Belgium, Ghent

From my last post we left Noord Holland and went south to Wageningen.
Getting used to the roads now so the drive was easy except when the GPS stopped just before a turnoff.
My cousin Evelien lives in Wageningen with her husband Rouke and their 2 children.
We went for a walk the first evening and viewed the local park and the inner city with its unique history.

See below

Tried some beautiful Belgium beer

Below is a view if the Nederrijn river as seen from the park.

We had a very relaxed stay in Wageningen and headed south into Belgium to the city of Ghent.

We stayed in a holiday/motorcamp for a couple of nights.

Ghent proved to be full of very old buildings.

Below is a castle from the 10th century that the vikings attacked

Next stop was Paris on the way south.

Netherlands

The flight from Bogota went well but delayed by 30 mins. We arrived in Frankfurt and transferred to the next flight. We stamped into Europe in Frankfurt so when we arrived in Amsterdam, we simply collected our baggage and walked through without a stop.
My uncle Arie and his grandson were at Skiphol to pick us up. I walked through the lobby and didn't recognise them initially. Linda said it was probably those people "there" and it was.

We went straight back to Akersloot which is the small town that I was born in.
The town hadn't really changed since 1996. It had changed but in other parts.

We had lots of beers before flopping into bed.

Many beers

The following days happened very quickly with family visits around town. 

One of the first things we looked at was the flower festival in Limmen. 

Siem kindly took us around Limmen to see all the handcrafted flower artwork.

OK. ...so it looks like John Key. 

It is actually Johan Cruyff. 

Johan is a famous football player in Holland. Born in 1947 he played for Ajax initially and later in 1974 played for the Dutch in the Fifa world cup, which they lost to Germany by 1 point. Many TV's were smashed that day. 

Next day we went to Alkmaar which is a beautiful city in Noord Holland. 

Full of canals as below.

Alkmaar has been around for a long time and was declared a city in 1254.

Alkmaar started before the 10th century.

It was besieged by Spaniards in 1573 but gained back after a big fight.

We came to Alkmaar to watch my cousin Johnny perform with his band.

l

The band Run Bowie Run performed David Bowie songs. 

Later we watched another performance in a club where they played their own songs.

We spent quite a lot of time in Alkmaar as it is a very picturesque place to be in.

Very quaint shops and lots of canals and boats.

Alkmaar is famous for its cheese markets in the city square.

Tripping around the region there were lots of colours.

My cousin Joop showed us around the region.

During this time I drove the car to learn the right side position and road rules.

A bit nerve racing to start with.

Can you guess the type of flower?

A typical scene in rural Holland.

We also went to my Uncle's farm for a quick visit.

Above is one of his prize bulls.

Blonde d'Aquitaine is the breed.

The region of Groningen was looking really pretty with the warm temperatures and sunshine. 

Another trip was to Enkhuizen, which is a tourist town on the Zuiderzee. 

Earlier known as a harbour town for trade ships. Now it is land locked behind a dyke. 

There is sea access but through a lock.

Seen lots of other stuff and had a couple of nights out playing Dutch billiards.

Notice the lack of pockets on the table.

Into Belgium tomorrow so will post more stuff later.

Had a wonderful time in Holland with a very generous family. 

Much appreciated. 

Bogota, Colombia

Today's post is the last from South America.
We arrived in Bogota to a long wait on the tarmac while the anticipation grew of the unknown. Finally after 30 minutes we walked out of our plane and into a shuttle bus.
That was also a long trip as the airport is under reconstruction and there was a traffic jam from one end to the other. The nerves grew as we were getting further away from our luggage. Finally we arrived at customs and breezed through. They must have liked our gringo smiles. Onto the baggage recovery and it arrived without a hitch...phew.
Lots of stories about big bad Bogota. We taxied to our first stay and got ripped off. This always happens from the airport. Your tired, hungry and in need of a shower. Haggling over a taxi ride is the last thing you want.
Our hosts Cami and Jeshua were great. They spoke perfect English which is a real bonus. They showed us around town and helped us navigate the city...lots of fun and visited site's rarely seen by the usual tourist.
We had an opportunity to play the national game of Tejo.

The cool thing about this game is you don't pay to play. You only pay for the drinks that you consume. We consumed quite a few and ended up drinking and laughing with some locals. I was pretty cut when we left. Who won the Tejo....Linda did of course. Old dead eye dick. Woman don't normally play Tejo and so the sight of a gringo woman playing was something rare for the old boys beside us. Especially when Linda hit the centre ring. There are small explosive charges around the ring so when the steel puck contacts the ring it fires the powder.

The next cool thing we did was a bike tour of the Bogota sites.

Below is the original centre of Bogota

This is a local hangout for students and street people.

Many small shops and bars around the square give it a lively atmosphere.

Some typical graffiti art

More graffiti art

Here is a coffee roaster machine. 

The little factory roasted and blended Colombian coffee. 

The factory also had a coffee shop beside so we piled in for a treat.

Below is an example of freshly roasted coffee.

More graffiti art.

This was my favourite

On the bike tour we stopped at an indour market which sold fruit and vegetables,  meats, fish and assorted other foods.

Here is our tour guide Mike.

Mike was trying to tempt us to partake in this local aphrodisiac. It consisted of ground herbs with raw ground shrimp.

Nobody had any.

Here is the bike team. 

Cami and Jeshua took us out to a farm style restaurant in a small town called Tenjo.

Quite an amazing place to eat with many different places to sit in different parts of the park like farm. The whole place had metal craft figures all around it.

Here is the pig before he got roasted 

We also did the museums in Bogota of course.

We went to the Salt Cathedral in the town of Zipaquira located 1 hour north of Bogota. 

This was an amazing place to visit as the cathedral is built 200 metres underground and fashioned out of salt rock. Salt rock is quite solid but soft enough to fashion with sharp tools or high pressure water.

 My camera didn't handle the light to we'll but you get the idea.
Belbow is an owl crafted into the salt rock

The gold museum was fantastic. The old archaeological gold still shine bright. Many ceramics on display as well.

We also went to the National museum 

Below is an example of a fish trap which has the same features as a fyke net for catching eels.

We also looked at the art museum dedicated to Fernando Botero. 

All of his art is fat. All of it.....!!!

On Sunday we went up Monsaratte, which looks out over Bogota. 

There is a cable car and a tramway to the top.

The views are awesome. Many restaurants and shops sit on the top to squeeze the tourists. 

Above is the view down the cable. It's bloody steep.

During our second week we stayed with another family.

Flor and her family were wonderful hosts and also quided us on the city.

We also met several travellers staying at the house which created lots of conversation. 

Well that's about it.

More things happened but I'll tell you another time.

Bogota was not the big bad place we had heard about.

The city is vibrant with lots to do.

Parts are old and falling apart but reconstruction is happening all over the place.

Many people sleep in the streets which is a little disconcerting but you get used to it.

Colombia is trying to look after these people but I get a sense of hopelessness of some and they will die in the streets. 

Next blog comes from Holland.