Switzerland...Bonjour Geneve!

As the title suggests, my first stop in Switzerland was in Geneva which is in the southern French part of Switzerland. It was a long train trip that was made even longer by delays in Germany. We waited for over two hours just outside of a town in Germany which caused further delays. I am now expecting delays and it really wasn't a problem. They only issue was seeing one girl weeping on the platform. I gave her my pack of tissues but that was all I could do. I suspect her issue wasn't the train delays but hopefully the tissues helped! I arrived in Geneva four hours later than expected but the room I had organised was close to the station and very comfortable. 

I had a day in Geneva to explore and I mostly walked around the old town. It is a beautiful city and I loved seeing the swiss flags. It is hard to get used to french as the main language and it has made me appreciate how much german I know. In french I can ask people how they are, tell them that I am Australian (very important to make sure they don't think I am English!) and ask them if they speak english. Some phrases are coming back to me but very gradually. I have nevertheless met some really nice people and felt quite happy wondering around the city. 

One last thing I should say is that Switzerland is expensive!! A salad in a department store was the equivalent of $40 so needless to say, I have turned into a one meal a day person with a visit to the supermarket for supplementary snacks. I think I just have to get used to it and stop converting because a rubbish coffee for $8 is not a good thing for anybody. 

Last stop in Germany...Bamberg

My last stop in Germany was Bamberg. This is in Bavaria and yes I sampled the beer, the bratwurst and other typical Bavarian delicacies. Once again I was hit with train delays but only about 30 minutes. From what I understand, the privatisation of the train network has had a negative impact but even if they were late, they were still comfortable. The weather in Bamberg was a little drizzly but again I was staying with former colleagues of my father and they looked after me and showed me around. The forests are beautiful in this area and the town itself is picturesque. It was a restful couple of days and a nice way to say goodbye to Germany.

Germany again...Heidelberg

It took me a while to get back to Germany because of the trains. My train from Amsterdam was cancelled which caused a ripple effect as I was then late for every other train to Heidelberg but I arrived in one piece and Joachim and Marlene were happy to wait for me. Joachim worked with my father and it was wonderful to see them both after many years. Over the next few days they took me around Heidelberg and we had many wonderful conversations about politics, life and writing novels. The castle is made of a red sandstone and is stunning to walk around and the food was delicious. It also has the oldest university and the largest wine barrel in the world (last picture) as people used to pay their taxes in the form of wine. 

As we drove around, I was struck by how big Heidelberg is and while I spent most of my time in the more picturesque parts of the city, there are some that are more modern and perhaps more souless but isn't every city caught in a trap of contradictions?  Yes, as some people have commented, it is far more beautiful than the Heidelberg in Melbourne. I could have stayed longer but I had my train booked.

Amsterdam - a tapestry of moments

Amsterdam. I am not sure how to describe this city. I could begin with the fun fact of the origin of the name (named after the 13th century dam of the Amstel river) but I will perhaps start at my introduction to the city which was not a good one. I arrived and it was extremely crowded with bicycles going every which way and the smell of weed permeating the narrow streets I needed to navigate to get to my hotel. My hotel is very close to the central station which is good but my room was tiny. I had a shelf with that was my bed, a shelf for my bag, some room to stand and a shared bathroom at the other end of the corridor. I had a moment of feeling disappointed and feeling especially annoyed because this place was going to be my home for the next four days. I decided that the only way forward was to be thankful for what I did have and things started to turn around...

Let me tell you all the wonderful things that did happen...the shelf bed turned out to be incredibly comfortable, the shower was great and I am now organised enough with travelling that it is not a big deal to take what I need to the bathroom. It was ace to meet up with Zayda and her friend - we had lots of fun having cocktails one night and then a canal cruise and dinner the next night. 

On recommendation I went on the Anne Frank Walking Tour (thanks Stephen!) and I was able to do this before going to the Anne Frank Museum which gave me a really good context for the museum. A fun fact was that during the occupation of the Netherlands, the women in the Resistance used to pretend to be pregnant and built wooden bellies to transport food and supplies. It was confronting to see the experience of the Frank family (and the others who were with them in hiding) and to see this tiny annex that they called home for over 700 days but also to be reminded of the terrible restrictions that they were under before they had to go into hiding. One in five Jews in the Netherlands did not survive the war. One in five. 

It was really fun spending a day with Jamie before he started at the conference - we went to the Rijksmuseum and had very decadent but overpriced stroopwafels but mainly it was just really nice to catch up - it felt like a lovely reminder of home and so it was a little sad to say goodbye.

My last day in Amsterdam began with a fabulous leisurely brunch with Gilly and then strolling along some of the streets to the Van Gogh Museum. On the advice of some people I met in Haarlem, I booked a ticket early and I am pleased I did because it was booked out. The museum was AMAZING. I absolutely loved seeing his artwork and while I loved seeing the more well known pieces such as the paintings of the sunflowers and the irises, I particularly loved seeing some of his earlier paintings of the town where his parents lived. I thought they handled his suicide sensitively and provided a context for it, showed the grief of his family and friends and used it as a way to encourage people who are struggling to reach out for help. It was a really good museum. I loved so many of the paintings.

