Weesp & Muiderslot Castle

 29th October 2023, Sunday

Today woke up around 7 plus, thinking it was late as per Singapore time. The weather was also nice and sunny. So we decided to head out to have a walk in the forest behind my friend's house. We had our breakfast and headed out for a walk. The wind was blowing strongly and it was cold (temperature was about 13 deg). We strolled through the path, greeting everyone we saw along the way. Some people were jogging, strolling and walking with their dogs. We saw wild mushrooms in the grass, potatoes ready to be harvest in the fields and modern windmills. There was even a super big dog holding a long branch on its mouth and wanted to bring home with it. The owner said the dog was only 18 months old and it was very obedient. We walked till 9 plus and decided to head down to Almere centre to go to a mediterranean eatery named Eethuis Lila. My friend had dined once and found the food nice by far, so she was recommending to have breakfast there.

Great day for a walk!

Breakfast place - Eethuis Lila

So we went and took the bus to head down to Almere Central.  When we reached there, there was no customers yet. However, they only serve breakfast dishes and soups so we can't order others from the lunch and dinner sections. We decided to go with a Harira soup and a big breakfast set to share which included breads, pudding, eggs, Moroccan mint tea. The food was quite nice. After the meal, we walked to the central area where there were a lot of branded shops around. We also went to a asian supermarket to see what asian food are they selling. After that, we decided to head down to Muiderslot Castle in Weesp and have ice cream there. So we walked to the bus stop and took a free bus to Weesp. It was about 30 mins ride to Weesp main station. From there, we went and look for bus 110 to go to the castle. However, it was a 45 mins wait before the bus comes. So we decided to head down to the town and get ourselves some ice cream from Nelis' IJssalon. It was 15 mins walk to the place, most of the shops were closed. When we reached there, we ordered 2 scoops in a cup for 2.5 euro and we took mango and pistachio flavour. Ice cream was quite smooth and not bad, just the mango one was quite sour and pistachio flavour was not strong enough (not as good as the one I had in Florence).  

Breafkast!

Famous ice-cream in Wessp

Reflection of Sint-Laurentius church

Then, we headed back slowly to the bus stop while eating the ice cream. We took some photos along the way back and waited for the bus to come upon reaching the bus stop. A young couple walked up to us asking if they could pay with their credit cards for the bus fares. My friend told them we were not sure and they could ask the driver when the bus comes. Then we had a small talk with them while waiting for the bus. They were from Mexico and Spain, they met each other while working in Finland and they were there for short holidays. And they told us the expenses in Finland was much expensive as compared to Netherlands. After that, we boarded the bus to head to the castle. From the bus stop, we still had to walk a 10 mins distance to the castle gate. We purchased a entry ticket for myself since my friend had free entry to the castle. And so we went to explore the castle and it started to drizzle too.  There were 2 routes - Knight's route and Tower's route to access different rooms in the castle. The castle was used as a water shield to fend off enemies in early years and served as a trading point in the later years. The count Floris V who lived at that time was collecting trade toll for every boat that passed by the castle. There was also a poet who lived in the castle after the Count. There was a torture room and armoury room too. We spent exploring the castle for about 2 hours. Later we went to the garden outside the castle to take a look. There was nothing there, all the flowers and veggies are all dead. Maybe it will be nicer in spring or summer period.

Knights' Armours

Fire place for warmth with the bench able to turn around

Torture Room

We decided to make our way home as the castle was closing at 5:00 pm. But before we left, we walked to the water shelter outside and took a look inside. There was a video on how the dutch had used water to defend their lands in war times but it also scarified its own people in order to have this water defence system. So it become a question of whether water is a foe or friend to them. After that, we headed out to exit the castle. We walked back to the bus stop and took the same bus 101 to the central station. From there, we took the free bus back to Almere Poort. Along the way, we caught sight of the moon rising out and it was so round and big. The sky was getting dark too when we reached back to Almere Poort. We went to supermarket to buy some ingredients for the coming week and bought a wrap and two Netherlands Balls back for dinner, Once done, we made our way back home where we ate our dinner and rested for the day.

Model of castle

Moon of the night

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Start of 2.5 months holidays in Europe

 27th - 28th October 2023, Friday

This is a year plan trip which i had requested my company to let me work remotely from Netherlands for 1.5 months following a 3-weeks AL break. The whole trip will start from 28th Nov 2023 to 7th Jan 2024 and i had planned this with my friend who is currently working in Netherlands. Our plan was to visit her and stay at her place till we go for our long holidays. I had waited for the whole 9 month for it to actually start.  I finally flew to Netherlands on 27th Nov night (23:55 flight). My dad ferried me to the airport and had dinner together before i went to the boarding gate. There was a moment that i feel kind of sad seeing my dad left as this was the first time i ever leave Singapore for so long. I walked around the airport for a while and went to one of the airport lounges (Marhaba) to pass time. The lounges were so crowded and full of people. And it was so hot inside but they do have some snacks and drinks which people can take for free (free-flow).

