Alonda and Jim Droege: Holland Bike'n'Barge

We started our Bike'n'Barge trip in Amsterdam (of course!). The canals are always fun to see. On our walking tour, we found out there is a boat in the city that does nothing but go around and pick up the hundreds of bikes that get (accidentally or on purpose) dropped in the canals every year. The guide says the most dangerous thing you can do in Amsterdam is to jump in a canal. You will probably break a leg on a submerged bike.

We like to find unusual museums to visit. This one in Amsterdam is the "Our Lady in the Attic" museum. During the time of Catholic persecution, a man bought up three houses, linked their attics together and put in a 150 seat Catholic church. They were a little vague on how 150 people walked in and out of this house on Sunday and no one seemed to notice!

Here is Alonda and her two sisters with our "barge". It is actually a sort of river cruiser and never carried coal or other cargo in its life.

The bikes are stored on the roof of the boat and we took them up and down the ramp.

This is a side-by-side tandem bike with an electric booster motor. You didn't really have to pedal unless you wanted to.

We rode the traditional two-wheeled, 7-speed, coaster brake clunker bicycles. Everyone in Holland owns a bike and rides it. This picture was taken during one of our lunch stops and Jim had to fix the only flat tire we had during the entire trip.

This is why everyone wants to ride in Holland. The scenery is lovely, the flowers are in bloom, the canals are beautiful and you can always look at a drawbridge.

Once you get away from the towns, the scenery just keeps getting nicer. The nation-wide bicycle highway network has excellent signs and is extremely nice to ride on. Dutch law says any car that hits a bicycle is automatically at fault. You can be quite brave in traffic with that sort of protection!

We visited the Royal Delft factory (in Delft, of course!). There are several Delft pottery factories and they all claim to be the "official" one. This one claims to be the only "royal" one. The fine pottery technology was all stolen from the Chinese! This was our worst day for weather. We were absolutely soaked to the skin from the downpour riding to the factory from the town square. The weather statistics for summer in Holland said it wouldn't rain!

This is the "Waage" or scale house in the main square at Gouda. All goods coming and going were officially weighed so taxes could be levied. It also meant that if you bought Dutch products, you got full weight of whatever you bought. It was good for business and good for taxes! We also bought a bunch of real, live Gouda cheese in Gouda.

One of the days, we didn't trust the weather (remember Delft?) and rode the boat to the next stop. The weather looked much better so we rode the route in reverse to go visit the "castle". It certainly looked the part!

This is first stop at the "Zaanse Schans" open air museum. You play the slot machine if you want a free map of the museum. We won, of course! Our guide on the boat had warned us about this place. Not about the museum; just about the bus-loads of Chinese tourists. He wasn't kidding! They were everywhere!

Everyone thinks of wooden shoes when they think of Holland. Here is photo shoe.

This shoe was so popular with the Chinese tourists, you had to stand in line!

Alonda's feet aren't really this big! In the workshop, they had hundreds and hundreds of traditional and non-traditional wooden shoes. You would not believe some of the styles!

You can't visit Holland without seeing the windmills. Here they are.

They actually work. They don't do a lot of water pumping any more, but any windmill that is still standing is still functional.

After our Bike'n'Barge trip, we went down to Brussels in Belgium for a couple of days. We didn't want to go back to Karachi too soon! This is the Atomium. It was built for the Expo '58, the Brussels World's Fair. This was the first world's fair after WW II. The shape is that of an iron crystal and is over 100 meters tall.

From the top looking down, you can see all of "Mini-Europe". From this height, you may not realize how much of Europe is down there!

This is the town square in the middle of Brussels. Every year (end of August) they decorate the square with piles of cut flowers. It is absolutely stunning! We only got to see this miniature version!

This video shows what the real square really looked like!

Each country designed their own exhibit and Holland, of course, put in some windmills.

Alonda's sister found Big Ben. The real one is a lot harder to stand next to.

This is the Atomium (life-sized) hanging over the Eiffel Tower (miniature) and the Arch d'Triomphe (miniature).

We took pictures of the real Tower of Pisa. You might want to compare our pictures from our trip to Tuscany. Click the link and scroll down if you want. http://anjdroege.blogspot.com/2009_10_01_archive.html

We went to the Chocolate Museum in Brussels and learned how to make hand-filled Belgium chocolates. You can also learn how to make a chocolate Mickey Mouse. Alonda got a senior discount. Jim couldn't get a discount for senior, teacher, Esperantist, ex-Army, living in Pakistan or anything else. The girl did, however, give him some sympathy chocolates.