Hannover and Holland

We never left the Autobahn… except for fuel, and the occaisional expresso. We left Obernai just before noon, back past Strasbourg, into Germany at Saarbrucken, past Karlsruhe and Frankfurt, up to Kassel and onto the ring road around Hannover. I managed to pick the right exit, and about 1km later, slid straight into Carla’s old home street. She had spent a year here during her student years, and her family are just like, well, family – to all of us!

Carla – and her Other Mother – Dorle…

Shuli (everybody’s favourite Grandmother) arrived, and brought the kids down from the ladder…

Shuli – and Nick – who once spent a year in Oz… also a Triathlete…

Out for a late night drink – wheat beer – heaven in a glass…

A pause in the shopping mall. He used to have one of these when he was little…

How quick our colours changed. Germany played Italy this night…

Back to shopping – Carla has inherited her Mother’s brand awareness…

We stayed in to watch the game, Sabine arrived, Red, Yellow, Black – everywhere… and despite our best efforts, Italy won – bugger!

JB and Nick went into town to watch the game on the big screen, and then went clubbing – or something…

I decided to see Shuli home to her place, on a bike, as you do… Don’t know why Carla found it so funny – or took so many pix…

Must have been a big night – Carla’s still asleep…

And JB’s not waking up too well either… still in his German shirt – and that’s not an Australian flag on his cheek either…

We drive to Essen – where Carla’s ‘sister’ Merle is at University…

They’re actually quite close these two… after a huge dinner we crash…

Next morning, back in Hannover, JB and I wandered off to leave Carla and Dorle alone for a while, and then rejoined them at the Ice Cream cafe. We left mid afternoon to head South… Here’s a more detailed collection of pictures, enlarged, no captions – just click and scroll…

________________________________________________________________________________

This must be Holland

Ah… well I guess it must be…

It was well past noon when we left Hannover, so again, another mad dash down the Autobahn, through Osnabruck, Enschede, Apeldoorn, and around Amsterdam to the seaside resort of Zandvoort. I don’t know if Holland has ‘Love Hotels’, but I’m sure we found one! Next morning the 30km train ride into Amsterdam was comfortable and eficient – until we visited the tourism information centre at the Central Station. Public servants on the front line of the tourism industry, doesn’t work in Australia either! For what we needed, vending machines would have been quicker – and more polite.

But things improved quickly. The kids treated me to a visit to the Heineken Brewery – I’ve had quite a few “Heineken Experiences” – but none anywhere near as good as this one!

Many years ago, a special lady told me stories of her childhood, playing ‘hide-and-seek’ with her father (a Heineken executive) amongst these kettles. She must have hidden well – because they had to close the brewing line until she was found – inside a kettle! So – for a brief moment – this was just a little haunting…

Training schedules don’t allow him to join me for a beer very often. This was special and so was the beer…

We were posing – Carla doesn’t drink beer – not even Heineken! Here’s a more detailed collection of pictures, enlarged, no captions – just click and scroll…