I am truly integrated into Dutch society!

I have just become the victim of one of the most common petty crimes here in NL - bicycle theft! Yep, my lovely old oma fiets was stolen overnight. I think I read somewhere that almost 1 million bikes get stolen here every year, so I guess I can expect a few more to be stolen from me in my "lifetime" here. I just hope she has gone to a good home and doesn't get dumped in the river or in a dark corner somewhere :-/

hhhmmm.....I will have to walk to school now - bugger, that means I have to get up at least 30 minutes earlier. When I do get a new bike, I think I will have to spend more on locks and chains than the actual bike!

Alli xxx

Those records just keep coming

Well, it's been one big year of broken weather records here. The latest one was announced yesterday. We have had the hottest September (so far) for the past 300 years. It has been a bit of a late summer period after the amazingly wet August (I think it rained every day!), which came after the hottest July for a few years. The only thing we need now are the plagues of frogs and locusts and the year of records will be complete ;-)

At least here, unlike good old Melbourne where the weather can change 5 times a day, once we get a particular weather type it seems to last for ages! So even though the days are getting shorter very quickly, the temperature is still hovering around the low 20C, perfect for strolling into the centrum for a spot of window shopping.

Whilst in the supermarket yesterday I also noticed signs of the forthcoming Sinterklaas celebrations. Even though it doesn't happen until 5 December, the supermarket shelves are already stocked with various forms of speculaas and pepernoten - cookies flavoured with some kind of spice mix, gingernut mostly I think. Very yummy! But I'll leave the explanation of the whole Sinterklaas thing for another posting.

Alli xxx

Luxembourg - a real grand duchy!

Yep, we've done it again - gone camping that is! We have just returned from a long weekend in Luxembourg. Now, I don't know about you, but I never really knew anything about Luxembourg apart from the fact that it is somewhere in Europe, and it is VERY small :-) Well it happens to be only a 4 hour drive from here, so we spent Thursday & Friday nights camping just outside the city of Luxembourg itself, and Saturday night further up north in the Ardennes, in a village called Vianden. Beautiful!

The city reminded me a bit of Paris. The architecture is similar, there are some wide tree lined boulevards, and a few people on the streets speak French, I think. Luxembourgish (I'm not joking!) is a really weird mix of German, French, and Walloon (from Belgium) so it's really difficult to know who is speaking what. Seems most of the locals are extremely multilingual so we didn't really have any trouble. I think the waiters we had in cafes/restaurants etc spoke to us in about three different languages throughout the course of the evening - very confusing! Luxembourg is one of the banking capitals of Europe, and it shows. Lots of the extremely well dressed locals seem to spend their time eating, smoking, and sipping wine at one of the many pavement side cafes, and shopping in really fancy stores. Even the chocolate shop was intimidating, with it's rows of fancy glass cases, brass doorknobs, and staff dressed in crisp white uniforms - eeekkkk! The McDonalds has a somewhat upmarket outdoor terrace area, and even the basics like the local pharmacy, fruit store, and the bank are located in imposing buildings (see photos below).

The city is built up on a number of hills, and a very deep, beautiful green valley runs right through the middle. You can still see some remnants of the old city walls and fortifications and I was once again reminded how old everything is here! We spent most of the time just wandering the streets and watching the world go by. Our "camping ground" was situated only a couple of kilometres from the city centre and was really more like a caravan park - it even had a ping pong table, a very picturesque mini golf course (where I whooped Jeroen's butt by 9 whole strokes!), and music piped into the bathrooms. Nothing like listening to Neil Diamond whilst taking a shower :-)

First thing Saturday morning, after shaking off the extremely heavy dew from the cold night before, we drove up north to the Ardennes region to camp one night at Vianden. Our campsite was situated right on the banks of a little river, and was right on the edge of the beautiful little village. The main "attractions" here are the chateau perched high on a hill, and WWII history. Vianden is smack bang in the middle of the area where the "Battle of the Bulge" took place in the winter of 1944-45. This battle was the largest land battle in the history of the US army and really saw the beginning of the end of Germany's control of the region.

We visited the national war museum in Diekirch on Sunday morning, and I was really moved. It was a totally unbiased representation of the main battles of the area, and had many personal accounts, photographs, and "mementos" of the horror of a battle that took place during one of the coldest winters in the region's history. One of the many life sized dioramas showed the crossing of a river by US troops struggling through knee deep snow at -23 C ! Many of the personal letters and accounts of the battle described it as a "white hell". So hard to imagine what it must have been like. But if you are ever in the area, I can highly recommend a visit to this museum.

We also visited the chateau, making our way up the really steep hillside by a scary chairlift. I think I spent most of the 15 minute journey with my eyes closed, and needless to say, we walked back down the hill! However, I did have my eyes open long enough to appreciate the view and take one of the photos of the village you can see below :-) The chateau was even in the hands of the House of Oranje Nassau (the Dutch royal family) at one stage. All these European royal families seem to be related!

The village of Vianden is something straight out of a fairy tale book - tiny winding cobblestoned streets, colourful flower filled window boxes, and little doll like houses. Even Victor Hugo (the author of Le Miserable) loved the look of the village, spending at least 12 months there in his declining years. Long enough for the village to create a Victor Hugo museum, name a street after him, and use some version of his name on just about every hotel in town.

So, even though Luxembourg is small we managed to find plenty of things to do. The weather was more than perfect, and the sky was a brilliant blue. What more can you ask for??

Alli xxx

Photos from Luxembourg