There's a good reason to be travelling with locals: it will take you to places out of the other tourists' way and offer you a most unique experience!
跟地頭蟲旅遊的一大好處，是保證行程獨特，體驗也與一般遊客不同。
29/12/2007
I spent this day with my Dutch hosts around Wageningen. In the town centre, there was a somewhat non-descript hotel called Hotel de Wereld (Hotel of The World), but it was the place where an important chapter of Dutch history was written. On 5th May 1945, it was at that hotel where the Germans signed for the unconditional surrender to the Canadian troops, ending the German occupation of the Netherlands. From then on, the Dutch celebrated their Liberation Day (Bevrijdingsdag) every year on 5th May, and special ceremonies are hosted in Wageningen to commemorate this day.
In the afternoon, we went on a cycling trip to the outer parts of town, and after a break we went for a hike in the nearby woods. On the way home, we took a detour and my Dutchie buddy led us to the 8th floor of the student apartments where he used to stay. It was a cool way to end the day, being able to see the whole town from above.
12月29日
兩個荷蘭朋友帶我在瓦赫寧恩（Wageningen）四圍逛逛，先到市中心，最特別的是那家世界酒店，外貌不揚，但歷史不凡，原來是二次大戰時駐荷德軍向加拿大部隊簽署無條件投降之地，日期為1945年5月5日，因此荷蘭每年5月5日定為戰爭解放日，瓦赫寧恩也有特別紀念活動。
下午我們三人踏腳踏車到市內稍為偏遠的地方，休息一會後又到附近的樹林散步，臨回家時繞道往荷蘭朋友從前住過的學生宿舍，好讓我從八樓俯瞰全市景色，就這樣便輕輕鬆鬆過了一天。
The town centre of Wageningen
瓦赫寧恩市中心
Hotel de Wereld - a piece of Dutch history 世界酒店及其不凡的歷史
The dike in Wageningen
瓦赫寧恩市內的堤壩
From the 8th floor of the student apartments
從學生宿舍八樓的景色
30/12/2007
We took the bus to Arnhem where we visited the Open Air Museum (Openluchtmuseum). By then I started to appreciate that everywhere in the Netherlands is so close to each other. Arnhem is only 20 km away from Wageningen and the bus only took about 1/2 hour.
The museum was set out like a small traditional town with its farmhouses, fishing village, old-style shops, windmills (of course!) and even its railway station, while there were shuttle trams circling the town on its outskirts. Many of the buildings were actually moved 'as is' from their original locations, and offered visitors a glimpse into people's lives and the landscape in the past. Within the museum, there were also two exhibition halls. One of them was dedicated to some rather interesting collector items, gathered by their owners over fairly long periods of time, such as thousands of piggy banks, photos of many members of the Dutch royal family, as well as sick bags from over 350 airlines! Another exhibition hall was more like a huge storage room filled with once-familiar and once-common household items from the ages past.
The museum set up a special winter attraction in its open square, an ice-skating rink that was extremely popular with kids. The two Dutch hosts were patiently coaching the oldest beginner in the rink, until he would finally stop stumbling and start gliding short distances with some confidence. The lesson came in very handy because the real test would come two days later! I'll save it for another blog entry ...
12月30日
我們出發到阿納姆（Arnhem）的露天博物館（Openluchtmuseum）。荷蘭地方細小但交通也算便利，所以坐這20公里的公車路稱也祇消半句鐘左右。
露天博物館最主要是展現荷蘭昔日的生活和面貌，館內的建築物，大都由荷蘭各地原裝「搬家」過來，然後佈置成一個小村莊，有農戶、漁戶和舊式小商店，當然少不了風車，連古式火車站也有，村莊外圍則有退役的電車穿梭環繞。露天博物館內另有兩家展館，一家展出經多年蒐集又非同尋常的收藏品，例如過千個撲滿、荷蘭皇室成員歷年的照片、甚至350家航空公司的嘔吐袋！另一家展館就收藏了從前的家居用品、從百多年前到二次大戰時代的都有。
時值冬天，館內的大廣場設了溜冰場（滑冰場），非常受小朋友歡迎，兩個荷蘭朋友充當教練，耐心教導全場最老的學員，從蹣跚學步，直至可自行滑行一段短短的距離為止。那天學溜冰，是要為兩天後作準備，現在先賣賣關子！
Farmhouses, old and new 古式與新式農舍
Inside a traditional farmhouse with weaving demonstration. My Dutchie buddy told me to take note of the small size of the bed (left), as modern Dutch people would have easily outgrown it!
