was built in the mouth of a cave in a hillside. This was the hide-out of the Slovenian Robin Hood - who met a sad end when a cannon-ball hit the castle toilet while he was spending a penny...

We were only there for a long weekend, but we loved it - so we're already planning to go back :o)

Israel

Hmm, we're only a few months behind with holidays etc... Oh well!

We recently (ahem) went to Israel for a quick visit. We flew in to Tel Aviv before heading up to the Sea of Galilee area. Then it was down to the Dead Sea, Qumran and Jericho before going to Jerusalem, from where we also did a quick day trip out to Bethlehem. Anyway, here are the photos.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, on the site of Golgotha, where Jesus was crucified.



As well as (supposedly) containing the last 5 stations of the cross it also had some wonderful mosiacs.

This was the old town of Jerusalem, lots of alleyways, ideal for Craig to get lost in!

The wall surrounding the Palestinian areas... it looked suspiciously like the Berlin Wall! This was on the way to Bethlehem.

The Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem. This is supposed to be the spot where Christ was born.

The Church of All-Nations on the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem.

The Garden of Gethsemane, where Jesus was betrayed by Judas.

Looking out over the old town and the Dome of the Rock.

The Dead Sea... Craig's sun-block seems to have gone a funny colour...

For the first time in his life Craig didn't sink!

One of the caves that the Dead Sea Scrolls were found in, Qumran.

The Sea of Galilee. walking on water seemed a bit ambitious, so we settled for a boat trip.

Pretty flowers! With the Golan Heights in the background.

Mount of Beatitudes.

Yes, Sharon did manage to find a Chinese restaurant...

Church of the Dormition, Mount Zion. Where the Virgin Mary is supposed to have "fallen asleep", ie died.

Panoramic view of Jerusalem. Yes, Sharon is finally working out how to use the special settings on her camera.

Monastery of the Qurantul on the Mount of Temptations, near Jericho. Where Jesus was tempted by the devil. Craig was tempted by chocolate, which seemed far less dangerous, although it did melt.

The ruins at Capernaum.

Next up will be Holland... unless by some miracle we get round to putting up some pics from concerts and gigs... or that trip to Slovenia we never posted on here... oops...