Author: darryn

I was woken by Kirsten at about 8am, and got up to watch the snow outside. Ahh, springtime in Holland. Back to sleep for a few more hours and then we were outside for a walk. We went to the Panorama Mesdag, which is a massive (120m wide) panoramic painting of Scheveningen, painted by Hendrik… Continue reading Den Haag and Delft

Den Haag (The Hague) is the main government city of NL, like a Dutch Canberra, although Amsterdam is the capital city. It is about 30 minutes southwest of Amsterdam, i.e. halfway across the country. Den Haag is also where Michel, Kirsten’s brother, resides. Kirsten and I arrived in Den Haag in the early afternoon and… Continue reading Den Haag (Friday 8th April – Day 20)

Being the the first weekday in the Netherlands, and a foreigner with a Working Holiday Visa, I had to register with the Vreemdelingenpolitie (Stranger Police). With my visa sticker in my passport came a letter telling me that I have to register with the Stranger Police in Zutphen, and then within three days of that… Continue reading Day 16: Zutphen

Today we went for a walk in the Veluwe which is a kind of National park. I enjoyed it a lot because I was walking in a completely new environment with strange trees and landscapes. The park contains some of the hilliest terrain in the Netherlands and is favoured by runners and cyclists for the… Continue reading Day 15: Veluwe / Posbank

I was woken rudely at 6:21 by a bird call that sounded exactly like an alarm clock beep. I tried to get back to sleep with no result, my brain hammered by this bird. I listened to its call, a repeating pattern: 5-5-4-5-5-4 (five beeps, followed by a pause, then five, pause, four etc). Being… Continue reading Day 14: Deventer

We spent 13 hours on the plane. The food was OK. I didn’t watch any movies as I cannot hear on the plane because of the background noise. The entire flight was in darkness and I slept for over 8 hours, in twenty minute bites. Arrived in Amsterdam at 7:06AM on the 1st of April,… Continue reading Day 13: Kuala Lumpur to Amsterdam to Zutphen (April 1)