舊式農舍內，正有穿著傳統服飾的人表演紡織。荷蘭朋友着我留意當年的床（左圖）有多小，現代荷蘭人當然睡不進去！
Traditional music
傳統音樂
A landscape dotted with windmills 風車遍野
The bridge leading into the old-style shops
前往舊式商店的橋
Inside such a shop
舊式商店內一景
A fisherman's hut
歪倒的漁家
Collector's item with an artistic flair 充滿藝術氣息的剪紙收藏
Memories are made of these.
(Note: you're actually looking at a wall!)
集體回憶的一種
（其實這是一堵牆！）
2/1/2008
There was no respite and plenty of hard labour in the afternoon before I headed back to Germany, as I went on another cycling trip with my Dutch hosts on their spare bicycle.
Having reached the section of the dike in Wageningen, we continued along the path on top of the dike towards the nearby town of Rhenen. We went into some countryside after passing by a few factories. We could see farmland on one side of the dike and a river running through a plain on the other. The river was in fact the Rhine, and my friends explained that the dike served the purpose of keeping out the floods from the Rhine, for example during spring melt. While the Dutch faced a continual challenge from the water throughout their history, I was having another kind of struggle at that time - to contain my running nose brought upon by the cold wind blowing on my face! At the end of the dike, there was an uphill road leading to Rhenen. My Dutchie buddy said to me, 'The Netherlands is not all flat, as many people would think!' The uphill road was literally one uphill battle: try negotiating a 7% slope on a bike without a front gear! My knees were very quick to complain, and when the terrain became flat again, I was also puffing and panting. (My friend in Amsterdam said that many Dutch bikes had done away with the front gear, precisely because the Netherlands was such a flat country!) Fortunately the labour was not lost, as we settled into a lunch with pannenkoeken (Dutch pancakes) in a restaurant. The pannenkoeken looked somewhat like a pizza with a liberal sprinkling of various toppings on a thin pancake base, and came in a variety of savoury or sweet choices. I ordered chocolate milk to go with a pannenkoek topped with bacon and pineapple, and flooded my pannenkoek with the traditional Dutch thick syrup called stroop. No surprise then I began to suffer a sugar overdose towards the end of my meal!
After such a sweet lunch, we headed back the same way and stopped by a war cemetery en route. The cemetery marked the one of the many frontlines against the invading Germans during World War II. It did not take long before the Netherlands fell in German hands, and most of the soldiers laid to rest in the cemetery lost their lives during the battles from 10th to 14th May 1940.
When we were back on the dike, we took a side track to a place called Blauwe Kamer (Blue Chamber) by the Rhine. The Blauwe Kamer was originally a brick factory, but is now slowly reconquered by nature after its decommissioning. We went for a short walk into the countryside behind the factory, then back to the riverside where there was a small pier. A barge was shuttling between the two banks of the Rhine to carry traffic and passengers, and rather interestingly it was actually guided by cables tied to the buoys which were anchored to the river bed.
The evening had finally caught up with us, and it was time to return and start packing up. I am really thankful to my friends around the Netherlands who filled my 8 days with so many sights to see and things to do that I was having difficulty keeping track of what has happened in this trip!
