So few days but wonderful days packed with meeting family and friends and chatting like in old times. Thank you all so much for taking time out of your busy lives to see us. And a HUGE thank you to Ute for her incredible hospitality and abundant love.
Time to pack up in the hotel in Marl. The desk clerk told us he was sorry to see us leave. Most guests are staying not that long and he got used to us. Ha-ha. Nice young man.
We had lunch with Ute and Siegbert which she had prepared and then it was time to leave. Uggh, don't like those moments. We were a bit early but you never know how long a drive will take you with the unpredictable traffic. We drove to Düsseldorf Airport following our GPS which worked well. Finding a gas-station to fill up the rented car was a bit of a challenge but the GPS helped us out again. The rental car return place was one tall tower and I had to drive a spiral up to the 5th floor. I should have said a very narrow spiral which could make you dizzy. Oh well, all was good and the car was excepted as is.
We walked over to the terminal and were looking for the airport translation. Found out that we needed to take the sky train first. My goodness, what came was always full so James gave me the instruction to just push in next time what we did. People seem to stand close to the door and not move further. I felt very rude but what else can you do.
It wasn't far and there was even a ticket counter. James could change our tickets and instead of waiting 2 1/2 hours we had 10 minutes and the same number of train changes.
First Düsseldorf Flughafen to Duisburg which took 9 minutes. 7 minutes later we were in the train to Utrecht. This took about 1 1/2 hours. The train attendant could not have been any nicer. He took us to a compartment which still had two seats available and even put our two suitcases into the overhead.
After a while James decided we deserved some refreshments and we had nice chats with the other 4 people.
In Utrecht we had about 10 minutes until our next train and 30 minutes later we were in Amsterdam Airport. That part was very interesting too.
One of the many canals in Holland. Loved seeing the landscape going by.
Amsterdam Airport. The hotel had sent an email to James to go to bus station C 13 to wait for the hotel shuttle. A bus would come every 30 minutes. There were two ladies already waiting about 10 minutes. Together we waited and waited. People came and went, busses came and went, but not our bus. Finally one of the ladies called the hotel and they told us it would be there any minute and what it looked like. Turns out that the bus had a lot of writing on the outside but the name of the hotel "Ramada" was just very small in the window. The bus had came by once but we didn't know it.
The bicycles in Holland are fascinating. I had seen whole bicycle parking lots from the train. These in front of the hotel are free to borrow.
We checked in. All was good. We decided to walk the little bit to a restaurant for supper. Everything was excellent and fun.
Tuesday
We didn't have to hurry. We had a coupon for the shuttle bus back to the airport for 9:45 am.
Our flight was with KLM. These days of course there is more and more self-check-in. This was new. You even took care of your suitcases yourself. Boarding pass on the scanner. It spits out the long strip you put on the handle, press ready and off it goes. Then it spits our your receipt in case it doesn't arrive, ha-ha.
A bus to the plane. James had paid yesterday 8 Euros extra for each of us for a leg-room upgrade. Row 4 was very nice and worth it.
When I looked out of the window I could not believe it because there was MY suitcase just going in on the belt. I wasn't fast enough with the photo though. James' must have been before because I didn't see it.
Since we did not have breakfast in the hotel we had a coffee and sandwich in the airport. We didn't know they would come with one.
The sandwich box. Interesting.
Lots of clouds and not much to see. But things were pretty much on time. Close to landing in Inverness.
No rain and we could wait in front of the airport. Tricia picked us up. We had a request because the airport ATM didn't work. She stopped in front of a supermarket (where she just had been). Then we were on our way again until I heard a noise And then a light came on. Tricia pulled over immediately. Lucky there was a place to do that. James and Tricia walked around the car and couldn't see anything but I heard a hissing. Back left tire was loosing air fast.
Tricia called the RAC (like our AAA) and was told about 45 minutes but we were first priority. Towns were very small here and far apart. She was lucky that she could use her phone because we were in a spot were it was very week. She had to go up the hill a little way first.
A few other cars came and went. People were taking their dog for a walk. A nice man wanted to help us but he could not make the tool fit the nuts. Later we found out that you needed to pull the cover off first, then the tool would fit.
Anyway, help finally arrived. The young man was very friendly and helpful. And it didn't take him long. He also checked the oil and I don't know what else.
Look at that nail he pulled out of the tire. About 6 inches long. He said this is the longest he has ever seen. He put the "donut" (spare) on with which Tricia could not drive faster then 50 mph.
Things are so spread out here that she decided to get the tire fixed or a new one right away. We had to drive back a little and then into a town where she knew there was a tire place. The people couldn't have been nicer. The old tire could not be fixed because the nail had been so long that it also wrecked a side wall from the inside. But they actually had a new one which was the right kind and hurried to take care of it.
We still had quite a way to go. Tricia stopped briefly at a place were we had a view.
I am not sure when we arrived in Kinlochewe. I think it was about 6 or 7 pm. Robert brought us to the place where we were staying to drop of our suitcases. Yeah, a quilt on the bed. Very old.
Then Robert drove us a little further to have a first look. He knows this area like his back-pocket but we will not be able to recall all the names of the many mountains. This is Loch Maree. Gorgeous.
Then we went to their house for dinner. We had a nice evening. The view from their living room is breathtaking. The decals on the windows are not decoration but a necessity because otherwise the birds fly into them and might get hurt or worse.
You can imagine we had to talk a lot. We are further north here so it gets dark later. You don't realize how late it is before you go to bed. Ready for a good-night's sleep.
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