Week 1: NZ (Seoul) Amsterdam Ellum

What a relief (isn't it always?) to finally get on the international flight knowing there is no more that can be done to organise things at home! Packing up had its moments but they were more than balanced by lovely farewells - at work and especially at Graeme's on the Sunday before we left...

The Korean Airlines experience was overall a good one: excellent price @ $1917 return each; ample leg room; very good service, good food (except the green cake, which neither of us could fathom) and in-flight entertainment of a kind. The best parts, though, were the layover in Seoul, where we stayed at the luxurious Hyatt Incheon only minutes from the airport, and the lack of passengers on the flight through to Amsterdam, which meant we had room to stretch out (across four seats each at one stage!). The best airline can be the one with the fewest customers and perhaps next time we will actually stop in Seoul for a look around.

Two days in Amsterdam - freezing and occasionally wet. The Amsterdam destination was decided before we had found a boat (where better to look for one?) and we were happy not to have to spend too much time there - not because we didn't like it but because it was expensive to stay there. Our B&B, which was very good, was one of the least expensive places we could find on the internet @ 76 euros a night. It was a bit away from the centre but the trams made getting around a piece of cake (also quite cheap) and breakfasts were spectacular! Highlights included the Van Gogh Museum and a chance encounter with a regatta of sailing barges on Sunday afternoon in Volendam - beautiful, old-fashioned sailling vessels for as far as the eye could see and perfect sailing conditions meaning they slipped effortlessly across the water.

From Amsterdam we travelled by train (nearly 9 hours of flat, flat, flat, flat land) to Niebuell (don't worry, no-one else has heard of it either) in Northern Germany just south of the Danish border. Why Niebuell? We were under instructions from our host, Bjarne, to get off there because it's what all the Danes from the south do, the trains in Denmark being somewhat expensive (along with most other things, as it turns out).


The next part of what I've written has just completely disappeared from the blog so I'm giving up in disgust at this point. Will re-write it again soon and add photos when I work out the best way to do it.


Catherine