But BEFORE The Netherlands we drove from Jenny’s house to Potsdam, 20mins outside Berlin, where we visited a fabulous old park with some amazing ‘Prussian’ palaces, gardens and a 300year old brewery (of course) beside a lake.
On to Berlin where we had HUGE expectations and were slightly disappointed by what we saw. BUT not letting that stop us, we rented a beautiful apartment for 2 nights and lived like the locals. A nice change from the van! Berlin has a pretty interesting recent history and we really appreciated that, what we didn’t like was that it was all so NEW! New buildings, streets, people. Everyone we met wasn’t from Berlin or Germany for that matter. No quirky winding streets, or 1000year old buildings, but understandably considering it has been bombed to pieces!
Next stop after Berlin was a random little campsite…somewhere between Hanover and Hamburg to break up the 7hour drive to the North Sea, on the coast of Germany, for a few days of ‘nature’. It’s a whole different world up there in the Frisian Country. They speak a different language, they look more Dutch, REALLY friendly and the scenery is beautiful, in a mellow way. It hadn’t really stopped raining since Switzerland and we were getting a bit of van fever by this stage, so we organised a walk out to one of the Frisian Islands at low tide (they have 5km tides). Oh it was fun! We were told to walk in our socks as the mud is deep and sticky in places and bare feet could get cut on the shells in the mud. So we trekked out to this island, wading through waist deep water in the pouring rain in our clothes and socks, looking at shells and crabs and worms. Once at the island we washed our feet and had a yummy lunch at a café and lay in the sun for a few hours before catching a ferry back to our car at high tide. FUN day! The next morning we headed for our beloved Amsterdam. Jenny stayed with us one night before heading back to Mainz and we stayed on to dream that maybe we will live there one day.
Time to move on! Only 7 more sleeps in the van! We can’t believe how far we’ve come (over 14,000kms so far…)! So the next 6 days we plan on stopping into Rotterdam, Antwerp, and a few Belgium breweries and meeting friends in Brussels for the Belgium Beer festival. The last HURRAH. But not to be so hasty as to head home - after that we are heading to Morocco for three nights with Sally’s Mum and Dad (TO CELEBRATE OUR 6YEAR ANNIVERSARY!) and then a canal boat trip for Sharon’s 30th birthday AND THEN heading home! Flying back to Sydney on the 18th September.
Proust! Beers at the Brewery in Potsdam
One of the palaces in Potsdam
Jen and Lac 'hanging'
Photo booth fun!
A really cool church, it was blown up and they kept it as it is. In the middle of Berlin.
Part of the Berlin wall
Pariser Platz, Berlin
Jenny, Sally and Lac in Pariser Platz with the famous gate behind us.
A memorial area for the people killed in the Holocaust
Sally contemplating the ducklife. In the campsite between Hanover and Hamburg. It was pretty cold!
Lachie watching Jenny fly our kite on the North Sea, Germany
Jenny and Sal sitting in a 'basket' seat at a cafe. The seats are famous for the Frisian area
Walking out to the Frisian island at low tide...
eek! It was pretty muddy!
A colourful Dandelion on the island
The 'baskets' on the beach
Sunset at our campsite over the North Sea.
Graffiti at our favourite bar in Amsterdam 'Belgium Cafe'
Jimny Cricket, the Dam
Life in Dam square
A native in Volendam. NL
Volendam
Cruising back to our campsite in Edam, this afternoon with our dinner in the basket.
A confusing picture? We flipped it the wrong way but thought it looked better. A classic boat for the Netherlands. 
