Trip in Holland Airbnb / Day 14

Sunday April 19

It seems everybody slept ok the first night. It takes a little time for 7 people to get ready in the morning. But at 9 am we were ready for breakfast. And we enjoyed it a lot ... with a lot of talking again.

And yes, we had boiled eggs and guess who had an "extra" one?

I think it was around 11 / 11:30 am when Manu and Tobi arrived. Great big hello again of course. Now we are 9. 

Around noon we went for a walk. The young people walk all the way from the house, "some" where being taken closer by car. We all wanted to see the sea. 

Unfortunately it was quite cold when the wind was blowing but we all thought we were lucky that it wasn't raining. 

First we had something to drink. Something hot was very nice to warm you up. There was coffee and tea on the menu but I asked whether they could put some apple juice into a microwave and they did.

The walk along the sea in the sand was very nice but quite "hard work". Maren took these photos. See the horse in the background?

We had seen this sign when we arrived and could not figure out what it meant. 

Dus NIET brommen of snorren

Google translate was no success! When I type only the first 3 words I get something totally different than typing in all. Nothing made sense.

Back in the house we had a big discussion about the tulips. They are a lot of fun.

After the walk we made some salad at the house with things we had more or less bought randomly the day before. We didn't want to eat too much that late because we had decided to go out for dinner. The salad was a hit.

The young people had heard live music in a restaurant in walking distance and we thought that would be a great place for dinner. But look at this. It seemed like millions of bikes. Needless to say that there was no room for us.

Gregor and Tobi went back to get the cars.

The town center is not far and this time we walked to a restaurant called 1909. We were 9 and set at a high long table. I took a photo on selfie-setting over my shoulder when we thought that our food was coming. And it did.

Our waitress was kind to take a photo of all of us.

Probably not the best choice since there were no veggies but my fish and chips were excellent.

Back at the house we did NOT play 5crowns. Instead we played the left-center-right game. I was glad that I had brought it because we had a lot of fun. Sometimes we laughed so much it took forever to play.

And here are a few more photos from Maren I didn't put in earlier. 

It had been a great day and we all agreed that we were lucky with the weather. 

The stepcount wasn't bad either: 12,960

Trip in Holland leaving the ship / Airbnb / Day 13

Saturday April 18

The "official" trip is over. Today we are getting off the ship. We had a great time as always. The crew was fantastic and so were the trip leaders and so were the other travelers. We feel we have made new friends but of course it hardly ever lasts. We all live too far apart but you never know.

Most travelers are being taken to the airport. Some are gathering in the lounge because they are going on the post trip. We all are supposed to be out of our cabins at 8 am so the crew can get everything ready for the next guests who come today.

Breakfast as always. Marco is there to do our eggs how we would want them.

Yeah, nice omlet.

Sue, Jim and Kate are also waiting in the lounge. We really enjoyed getting to know them and have exchanged. 

Maren and Gregor are going to pick us up. Thanks to WhatsApp we know when they are close and we wait outside. The weather has turned colder again. 

The car is loaded. The drive from Lelystad to our airbnb in Julianadorp took about 1 hr and 15 minutes. 

To get into the house we need a key which we can get between 3 and 5. We decide to investigate the area and look for a little lunch. Somebody recommends eFFe in 't Dorp. It was very nice.

The coffee came with a glass with Eierliquör (eggnog with alcohol) and whipped cream.

Maren needs a photo of the tulips. 

When we are finally getting the key and can unload the car and get settled, the tulips need urgently to be put into water. They have survived very well. So did the vase which she had delivered to us in Virginia and we brought with us. All is well.

Corry and Werner brought Ute with them. Ah, it was so good to see everybody. Lots of hugs! In the evening we gathered around the huge table to play cards. It was midnight before we finally fell into the beds.

Fingers crossed the mattresses are ok. 

The stepcount is a bit poor: 7,038

Trip Belgium and Holland in Springtime Day 12

Friday April 17th

Our last full day on this trip. We are taking by bus to Amsterdam for a boat ride on the canals.

Our 4 groups fit on two boats. 

The boats of course had windows and reflections showed up in my photos. I was disappointed but with some cropping it is ok.

We had commentary and it was very interesting. But too much for me to repeat here.

There was no "official" commentar about this house but I had to take the photo because of the two people (probably having breakfast) on the balcony.

This is the spot (and you have to be very fast with your camera) where you can see 7 bridges in a row.

This is also a famous bridge but only for pedestrians (and bicycles of course.) 

The tour took about an hour and we got out at the same place.

The trip leaders gave us several options what to do next. James and I opted for "walking with local guide".

There are strict guidelines in Amsterdam. There can not be more then 15 in one group and our guides are not allowed to even guide us to the place were we meet the guides with there flags raised. We all have to pay good attention walking. 

We are three walking groups and our local guide is Rene, and older gentleman. 

We are not totally happy with ours because he is not always good to understand and he spends forever at the place of the stock exchange talking about companies and money.

Of course every tour guide leads you through the "red light district". 

This was funny. One mayor some time ago had decided to have bilingual signes at what the call chinatown. He invited a Chinese dignatary for the ribbon cutting who immidiately laughed. The mayors wondered what was the matter and the Chinese person explained that they write vertically. The mayor should have checked in the beginning.

Because we had chosen not to come immidiately back after the boat ride and didn't have lunch on the ship we were given money. But we didn't have lunch in Amsterdam. We had taken the 2 pm shuttle back to the ship and after a cabin stop decided we needed a walk. The weather was pretty good. We were surprised to find that there were some cafes and tapas places close by which looked inviting. We had a very delicious onion soup each which carried us nicely over until dinner. 

Our ship is docked very close to the Batavia (museum). So we walked to have a closer look.

Captain's farewell dinner and many good-byes. We skip the entertainment because we do have to pack. 

Step count: 13,255    Not bad. Quite happy with that. And not even dancing ha-ha.