CN tower, around Toronto and Tim Hortons

vilarie and maastricht

moving before we had vilarie

Forgot to show you all that this was how we moved from The Hague to Rotterdam before we had any other transport. It happened to be pooring with rain hence the shopping bags to try and protect our prised (and only) possessions! Just an easy 30km!

ryans visit and the bulb factory

How about Canada aye!!

Dear Diary,

With a functioning computer, a bit of spare time, and a few good coffees, we thought we'd make use of these special ingredients and send out a decent update.

Friday marked an important milestone in the trip... re-unemployment, a beautiful thing!! Was a really good experience working in a completely different industry, but we were happy to finish up after six long hard weeks. In our time there we found ourselves learning a fair bit about the flower bulb process, met some interesting people, and of-course managed to get a handle on a little more dutch, particularly reading and writing. Full credit to Michele, more often than not working the machines and on much tougher jobs then half the lads. So all in all, quite grounding to know what it must feel like to be an immigrant. We have attached a few photos showing the size of place, the halls loaded with packages of bulbs (3 halls in total), and a few action shots for general entertainment.

As we had mentioned in our last post, we've managed to catch up with a few people and spend a little time on the road in our half saturday and sunday's off. Theres a range of photos following, but as you can see, Ryan got the full presidential treatment with collection from the station, including free luggage transportation (I still have a flat tyre, turns out a grown man on the back wheel was a little much).

We've managed to jam in plenty of sightseeing in at the local beach reserves, as well as a weekend away to catch up with our mate beast in Maastricht. A town located in the very south of holland. An absolutely stunning spot, not far from the boarders of Germany and Belgium so very fancy. And with a 'Botel' (you guessed it a boat converted into a hotel) booked we strolled the streets, sampling food and beer from all over the place.

Life in the van ('Vileri' named after our tough Russian soldier mate that we stayed with in Siberia) has also entered new highs with our first month of living complete and basic upgrades happening on a daily basis. We are now rolling with insurance, a spare tyre, sheets, pillow cases, a gps navigator, a full brake down kit, and most importantly some knifes, so we no longer need to use two sides of the spork at once (a 500g steak was the last straw!!).

So with some Euros in the bank, a bit of time spent on planning we packed up Vileri, locked him up, and jumped on a plane to Canada for our detour leg of the trip. We have two weeks here, and have spent our first few days in Toronto. We'd like to thank the Canadian customs for the welcoming party, very pleasant bunch you are (not!).

So far we have covered the CN tower, the Central Island, Kensington markets, the hockey hall of fame, the city centre, some local hockey bars with the lads, watched the waterfront Marathon, and last night we got to see the New York Yankies play the Toronto Blue Jays in baseball at the Rogers stadium. So nice its nice to be here, and awesome to see all the places Hannah and Phil had told us about (Tim Hortons is everything you said it would be Phil!!).

Today we have a day trip planned for Niagra falls,

Thanks for all the news from home - keep it coming.

McDuff

Tristan and Michele

Yes we are still here!

Dear diary...

So we have just finished work and ridden our wee bikes at top speed to the public library in Noordwijkerhout to try and put some photos up on here. It turns out that the computers at the library are not going to let us do that so you will have to wait a little longer sorry.

In short we have been working hard and having great weekend trips away. The van is a fabulous house and has been standing up to some very extreme weather conditions!

We are off to Canada early Saturday morning so if we dont find a functioning computer before then we promise to put a better blog up once we get there.

Off on our bikes to make dinner at our 'house'!

Hope everyone is well
x McDuff

We have jobs!!!!

Dear Diary,

It has been a big few weeks for us here in the Netherlands. As luck would have it there was a sufficent amount of red tape we had to chomp down to be able to work, still we have stuck with it and gained our working permits. The next step, the job hunt! After many many pleading phone calls, eventually someone gave in and we are now working in a hugmungous flower bulb distribution factory - Fred.de.meulder exports.

As it is the season for dispatching the bulbs all around Europe, we are working some huge hours too. Emilie very kindly leant her house to us, and as we didnt know anywhere else for the first four days we decided to commute. This has meant leaving at 4.30am on our single speed bikes, to ride as fast as possible (were talking pursuit style eye watering speed) for 40 minutes, to catch a train, to catch a bus, to walk, to praise the coffee machine at 6:45am, to start with our first shipment at 7am!! We then work till 9pm with a few decent stops, one including dinner which they give us (who eats kip ´´chicken´´ every night??) then do the reverse!! The job itself is classic, Michele a now seasoned speacialist in overlly expensive bulb packaging, and myself a basic grunt in the wrapping and hauling line.

As we are earning Euros, and jamming so many hours into a week after a month we will be back into full time travel ... either that or we will declare ourselves bankrupt!

So with a month ahead of us we are looking for closer accomodation, and after a bit of searching, it seems the best thing to do is buy a camper. So tomorrow, with luck on our side we will pick up our 1988 VW Transporter, complete with all the bells and whistles, like an ice box, cd player, bathroom and camp toilet, cooker, and touch wood the diesel motor that comes inside it will continue to run!!!

In between all of this we also had a visit from Ryan Marshall. We met him in Amsterdam and did our best to jam as many Dutch sights and food in in his 3 day stopover. We even ate Herring - raw small fish ... apparently a delicacy but i beg to differ (photos to come).

So as we move over the halfway point in our Netherlands stay, lets see what tales we have about driving on the wrong side of the road, the wrong side of the car, on the freeway where everyone likes to go 120km/h, in our 4 speed bug!!

Will write more and add some photos when we have some time, thanks for all the messages from home, keep them coming.

McDuff
Tristan and Michele