A rainy afternoon at home...

...and I was bored! Thought I would share some photos of good old Nijmegen with ya'll. Gives you a bit more of an idea of where I live :-)

The first five are various shots of the city itself, including the "skyline"! The sixth photo, the shot of a red brick building, is typical of the architecture on the larger avenues/streets; the next is an aerial shot of Keizer Karelplein (a large roundabout at the end of our street); followed by a landscape shot of the Ooipolder (the area where we go swimming); then comes a shot of the Waalkade (a tiny bit like Southbank) during the zomerfeesten; and last but not least, a shot of the lovely Queen Beatrix and our burgermeester (lord mayor) here in Nijmegen!! NB The Queen is the one in pink ;-))

Alli xxx

Photos of Nijmegen

Our journey back in time!

Jeroen and I went on a little day trip "up" to the city of Lelystad yesterday. Jeroen lived there with his Mum for about 5 years when he was still only a little tacker. He hadn't been back for almost 25 years, so the whole day was a trip down memory lane for him.

We started by driving exactly the same route he would take with his Mum or Dad, travelling between their houses on vacations/weekends. We drove through the Veluwe on the way, the biggest nature reserve here in NL, and also very scenic with lovely forests and heath lands. We even had the opportunity to stop at the halfway point at Barneveld to visit "Het Ei" (The Egg), the roadside cafe Jeroen used to stop with his Dad to eat fried chicken legs. We have since decided it is the biggest egg in the world and are sending off the details to the Guiness Book of Records as I type ;-) We also passed through Drie Dorp (Three Village), a tiny little village that actually used to consist of only three houses! Around every corner Jeroen was remembering more funny details of the journey he did hundreds of times as a kid. Once we were actually in Lelystad we drove to both his old houses and his two old primary schools - funny!!

The unusual thing about Lelystad is that it is a totally "artificial" city. It has only existed since 1967 after the completion of a huge undertaking known as the Zuiderzee Project. As you all probably know, alot of NL lies below sea level (including Schiphol Airport!!) and the province of Flevoland, where Lelystad is situated, is no exception. Basically the whole area exists thanks to the vision of one man, Cornelis Lely. The Dutch have literally closed off what was once open sea (the Zuiderzee) and created a closed lake (the Ijsselmeer) with a massive 30km long dyke, the Afsluitdijke, completed back in 1932. Gotta admire that determination and stubborness to hold back the actual sea! Not only that, they also created a further network of dams (dykes) in the area, drained off the water enclosed by the dykes to create lovely muddy, swampy areas (polders) and then rehabilitated this land to become one of the most fertile agricultural areas of the Netherlands. So it was very surreal walking around in Lelystad yesterday thinking that the whole area was once a sea!! Absolutely everything, from the grass, the trees, the houses, the shopping centres etc were not even there 60 years ago, they are all below sea level and are only there thanks to an ingenious system of dams keeping all the water back!!! We visited a really interesting musuem explaining all this stuff so I have all the technical statistics etc still in my head :-)

We also visited Batavia Stad. From a distance I thought it was going to be some kind of open air museum - it looked like a recreation of an old fishing village. It is actually a massive factory outlet centre (!!) designed to look like a village. Every outlet is in it's own little house and they are all coloured in different pastel shades......mmmmmm Situated on the waterfront of Batavia Stad is Batavia Werf, a fully operational shipyard. Here they build authentic replicas of the massive wooden ships that used to sail for the Dutch East India Company (VOC) back in the 1600-1700s They have completed "The Batavia", and are in the process of building "The 7 Provincien".

The strange thing is, "The Batavia" was wrecked on her maiden voyage in 1629 off the coast of Western Australia, and part of the wreck is on display in a museum in Fremantle! Most of the crew survived and made it to shore, sparking the theory that the Dutch were actually the first white settlers in Australia way before the British! There are also myths of a "white tribe" living somewhere in central Australia and who were "discovered" in 1832 by a British explorer speaking a bizarre form of old Dutch, living in small huts, and cultivating basic crops! The reconstructed Batavia can be seen in the photos below and it seems it was in Sydney during the 2000 Olympics. As a further link to bring the whole Batavia, Dutch/Australia connection full circle, the massive trees used to form the masts and the decks have been cut from the Schwarzwald (Black Forest) in the very area we were camping back in June. Freaky huh!!??

Anyway, you are all probably totally bored of my ranting by now. Until next time.

