Road Tour - Europe (Day 9, 14 Aug 09 - Amsterdam)

Day 9 is relatively slow-paced and quiet. After a late breakfast, we left the hotel for The Hague, a city about 40 km from Amsterdam. We had a simple agenda and straight-away made our way to Madurodam - a 'theme-park' of Miniature Netherland. A lot of buildings built on a scale than faithfully replicate the real things. The kids enjoyed it a lot and we have to say that the size of the park is misleading. While it looked quite small, it was well-planned and laid out and easily took at least 2 hours to cover.

























From The Hague (or Den Haag) as the locals call it, we decided to visit the traditional 'village' of Volendam where Windmills, Cheese making factories and Wooden Clogs are famous for. As Volendam was on the other side of the hotel, we decided to stop for solat and then a quick stop at Toko Java too for another home-like lunch. It was nasi with satay, rendang, mee goreng, meehoon goreng and nasi goreng today. We also bought some tempe (it would have been THE best tempe we've bought - 'fresh', clean and well-packed; pity we didn't buy more), mee goreng Indomie for our journey home tomorrow (always have something in case you cannot find food) and there was even the Kopiko sweets sold there. After a quick lunch, we made our way to Volendam.










Before long the sceneries along the road changed and we felt more like driving in the rural area of Malaysia - more like Kuala Selangor area than KL. We passed by a few Cheese and Clog factories and decided to stop at one of them. We were quite lucky to be able to get a private 'demonstration' of clog-making and understanding the difference in clog designs that indicate the wearer professions. Different designs for fishermen, farmers etc. From memories, clogs are made from soft poplar woods and must be finished before it dries up (after which it will harden). Finish clogs are painted with various designs and we also stumbled upon a Nike Clog. There were also intricately crafted clogs for special occasions like weddings.










We saw a few windmills along the road and on a hunch decided to take a drive along the small roads with speed limit of 40 kmph. The road was along a dyke and before long we found a place to park and we quickly headed up the dyke. Finally, one of our aim - to see the land lower than sea. We had been telling the kids that quite a big chunk of the Netherland is below sealevel and they have been wondering how is that possible. We therefore get to show them and it was a fascinating sight.










Driving around Volendam and stopping whenever we feel like it was extremely relaxing. We must have spent at least 3 hours there before heading back to the city. And for our final night on the road, we decided to rest for an early start tomorrow. Again, the Van der Valk Hotel was just the right hotel for that.