We ate lots of dutch food (we won't list it all because we can't remember how to spell it!!!) and drunk some dutch beer. We also gorged ourselves silly on dropje (salty dutch licorise) and paid for it afterwards!.
Amsterdam is a fascinating city: a mix of kitch dutch tourism (clogs, windmills etc); the presentation of being liberal (drugs, sex industry etc); and very picturesque streets and canals everywhere, and everyone riding crazily on bikes... We really enjoyed wandering the streets, and felt that every corner we came to was another photo opportunity with all the bridges and canals and dolls-house buildings. There's a cool atmosphere, and we really liked how there were lots of flower stalls everywhere - the dutch seem to give flowers for all sorts of occasions so that you will often see someone riding on a bike with flowers in one hand.
We gave the biking a go in central Amsterdam but found it a little too unnerving (people drive on the right (wrong) side of the road!!!) so we were grandmas and only biked in the suburbs (much better for the blood pressure... and the marriage).
We went to lots of museums: the Rijksmuseum, the van Gogh museum (which we particuarly enjoyed), the Amsterdam Historic Museum, and the Jewish museum. It's quite fascinating learning about how the whole area developed as a city - basically created by man's endeavours. Also interesting seeing the consequences of these actions now - some issues with land sinking etc...
Some other excursions included a day in Utrecht, and a day driving around North Holland (the province) including a drive over the 9 km dijk between Lelystad (where Katie found her favourite jeans for only 18 euros - normally 180 NZ) and Enkhuizen . We saw a lot of very flat, very green fields and some cute sea villages.
We also stayed a night with relatives Erik and Hanneke in an area just outside Delft, and visited Den Haag to see where Reuben's mum Trudi grew up (even saw the very steps she tried to break her ankle on!).
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