It’s so surprising you even find Teddy bears hanging themselves there! Quite odd.

We had heard from friends that Utrecht was a cool place to check out. Lesser known than Amsterdam, Utrecht still has the same liberal attitudes but a less crazy vibe. And being home to a major university was a plus, as they should have some neat shops and some sort of scene. Plus I needed a new day bag, the small attach-on bags that we have for our backpacks have been considered useless. You can fit 1 thing in them, and then it’s full. It makes me look like I stole a kindergarten kids schoolbag when I wear it.

Looking online at hostels, I couldn’t really find anything in a hostel. Either poorly rated or super expensive, there were only 6 available on the hostel websites. Luckily we pulled up HRS.com and searched for any cheap hotels available. We had heard about HRS from Dee’s cousins Andy and Judith, and used it a couple times. It’s like expedia or hotels.com, but the local cheaper version.

Look how fluffy this bed is!!

We managed to find a special rate at a Carleton Hotel, and decided it was time to splurge a bit. We’ve been spending some time in a lot of mediocre beds, some crap beds and a very few good beds and pillows over the last couple months. Checking in I was sure we looked pretty travel weary and out of place as we made our way down the plush carpets and gold trim décor to our room. The sheets were soft, comforter and pillows extremely fluffy and instantly lured us in to flump down onto the bed for a quick nap.

We had to get up again later that night, and it took a while to get out of that bed. But we had a great reason to. Dee had found out about a monthly club night that DJ/Producers Black Sun Empire throw, and to our luck it was happening just as we were in town! It also had Goldie and Noisia on the bill, which helped with making it worth it to get out of bed. The night was great, though we only saw Nosia and Goldie play. Goldie was not playing anything that made our feet groove and then Noisia came on and played same set we heard a couple weeks ago, and a couple weeks before that! We were really only there to see Black Sun Empire who were on last but there was no where to sit and chill to let some time pass. Tired legs and boring music made us feel the need to leave back to our comfy bed. And once we felt the softness of our bed enveloped us again we knew that was the right decision. Guess we will have to see Black Sun Empire again some other day….

Looking like a princess

We knew that a day of travel and a night of partying would make it hard for us to get up on Sunday, and we may have missed the entire day sleeping in. So it was an easy decision to order room service and have it delivered at 10:00am the next morning. This would wake us up, put food in our stomach and caffeine into our system. And the Carleton didn’t disappoint with their spread! They even delivered the second pot of coffee we asked for! This picture may be the happiest I have seen Dee in a while, with her extra pillows and breakfast in bed!
Taking our time eating and waking up, we finally had to go into town on our mission. Being in a University town in Holland I felt we had a pretty good chance of finding myself a cool replacement day bag, especially since we had already seen a bunch of closed shops with bags in the window the night before.

Time for some shopping!

There was a ton of selection, and anyone looking for a bag should go to Utrecht. I finally found the perfect bag by Crumpler. It’s a messenger style bag, waterproof fabric with a lifetime warranty on it. It has great loud Velcro straps so anyone trying to get into my bag would get noticed, and buckles for extra security. I’m pretty happy finding it, as Dee’s Mangler (her small green purse made of hemp) has done too much damage to my precious personal items… I can’t even talk about it…. *hangs head in somberness*

Now that I had a victory bag, we needed to get some dinner and drinks in celebration. We walked around until finding an awesome Rock’n’Roll restaurant. Like a Planet Hollywood except not part of a big chain, cheaper, better value and better artwork on the walls with a good Dutch flair.

Bit blurry but you can see it’s a typical religious heaven scene with all the dead rock stars consider to be going straight to hell because of their life styles

It was a great but way too short couple of days in Utrecht, and a perfect way to start winding down our European vacation. We have some serious planning to do ahead of us on our way to Asia for the next half of a year.

Just the two of us again…

It was sad to wave goodbye to our friends Karen and Steve after spending a fantastic 2 months traveling with them. We had planned the adventure for a year prior and it was awesome to see it come together. But sadly some adventurers take different turns and it was our turn to continue on while they went home to Canada.

The Stay OKay International Youth Hostel

We had 5 days left of travel on our Eurail train passes, we now had time to do some family root searching. I wanted to see the street in Holland where my Dad’s family is from and get a better feel for the Dutch culture by experiencing other cities then just the Red Lights of Amsterdam. We boarded a train from Amsterdam straight to Den Haag and found an International Youth Hostel called StayOkay. I didn’t expect much as the other “International Youth Hostel” we stayed in Belfast wasn’t that great.

So it was a great surprise when we got our private room for a wicked price, and it was a massive sized bedroom with private ensuite and even a balcony! The breakfast the next morning was decent with fresh juices, toast and cereals. The best part was the Dutch addition of three different types of tempting sprinkles to choose from to put on your toast: dark chocolate flakes, milk chocolate sprinkles or strawberry vanilla flakes. I remember receiving these types of sprinkles from my Oma when I was a kid. It was perfect!

We only had plans to see my family’s hometown, Wassenaar, a suburb of Den Haag for just a day. Finding our way to the main bus station with tickets in hand, a photo of the city map on our camera and only a street address from 50 years ago to work on, we hopped onto to the only bus that said Wassenaar. As we left the city into more of the suburbs, we didn’t know exactly where we were going. The address didn’t pull up on Google maps or on my iPhone. We were just talking about how to find this street when I saw a sign blur past. It took me a moment to realize, but I told Dee,

“That’s the street we just passed!”
Dee, with a doubting frown on her face said “No it’s not. I didn’t see anything. You probably got it mixed up”
It’s true, the street we were looking for was called ZIJLLAAN, and we passed other streets like ZIKNMNOP and such.

