Van Der Valk Hotel Eindhoven

... to play Oware, the African game I brought with me from Ghana. After a delicious stroganoff stew lunch, I went for a wander to the apartment complex pool, had a bit of a swim (the day was 22 degrees celcius or so), then lay in the sun writing my journal.<br><br>On Monday of this week, I left early to catch my flight to Belgium. Before I left Australia, I was informed by the Chinese embassy that it was too early to get a visa for China, since they are only valid for 2 months, and I ...

... for some hay. On the way home we dropped by a bakery and picked up some traditional dutch pies (apple, custard and berry) which looked exactly like the pies grandma makes! I had multiple pieces of each.<br>The next day was a Saturday so we headed into Valkenburg for lunch and We all had a go on the Rodelbahn (think go carts mixed with bobsledding) and went on a tour of an old coal mine - one of the last to be closed in the area and now only open for tours. My ...

... even asked her friend behind the desk about a coffee shop that might be open and he just laughed snottily and shook his head and told me no as well. Wow. I didn't know that Starbucks and Seattles Best and Dunkin Donuts were running a concept worthy of ridicule. Hey Starbucks...you have a great untapped market over here...get your site selection folks on Ryanair ASAP.<br><br>What left the deepest impression on me during my exploratory walk is what Eindhoven isn't. It is ...

... Amsterdam, and San Francisco. His suggestion was to see the Anne Frank house then see the van Gough because today it would be virtually empty and in the next few days it would become more difficult. I walked about 15 minutes to the Anne Frank house. It was empty as expected and I went in. I was moved to tears. As you may know from earlier blogs, I am very fascinated and appalled by the experience of ww11. Even though, I am sure humans ...

... between noon and six but it must have been at least 60 or 70. By 6 o'clock most of the guests had left and the party turned into a family affair. The group slowly dwindled until by midnight it was me, Welmoed, Pepi, Bogusia and Marc endlessly telling jokes. Wow! 80 years old and she partied for 12 hours! <br><br> <br> <br><br>

... other friends that were staying there as well. The question you may be asking is "what are Dutch people like at a weekend long festival?" The answer is simple: The same as in Canada, only everyone speaks Dutch. I knew that everyone would speak English, but it didn't really dawn on me that to each other, in a group of friends, they would speak their native language. So for the entire weekend, and mainly when we were at the campsite, I had very ...

My Journey started by leaving Eindhoven train station at around 3pm on March 27th. My first flight flew from Amsterdam to London Heathrow with BA. I then waited two hours for my flight to Singapore, that flight was about 13 hours long,, nice,, but luckily I drank two small bottles of wine and slept most of that journey. At any stage during the journey you can view a map of where you are flying over in the world in a small screen in front ...

... band, Raskolnikov, for a concert in Delft on March 18th honoring the memory of the crazed Dutch artist, musician and poet Herman Brood. Then he has to go to work Monday and Tuesday nights as the night porter at the Hotel New York, a steady gig that pretty much takes care of his rent bill and provided the title of his new solo act: Night Porter. On Tuesday evening I walk up Noorder Boulevard over to the Bergweg and catch the No. 4 for Nieuwe Binneweg, my ...

Dit is de start van een nieuw leven! Een jaar lang weg uit de omgeving die voor mij gedurende 18 jaar zo bekend is geworden. Die bekende omgeving ga ik nu verlaten en ga nieuwe horizonten opzoeken. Spannend? Eng? Ik denk een beetje van beiden. Maar dat wil niet zeggen dat ik het niet meer zie zitten.<br><br>De laatste dagen zijn hier wel wat vreemd geweest, de dag komt ook zo dichtbij. Afscheidsfeestje is geweest voor vrienden en familie. Want ik ga ...

... will leave soon this morning of Sunday the 17th. It looks like spain is in the 40's celsius so were not sure if we want to go down there. The plans are flexible so we might just stay in France and maybe go to the Atlantic coast. Updates will be sporadic from now on, but I will be sure to have a bunch in three weeks when we return. Once again stay safe and I miss everyone. -kyle