"Amsterdam, Paris and Morocco" Europe Travelogue by aussirose

aussirose meets PJ and Swanet in Amsterdam

There was no way I was going to do Europe without meeting PJ (pieter_jan_v). PJ is another of my long standing mates here on vt with whom I have a high regard for. Not only is PJ the archives King of vt, but Pieter-Jan is also the VT meet King in my opinion!! He has the most amount of vt meets I have ever seen here and PJ is always welcoming people to his lovely hometown. It was an honour to finally meet PJ and our meet will be forever memorable to me! :o)

Not only was it an honourable pleasure to meet Pieter-Jan, but we also met his gorgeous wife Swanet. Oh I cannot commend Swanet enough!! What a vivacious and welcoming person Swanet is :o) You guys rock!! :o) Love you alot! :o)

Another vt'er that I have to mention is Diana (dila). WoW! Diana is just beautiful!! :o) I did not know Diana but after having Diana meet us at our houseboat and show us around and not only did Diana take the time out to make us feel most welcome in Amsterdam, but she also took a day off from her busy schedule as a tram driver and spent the day with us for our vt meet and Heineken Experience. Thank you so much Diana!! You are a gem!! And we love you too!! :o)

Have you ever had someone travel a long way just to attend a small meet to meet you? Well that is what Mary (oxymoron) did. Mary travelled all the way from Edinburgh to attend our little meet in Amsterdam. And what an absolute pleasure it was to meet you Mary! It was a shame you didn't feel well and couldn't spend a great deal of time with us because you and I got on like a house on fire mate!! Hopefully we will meet again!! ...and then you and I will kick up a storm!! Hugs xx

Please.....I encourage you to check out my Amsterdam page here and the fun that we had!

aussirose checks out Zaanse Schans, Amsterdam

No trip to Amsterdam should be without checking out the windmills.

I found a place called Zaanse Schans that is well known for windmills whilst checking out gillybob's pages here on vt. So we planned a day trip on the train to Zaanse Schans.

Well all I can say is that this is a 'must do'. Not only did we see a stack of windmills but we wandered through this cute little village with quaint houses and beautiful greenery.

I had the best apple pie that I have ever tasted here!! You need to stick that cafe down on your travel planner!! :o) Check out my tip!

aussirose joins big VT Meet in Paris

Paris was the hilight of my Europe trip! Ever since I can remember I have always wanted to visit Paris!

What made Paris special was the big vt meet that we had. When I saw that go up on vt I was one of the first to put our names down. We planned our whole trip around Paris!

What made Paris the most special was when hubby presented me with a gorgeous diamond and ruby eternity ring at our Saturday night vt dinner! This was so special!! :o) And I have many more memories of our time spent in Paris!!

aussirose loves cute cars - Paris

The only thing that I am sad about was that we only saw a small bit of Paris. Well that only just encourages me to visit again! :o)

Every corner and every street had something special to see! :o) From the famous Eiffel Tower at night, the beautiful Notre Dame, cute cars etc....Paris was a wirl wind of adventure!! :o)

Please check out my Paris page and relive with me the special time that we had here!!

aussirose loves Monet Gardens - Paris

Hubby and I both love gardens. Hubby is a horticulturist by trade and he studdied a lot of European gardens in his Diploma course. So hubby was looking forward to visiting some of those gardens.

Hubby's favourite garden in Paris was Versailles. Mine was Monet. We did both and Monet was my favourite.

We had the pleasure of having Helena (longsanborn), Valerie (BorneoGrrl) and Ed (brooklyned) join us on our day trip.....as well as the two Barneys - AussieBarney and AmericalBarney and my va's Hansi and Lori and Dorrise and Rexy.

What a great day we had and many beautiful memories!! :o) Have a squiz at my Monet travelogue on my Paris page for the full story.

aussirose visits Morocco

Ok Morocco is not part of Europe but I want to continue my story.

We flew from Paris to Marrakech. What an awesome time we had there! If you are thinking of visiting Morocco then you must put Marrakech on your itinery!!

We stayed right in the Medina in a Riad and I totally recommend it! And if we ever have the pleasure of visiting Marrakech again, we would definately stay here!!

Check out the fun time that we had and things that was saw and did on my Marrakech page.

aussirose does Sahara Desert, Morocco

One of the things that both hubby and I wanted to do was to see the Sahara Desert. We tossed up hiring a car and driving ourselves but as I pointed out to hubby, we already had this planned in Germany, Belgium, Amsterdam and Spain. Plus hubby drives and I don't.

So, encouraged by my good friends here on vt when I asked the question in the travel forum, we decided to have a driver take us on a 5 day trip out to the desert.

Turns out that this was the best decision. I found Sahara Dreams Maroc and Habib the owner of the company and our driver and not only did we experience the most awesome trip of a lifetime, but Habib...being an authentic nomad knew the desert like the back of his hand, introduced us to nomads in the desert, we camped out under the stars, we went off road in the 4x4, we took amazing shots, we road on camels out of the desert and we met Habib's family and shared lunch etc with them along the way.

I cannot praise Habib, the company administrator Hayat, Habib's family and employees who all made our trip an imprinted memory that will last forever!!

Please check out our trip day by day on my Morocco page. And if you want to do the same thing then you need to book with Sarah Dreams Maroc!!

Last Travelogue - Spain.