Travelog for: Nick

Hello! Kasper had a surprise for Marjolein yesterday: he took her to a concert! And of course she took me. We went to a Dutch band called Room Eleven in Eindhoven. The theater was called the Effenaar. The concert was really cool! You should listen to their music someday! It was a bit old fashion (which is a good thing) and with lots of energy. The singer has a beautiful voice, maybe even the best I've heard yet in the Netherlands. Well Marjolein defenitely can't sing ssshhh. Here are some photo's of the concert! Today Kasper has got even more surprises for Marjolein: we are going to Sea Life in Scheveningen en the Omniversum in Den Haag (The Hague)! I will tell you all about it when I get home. We are also going to the beach of Scheveningen because the weather has been really hot for a week now! Kasper does all these things for Marjolein because today is their 2 year anniversary!

Nick

Dear Pandamao,

It was a wonderfull day! The sun was shining and I really got a tan on my face! I say real interesting fish in Sea Life in Scheveningen! Sea Life is just by the beach, so you understand we went on the beach and into the sea! Some fish in Sea Life were a bit scary! But there were also lots of fish who were very colourfull and beautiful. And you see me with Dory from the movie Finding Nemo! And with Nemo's father! And in the tunnel with the turtle Crush!! Marjolein bought the son of Crush, Shelly, so I've got a new friend! He wants to be a tv but I told him his head is a bit big and heavy to become a ToyVoyager. On the fifth photo you see a little 'pijlstaartrog', this is the animal that killed the Australian crocodile fighter Steve Irwin! And he looks so sweet! After the visit to Sea Life we walked on the boulevard. Then it was time to go to The Hague to the Omniversum. This is a real special cinema with real special movies. Their screen is reeeeeeeaaaaaaaalllllly big and you have to look everywhere in the room to see what is going on! We went to the movie called Africa's Elephant Kingdom. It was a beautiful movie about elephants, their lifestyle's and their survival. Then it was time to swim! And relax on the beach. We had pancakes on the 'Pier', which is above the water! I was a bit afraid at first (what if the pier should fall into the water?) but the view was so beautiful!! We also saw a boot from the KNRM (Koninklijke Nederlandse Reddingsmaatschappij) which means something like lifeguards. We did not know if there was something going on but all of a sudden all kinds of police- and firetrucks came to the beach. Well it could not have been to bad because they where also gone in a flash. Finally I want to tell you about another new friend! Marjolein bought him at the Omniversum, he's a little giraffe called Kasper (after Marjolein's boyfriend) and he is defenitely going to be a tv!

Nick

Hello! While Marjolein is doing her homework, I decided to write to you because I forgot to tell you something yesterday! I found a shell on the beach in Scheveningen! You see me with the shell on the photo.

Nick

Good day!! Because Marjolein is being totally boring with her homework I decided to look at her house. She lives above a snackbar. She has a bedroom and livingroom with her boyfriend Kasper. They share a bathroom, kitchen, toilet, balcony, hallway and storage with two other young persons. This is a couple aswell. They all live here since August 2007. The first photo is Marjolein's buddhistcorner in the living room.

Well, I've seen the livingroom so I went to the toilet and see what I found there! Santa is everywhere in this house!

After the toilet I went to the bedroom, it was all pink and stuff. I also found my new friend Shelly.


The view from the bedroomwindow:

This is the huuuuuuuge card Marjolein got Kasper

So then to the balcony! This is the view from the balcony. You see the guy who sells fish before the watertower which now is a shelter for poor people.

Because of the good weather I relaxed on some beanbags on the balcony.

Then the kitchen. Pfoo Marjolein needs to do some dishes!

And back to the livingroom. This is the view from their window. They look right into the balcony of the neighbours.

Kaspers favourite footballclub PSV Eindhoven:

And about 1/100 of Marjoleins bookcollection. She's got loads of books!



Till soon!! Love Nick

It's me again! Marjolein went to the fishguy across the street, the one I told you about yesterday. And she brought back something really Dutch called 'Hollandse Nieuwe'. Well it was herring! She got one with little pieces of onions on it for Kasper and for me one without the onions. Let's just try some herring, I thought. Well I was looking forward to this herring.



But what was Marjolein doing? These strange Dutch people don't eat their herring with a fork but with their hands! They hang it over their heads and they bite it!



Marjolein let me do it, and it was actually quite fun! And the Hollandse Nieuwe tasted very good. But it smelled very bad!!

Hello Pandamao!

I made friends with some footballplayers today! Their names are Arjen Robben and Mario Melchiot and they play in the Dutch national team. We played some football but they where way too fast for me. I said they had to take it easy with me, because I am an old man. Marjolein says every store now gives away free footballstuff because the European Championship starts in June. Marjolein loves football! Kasper and her are going to watch the first match of the Dutch national team on June 9 in a café with a big screen! I hope I can come too!
I also found something really scary in Marjoleins livingroom! It's a mug of Count Dracula! Marjolein bought this mug near the real castle of Dracula in Romania! She went there last month, her best friend Dieuwerke was in Romania for three months for school and Marjolein visited her in April.

A new tv arrived today! It was LiLA Bear! She had had a long trip but I am going to make her feel right at home
Firstly I couldn't see what was coming out of the envelop.



But there she was:


I like having a new friend!

This was it!

Hello,

Marjolein was very excited today because Manchester United was playing in the Champions League final. Uhm, yeah well Marjolein is a big, no HUGE Manchester United fan. So she was constantly screaming during the gaming and pinching me when she found it too scary. Well, there was nothing else to do for LiLA Bear and me, then just make ourself comfy and watch the game.



