29-30 May: Home again

Our flight from Heathrow to Singapore was my first on an A380. It ‘felt’ heavy during takeoff (which isn’t surprising), and it was significantly quieter than the other jet aircraft we’ve been on.

The plane from Singapore to Christchurch was virtually empty – everyone had a row of three seats to themselves, if they wanted it.

As a final treat, when we arrived at the Koru lounge to wait for our flight to Wellington, we were able to catch a glimpse of a new Boeing 787 Dreamliner coming in to land – the first one to arrive in NZ.

So that’s basically it for the holiday... so, time for some summing up.

The place I wish we could have spent a little more time: Strangely enough, Prague. Not so much more time in Prague, but the visitor centre had information about some places that would have made pretty neat day trips.

The place I reckon I could live if I had to: Vienna. The parks, the language, the way the society works, would probably be the easiest to fit into.

Weirdest place: Oslo. Without a doubt. Full of weirdos. Say no more!

Most interesting place: Venice. No cars, vans, taxis, even bikes – only canal and foot traffic. A completely different way of life.


Finally I just want to say thank you to everyone who’s stopped by to read what we’ve been up to. I hope you enjoyed the journey with us!

28 May: London

Today Mum went for a museum crawl around South Kensington while I visited a colleague (my former post-doc supervisor) at Imperial College. It was a really productive day – we had a bit of a chat about a new project we are thinking of doing regarding corrosion processes on stainless steel, also I talked with her kiwi post-doc about some of her work which is related to some of the things I’m doing. She is keen to come back to New Zealand at some point, so I’ll have to keep my ear out for any opportunities coming up at IRL (or its new improved version, whenever that happens).

But perhaps the most fun thing was to see a kind of sideshow project they are both working on, which is concerning the restoration of a German Dornier bomber that is presently lying in the sea off the south coast of England. Apparently it is the last one in existence, and there are critical questions regarding how the aluminium skin is going to corrode once they take it out. They were given a small piece of it that was lying separately from the main wreckage – and by ‘small’ it’s about 80 cm in length – to do some lab testing. It’s been sitting in a tank full of tap water, and today they emptied the tank and refilled it with a pH-controlled citric acid solution. So that was very cool to see. No pictures unfortunately!

27 May: London

Today we started off with a family visit – at Calvary Chapel Westminster. I was quite surprised at how many people recognised me (even if they had forgotten my name... which doesn’t bother me too much, because I’d forgotten all of their names!). It’s always such a joy to visit there, because the church is a real mish-mash of people of all different races and walks of life – just like the body of Christ is all over the world. And yet despite these apparent differences, they are united in their love for Jesus.

After this we headed over to the Victoria coach station to wait for the 1:30 pm bus to Windsor. Which was scheduled according to the info at the stop to arrive at 1:45 pm. And didn’t actually arrive until nearly 2:00... by which time we decided that we wouldn’t have enough time to see much.

So instead we went to the British Museum. I’d been there once before, back in 2005 when I first moved to London. We wandered around the Assyrian artefacts section, the Rosetta stone and the Egyptian mummies. There was also a more recent display: the gold medals that will be awarded at the 2012 London Olympics and Paralympics.

26 May: Brussels to London

Today we gained an hour in going from Brussels to London, which gave us a decent chunk of afternoon to have a wander around. We’d read somewhere that the Houses of Parliament were offering tours, so we wandered down there, but after finding they were ₤15, we decided to give it a miss.

From there we went to Buckingham palace to enjoy our afternoon tea in the park, but found that with the preparations for the Queen’s 60th Jubilee celebrations next weekend, that most of the area in front of the palace was in the process of being converted into tiered seating.

In the evening we went to see the Wizard of Oz playing at the Palladium. It was thoroughly enjoyable – a good, clean, family show, amazing sets, flying witches and monkeys, even explosions! And of course all the songs – which are still stuck in my head.

It’s kind of weird being back here again. (For those of you who don’t know, I lived here from May 2005 to June 2006.) I don’t feel like I’ve come ‘home’ in any way; maybe because it was 6 years ago – and certain things have definitely changed since then. Yet it feels more familiar, although I’m not sure if it’s because it is familiar, or if it’s just because all the signs are in English instead of French/Italian/Swedish/Danish/Flemish/Norwegian/Czech/Dutch. I’ll think some more about this and let you know!

25 May: Brussels (Ghent)

Yesterday I mentioned how there’s not much to do in Brussels, so having googled ‘places to go in Belgium’ we decided to take a day trip to Ghent. And I’m really glad we did. It was only 40 minutes by train, and easy to find your way around the historical part of the city. It wasn’t swamped with souvenir shops and hop-on-hop-off buses. Today being Friday, they had a market on (but mainly selling meat, fish, clothes, and second-hand goods).

But perhaps the coolest part about it was that every time you turned a corner, there was something else to see. I’d read about the Gravensteen castle, and knew roughly how to get there, but coming around a corner to see it in front of us was still a surprise.

Anyway we had a very cool day today – I’ll let the pictures speak now!

Streets and canals

Gravensteen

View from the keep at Gravensteen

View of the 'three towers' (St Nicholas' church, the Belfry, St Bavo's cathedral), from St Michael's bridge

24 May: Amsterdam to Brussels

Today we left Amsterdam for Brussels. It’s been abnormally hot the whole time we’ve been in Amsterdam – even the locals have been commenting about the weather.
We had also started asking ourselves, why we were bothering with Brussels? But having arrived, and having a wander around the city centre, we’ve been pleasantly surprised.