1月2日
臨回德國那個下午，我仍馬不停蹄，而行程也絕不輕鬆。我騎着荷蘭朋友給我的腳踏車，跟他們踏上腳踏車之旅！
我們先駛到瓦赫寧恩市內的堤壩，然後沿着壩上的徑，往鄰近的Rhenen進發。一路上我們經過了一些工廠，然後駛進了一片郊野，壩的一邊是農田，另一邊是平原，一道河流流經其中，朋友解釋那就是萊茵河，而堤壩的功用，正是阻擋萊茵河泛濫時（例如春天上游融雪時）的洪水，這道堤壩，象徵着荷蘭自古以來與水患的搏鬥，而那時的我，也要和迎面的冷風搏鬥，風光雖美，但得忍受不停流涕！堤壩盡頭，是進入Rhenen的一段斜坡，荷蘭好友說笑道，別說荷蘭到處平坦一片唷，我此刻正親身體會到其意思：以一輛前輪沒變速器的腳踏車，爬上斜率7%的坡，氣喘事少，最慘是要拿膝蓋的命！（我在阿姆斯特丹的朋友說，由於荷蘭一般地勢平坦，不少腳踏車也免了前輪變速器。）幸好辛勞也沒白費，我們三人到達了一家餐廳，品嘗地道的薄煎餅（Pannenkoeken）。薄煎餅的賣相有點跟意式薄餅相似，份量也不少，薄薄的餅上，鋪滿了配料，鹹甜皆可，我這個貪心人，要了煙肉、菠蘿配料，還要淋上荷蘭地道的稠糖漿（Stroop），再加上餐前喝了巧克力奶，甜得要害！
甜美的午餐後，我們依原路折返，經過一個軍人墳場，那裡正是二次大戰時的其中一道戰線，當年荷蘭於短短五日內（1940年5月10至14日）淪陷，墳場內的軍人，差不多全是那幾天陣亡的。
經斜坡返到堤壩後，我們取經一條支路往萊茵河畔的藍屋（Blauwe Kamer）。藍屋原來磚窯，早已停產，現在逐漸和周圍的自然環境融為一體，我們走到藍屋後的郊野，逛了一會，然後返回河畔，那裡的碼頭有渡輪提供渡河服務，航道附近有一列固定於河床的浮標，繫了纜索，渡輪就是依靠纜索牽引而航行。
那時天漸晚，也得踏上歸途，回去收拾行裝和心情。真感謝我在荷蘭的多個朋友，八天假期，跑了不少地方，體驗豐富，還有點時空錯亂之感，寫網誌正好讓我把行程的種種見聞整理整理。
The two worlds separated by a dike 堤壩兩邊，兩種風光
Pannenkoeken. Caution: hot (and sweet!)
荷蘭薄煎餅，又熱又甜！
War cemetery
軍人墳場
Blauwe Kamer
藍屋磚窯
The countryside behind the Blauwe Kamer, where we saw this furry bull (bottom right)
藍屋附近的郊野，及在那裡出沒長滿毛的牛（右下）
A barge over the untroubled waters at Blauwe Kamer
原來荷蘭也有橫水渡！
跟地頭蟲旅遊的一大好處，是保證行程獨特，體驗也與一般遊客不同。
29/12/2007
I spent this day with my Dutch hosts around Wageningen. In the town centre, there was a somewhat non-descript hotel called Hotel de Wereld (Hotel of The World), but it was the place where an important chapter of Dutch history was written. On 5th May 1945, it was at that hotel where the Germans signed for the unconditional surrender to the Canadian troops, ending the German occupation of the Netherlands. From then on, the Dutch celebrated their Liberation Day (Bevrijdingsdag) every year on 5th May, and special ceremonies are hosted in Wageningen to commemorate this day.
In the afternoon, we went on a cycling trip to the outer parts of town, and after a break we went for a hike in the nearby woods. On the way home, we took a detour and my Dutchie buddy led us to the 8th floor of the student apartments where he used to stay. It was a cool way to end the day, being able to see the whole town from above.
12月29日
兩個荷蘭朋友帶我在瓦赫寧恩（Wageningen）四圍逛逛，先到市中心，最特別的是那家世界酒店，外貌不揚，但歷史不凡，原來是二次大戰時駐荷德軍向加拿大部隊簽署無條件投降之地，日期為1945年5月5日，因此荷蘭每年5月5日定為戰爭解放日，瓦赫寧恩也有特別紀念活動。
下午我們三人踏腳踏車到市內稍為偏遠的地方，休息一會後又到附近的樹林散步，臨回家時繞道往荷蘭朋友從前住過的學生宿舍，好讓我從八樓俯瞰全市景色，就這樣便輕輕鬆鬆過了一天。
The town centre of Wageningen
瓦赫寧恩市中心
Hotel de Wereld - a piece of Dutch history 世界酒店及其不凡的歷史
The dike in Wageningen
瓦赫寧恩市內的堤壩
From the 8th floor of the student apartments
從學生宿舍八樓的景色
30/12/2007
We took the bus to Arnhem where we visited the Open Air Museum (Openluchtmuseum). By then I started to appreciate that everywhere in the Netherlands is so close to each other. Arnhem is only 20 km away from Wageningen and the bus only took about 1/2 hour.
