Penhaven at play!

We had one very wet afternoon and a cold morning the following day in Amsterdam. But our time was still enjoyable with fun accommodation on a boat in one of the many canals. We walked around the streets getting drenched! In the end we succumbed to the weather and entered a pub recommended by our last house sit owners- De Haven Van Texel, overlooking one of the many canals. We downed two gluhweins (Dutch version of mulled wine) and followed that with a Dutchsnack of Bitterballen - a Dutch meat stew deep-fried in crumbs.  Paul followed that with a Brocolistamppot. This is a Dutch traditional dinner basically mash with gravy and meat, while I enjoyed a salad 🥗😋 We enjoyed the architecture of the buildings in Amsterdam, the red light district actually wasn't as busy as Antwerps- or maybe we were not in the exact area!  The weather wasn't really on our side but in the morning it was just overcast, so we enjoyed a couple of hours walk to the Bus Station for our bus to Brussels then

Hoofdorp House-sit Hoofdorp is the main town of the Haarlenmermeer municipality in the province of North Holland, with a population of over 77,000. We had a short house sit of 3 days looking after 2 dogs in a one bedroom apartment. So another insight into how some people live. We are house sitting for a young South African couple who moved over here last year.  We enjoyed walks along the canals. Took a half hour bus journey to Haarlem - once a major North sea trading post. We enjoyed walking around the Saturday market sampling a large Stroopwafel - two thin waffles stuck together with a layer of sweet syrup.  We visited the Saint Bravo church in Haarlem, with its stunning wooden ceiling, gorgeous organ which in 1766 Mozart as a 10 year old played! A safe dating back to the 15th century - it contained the city rights of Haarlem and some cool ship models hanging which date from 16th century and are models of the ships built in Haarlem at the time. Did our typical walk around and enjoyed

Roermond   We bused to Roermond from Antwerpen and were met by Anne - a friend of Paul's who we first met through a Fonterra connection. We last saw Anne in 2018. She is now smart and independent young lady with a gorgeous personality. It was very hard to say goodbye to her. But we had a great three nights with Anne and thoroughly enjoyed Roermond and a nearby village called Thorn.  We did a self guided tour of Roermond taking in all its history. Anne was our tour guide in Thorn. The nearby town is known for its striking white-painted houses. It was really pretty and at the end of our self-guided tour we enjoyed Dutch pancakes for lunch! Utretch and Zeist We then trained to Utretch and had a day exploring this city with its mediaeval centre. Then out to Zeist to catch up with Laura, another Fonterra friend of Paul's. Laura returned to the Netherlands in 2015 and now has a very nice home in the centre of Zeist, a beautiful family with a (Dutch) husband and a three year old son a