Well, it was excited, Manchester scored a goal, Chelsea scored a goal, there was extra time, a Chelseadude hit a Manchesterdude and the Chelseadude got a red card so he had to leave. But it stayed 1-1 so it all came down to penalty's. Christiano Ronaldo (Manchester) missed his penalty, giving Chelsea some hope.
Edwin van der Sar (the goalkeeper of the Dutch national footballteam) was having a though time at first, guess he was tired.



But Edwin van der Sar did very good. John Terry (Chelsea) also missed his penalty and then Van der Sar stopped the penalty of Anelka (Chelsea) and this means:

Manchester United won the Champions League!!



Marjolein was jumping up and down and screaming and really acting a bit weird. But the people on tv where acting even more strange, but I guess they were all very happy with winning.



Can you see me?

Hi,

I went to Vlissingen this weekend! Marjoleins parents took us to the province Zeeland. Vlissingen is near the coast and the sea. LiLA Bear and me had our own seat in the train!



This is the view from the window of the hotelroom






We took a walk by the sea of Vlissingen. It's the North Sea and we could almost see England haha.











And we took a walk in the city of Vlissingen. We saw some cool graffiti!



It was a beautiful, real Dutch city.



After all this walking we went to bed in the hotelroom.

The next day we went to Belgium! To the city Brugge (Bruges). We had to drive from Vlissingen to Terneuzen and there go into a tunnel under the sea!





Not long after the tunnel we reached the Belgium boarder.



LiLA Bear and me had a very good seat in the front of the car, we could see everything. I thought Belgium looked really cool!



We are almost in Brugge!





Then we reached the entrance of Brugge. Too bad the brigde was up.



But after some waiting we can go through!





We parked the car and went checking out Brugge by foot. It is a really beautiful and old city! Marjolein said it was the most beautiful city she had ever seen!









After some siteseeing we went to a real Belgium museum: the fries museum (Frietmusem)! Fries where of course invented in Belgium and it what's they're famous of.



Fries are called 'friet' in Belgium. In Dutch the mostly call it 'patat'. The museum first showed the history of the patato. This is me witha bunch of patato's.



I also baked some fries. Well okay not for real it was just pretend.









And at the end of the tour it was of course time to taste some fries! And these fries weren't pretend! Lila ate a lot of fries! I just had some.





The is was time to go into the city again. We went into some churches. This is inside the 'Onze Lieve Vrouwe Kerk'. This is Madonna with child.



Children are baptised in this thing, it's like nothing I've ever seen before!



In the street I saw puppets sitting in the window! Maybe if they're done drinking tea they could join ToyVoyagers.



But fries aren't the only Belgium thing. They also have Belgium chocolate! So we went to the chocolatemuseum.

Aah I'm falling in!! I'm gonna die!! Help! Lila said



O no you're not falling! I will save you! I said.



Pfieuw happily I was in time to save her!

They had these things they put the chocolate in to get special, in this case Sinterklaas puppets! Of course I wanted to show you this Sinterklaas!





They had art completely made out of chocolate! Lila really liked the chocolatefairy.



I wanted to get my picture taken with a huge cocaobean!



And also saw Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Carribean.

That evening we went back to Vlissingen. I was very tired and went to bed. But Lila wanted to had her picture taken with lots of other stuff in Vlissingen to show to her mum.

It was sad moment when we had to go home again. But I've enjoyed the weekend in Vlissingen en Brugge very much! And there was a surprise waiting for us when we got home! A new tv had arrived! It was Pingu from England!







He told me and Lila his journey had been good and he is looking forward to spending time with us in Den Bosch!

This was my story of this weekend. I'll be back soon!

Another tv arrived today! It was Roots Bear! He has already had a long yourney, because he was lost on his way to the Ukraine and ended up in Saudi Arabia! But now he is here and we will show him a good time

And another tv arrived today! Another? Yes another! It's getting very gemutlich here! It was Chompers!!





He came from Remscheid, Germany and he brought a nice card!

Dear Pandamao,

I went to see the Dutch national footballteam today!! In the footballstadium of PSV Eindhoven in Eindhoven. The match was between Holland and Denmark. I had been to Eindhoven before but never inside the stadium!





Before the match, there was a giant toy on the field! He had a drum with 'Dutchy' on it. Marjolein told me this is the mascotte of the Dutch team. I said he should also travel but Marjolein doubts he will fit into an envelop. She told me a little secret: there is actually in man inside that lionssuit!



But then the match began. First it was time for the national anthems. The Dutch anthem is called the 'Wilhelmus' named after Willem I, king of the Netherlands in the 16th century. The song has 15 verses but they only sing one at the footballmatches. Most of the Dutch only know this verse.



That's the goalkeeper of the Netherlands, Edwin van der Sar, on the big screen. We also say him on television when Manchester United won the Champions League!



And they're off!





Do you see all the people nicely dressed in orange? Orange is the Dutch national colour. This is because their royalty's (queen Beatrix and family) are called Oranje (orange in Dutch).



Rafael van der Vaart (number 23, footballer of HSV, in Germany) took a cornerkick for Holland.



And Holland scored!!



Chompers was so excited! We couldn't see anything!



But I was also partying!


So when the second half of the match began, it was 1-0 for Holland.



But then Denmark got dangerous!



O no! Denmark scored!!



And that was the end of the match. The first half was very good, but the second half the Dutch team played sloppy and they let Denmark make a goal. I hope they will do better at the European Championship next month! This game was just for practice.



The stadion of PSV Eindhoven is a very beautiful stadium, also on the outside. It's called 'Philips Stadion' because Philips is their sponsor. Philips is a factory that makes lamps and other electric stuff. Eindhoven is therefore also called the 'Lichtstad' translated something like The city of Light. That sounds beautiful doesn't it?



Nick