The museum was set out like a small traditional town with its farmhouses, fishing village, old-style shops, windmills (of course!) and even its railway station, while there were shuttle trams circling the town on its outskirts. Many of the buildings were actually moved 'as is' from their original locations, and offered visitors a glimpse into people's lives and the landscape in the past. Within the museum, there were also two exhibition halls. One of them was dedicated to some rather interesting collector items, gathered by their owners over fairly long periods of time, such as thousands of piggy banks, photos of many members of the Dutch royal family, as well as sick bags from over 350 airlines! Another exhibition hall was more like a huge storage room filled with once-familiar and once-common household items from the ages past.
The museum set up a special winter attraction in its open square, an ice-skating rink that was extremely popular with kids. The two Dutch hosts were patiently coaching the oldest beginner in the rink, until he would finally stop stumbling and start gliding short distances with some confidence. The lesson came in very handy because the real test would come two days later! I'll save it for another blog entry ...
12月30日
我們出發到阿納姆（Arnhem）的露天博物館（Openluchtmuseum）。荷蘭地方細小但交通也算便利，所以坐這20公里的公車路稱也祇消半句鐘左右。
露天博物館最主要是展現荷蘭昔日的生活和面貌，館內的建築物，大都由荷蘭各地原裝「搬家」過來，然後佈置成一個小村莊，有農戶、漁戶和舊式小商店，當然少不了風車，連古式火車站也有，村莊外圍則有退役的電車穿梭環繞。露天博物館內另有兩家展館，一家展出經多年蒐集又非同尋常的收藏品，例如過千個撲滿、荷蘭皇室成員歷年的照片、甚至350家航空公司的嘔吐袋！另一家展館就收藏了從前的家居用品、從百多年前到二次大戰時代的都有。
時值冬天，館內的大廣場設了溜冰場（滑冰場），非常受小朋友歡迎，兩個荷蘭朋友充當教練，耐心教導全場最老的學員，從蹣跚學步，直至可自行滑行一段短短的距離為止。那天學溜冰，是要為兩天後作準備，現在先賣賣關子！
Farmhouses, old and new 古式與新式農舍
Inside a traditional farmhouse with weaving demonstration. My Dutchie buddy told me to take note of the small size of the bed (left), as modern Dutch people would have easily outgrown it!
舊式農舍內，正有穿著傳統服飾的人表演紡織。荷蘭朋友着我留意當年的床（左圖）有多小，現代荷蘭人當然睡不進去！
Traditional music
傳統音樂
A landscape dotted with windmills 風車遍野
The bridge leading into the old-style shops
前往舊式商店的橋
Inside such a shop
舊式商店內一景
A fisherman's hut
歪倒的漁家
Collector's item with an artistic flair 充滿藝術氣息的剪紙收藏
Memories are made of these.
(Note: you're actually looking at a wall!)
集體回憶的一種
（其實這是一堵牆！）
2/1/2008
There was no respite and plenty of hard labour in the afternoon before I headed back to Germany, as I went on another cycling trip with my Dutch hosts on their spare bicycle.
Having reached the section of the dike in Wageningen, we continued along the path on top of the dike towards the nearby town of Rhenen. We went into some countryside after passing by a few factories. We could see farmland on one side of the dike and a river running through a plain on the other. The river was in fact the Rhine, and my friends explained that the dike served the purpose of keeping out the floods from the Rhine, for example during spring melt. While the Dutch faced a continual challenge from the water throughout their history, I was having another kind of struggle at that time - to contain my running nose brought upon by the cold wind blowing on my face! At the end of the dike, there was an uphill road leading to Rhenen. My Dutchie buddy said to me, 'The Netherlands is not all flat, as many people would think!' The uphill road was literally one uphill battle: try negotiating a 7% slope on a bike without a front gear! My knees were very quick to complain, and when the terrain became flat again, I was also puffing and panting. (My friend in Amsterdam said that many Dutch bikes had done away with the front gear, precisely because the Netherlands was such a flat country!) Fortunately the labour was not lost, as we settled into a lunch with pannenkoeken (Dutch pancakes) in a restaurant. The pannenkoeken looked somewhat like a pizza with a liberal sprinkling of various toppings on a thin pancake base, and came in a variety of savoury or sweet choices. I ordered chocolate milk to go with a pannenkoek topped with bacon and pineapple, and flooded my pannenkoek with the traditional Dutch thick syrup called stroop. No surprise then I began to suffer a sugar overdose towards the end of my meal!
