Holland, Belgium and Luxembourg

well folks..as advertised, mumsie and her brood went off to Holland and Belgium for our holidays this summer and singgah for a couple of hours kat Luxembourg on our way back... penat woo...

Again, as you can see , we took off one seat, bentang sleeping bag and some duvets, minus Kak Teeny...we started the journey on 23 August 2007...Since Abah insisted on getting a new portable DVD player, we had to wait whilst he dashed off the Conforama to get one. So, with full knowledge that it'll take us about 12 hours to get to The Hague, we left home at 11.30 am! Needless to say, we arrived at about midnite in the Hague laden with apologies to our gracious hosts - Muja and Yusry - thanks Azwa, for introducing us!

The next day, still recovering from the long journey, we took our time and went off to the small towns of Volendam and Zaans Schans, as recommended by Muja. Cute little fishing towns, they were! Highlight of the visit was us dressing up as traditional Flemish family and took pictures!! The girls really enjoyed that and of course, being mummy's girls, they were the cutest ones there..ehem...

As the day was still early, Abah suggested we toured what we can of Rotterdam. After literally groping in the dark streets of Rotterdam, we found the cubic houses the city is famous for! Till today, we still wonder how the rooms are arranged in the cubes!

3rd day...we toured bits of The Hague. Nice and cozy. We stopped by the International Court of Justice. By stopping by I mean loitering at the front gate, taking loads of pictures! We had lunch in the city centre before setting of for Amsterdam.

Now...Amsterdam is happening!! Macam-macam ada...we started with the canal cruise..the short cut way of seeing as much of Amsterdam as we can! The buildings are beautiful!

There's 2 highlights of Amsterdam - first, the visit to Anne Frank's house...where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Germans during the 2nd World War. The girls really enjoyed that..at the end of the visit Sarah aptly concluded "Kesiannnnn..." Picture taking was not allowed in the house so can only show you this picture of Abah queueing at the entry whilst the girls wait by the canal...

2nd highlight was of course the walk down the Red Light District! Poor Abah had to make do visiting the place with us girls! Needless to say, the girls was a bit shocked! hehe...Now they know why some Tshirts have "Good girls go to Heaven, bad girls go to Amsterdam" written on them! Here's Abah trying to look like he doesn't care that he's at the world's famous red light district with his family!! hehehe...

The 4th day, we left Muja and Yusry with much gratitude, and singgah the beach near The Hague before going off to Antwerp. Surprisingly, since she doesn't really enjoy swimming pools, Soraya really enjoyed the beach. Kakak-kakak dia lagilaaa...Needless to say, Mummy had to deal with the aftermath..of cleaning them up as best I can using wet tissues! tak pe...janji anak2 enjoy....

Sebelum ke Antwerp, we stopped by a small town called Delft. A place famous for the Dutch blue porcelaine...tapi mahal laaa..so after listening to explanations as to how the make the plates and stuff and menjamu mata at the souvenirs shops, we left for Antwerp.

Antwerp was a good destination. It has a beautiful square...too bad we couldn't spend that much time as we had to hurry to Brussels.

Di Brussels, we stayed at Wan Suraya's place, reached after much hassle since we all sesat sarat barat! It was only the next day that we saw Wan Su's place for what it was - huge (by Geneva standard) and complete with a garden. Of course, we were green with envy! So green that we forgot to take any pictures of it!


5th day was spent at the much recommended town of Brugge. Beautiful is the best word to describe the town...Am so in love with the whole idea of Brugge...the canals, the square, the fancy biscuits and especially with the lace and tapestry shops! yum yum!!

6th day was Brussels city...OK-OK jer...we went to the usual tourist spots..the Grandplatz..the Manneken Pis and Mini Europe...by then the girls as well as Mummy and Abah were tired and very much ready to go home!!

By the way..here's a little info I got from the net about the famous Manneken Pis - for those who has never heard about this, it is a little bronze statute of a little boy pissing, literally! -

There are several legends behind this statue, but the most famous is the one about a 2-year-old Duke who was put in a basket by his troops and hung on a tree to lure the enemy. From there, he urinated on the enemy troops, who eventually lost the battle.
Another legend goes like this: In the 14th century, Brussels was under siege by a foreign power. The city had held their ground for quite some time. The attackers had thought of a plan to place explosive charges at the city walls. A little boy named Juliaanske from Brussels happened to be spying on them as they were preparing. He urinated on the burning fuse and thus saved the city.

Anyways, back to our trip...we thought it would be a waste not to stop by Luxembourg since it is sooo on the way home...since it was late by the time we left Brussels (what else is new..you may ask..) we decided to do the adventurous thing and spent a nite in the Chrysler at a rest area just outside Luxembourg. It was...fun, to a certain extent. No problem falling asleep since we were all very tired. Cuma it got a bit too cold in the middle of the night! hehehe...too bad there is no picture of that nite to share with you here...

So, last but not least..on the last leg of our trip, we went to Luxembourg the next morning...unfortunately, the city is not all that great...alah..tak pe lah! At least we can say we've touched the grounds of Luxembourg...Mummy had the secret desire to visit Villeroy and Boch factory outlet but did not pursue the idea as the girls were screaming to go home and, ehem..cash was a tad too low by then! Tak syok la pegi tak de duit! Teeny pun tak der...kalau tak, boleh pinjam duit dia..Haha...

We reached Geneva safely in the early evening of 29th August..tired, hungry but very happy to be home...it was great, the trip..but we all agreed - THERE IS NO PLACE LIKE HOME!!