Our hotel is also significantly nicer than other places we’ve stayed! So we’ll try and make the most of it while we are here!

We ended up having dinner quite late tonight, and only got back to our room at 9 pm – just in time for a magnificent orange sun setting over the city.

23 May: Amsterdam, day 2

This morning we went to Vondel Park. It was really pleasant just having a wander, watching people...

We had pancakes for lunch, which was really nice. Can I count strawberries and cream as one of my five-plus a day?

After this we went back to the Centraal station, where Mum took the boat towards Nemo (the science museum, on the Oosterdok (East Dock) and I went on a bike tour.

It was really enjoyable, and although it would have been cheaper to simply hire a bike for the day, I probably wouldn’t have had the inclination to have gone as far as we went – nor had the confidence to tackle the bike traffic!

Finally, a game of spot the movie location. Leave a comment if you recognise this!

22 May: Amsterdam, day 1

Today we started off by riding the hop-on-hop-off bus around its route. Naturally, we had a different view of the city, but I’d have to say that the canal boat journey is more pleasant.

We got off to visit the Anne Frank Huis. It was quite hard to imagine how it would have been during the war – both for the workers in the front of the house and for the eight in hiding. The actual hiding place was bigger than we expected it to be – but still, to have been there for two whole years, with no natural light, not knowing when you were going to be discovered, having to sit in silence day after day... must have been horrendous. I remember my reaction at reading Anne’s diary, especially once I reached the end and read the epilogue about how her parents were put on the very last train to Auschwitz, and how she herself died only one month before the liberation. I was repulsed at how unfair it was. Of course, they were only one family among millions, and it was unfair for all of them.
Today, there were two things that struck me: one was a video recording of Anne’s father, Otto, talking about her (he was the only one of the eight to survive). The second was a display of documents concerning the Franks’ and other families attempts to leave Europe in 1939. There was one letter from the US consulate, telling Otto Frank that his request had been received and that he was now on the waiting list, with an expected response time of ‘indefinite’. It was written in the same kind of US legalese that I’ve come across in my own life, the kind that makes you feel like a number in a database and an annoyance to their bureaucracy. Ultimately, of course, their request to emigrate was declined. There was also a photo of some Jews who had made it to England, who were deported back to Holland because their passports were ‘not in order’. Did those officials who made these decisions know that they were signing those people’s death warrants?

Anyway enough about that.

Lining up to visit Anne Frank’s house


After lunch we went for a stroll through the Dam square, and then caught the bus for the rest of the route. Then we took another route on the canal boat.

21 May: Copenhagen to Amsterdam

When I was in primary school, we did a class project on Holland. We learned all about tulips, barges, dykes, clogs, and windmills. We cooked cinnamon biscuits and learned how to count to ten in Dutch. Thankfully, we didn’t learn anything about what Amsterdam is really famous for.

Our mission is to enjoy Amsterdam and avoid the red light district. Maybe I’m being paranoid? Or maybe I’ve read too many websites having googled ‘what to do in Amsterdam’ and concluding from that if you haven’t come here to smoke pot then you’re wasting your time (bad pun – sorry!).

Having said all that, we did manage to enjoy our first afternoon. We found the place where we are staying fairly easily, and picked up a few brochures on the way. It seems most of the attractions have esaily obtainable vouchers for significant discounts – for instance, we opted to buy tickets for a hop-on-hop-off boat and bus tour, for 48 hours, for 36 Euro instead of 70. Having done that we rode one of the routes around some of the various canals, which gave us a good overview of the city (geographically and historically).

You might remember my photo from a couple of days ago, of all the bikes outside the train station at Copenhagen. Here in Amsterdam they have built a 3-4 storey high bike garage that has a capacity to hold 2,500 bikes, and it’s not enough – they estimate there are some 9,500 bikes that are parked near the station every day. Amsterdam has a population of around 740,000 inhabitants, and a bicycle population of 550,000. On top of that, 50,000 bicycles are stolen every year in Amsterdam alone.

20 May: Copenhagen, day 2

Today we took a day trip to Roskilde, about half an hour by train from Copenhagen. There, they have a Viking ship museum – but it’s much more than just a museum.

In the 1950s, five ships from the Viking era (900-1100) were found, deliberately sunk together in a narrow part of the fjord. Scuttling of ships like this was a common way of defending a harbour, and Roskilde was one of the major towns in the area at the time. What excited the archaelologists the most, however, was that they were five different kinds of ships: trading ships, fishing ships, a small warship and a longboat. It took nearly thirty years to preserve the wood (using the same polyethyleneglycol process as the Vasa), and put the pieces back together to re-form the original ships.

But the museum didn’t stop there. They have also rebuilt exact replicas of all five ships, and sailed them. The longboat replica – called ‘Havhingsten fra Glendalough’ (‘Sea Stallion of Glendalough’) sailed from Roskilde to Dublin in the summer of 2007, and back to Roskilde in the summer of 2008. More info here.

Today, there is an active boatbuilding area, using traditional methods, materials, and tools. There are various areas where you can watch people making ropes, carving wood, weaving baskets and sails, and so forth.

For an extra cost, you can also go sailing in a Viking ship. This entailed giving Mum my camera – she did a good job, don’t you think?

We walked back to the train station through the town, and Mum found a new friend on the way!