Saturday 31 May 2008

Wij zijn terug!

The Brinkster Clan has returned from a week in Holland!!

Inevitably at some point my mind wanders to making comparisons with Worcester Park and it was strange being in a country where you can go shopping without a charity shop in sight and where people still have enthusiasm for the upcoming European Championships. The place was outrageously clean (contrast to London) tho' even the local picturesque village was blessed with a burnt out speed camera, that hallmark of modern resistance. We had a cottage by a lake with ducks, geese and red squirrels on the patio and rabbits out the back door...... which was heaven for the little Brinksters as you might imagine.

Anyway, the main meat of the holiday was spent at a place called Efteling which is an enormous theme park that puts any theme park in the UK I've been to to shame and even the biggest thrill ride (Python, with a double loop-the-loop and twin corkscrew) only had a waiting time of five minutes (Dutch organisation!) and Miss Brinkster managed five or six trips on it, but the best 'theme' ride is De Vliegende Hollander (Flying Dutchman) but you'll have to check out their web site to see that. Efteling's been declared the most popular attraction in Holland, beating the Amsterdam canal boats into second by something 750,000 and I'd thoroughly recommend it.

I gather from next door neighbour that the weather here hasn't been great this week but apart from a glitch on Thursday morning it was really hot in Holland all week......... sorry 'bout that.

Anyway it is only a week away from the start of the Euros so I've got a choose a suitable Worcester Park hostelry to go and watch it in...... and could any local Nederlanders (or sympathetic parties) get in touch and we could make it a group outing!!

Let me know if I've missed anything while I've been away as Google Blogsearch seems silent on the matter.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love the Dutch, always welcoming and friendly. I've never heard of that theme park though. Anyway, I reckon you should be heading here and giving us a review:

http://www.brinkleys.com/brinkleys.asp

The Brinkster said...

I hadn't heard of Efteling until a couple of years ago and I'm sure to be going back. It doesn't have the big name characters of Disneyland but people who've compared it with Disneyland Paris say they prefer Efteling for service and facilities.

That looks like one nice restaurant! Shame they don't do a weekday lunch menu as that would be handy but I've got to give it a go some time. Thanks for the link!
[looks at diary]