But no, I was certain I saw it correctly. I jumped up and pressed the stop button for the bus, and a minute later it pulled to the curb. Dee sighed as she got off and it took some convincing to let her let me lead the way, as it’s usually her that is directing the way to go. But I was on a mission, even if my soldiers were looking to frag me I had to go on.

We had been walking for about 10 minutes, when Dee was saying “This isn’t the way, let’s turn back now.” It was at that moment we walked over a bridge and a story I had once heard came back to me. My dad remembers learning to skate on the river in the back yard that would freeze every year. His sister used to bug him that it wasn’t anything more than a small creek. So standing on this nice looking canal, I knew we were close. And walking up to the next street it was ZIJLLAAN!

Walking up to the address we had, I wanted to see if we could go in their back yard or something.. I didn’t know if we would just be viewed as creepy Canadian mass murderers and dispatched with a wooden shoe or invited in for a tea. As we stood in front contemplating one of their neighbors walked out. I quickly explained our story and he reminded us we came 5000 km’s and should just get on with it.

Knocking on the door an elderly lady came into view and eyed us up. Once again I explained that our family was from here and we believe this was the house my grandparents moved from, but doubt was staring me back with her eyes. She asked me “When did they move?”
I was put on the spot, because I wasn’t really sure. “Sometime in the 50’s I believe” and quickly she replied, “I’ve been living here since 44. Sorry, don’t know any Vanderlee’s.”
I quickly said I was sorry to bother her, and said “Thanks for your time”. It didn’t really matter if this was the exact house or not, I could have had the wrong address and she may have thought we were crazy canucks trying to sell beaver coats or something. But the actual house doesn’t matter, it’s more of the area to go and see. So I took photos of the streets, canal and schools and we went a short walk into town to get some food and explore.

The town of Wassenaar is how I imagined a typical little dutch town to be. Two main roads, only for pedestrians, with delicious bakeries, markets and shops. Finding a coffee shop we grabbed some delicious roast beef sandwhiches and coffee while filling out a couple postcards. We then decided it was far too much of a walk to the beach (about 2 KM’s of sand dunes to negotiate with) and went to see the wooden windmill.

It was a great day of visiting the area where the Dutch side of my family comes from! The only thing that was missing was a plate full of Bitter Ballen for lunch. (but we did find some for dinner at a restaurant near our hostel!)

Check out the rest of our pics from Wassenaar and Den Haag, including the MC Escher Museum at our flickr album by clicking here or on a thumbnail below:

Scott and Steve at Oktoberfest

The beginning of our european adventures with Karen and Steve started in Amsterdam, and faster then we expected the date arrived to say goodbye to them as they set back to Canada.

We were happy we could squeeze every last possible second with them by traveling from Berlin to Amsterdam with them, where their round trip flight was leaving from. We didn’t have plans to spend the night there as we only had a few days remaining on our eurail passes and wanted to explore a bit more of the Netherlands. So we made a plan to take the last train out to Den Haag that day.

Karen and I at Sun & Bass

With one last walk through the Red Light District, we ate some amazing ribs for the 3rd time at this one restaurant. We had ate there twice on our first visit to Amsterdam, and had been craving them for the past two months. I don’t recall the name but it’s on a main Red Light district street with no canal on it that leads to Dam Square. Some landmarks on the street are the St. Christophers Hostel, a laundry mat and the one you just can’t miss it…. The Cock Ring. (lol) Once you feel you are on the right street, if you see a green restaurant advertising a RIB SPECIAL, then eat there! They are some of the best ribs (aside from my moms!) I’ve ever eaten.

Giraffik 4 at Juno Beach

Anyways… seeing our friends faces for the first time in that train station and then saying goodbye to them again, 2 months later in that same station was bittersweet. We had some amazing times!!! Endless stories for us to share with our kids to make ourselves sound cool. “What? You did what mom back then?? No way!!”

Karen and Steve, much thanks to you for deciding to come travel with us for 2 months in Europe. It was really a dream come true, and I know that even though we had a pretty solid friendship before, this just made it titanium. Much love to you!

Our big group in Rome

I also want to take this time to send a shout out to James and Christy. For coming all the from Canada to Italy to attend Sun & Bass and then spend a few days in Rome with us four. It was really the icing on a already spectacular cake!

Our awesome group of friends having a drunk ass time at our wedding

Scott and I feel really lucky to have all the friends and family that we do in our life. We know they all wanted to come out and do some travels with us… but we are all on our own adventures and it’s not always so easy to combine them due to various life things getting in the way. However I do know in our hearts we have inspired all of you to one day get out there and see some the world! Which really is one of our main goals of this trip. To inspire others to try the same!

And low and behold it’s still working! Our friends Alex and Heather are flying out to Thailand to meet us up for New Years. It’s going to be some crazy fun times and the date they arrive is happening so soon!! Other great news is my PARENTS of all people are planning to travel out to Thailand for almost a month! I can’t wait to hug them and see their faces. I’m so proud of them for coming out of the travel box to a place they’d never dream they would go to before. It’s going to be fun.

My parents with Scott and I on our wedding

Okay, back to our regular schedule travel stories….