Hengelo - Visiting our friends Emilie and Robin

Lukas!!
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We arrived in Hengelo after a quick train ride through Germany - wow these European trains go fast! It was so nice to be greeted by our friends and ex - roomies from Dawson street, Emilie and Robin. The four of us went to a lovely italian restaurant in Hengelo for lunch and a looong catch up! Emilie and Robin told us about a Dutch delicacy called croquetten-sort of like a chiko roll except soft meat. Michael has some for lunch and he liked it very much. The restaurant is famous for its icecream so of course we had to try some! We also learned the name for whipped cream / slagroom (pron. slaghkrooom). As ignorant Australians we found this name very funny - SLAG ROOM ahahahahaha. Lots of Slag room jokes were had too. After lunch and a relaxing drink we got to meet some of Emilie's family and see their beautiful house and garden. Emilie showed us lots of things along the way - places she'd grown up with or that we'd talked about in Australia. We also got to meet the very special family pet  - a Bunny named Lukas. Lukas is very clean and well behaved, he gets to wander around in the house or go in his cage for a snack or a visit to the washroom. He is very sweet and it was nice to "pet - a - pet" again as we were both missing the furry friends at home a bit. It was so nice to get a taste of another culture as well - even though not that different from Australia in some ways, quite different in others. For example, we have been spoilt here by nice breakfasts of meats, different types of cheeses, breads, muisijes and our personal favourite, Hagel Slaag. Mmmnnn.. chocolate bits on bread with butter. Very very good - we will have to sneak some back into Australia when we come home! We have also been spoilt by great dinners! Indonesian food seems to be quite popular here, due to Holland´s historical ties with the region. Its kind of funny that Australians generally don´t eat Indonesian food more regularly(like thai or chinese food) as we are so close geographically. Maybe it will catch on soon?

Traditional Greeting (Male Bonding al Enschede)
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The following day (28-06-07) Emilie drove us to nearby Apeldoorn, around 40-45mins from Hengelo. Here we visited the Paleis Het Loo, a very well preserved Palace that was still in use up until 10 or so years ago. Now it functions as a museum and tourist attraction complete with manicured gardens and Peacocks. One of the Peacocks was very very cheeky and kept trying to snatch food from people. He even fluffed himself up for a hen (as in a Chicken hen, not a female Peacock). Guess he was a little confused! We saw lots of Royal carriages, the stables and the controversial White funeral carriage. We looked at a photo exhibition of recent times, the current royal family. We then ventured inside the Palace to look at the older rooms which were very colourful- even the chairs were coordinated with the wallpaper! It was amazing how old but well preserved everything in the rooms was. The beds and chairs were quite small (people must have been really short in those days). The three of us ventured out into the beautiful gardens for a picnic lunch. There was a wedding party there taking photos and soaking up the nice scenery. A very nice day. That night after another great meal we ventured to Enschede together to meet Robin for a movie. We saw the new `Die Hard`movie-highly recommended. Lucky for us it was in English too so all the people from the Netherlands speak great English and they can also read the Dutch subtitles.

Family dinner at Emilies place (Robin says Fromage)
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The next day we got to meet some of Emilie´s friends and watch them breakdancing at a University party. Emilie was a little dissapointed with the wet weather-usually the party is much bigger when it is sunny - we weren´t dissapointed at all! We got to have a nice drink, a chat and see the University campus we´d heard so much about. We also observed from the party crowd that Dutch people in general are very, very tall compared to Australians. Anna didn´t notice so much as she is used to being amongst the shortest but Michael was quite taken aback at his comparitive shortness!

The Girls
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We noticed this again the next day when we rode some bikes to Enschede. Both of us had trouble reaching the pedals. Emilie very kindly adjusted the seating for us and we soon got used to it. Everybody rides bikes around here - it´s so flat and bike friendly. We took a beautifully scenic route around the farms to the University of Twente. Here we met Robin and saw his student flat (his `dog-house` as he calls it). We then rode to Enschede to check out the town. Here we saw lots more bikes and a great multicultural festival. Robin also joined us and the four of us walked around together checking out the great stalls and music. Anna was very lucky to recieve an early Birthday present from Emilie and Robin- some beautiful pearls- thankyou sooo much!!! After that we bought groceries for the evening meal and rode home with them (on bike!). As a small token of our appreciation we cooked a meal for Emilie and Robin. Emilie´s parents and brothers were away so it was just the four of us (and Lukas).

The four of us at Afrika festival, Hertme
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The next morning we noticed that our butt muscles were a bit sore from the bike riding but hey, no pain no gain, right? Robin met us at Emilies house and we all went to Hertme, another nearby villiage - about 30mins drive. We were very lucky to catch an African music festival and some nice sunny weather. As well as the great bands from all over Africa there were plenty of stalls. During a brief shower we sheltered in this Morrocan style tent with regional foods and water pipes. None of us tried the water pipe but there were some children smoking it so it must not have been very strong - whatever it was! We saw some great female drummers and some very nice bands with mixed instrumentation. Anna had to be dragged away from the stalls as there was soo much cool stuff to buy (no room in the bag though hahahah). She managed to snatch a few small bargains though. After we´d had a great day at the festival we headed back to Emilie´s house for dinner with the whole family. As well as Emilie, Robin and ourselves there was Emilie´s mother and father and her two brothers Guy and Phillipe. And Lukas, of course. We sat outside to have a nice chinese meal just before the storm came in - what a great night. We will be very sad to leave Hengelo tomorrow as we have had such a nice time here with Emilie and her family-thank you all so much for your hospitality. Please come and join us soon in Australia!!!

Bike riding in Enschede..a Dutch tradition!
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It was so nice to see the sights and of course chill out and relax with Emilie´s family after our hectic city hopping experiences. We agreed that Hengelo is one of the nicest places we had seen to far and that if it wasn´t for our families being so far away we may even like to live there. It was amazing to see houses and farms right next door to each other - in Australia things are obviously so much further apart. In the Netherlands it appears that you could live in a semi rural area and be only a short (1 or 2 hours) train ride away from the big city. Very impressive. We will travel to Belgium for a few days and hope to catch up with some friends there as well.