Thalys to Marne-la-Vallée

Next stop......DISNEYLAND

and we have the whole compartment in the train to ourselves!!!!

Haagen-Dazs at Brussels Midi

We had to change train as our Thalys was going to Paris Nord.
Disembarked at Brussels Midi and we had 90 minutes before our next train to Eurodisney.

Time for makan and kids had Haagen-Dazs ice cream with wafer and we bought DeliFrance sandwiches.

Ahh....

The 'french' courtesy of 'bonjour, merci, bon journee, au revoir.....'. We missed that esp when we were in UK.

Leaving Rotterdam.....reluctantly...

Ahh....

Time to move again. Felt sad to leave the Netherlands.

Uncle Joe was a great host and the place was simply lovely.

At 9 a.m. we walked to the tram station and took the tram to Centraal Station for our Thalys to Brussels.

Hana wanted to punch the tram tickets and Uncle Joe patiently showed her how.

The Dutch system is quite interesting. The bus/tram/underground share the same ticket and can be used in the WHOLE country. The ticket is a long strip that is divided into 15 slots. Each trip within a zone will take up 2 slots. If 2 zones, it will become 3 slots and so forth.

Erasmusbrug

Erasmus bridge a.k.a Swan bridge.

The world's largest Bascule bridge, nicknamed the swan. Designed by architects Berkel en Bos (2000).

Very nice walk across.

Will leave Rotterdam tomorrow.

Kids are looking forward for Disneyland....

The 'Blaakse Bos' - August 06, 2006

Called the cube houses (1978-1984) were designed by architect Piet Blom.

Each cube is a house and it is senget...

Fancy living in a six sided house?

Going to the supermarket

Need to buy some stuff for makan and our next trip tomorrow.

Walked with Aida to the nearby supermarket that opens on Sunday.

Distance less than 1 km.

View....c'est magnifique.

Uncle Joe's place

This is the playground in front of Uncle Joe's place.

North Sea

Uncle Joe brought us to Den Haag (The Hague) to visit his apartment that is for rent.

It is located next to the sea and the wind was VERY strong.

People do bungy jumping from the tall mast at the end of the pier.

Exploring Amsterdam



Small and nice looking buildings.

Well maintained canals.

Proceeded to the famous Red Light District.....
Definitely not suitable for kids.

Adult toys...
Uncensored hard core pics....

The Fish Tanks.....
Prostitutes sitting behind glass doors waiting for their customers.
Most of them, if not all obviously have passed their prime.
Maybe they should pay their 'customers' instead...
Aida got a couple of 'Assalamualaikum ' from a few Mat Salleh....

Perli nampak....

Did not feel very comfortable and soon left for the train station to go back to Rotterdam.

Beware!!!

Warning to all visitors to Amsterdam.

The restaurants there only display the price of their food.
No price list for drinks.

A bottle of Coca Cola 500 ml cost us 4.50 Euros (RM 21) !!!!!!

Gay, gay, gay, gay.....Everywhere!!!! - August 05, 2006

Welcome to Amsterdam!!!

What a day to visit....

We arrived via intercity train that cost 45 Euros for return tickets for both of us.

From Centraal Station, we decided to take a stroll to the Anne Frank house.

The walk was lovely and pleasant.

This house is a museum where a 13 year old Jewish girl, Anne Frank and her family hid in a secret area within her father's office in Amsterdam during the Second World War from the Nazis. They stayed there from 1942 till 1944 and she kept her daily dairy. (something like blogging lah...).

Until one day someone betrayed them and all of them were rounded up to Austerwitz prison. Only her father survived. Anne Frank died 1 month before the war end due to typhus fever. Her diary was found, compiled and published by her father. The house is now converted into a museum and it was worth the long queue for the tickets.

Meanwhile, the canal in front of the house was jam packed with people and boat parades with loud music was going on.

It was THE GAY PRIDE AMSTERDAM 2006.

Gays....everywhere...

www.gayprideamsterdam.nl

Guess where are we?

Country of clogs....

Plenty of canals...

And windmills too.

Day 3 - Delft

A nice town.

It is more than 750 years old and owes its name to the word 'delving' or the digging of the oldest canal, the Oude Delft.

It is famous for its ceramics. A typical blue Delftware has its history more than 400 years ago where the Dutch learned the technique from Chinese porcelaine. As in other 'knowledge' transfer, they have made full use of it and the rest is history.

We went shopping for souvenirs.
Not the Delftware due to their astronomical prices...

Sea of bicycles...

They are everywhere!!!!!!

Queen Elizabeth 2 in Rotterdam - August 04, 2006

Luxury cruise liner.

