Day 60
An early arrival into Amsterdam
meant that we had to wait for our room but we filled the time with some Skype
and general internet love. The city hotel was a score, cheap(ish) 50 EUR a
night and right in the heart of the city. This day was spent wandering around
doing not much, just enjoying the architecture, canals and shopping (of
course!). Another pair of biscuits to the collection, lots of tulips, cheese,
food, ‘cafes’ and a ridiculous amount of shoe shops greeted our wanderings.
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| What's better than chocolate? Chocolate boobs... |
Not really having any must do’s
we wandered quite happily not doing much except for a visit to the Anne Frank
house/museum. They have converted the old factory where the Frank family hid
into a tribute/museum of sorts although the actual hide out part of it remains
unfurnished at the request of the father (the only survivor). It is a pretty
deep and moving experience with a tragic end in that Anne her sister and her
mother all perished only a month (ish) before the liberation.
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| Anne Frank Monument outside the house |
A quiet night time stroll ‘window
shopping’ through the red light district revealed that the ladies of the night
were much more attractive than expected, some of them were down right hot!
Retiring a couple of blocks back for a nice meal of tapas was a good way to
re-live our great time in Spain! Ha ha!
Day 61
Our only full day in Amsterdam
started with a trip down to the “Amsterdam” sign to dodge all the other
tourists trying to get photos in front of it. It is located next to a beautiful
(winter only I assume) ice rink and lovely park and skate park (see pictures of
me shredding!).
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| Where is Katrina? |
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| Some kids stole my board... |
Then it was onto the CanalBus to
see the city from the water, back up and around the main train station and hop
off on at one of the last surviving windmills in town. A long stroll down to a
‘new’ trendy section of town with a snake bridge and the only area in Amsterdam
where residents were allowed to individually design there terrace frontage
(everything else is strictly set out by the Town Planners).
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| The snake bridge... |
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| The only individual designed frontages in Amsterdam |
The night was spent with yet
another group of travelling Aussies, Adam Cain and two of his mates, dinner at
the English pub below our hotel and an evening bar hopping in and around the
red light district, good times!
Day 62
Back onto a high speed train (the
most expensive high speed of our trip!) and back to Paris. Despite Katrina’s dislike
of the French we seem to always end up passing through the French capital.
After meeting up with Amanda who had very kindly arranged her guest rooms at
her apartment block for us, it was back into the city to see Woo and Burgs!
With us all having already been tourists we shopped (for a change!) and
wandered pretty aimlessly around La Fayette galleries.
Dinner was back to our new
favourite Moroccan Restaurant in the 18th quarter to show Woo and
Burgs how good it was! When you’re on to a good thing you should really stick
to it!
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| Burgs, Woo and I just down the road from the Moroccan restaurant |
Day 63
After a much needed sleep in,
Amsterdam was tough, Amanda took us into the Christmas markets at La Defense to
eat, browse, and generally get into the spirit of Christmas. The biggest score
wasn’t very Christmassy, refillable pods for our Nespresso machine! Score!
Lunch and afternoon tea at La Defense and after Amanda made some calls to her
boyfriend our night was planned as well!
They had arranged for us to
attend one of the biggest night clubs in Paris. It certainly was impressive and
coupled with our ‘VIP’ entry was a nice way to dance away the night (sans
alcohol for myself! Amsterdam was tough…) A 2am finish was late enough for us
given we had a 6am start to get to Zermatt!
Day 64
It was beginning to look a lot
like Christmas! 3 Trains across the French/Swiss border, a 3 minute transfer
successfully made and before we knew it we were on the Glacier Express up into
Zermatt to meet the parents (lamb, beef and chicken in cold bag in tow). We met
the parents who had arrived an hour early at our apartment which was amazing, a
perfect little postcard picture covered in snow!
A trip with all and sundry into
town revealed what we had suspected, Zermatt was perfect! Seriously, no cars
allowed, only little electric taxis whizz back and forth, everything snow
covered and tall pines, it was truly amazing.
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| Not much good for high speed chases, but you find me a cooler police vehicle! |
Day 65 to 70
Christmas was spent with all the
parents in said apartment and up on the mountain. Again a day by day format
would just bore everyone (and I’d like people to enjoy the last few blogs!) so
I’ll just rattle off some highlights and stick up some photos!
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| Postcard perfect! The view from our chalet |
Christmas Eve brought snow and
our first trip up the mountain was hindered to start with and cut short by said
snow, visibility was low, and not a very good first introduction for Ian &
Lyn who had only ever skied 30 years previous! It was nice to get a fresh top
up on the mountain however. Luckily for us as well, Santa managed to locate us,
although he did forget to be secretive at all!
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| Santa taking it easy |
Christmas Day and much to Mum’s
disgust Dad and I hit the mountain for half a day to what was probably our best
day! Everyone was inside enjoying their families company and presents which
meant the slopes were pretty much deserted! Amazing. A bit about the mountain
while I’m here, the Zermatt resort is 3 areas with a reciprocal pass
arrangement with a 4th Italian resort over the top of the mountain.
All overlooked by the world famous Matterhorn, and the highest lifted point
about 3800m putting our Australian snow fields to shame (and also inducing a
slight feeling of altitude sickness at the top!). Mainly enclosed lifts, with a
scattering of 6 seaters, quads and a few T-bars, makes it most accessible,
great snow (maybe not as good as Japan, but pretty close!) and a good mixture
of beginning, intermediate, advanced groomed, and advanced non-groomed runs!
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| The Swiss/Italian Border at 3480m! |
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| Katrina Shredding in front of the Matterhorn! |
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| Dad Shredding up the mountain! |
Christmas day afternoon was spent
enjoying a baked Christmas meal with the family minus the Dubbo Bennett’s and
the Mansfield Boys who were all sorely missed. Well prepared by the ‘Mums’,
complemented by some Katrina Bennett egg nog, and over indulged in by most!
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| Christmas 'dinner' |
The rest of the week was spent skiing,
shopping, eating and drinking. Plenty of all was done. A trip by everyone up to
the 3800m summit for lunch was most enjoyable with Katrina, Dad and I skiing
back down into the Zermatt resort. Katrina, Dad and I also managed a day trip
across the border to enjoy some new runs, gnocchi and Bolognese!
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| Snow angels out the front |
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| The boys after a hard day skiing |
Ian and Lyn managed to ‘refresh’
their skiing from 30 odd years earlier, surprisingly Ian’s knee held up, and
apart from some bumps and bruises, I think, had a good time.
The Swiss food in Zermatt was
amazing, with beautiful Rosti, fondue and even some potatoes and raucqlette
cheese (a Bennett family favourite!). An evening trip to the Verve Cliquoe bar
was also a hit with all, complete with completely frozen bar, bottle of
Champagne and shots of vodka.
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| Senior Bennetts at the Verve bar |
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| Mansfields at the same bar |
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| Dinner at the pub across from our chalet |
An amazing week was had by all,
it was nice to share a white Christmas with the parents, and the skiing was
well worth the trip. Katrina had to leave a night early to be in Zurich early
enough for our flight on the 30th. We headed back to an old faithful
in the Radisson Blu, and weren’t disappointed by another wine tower, great
food, and absolute proximity to the terminals.
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| One of the wine angels performing on the wine tower! |
Day 71 (I think)
I’ve assumed all the way through
these blogs that I’ve got my counting right in terms of days, but to give you a
frame of reference, day 71 should’ve been the 30th of December. It
was on board a flight to New York City… To be continued…
All our Love
M&K