So this was a long post but it was a very full few days filled with friends, food, museums and an elderflower cocktail! To quote Anne Frank, "memories mean more to me than dresses". I hope that's not inappropriate to use this in this context but I feel like I have at this stage in the trip a very full suitcase of memories. Tomorrow I leave the Netherlands to return to Germany but this time to the south of Germany. If you have got to the end of this long post - well done. See you in Germany!

Netherlands...Haarlem

My next stop was Haarlem. I won't make this a long post because I have got a little behind and want to catch up. I was only there for two nights and it is not a big town so to have basically two days with no museums (they are closed on Mondays) gave me plenty of time to explore and rest. My hotel was on the main square so while it was a pain to drag my suitcase there from the Hauptbahnhof, it was brilliant when I arrived. I just missed a jazz festival but they assured me it was a good thing because most of the residents had trouble sleeping because of the noise. I was surprised to find something so cheap in such a good location but it was because it was pretty basic which suited me because I was out most of the time. I did a self guided walking tour that only cost 1 euro. I know it was a good tour because I saw interesting things and only got lost once! It is a very pretty city with small cobbled streets and lovely houses and of course everyone riding around on bicycles. I met a range of different people - the first night I had dinner with a local and the second night had dinner with a couple from Queensland - which was fun. 

A highlight was visiting the Corrie ten Boom house on the last day of my stay. For those who don't know, her family hid various Jewish people during the war. It was fascinating to learn more about her and see the house. I have a photo below of me in the hiding place and I got to know a Canadian girl who was also doing the tour and we agreed that it was probably inappropriate to be smiling in the photo but then to look serious would look strange! I opted for smiling. 

By the end of my stay they had cleared the main square of all the Jazz Festival equipment and I loved seeing how big the square actually was and see all the tables and chairs spilling out into the square. Having the square cleared also highlighted how huge the cathedral is. It is also massive inside and at the end sits a big organ which Mozart played at the age of 10 when he was travelling through the town with his father (fun fact!). 

Netherlands...Amersfoort

I am a little behind in my posts, as some of you may know, I have since left Amersfoort, and Haarlem and am now in Amsterdam but I want to keep the posts a little bit separate so let's go back to Amersfoort...

The reason for visiting this town was to see Pieter and Jorin but the town itself was definitely worth it as well. Seeing friends (and in this case actually meeting Jorin!) is a highlight of travel and we had a wonderful weekend of exploring and long conversations ranging from the funny to very deep. I loved this side of the trip but we also fit quite a bit in. What I am discovering is that the Netherlands is small so we were able to do more than I expected. The first night we went to a local ballon festival with some of their friends (who were so welcoming and I really enjoyed talking to!), followed the next day by a visit to Delft, The Hague and then the beach. Delft was pretty and had a market where I was able to try various local Dutch specialities including fried fish, Dutch waffles (thin ones unlike the the thick Belgian waffles) and krokets plus Heineken beer. The blue and white china was everywhere and so were the bicycles. People ride everywhere and while it was strange to see so many people riding with helmets, I think the difference is they have their own proper bike paths, they are given priority with everyone looking out for them and they don't ride too fast.

After Delft we went to The Hague and that had a different feel as the canals had mostly been paved over and there were more restaurants and cafes. You could tell it was the city with the palaces, the parliament and basically where there was more money. We were able to walk around the streets and just soak up the atmosphere and admire the architecture. Finally we went to the beach which had cafes right on the beach and it was a nice way to end a busy day. 

On Sunday after church (a great service!) we went for a bike ride into Amersfoort centre. Here is my fun fact - I can still ride a bicycle after many years. We were able to easily ride into the town where they were having a jazz festival so we watched some jazz, had a drink in the square and I could soak up the last few moments in a place I loved with people who have become dear friends!

Germany: A rest in Muenster before leaving the country for a little while

Before I begin talking about Muenster I will tell you a fun fact - if ever you are in a situation when you want to write a german word that has an umlaute (two dots over the letter) you add in an 'e'. I discovered this in Berlin when I was trying to book a train to Muenster without an umlaute function on my phone. It saved me from accidentally booking a train to the wrong place and it was a fun thing to learn. So for the blog I will be writing about Muenster so get ready...

I really like Muenster. It is a very small city but was a good stop as I head west towards the Netherlands. I really enjoyed wandering around. It was certainly less touristy than Dresden and Bremen and while I certainly wasn't the only tourist, I enjoyed the more authentic feel and the stronger university presence. The day I arrived was market day and I bought the most delicious strawberries for lunch and wandered around enjoying the atmosphere. The shops were fun to visit - there was the most amazing cheese shop with flavours such as lavender, cumin, basil, garlic and you could sample all of them. They were also slicing cheese like a flower and you could choose what 'pearls' you could have. I choose goat cheese and red wine pearls and it just melted in my mouth in this explosion of deliciousness! I have been trying to have local foods such as fish sandwiches and currywurst etc. and I was so tempted to buy a wheel of cheese from the shop until I saw the price and decided that less is more. 

The wasps, just like in all of Europe, were in full force but I prefer having to swat away a polite wasp than deal with mosquitos. I spent a little more time walking in parks which was restful.