After such a sweet lunch, we headed back the same way and stopped by a war cemetery en route. The cemetery marked the one of the many frontlines against the invading Germans during World War II. It did not take long before the Netherlands fell in German hands, and most of the soldiers laid to rest in the cemetery lost their lives during the battles from 10th to 14th May 1940.
When we were back on the dike, we took a side track to a place called Blauwe Kamer (Blue Chamber) by the Rhine. The Blauwe Kamer was originally a brick factory, but is now slowly reconquered by nature after its decommissioning. We went for a short walk into the countryside behind the factory, then back to the riverside where there was a small pier. A barge was shuttling between the two banks of the Rhine to carry traffic and passengers, and rather interestingly it was actually guided by cables tied to the buoys which were anchored to the river bed.
The evening had finally caught up with us, and it was time to return and start packing up. I am really thankful to my friends around the Netherlands who filled my 8 days with so many sights to see and things to do that I was having difficulty keeping track of what has happened in this trip!
1月2日
臨回德國那個下午，我仍馬不停蹄，而行程也絕不輕鬆。我騎着荷蘭朋友給我的腳踏車，跟他們踏上腳踏車之旅！
我們先駛到瓦赫寧恩市內的堤壩，然後沿着壩上的徑，往鄰近的Rhenen進發。一路上我們經過了一些工廠，然後駛進了一片郊野，壩的一邊是農田，另一邊是平原，一道河流流經其中，朋友解釋那就是萊茵河，而堤壩的功用，正是阻擋萊茵河泛濫時（例如春天上游融雪時）的洪水，這道堤壩，象徵着荷蘭自古以來與水患的搏鬥，而那時的我，也要和迎面的冷風搏鬥，風光雖美，但得忍受不停流涕！堤壩盡頭，是進入Rhenen的一段斜坡，荷蘭好友說笑道，別說荷蘭到處平坦一片唷，我此刻正親身體會到其意思：以一輛前輪沒變速器的腳踏車，爬上斜率7%的坡，氣喘事少，最慘是要拿膝蓋的命！（我在阿姆斯特丹的朋友說，由於荷蘭一般地勢平坦，不少腳踏車也免了前輪變速器。）幸好辛勞也沒白費，我們三人到達了一家餐廳，品嘗地道的薄煎餅（Pannenkoeken）。薄煎餅的賣相有點跟意式薄餅相似，份量也不少，薄薄的餅上，鋪滿了配料，鹹甜皆可，我這個貪心人，要了煙肉、菠蘿配料，還要淋上荷蘭地道的稠糖漿（Stroop），再加上餐前喝了巧克力奶，甜得要害！
甜美的午餐後，我們依原路折返，經過一個軍人墳場，那裡正是二次大戰時的其中一道戰線，當年荷蘭於短短五日內（1940年5月10至14日）淪陷，墳場內的軍人，差不多全是那幾天陣亡的。
經斜坡返到堤壩後，我們取經一條支路往萊茵河畔的藍屋（Blauwe Kamer）。藍屋原來磚窯，早已停產，現在逐漸和周圍的自然環境融為一體，我們走到藍屋後的郊野，逛了一會，然後返回河畔，那裡的碼頭有渡輪提供渡河服務，航道附近有一列固定於河床的浮標，繫了纜索，渡輪就是依靠纜索牽引而航行。
那時天漸晚，也得踏上歸途，回去收拾行裝和心情。真感謝我在荷蘭的多個朋友，八天假期，跑了不少地方，體驗豐富，還有點時空錯亂之感，寫網誌正好讓我把行程的種種見聞整理整理。
The two worlds separated by a dike 堤壩兩邊，兩種風光
Pannenkoeken. Caution: hot (and sweet!)
荷蘭薄煎餅，又熱又甜！
War cemetery
軍人墳場
Blauwe Kamer
藍屋磚窯
The countryside behind the Blauwe Kamer, where we saw this furry bull (bottom right)
藍屋附近的郊野，及在那裡出沒長滿毛的牛（右下）
A barge over the untroubled waters at Blauwe Kamer
原來荷蘭也有橫水渡！
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