There was some delay for the plane to take off from Changi Airport, so the plane eventually flew off around 30 mins. So the expected landing time was changed from 7:05 am to 7:40 am (Netherlands time). The plane was full with passengers and mostly were westerners. I was seated beside an elderly couple and i can never get used to sitting on long flights. I watched 3 movies and managed to nap a little throughout the flight and my legs were aching for sitting long hours.  I was glad when we were approaching Schiphol airport, however we got a rough landing. The plane kind of landed and the speed was so fast that we could being being pushed to the front. When the plane was finally parked, the pilot announced that it was a busy day in the airport and there was not enough ground staffs. So we had to wait for about 10 mins for the ground staffs to help open the plane's door for exit. When we finally exit the plane, i saw the plane was parked some distance away from the airport. Hence, we had to take the transfer bus from the plane to the airport. I was just wearing a tee-shirt n jeans when i alighted from the plane and it was soo cold. 

When i finally reached the airport, i took some time to take out my jacket before going to customs clearance. At the customs, i was asked by the official the duration of my stay and the purpose of my stay. However, when i told them it is going to about 2 month of stay, the officer was having some doubts on my purpose though i said it is holidays and visiting my friend. So he questioned how much euros do i have and if i have an invitation from my friend. Once i told them i did not bring any euro in cash, he called another colleague of his to escort me to wait by a room where the other colleague took my passport and disappeared in the room. While i waited outside, i tried to make contact with my friend to let her know of my situation. The officer came out and I showed him my friend's work pass. i also gave him my friend's number so he can call her for clarification. However, he went into the room for some time before coming out and asked me if i can call my friend instead as he wasn't able to get hold of my friend. So i showed him the number again which he recorded in his phone and went in the room. After some time, i got a text from my friend saying she had clarified with the officer. However, i waited for quite a while before the officer came out and notified me that all clarification was cleared. But the officer said that his colleague will still need to do some checks and said it will take a while. The whole time i was waiting there, i was so scared that i will be deny entry or something worse. I waited like almost 10-15 mins before i finally get my passport back with a stamp to enter Netherlands. I was soo glad that i got cleared and able to enter but i think they probably will keep a record in their system to ensure i return to Singapore before the visa ends. 

Well, so i headed to the belt to collect my luggage but when i reached there, the luggage were not even out. So i had to wait again for my luggage to come out and i definitely can't wait to get out of the airport with the drama earlier. My friend was waiting for me outside since and i was soo soo glad to meet her. So we headed back to her house first which was at Alemre Poort. We took train to Weesp and transferred to bus as the train tracks to Alemre Poort was closed. During the ride, i asked her regarding her conversation  with the airport officer earlier. She said she told her she had invited me over for a long stay but there is no letter written since we are friends. And she told him that she already had some friends came over for stay in earlier of the year with no issue. She said none of her friends got questioned by the custom officer in terms of how much money did they bring or how long they are going to stay here except me. When we reached Alemre Poort, we walked to the supermarket to buy some breads and drumsticks to cook our lunch. I was so glad to finally reach her house where i can eat and rest. So my friend cooked the drumsticks and fried her overnight rice with egg. After eating, i unpacked my stuffs and had my shower. Then we watched tv and had nap till 4 plus. After that, we made our way to Alemre Central for the light festival there. When we arrived there, there was a Diwali festival too to celebrate Deepavali here. It was crowded with the Indians at the festival, so we walked around the square first. 

Later, we went up the ticket counter for the light festival (Alluminous Festival) to collect a token and a cute collar pin. The token was for us to get any drinks at the food & drinks stalls in the festival (In the end, we didn't walk till the drink stall which was further in the road). The route for the festival covered a area of 5 km and it was around the lake. It would take 2.5 hours to cover the whole round by walking. As it was not 7 pm yet, we decided to grab some food first. But there were so many people around and we ended up in Burger King instead. We managed to get a table and bought a nuggets meal for sharing. After that, we started our walk in the lights festival and it was also crowded. A lot of people just walked very fast on the route and the light displays were so far away from each other. We only walked to the second point and it wasn't half way of the lake. There was also boat service which would take you from point 1 and point 3 which is on the opposite side of the lake and it cost 5 euro. It was also so cold to walk long outside. But we tried to stay till 8:30 pm which we caught on the fireworks display from the Diwali festival. The fireworks lasted 30 mins and it was a long long time i actually watched fireworks so near (Got tired of videoing the fireworks too...😅).

Route map of Alluminous Festival

Light display in lake

After the fireworks, we took the bus home and the bus was also crowded with people. We reached home around 10 pm and it was so lucky that the rain came after we reached home. Then we washed up and rested for the day. Such a long day for me.

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