May 7th –
After breakfast, we packed up and checked out of the ‘hotel’.
We went to a farm/cheese factory to see if they had any smoked cheese to take back for my brother but to no avail. After being in there and experiencing the smell of farm animals and cheese making mixed together, I’m amazed I can still desire to eat any cheese 🤪
Pistachio ice cream was purchased at the cafe there though, being locally made and supplied from another place on the island.
It was very tasty 👌🏻
I’m not sure if I’ve began to enjoy the pistachio flavour more as I’ve aged or if it’s only lately become more popular, either way I’m happy about it 🤓
The family was going to go on an 25 or so kilometer bike to a lighthouse (and back).
The fact that I strongly dislike, and also am not very proficient at biking, made that idea a bit unappealing and the fact that it was cloudy and cold didn’t help Mikes desire to bike either, so we opted for taking the father-in-laws BMW 🤪👍🏻
We did consider renting a tandem bike, so I wouldn’t be in control of my own life 😜 but as we did, it began to rain and any thought of biking kind of dissipated 🙈
So we sat in the car with heated seats on for a little while before walking down some shopping streets, looking for a sweater for me and not finding one, so instead we bought food 🤪
One last Kapsalon to warm us from the streets dampness and then we drove to the lighthouse where we were to meet up with the rest of the fam.
We climbed up to see the view and walk through the small passage that actually went between the old lighthouse wall and the new one they built around it after the war. They had spotlights shining where bullet holes could still be seen in the stone of the old wall… I didn’t stay long enough to take a good picture as having close walls on each side and no opening in front of me isn’t my kind of ‘hang out’ spot.
The beach was then walked along, circling back to where the modes of transportation were, so we could go over to the Nord Cape restaurant.
A hot chocolate, fizzy nestle ice tea with lemon, loempias and a burger were ordered.
The need to pay more for a small glass of still water than for a pop, grew tiresome.
I rarely ever order a drink besides water when at home but when it costs more than a flavoured drink, the flavoured drink is what you end up going for 😬
A display in the restaurant caught my eye.
On it hung handcrafted necklaces made with driftwood and something else I couldn’t figure out.
Upon taking a closer look and Mich asking a staff member, it was found out that the colour dipped ends were made using melted down sea glass from the nearby beach, which actually glows in the dark! It’s a bit hard to explain and even harder to search due to most of the results being in Dutch but click this link to see a visual explanation of the natural ‘sea sparkle’, Zeevonk – Sea Sparkle.
Inge bought me a necklace as an early birthday gift 😉
We were told to check out the post situated outside of the restaurant, made using the same technique.
Once everyone was done biking, it was time to head back to the ferry and begin the trip back to the house.
We arrived there early, so ice cream was enjoyed to pass the time 😉
After the semi lengthy drive back and goodbyes to siblings, the packing began.
An extra bag was required and luckily we were allowed it so it didn’t cost us any extra and there was even an old bag of Mikes to use 🤪👍🏻
I think we got to bed around 1:00, having odds and ends to finish up come morning, before beginning the journey back to our home.
May 8th –
Breakfast awaited us and goodie bags for the upcoming travel too 😉👌🏻
We were driven to the train station and thus said our goodbyes to the parents… having had an enjoyable 2 weeks and 1 day with them ♥️
After the 1 hour ish train ride got us to Schiphol Airport, we stopped at the in airport grocery store for some last necessities.
Our classic travel snack of chicken sushi and one last ‘most delicious grape juice you’ll ever drink’.
Mike also got himself one last frikandel 🤪😷
The clocks in the airport are very entertaining… making it look as though there’s a man inside who cleans the glass and moves the clock hands 🤓
Our first flight was 8.5 hours… we dozed off and on but not a whole lot, as it was during our daytime hours.
Due to time change, we landed in Calgary approximately ‘one hour later’ 🤪 Four hours later we boarded for Saskatoon, getting picked up by my parents around 7:00 pm.
They had kindly gotten us some groceries so that we weren’t at home without cream for coffee etc. and then we went to re-meet the kittens and pet Atlas as much as possible before going to bed 😴💕👍🏻
May 9th –
Jet lag had us up by 4:30 am and so odds and ends were unpacked, though not seriously… just enough to get all the food goods out 🤪
Then a nearby garage sale was went to at 9:00, with the mom and sisters.
We ended up going along to town, to join them for plant shopping, not taking much of a slow’ post travel morning’ but having the ‘spring’ urge within 🤪
We also had much hunger within and wolfed down two double cheeseburgers that Canadian Tire was selling as our first meal back 😂👍🏻
Here ends the tale of our 4 week long trip.
I enjoyed getting to flex the writing muscle again and hope you all enjoyed a thing or two of it as well 😉
I feel like I’m brimming with inspiration from the trip and all the time I had to think…or maybe it’s just a list of stuff that now needs to get done around the house 🤪
If it’s the former, I hope to keep up the occasional appearance on here and tell you all about whatever semi interesting happenings come from that 😉
But who knows, I can be pretty persuasive about talking myself out of doing things, so maybe this is truly, ‘farewell’… or I can do as the Dutch and say a minimum of at least two terms of goodbye, ‘Doei! Dag! Tot ziens!’🤪
Jemstory 