Holland Tour

23rd-28th October 2001

• Tuesday 23rd- Leave Hebden Bridge around 1pm. Go get on the "Norsea" at Hull. Have a great night on the ferry including a 5 course meal and stay up ridiculously late.
• Morning of the 24th- Everyone's really tired, but we wake up on arrival in Amsterdam, where we have time to look around its famous red light district (obviously supervised!) , take a boat trip around the canals, and visit some of its famous landmarks.
• Evening on the 24th. Arrive in Volendam and check into our hotel (Hotel Old Dutch). Time for a meal and then some (but not very much) time to look around the town, before catching up on some sleep.
• Thursday 25th- We went on a boat trip to a tiny little island about 1/2 hour trip from Volendam. It was very pretty and looked like it should have been one of those quaint little miniature villages, but it was actually real!
• That afternoon we had a concert in the town which was loads of fun because we were playing all the lively pieces that we rarely seem to play very often, and we had a great time jiving along on the back row! Then we had some free time to wander around the town.
• In the evening we had another concert, supposedly for the guests in the hotel. The only problem was that a lot of the guests had gone to Amsterdam for the day and so there wasnt a very large audience.
• Friday 26th- Very early morning in order to set off to our next venue, in Emmen. On arrival we went straight to a rehersal with the Drents Jeugdorkest band, which was interesting considering the huge number of people involved. We then had lunch and went to meet the major of the town, where we watched a video about the economic development of the town. We then had 1/2 hour to look around the shopping centre before checking into our hotel. Straight away after finding our rooms it was again time to meet with the other band for an evening meal. The concert went quite well, although had to be cut down and so sadly we didnt have time for many of the joint pieces we had practised. After the concert both bands mingled for awhile before we headed back to our hotel.
• Saturday 27th- The day was spent in Gaude (?spelling is probably wrong, but its where the cheese is from). We had originally planned to visit a pottery museum, but it was decided at the last minute that it was probably best to just stay in Gaude for longer. As a result, after returning from our meal and shopping trip around Gaude to be told we had another 1 1/2 hours to spend, we went to play football. Again.
• That evening it took us a while to find our way around the ferry, "the Pride of Rotterdam", Considering how huge it acctually was (being the largest ferry in the world and all). But again we had a great time and enjoyed yet another 5 course meal, and singing songs from the back off the ship, before watching one of the shows. Later that night we went asnd stood at the back of the ship and watched the stars, which is a nice way to round off this tale.
• Click here to see photos (when there are some to see!)

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