European River Tour

 One thing I forgot to mention from yesterdays tour was the camel racing. It is a big thing in Qatar and some 25000 camels are kept in the camel stables for racing. The camel races are not like the races we have in Australia. They no longer have jockeys on the camels, instead having little robots that the owner can use to talk to the camel to make it go faster. It also operates a riding crop and the owners drive in tracks alongside the camel track to keep the communications going. The incredible part is the size of the tracks they start at 2 km and go up in 2 km increments to 12 kms. Our guide said it could take about 11 minutes for the camel to complete 12 kms. Thats a pretty impressive effort. Today marks the last day of our stay in Qatar and also the last day of our holiday. It is a little bit disappointing to know it is coming to an end but a relief that tomorrow night we will be home on our own bed. It also means we will have heaps of dog, horse and donkey cuddles with an occa...

 Today we have a full day tour booked of the northern and western parts of Qatar. Yesterday was pretty much the east and Doha centre so there is a fair bit to see today. We started the tour at the Horizon Manor Hotel where our guide Sajid was waiting with a Toyota Landcruiser . We set off and our first stop was Al Khor Harbour, where the fish markets are. In the past this was an important centre for pearl divers and fishermen but is now primarily the fish market. It is amazing to see the range of fish and crustaceans available and price is a lot cheaper than Australian seafood prices. We set off again after a brief visit to the market and went out to the Mangroves where a board walk has been set up to protect them from human interference. It was amazing to see how alive the mangrove is, and to begin with, the further we went in the bigger the fish were. There is a reasonable walk to the end of the board walk and after our recent meals, we figured we needed the exercise.  Once ...

Our trip home was planned with a 3 day stopover in Doha, the capital of Qatar. It is a country steeped in tradition  and is well worth a look if you want to break up your trip. Our travel agent advised us that Discover Qatar had some great deal on to entice people to stay a bit longer with their stop overs. We got a magnificent room on the 7th floor of the Horizon Manor Hotel for a mere $141 for the 3 nights. Compare this to the kennel we had in Amsterdam and they were chalk and cheese. We arrived in Qatar late and by the time we got to the hotel it was 2 AM so a comfortable bed was a welcome sight. Even though the nightclub on the 14th floor was jumping we still managed to get to sleep pretty easily.  Later that morning we ventured out for breakfast (9:50 AM) and decided to have it in the hotel. I guess this is where they make some of the money back. A breakfast will set you back 50QAR or around $22 AUD. You do get the chance to eat as much as you want and the coffee was pret...

 After a fantastic but all too short reunion with my relatives in the Netherlands, today we leave Europe and go to Qatar for a warm up. So far our daily average has been around 10-15 C and for the first time since we docked in Amsterdam it wasn't raining. We were going to go to the Waterloo Cafe for Breakfast but even though they said they opened at 9AM, they still looked very closed at 9:10 AM. We settled for another cafe around the corner for a croissant and coffee.  I think we should have waited for the Waterloo to open. The coffee was OK but the Croissant was microwaved and soggy. On the way back we passed a couple of clown cars, little single seat EVs. You can almost hear them squeak when they move!  We strolled back to the hotel and prepared for our transfer to Schipol Airport. Our driver arrived around 11:20 AM and with bags in hand we were on our way to the airport. At one stage traffic was reduced from 4 to 1 lane because of an accident It didn't take long until ...

 My mother was born in Batavia (Java) to Dutch parents. Although she never lived here we do have some family ties in the Netherlands. Staying in Amsterdam we had to at least try and catch up with some family. We didn't have a great deal of spare time, but the time we did have we spent with one of my uncles and my cousin and her family. I had met them before when they came to Australia but that was over 15 years ago and memories do fade slightly on appearances. Anouk (my cousin) was my first point of contact through facebook and as she didn't use it often it took a while to get a response. I was excited to get a response and more so that we were able to work out a time to catch up. She also contacted my uncle Frans who was also going to meet up with us.  Anouk had planned a day at Kasteel de Haar , a beautifully renovated castle dating back to the 13th century. She has also given us some travel plans to get from Amsterdam to Bruekelen. Ann and I had already done a test walk to ...