Merry Christmas and a Happy 2010!
Friday, 25 December 2009
Saturday, 5 December 2009
Speculaas
To celebrate Sinterklaasfeest, I’ve baked some Gevuld Speculaas. Not much to celebrate, but it is a good excuse to prepare this delicious Dutch pastry. It is a spiced biscuit filled with an almond paste.
Sinterklaas is a traditional Winter holiday figure in the Netherlands, Aruba, Suriname, Netherlands Antilles and Belgium, celebrated every year on Saint Nicholas' eve (December 5). The feast celebrates the name day of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of, among other things, children.
Monday, 23 November 2009
Summer again - 4WD’n
Summer is here (officially December 1st) so time to get the camping gear out again. We already had 2 short trips in spring which were a bit rainy, but this time things looked good.
On Thursday right after work we left for Goulburn where we stayed overnight in a motel, the next morning it was off to Braidwood to meet up with our fellow campers. After a coffee, some pastries and the last use of the toilet facilities we went off into Deua National Park. As temperatures raised to 41°C we followed a challenging track for about 6 hours to the Bendethera campsite. We found a nice spot near the river to set up camp.
Saturday we did a bushwalk to the Bendethera caves, still a very warm day but with a cool-down stop in the caves it was bearable. Sunday was time to pack up and dive back home!
Wednesday, 28 October 2009
Mexican Riviera
Booked and arranged a long long time ago was a cruise with our Dutch friends from Los Angeles to Mexico and back. We met up with the guys in LA and the next day we sailed off on the Royal Caribbean Mariner of the Seas.
Because of Hurricane Rick in the area, captain Johnny had to change the plans a bit, but he sailed us through the heavy weather without problems. The ship went to port in Puerto Vallarta and Cabo San Lucas (we had to skip the stop in Mazatlan).
The Mariner of the Seas | The guys |
Dance party at the pool deck | Another dance party in “Studio B” |
Decorating your Stateroom-door is part of the experience. | View of the Royal Promenade |
Dolphin Encounter in Cabo San Lucas | Cheers |
After a great week with parties, dinners and time to catch up with our friends, it was time to head back to Sydney. We had a couple of hours to spare before our flight back, so we had a look in Santa Monica and Venice Beach.
Tuesday, 1 September 2009
Bangkok - กรุงเทพมหานคร
It was good catching up with everyone in Amsterdam, but time had come to head back in the direction of Australia. On the way back we had a stopover planned in Bangkok for 5 days.
We had a great time and have already planned our next trip to this wonderful vibrant, buzzing and very cheap city.
Wat
There is more in Thailand than food… you guessed it… Temples. We took the very efficient SkyTrain and the less-efficient river ferry service to Wat Pho (วัดโพธิ์), the temple of the Reclining Buddha. Wat Pho is the one of the largest and oldest temples in Bangkok and is home to more than one thousand Buddha images, as well as one of the largest single Buddha images: the Reclining Buddha, the Reclining Buddha is forty-six metres long and fifteen metres high, decorated with gold plating on his body and mother of pearl on his eyes and the soles of his feet.
46m of gold | The feet with the inlay of mother of pearl |
nice ‘n easy | Hans donating a roof-tile to the restorations of the temple. |
Close to Wat Pho is the Grand Palace. The Grand Palace is a complex of buildings in Bangkok, Thailand. It served as the official residence of the Kings of Thailand from the 18th century onwards.
Food
Tuesday, 18 August 2009
Amsterdam
Because we have our best friends Harald & Danny’s wedding to attend next weekend in Amsterdam, we took off for a trip back to Europe. Luckily we were able upgrade our flight on points from Sydney to Singapore on Qantas. Singapore-Amsterdam on KLM was back in cattle-class unfortunately, but some sleeping got us through the 24hrs of travel.
We arrived on Sunday morning at 6am and after some coffee and freshing up we met the familiy first. After that we headed to Amsterdam to check into the spare room at Harald & Danny.
Of course we had to go and eat some Dutch Kroket (Croquette) and meet up with all our friends.
We also met up with our parents again and we had a very nice dinner in Leiden.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Famous
We appeared in an article about the Drive4Life tour in the July edition of Overlander Magazine.
For those not in Australia, ask me for a scanned version of the article. The ozzies can find the magazine at their local Newsagent.
Sunday, 26 April 2009
Drive4Life
From Sunday 19th April 2009 till Friday 24th April 2009 we participated in the Drive4Life fundraiser tour. The objective of Drive4Life is to raise funds for Northcott disability services, a leader in the support and service provision for children and young adults with disabilities and their families. They do so by conducting "tag-along" four wheel drive tours. Participants in the tour make a tax-deductable donation of AU$ 1.000, every cent of which goes directly to the charity. Sponsors pay for the additional funds needed to organise the trip itself.
Albury
With the car fully checked and packed up we left on Friday afternoon and set course for Albury, NSW where we spent the night. Albury has an interesting link with The Netherlands, which was why we chose this town as a stop.
In 1934 the MacRobertson Trophy Air Race took place, from London to Melbourne. The Dutch KLM aircraft De Uiver took part in this air race. Nearing the end of the race the Uiver, hopelessly lost after becoming caught in a thunderstorm, ended up over Albury, New South Wales. The townsfolk responded magnificently, they helped the lost plane by signalled "Albury" by turning the town lights on and off. They lined their cars on the local racecourse to light up a runway for the plane. The plane landed, and next morning was pulled out of the mud by locals to fly on and win the handicap section of the race.
At Albury Airport there is a Memorial, however the DC2 replica is no longer there and the memorial is in state of disrepair.
Gundagai with the first truss bridge built in Australia | The Uiver Memorial |
The Uiver replica, parked at a remote part of the airport instead of near the Memorial. | Albury by night |
After the stopover in Albury we set course for Harrietville, the starting point of our tour. We checked into the local motel and gathered with all the participants to be assigned to our groups and meet the group leaders. The car and equipment were checked and we put the drive4life stickers on the doors of the car.
After that it was time for a beer at the Snowline Hotel to have a chat with the others in our group.
Day 1
An early start to gather for the group photo. It took a bit of manoeuvring to get all the cars and participants positioned for a good photo. After that we could really start the tour.
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We arrived at the Horseyard flat campground around to put up the tent and gather wood for the campfire, as soon as the sun set, it became quite cold and it proved to be an even colder night.
Day 2
Cold! There was ice everywhere when we woke up, on the car, on the tent and on the grass. Is this Australia? Overnight we reached -6°C, lucky we bought warm sleeping bags.
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Day 3
Day 3 took us from the Wonnangatta campground to Talbotville. A very nice day.
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Day 4
Day 4 we are staying at Talbotville, so no need to pack up the tent. We visited the old goldmine area and had a meal at the Dargo Hotel, a very small town in the High Country.
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Day 5
Day 5 took us from Talbotville back to Harrietville through some land that was affected by the bushfires about 2 months ago. It was a very eerie landscape, all the trees looked like burnt matches. After the return in Harrietville it was time for a shower. That night the locals prepared a BBQ for us. There was a presentation by the organisers, the cheque was handed over to Northcott and there was a party with a band. The next morning we drove all the way back to Sydney in one go.
We had a fantastic time and a great bunch of people in our group!
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