We really love The Netherlands. The flowers, the canals and the bicycles are such a great combination. But what make this country so great are its people. Yes, they are easygoing, helpful and super friendly but most of all they are gregarious; they want to know us and chat with us.

What we found really interesting was the amount of wild animals, such a stroll away from Amsterdam. Wherever we cycle we were greeted by ducks, swans, bambies, rabbits and lots and lots of cows!

“it was a magical weekend” I said while sipping the last drop of champagne in a dingy with Jan and Edu. And it was! They came to meet us in Amsterdam and it was such a joy!!

We were so lucky to have arrived the day before at Volendam on “their” day, were the locals dress in traditional customs and there is food, music and dancing. They were also smoking the fish in the port. It was just a great coincidence that also Netherlands were playing the round of 16 and they won their match in the football world cup. Orange fever!

Jan and I talked about how “nice and tidy and elegant” all the houses are. They are adorned with flowers and interesting ornaments place in their windows... Sometimes it felt eerie; like borderline perfection - par in par with some sort of competition of who has the best/more organised/tidiest garden of all... I said that there is such an uncanny similarity between all the houses and the only point of differentiation are actually the ornaments in their windows. The most intriguing bit is that all the windows are always open, is like people live "an open life"..... hector made a comment that this is no different from the red district were the working woman are also in display...a very insightful comment.

Hector and I are also loving eating herrings with onion and pickle cucumber. The stands are everywhere, like the “choripans” in Argentina or the “meat pies” in Australia

world heritage

The sun did come up for my birthday! It lasted just a bit, but so enough to indulge on my drug of choice, “the triples S”: sun, sand and sea! I swam in a new sea: the north sea and it was just a bit warmer than home...

I felt exhilarated, rejuvenated, excited, happy and full of life....who needs magic mushrooms??? It was so much fun...we were walking through all the bars in the red district in Amsterdam the night before; I wanted to smoke a joint as I have never done it and thought it was time to try as I was saying goodbye to my 52...after 3 minutes inside a bar while we were trying to figure out how and what , Hecti has left the place coughing and with tear eyes by the huge smoke inside! So we said that we did “passive smoking” but above all we remain clean this time around and maybe next life....jajaja

If I thought I had seen the prettiest town around is because I hadn't arrived at Alkmaar yet. The canals and the flowers were there but this town felt more alive, with the old houses and small shops. And then we found Bergen which is a forest but with houses and an open zoo in the middle of the town!

Crossing a canal with a bicycle ferry for €1, chatting about the world cup semi-final Netherlands vs Argentina