"The RMS Queen Elizabeth 2 (QE2) is a Cunard Line ocean liner named after the earlier Cunard liner Queen Elizabeth. She was the flagship of the line from 1969 until she was succeeded by RMS Queen Mary 2 in 2004. She was considered the last of the great transatlantic ocean liners prior to the construction of the QM2, and before she was refitted with a diesel power plant she was the last oil-fired passenger steamship to cross the Atlantic in scheduled liner service. During her service as the Cunard flagship, the QE2 traveled all over the world, and now operates predominantly as a cruise ship sailing out of Southampton, England." from Wikipedia.

Si kenit dgn payung...

Dah lah hujan....

Tak nak share payung pulak tu....

Nasib baik kiut....

Kinderdijk - August 03, 2006

Uncle Joe brought us to the windmills.

Took tram, underground tube and the bus. Journey lasted 1 hour plus.
I am impressed with the modern facilities offered by city of Rotterdam.
It is noticibly efficient and cleaner than most cities I have visited lately.

It is located at a place called Kinderdijk and it is a UNESCO Heritage site.
Given the same status as Borobodur or St Emilion. It has 19 mills within the area.

It was raining on and off but the trip was memorable and unique.

Took a boat ride on the canal and we visited a windmill.

Managed to see the inside of a mill and how people actually lived in it.

Most of the mills were built in year 1760's and they are still functioning.

Amazing....
Ended our visit by having hot chocolate drink at the souvenir shop.

Sedap....kat luar sejuk...

Day 1 - Rotterdam

Uncle Joe came and met us at Rotterdam Centraal Station.

From there we took a tram.

A clean and modern city.

After mandi and makan.....

Nightmare at The Hague

The bus ride started off with a sour note.
One lady passenger came late and the driver refused to let her in.
She was crying and begging as she has a plane to catch.
The lady passenger in front of me and the rest voiced our protest as there was an empty seat in the bus.
Finally, the guard came and allowed the passenger in and the driver had to swallow his pride.
Ass...
The journey continued and I was wide awake around 4 am.
Saw there road sign and I know we were approaching Rotterdam. Started to wake the rest to wear their shoes and what not. After about 30-45 mins, the bus left the highway and entered a modern city and stopped at a big station. I asked the guy in front whether that was Rotterdam.

"No. We have passed Rotterdam and the next stop is Amsterdam. Now we are at The Hague."

WHAT????
I went down and spoke with the driver. A big ASSH@@@ that do not speak English/French.
Simply ignored me and indicated that he will not go to Rotterdam.
Real B@ST@RD....
Hague is 20 km from Rotterdam and Amsterdam is even further(70 km). Decided to get off the bus and we were stuck in a foreign city at 5 am with 4 kids and 8 bags!!!!!!

Called Uncle Joe and fortunately he had not left his house to fetch us. Told us to take the first train from The Hague to Rotterdam.

The first train was at 05:33 am and the tickets cost us Euro 14.20.

Finally we arrived at Rotterdam at 6 am.

According to Uncle Joe, some times the drivers purposely bypass Rotterdam as the trip out is a long way.

EUROLINES....unreliable, hopeless and inhumane.

Called Eurolines in UK to lodge a complaint and was told to write in a formal letter.
Jaga engkau EUROLINES.....
I will definitely going to file a complaint and demand refund of my unnecessary expenses on the train tickets.

Waiting for connecting bus in Paris

Bus arrived in Paris 1 hour early.

However the cafe was closed.

Thank god the food from London was there.

We had 'picnic' while waiting for the next bus at 11 pm.

Went to re-check in for the trip to Rotterdam. The last stop for the bus is Amsterdam and we have to disembark in Rotterdam which is 70km from Amsterdam.

Should arrive at 5:15 am.

Calais to Paris

Those Nigerian kids in the bus.....
Noisy and rowdy. Esp the boy whom had no manners at all.

Was told off by his neighbouring passenger couple of times but to no avail. His mother dozes off.

Somehow, her daughter(Mary) was not too bad and befriended Caya.

Dover to Calais - 1 August 2006

The bus stopped at Dover where we alighted for immigration purposes.

Then we and the bus entered into the ferry that will cross the English Channel.

The landscape of Dover is spectacular where the cliff meets the sea.

The ferry was exciting but unfortunately most of us were a bit sea sick initially.

Things were made worse after I bought a fish&chips for £8.20 !!!

Nobody had the appetite to eat as the ferry swayed back and forth.

Forced myself to finish the fish and kept the chips for dinner later.

The voyage took about 90 minutes.