We set the alarm clock and went to the 8 am church service. After that I finally got serious about packen. It went without problems. So far I can't remember anything I have forgotten ... yet.
We had a leisurely leftover lunch (cleaning out the fridge) and left with the Uber at 1 pm for the airport. We don't have much experience with Uber but it was very easy, pleasant and reasonable.
Even had time for a glass of red as I had already reported. And then finally we were on our way. First stop Philadelphia. I think I get better with the selfies.
We had time to go into the Admirals Club which is always a nice thing. Even Helen and William could join us for a short time. A nice lady offered to take a picture of all of us.
Time for our next flight to Amsterdam.
We didn't sit together but it didn't really matter. It was a night flight, James slept some (no surprise here), William about three hours and Helen and I none. It was a relatively smooth flight but we were very happy to finally arrive with one of the smoothest landings I ever experienced.
Monday May 29
The usual things: passport control, getting all the luggage, heading for the rental car. Helen and James shoveled a few more things with there backpacks and left their "England luggage" with me. We had brought Williams car seat and that got installed.
Helen and James are flying in a few hours to Porto to begin their Camino to Santiago. They both intent to blog about their adventure. You can always find their blogs http://james-ontheway.blogspot.com/ and http://offthewahltales.blogspot.com/ on the right side of my blog under "I like to read ...".
William and I headed out to Egmond aan Zee. The rental car came with a navigating system but it must not have been synced recently because it didn't know some of the new highways around the airport. We made a couple of u-turns but it didn't trouble me. The weather was so gorgeous. William loved watching outside and had a million questions and comments.
When we drove up to the hotel my friends Inge and Martina had already arrived from Germany and were standing outside waiting. We parked the car in the lower garage and schlepped the luggage to the room.
We didn't waste much time. William got sunscreened and then we went to check out the sea.
He was so content to play at the edge for a while and run away from the waves. As you can see in one of the pictures not always a success but he laughed and was so happy.
We were hungry for lunch though (and thirsty) so we de-sanded at the steps, put our shoes on, went back to the rooms to change.
Lots of nice restaurants. William ate the whole salami pizza. I had a great salad. Yummy.
After lunch (and ice cream) we went back to the beach. Martina had brought "her family kite" which was a huge success.
When he started falling over his own feet it was time to quit. He was so tired. We went a little along the shops and found a fishing game for the bathtub for 1.99 Euros (tax is always included).
He ate a banana in the room but didn't want anything else not even from "his stash". He had a nice bath and got ready for bed but then argued (feebly) that it was too early to sleep. I said "ok just sit up and we talk" but before I had finished saying that he was asleep ... at 5:30 pm.
We have two adjoining rooms with a door open between. I went into the other room for awhile and we talked and feasted on crackers and cheese etc. back in the room writing this blog (in the dark). I better get to sleep now too. He might wake up soon.
What a wonderful adventure, have a great time
ReplyDeleteFabulous first day. I am so glad that you are chronicling William's first trip to Europe. He will treasure it when he's grown up. And it is wonderful that Helen will be able to share it, too!
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