Alli xxx

Photos from our day out in Lelystad

The "city of light"

Yesterday we took a drive in our new car :-)) to the city of Eindhoven, about 60kms from Nijmegen. It's a bit bigger than Nijmegen, and definately more "modern" looking. Unfortunately it doesn't really have an old centre any more due to destruction during WWII, and it really only started growing as a city in the 1950s when Philips (probably THE biggest electronic company in the world) pumped heaps of $$ into it. It really should be called "Philips City"!! Every second building belongs to the company, there is a huge football stadium (Philips Stadion) used by PSV Eindhoven, and the history of the city is so closely linked to the company it's not funny. PSV actually stands for Philips Sport Vereniging (Philips Sport Club), and unbeknownst to me is not just a football club. I have also discovered that the world champion swimmer, Pieter van den Hoogenband, swims for PSV and calls the city of Eindhoven home!!

Back in 1891 Gerard Philips set up the company in Eindhoven and they started with the invention of the incandescant light bulb, hence the nickname "city of light". I think Philips wanted to show off so they installed the light bulbs on most of Eindhoven's streets - the first city in the world to do so! They also invented everything from the Philishave electric shaver, the audio cassette tape, and the CD! Just where would we be without them!?

Apparently the Philips' Directors were informed about the planned WWII German invasion of the Netherlands a day before it actually happened. They managed to flee the country to the USA with most of the company capital and continued to run the company from there during the war. They also moved the company (on paper) to the Dutch Antilles to keep it out of German hands! They returned to NL after the war and set up their world headquarters in Eindhoven. Hence the expansion and development of the city since then.

That's your history lesson for today!!

NB Just learnt an interesting factoid today - after the Sun, Philips shines the most light on planet Earth!!

Alli xxx

A genuine oma fiets!

Yep, to celebrate "surviving" my first 6 months in NL I am now the proud owner of a genuine 1960s oma fiets (grandmother's bicycle) :-) Isn't it funky?

It is actually an original Raleigh (Doug please note) and weighs a tonne! I still have to get used to the fact that it has pedal brakes, not handbrakes. So far so good, I haven't had any accidents yet. We have also bought the obligatory front and rear lights in preparation for those dark winter mornings when I cycle to school. My classes start tomorrow by the way! I have my notebook and "Hello Kitty" pencil case ready to go :-)

Funnily enough, there was a piece on the radio yesterday about wearing helmets whilst cycling. 99% of Dutch people you speak to think that having to wear a bicycle helmet is one of the most ridiculous things they have heard - they can't believe they are compulsory in Australia! There is now a lobby group trying to get them made compulsory at least for young children and teenagers. Good luck!

Alli xxx

Time on your hands?

Then you too can create your own "Southpark" character :-) Jeroen and I have created ones of ourselves as artistic inspiration for you! Funny the things you find on the internet when you are bored. Go to:

http://www.sp-studio.de/

for the program, and have fun!

Alli xxx

Jeroen at the zomerfeest

The Barbapapas

Has anyone seen or heard of them?? Apparently they were huge on European television in the 1970s. They are currently making a "comeback", with 50 brand new episodes created. The whole family (Mama & Papa and the 7 Barbababies) travel on voyages of discovery to various far off lands, including Australia :-) I just saw an episode on television here and think they are really cute. May have to start a collection of pink Barbapapa merchandise!

See:

www.barbapapa.fr/gb/barbapapa-family.html

for more information.

Alli xxx

I'm over it already...

...the rain that is!! Yep, it's been grey and rainy for the past two days now. REAL tropical downpours of rain, interspersed by thunder and lightning. We have had water restrictions in force and it has to be good for the vegetation, but it means no more BBQing on our balcony, or swimming down at the river :-( It is also a lot cooler again - back down to 20 C

Sounds more like the usual Dutch weather doesn't it? Funny how quickly you get used to extremes. The hot, sweaty days seemed normal after all. Apparently warm, sunny days are on their way back, but unfortunately only on a temporary basis. I was hoping to make the most of my last two weeks of "leisure" before I start school. Guess I will have to start reading books and watching DVD's again. Sounds hard doesn't it?

Speaking of DVD's, we watched "The Shawshank Redemption" yesterday. It was my first time. For those of you who haven't seen it, I can highly recommend it! It's pretty long, but both Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman put in such great performances as the lead characters that you get lost in the story. It is really just about friendship, hope, and ultimate redemption (no special effects or high speed action to be seen!) but you gotta see it.

Alli xxx