It's time...

Yep, the time has come to write the last post of  my Return Journey.

Well, I arrived home on Wednesday 14th May, after a 24 hour journey, which went very well. Incidentally for those who feel Australia is too far away, or conversely, Europe is too far away, it really is only ONE day of your life to get there. Just 24 hours. OK, it might be a little annoying to hang in the sky for 21 hours (with a 3 hour break in Singapore) but hey, in 1957 it took our family 6 weeks to travel from Holland to Sydney in a refurbished troop carrier without stabilizers. It included 14 days on the Indian Ocean between Capetown and Fremantle, a very frightening storm in the Great Australian Bight and lots of seasickness before we finally and safely docked in Sydney to begin our Australian life. But that's another story, maybe a story for another blog...

So there really is very little left to tell. The last few days were spent attending Mieke's church and visiting her garden house once more in the pouring rain. Because of the wonderful spring temperatures this year, the shrubs, annuals and salad greens have just grown to maturity in no time at all. Most of the ground was still very wet and bare when I first arrived, but now the ground is covered in greenery with many plants growing very tall and wide.

The garden is growing like crazy!

The little garden cottage is coming together inside too, with just the need for some kind of heating to be able to stay there overnight during summer nights and window coverings.

A typical Dutch evening meal of veggies and oh! meat. :-)

On Sunday afternoon we visited our friend Sita at Bruekelen once again. She cooked us a delicious typical Dutch meal of vegetables and meat. If you ask a Dutch person what they had for dinner, they will name a vegetable eg: we had (green) beans,whereas an Aussie will always name the cut of meat they had.

With Sita at her home

So much stuff to pack!

On Monday 12th May, the day before I left, I needed to pack! I had not taken my own advice to travel as light as I said I would. Well, in one way I had, because I only took a smallish case with me, plus a soft carry on bag, but both of those were fairly full (see my case here) and I wore almost every piece of clothing I brought during my stay in Holland, but I could have done with a bigger case really. I bought a fair amount of souvenirs/gifts and also some boots and clothes to take home with me.  Anyway, long story short, Mieke, who is a master packer because she has traveled so much and has packed so many cases, came to my rescue. She managed to pack EVERYTHING in the 2 bags and some extra bits and pieces went into a shopping bag. All packed and we did some more shopping, home for a coffee, then over to Nelleke's place for a beautiful home cooked dinner. (Thanks Nelleke for your hospitality! Truly appreciated.) On our way home we took a detour into the countryside to watch the sun set over the many waterways, the farms and a church steeple in the distance. Then home and off to bed for my last night in Holland.

Last coffees at Schiphol Airport

Flying home day dawned pretty early for me. I think I was up at 5.15 am and was showered, dressed, breakfasted and ready to go by about 7.15! Off in the car by 7.50 and guess what, we got stuck in the 'file' or the queue, or in Aussie, peak hour traffic, but we had plenty of time. After arrival at Schiphol, luggage check in and a long 'gezellige' coffee with Mieke, we said our goodbyes with many hugs and even a little cry...it has been so special getting to know each other again after all these years and I was so well looked after by her. (Thanks and hugs Mieke!)


 A final wave after going through customs and I was on my own to find my flight departure gate. The flight was slow to get off the ground and left about 45 minutes after scheduled because of the heavy airport traffic. The flight to Singapore went well.. I watched 3! movies! and they certainly keep you occupied by feeding you well! Singapore air staff are just wonderful and look after everyone with such patience and lovely smiles. After a three hour stopover in Singapore I was off to Brisbane at last.

How wonderful it was to come out of immigration to be greeted by not only Ross, but ALL my 4 girls! Their smiling faces and love for me blew me away and I couldn't help but cry and embrace them all at once, even with the barricade between us!
We headed to Tonia's house for tea/coffee and lots of happy laughter, chatting and giving out my souvenirs. Happy and tired we headed off to finally be home and in my own bed!

My beautiful family

It's a week on now and I'm still trying to get over my jet lag. Hope it goes away soon, because I'm really tired of falling asleep at inappropriate times of the day.
I'm back at work and driving my lovely special needs boys to and from school again. So all is just about back to normal routine.

And with that, I will put this blog to bed. For good.
 It's been an amazingly wonderful journey.
 It was a journey of many emotions, and some of these were:

• The first time I saw the Dutch flag flying high in the sky above Keukenhof gardens.
• The first strains of the St Matthew's Passion in a beautiful old Amsterdam church
• Walking through my home town
• When I heard the pipe organ played by my second cousin Klaas, especially for me, in my childhood church
• Meeting up with family members and old friends after many decades
• Travelling through the flat Dutch landscape with its many waterways, green meadows, church steeples, dairy cows, sheep, windmills and quaint houses
• Walking among the throng of celebrating thousands in Amsterdam on the first ever King's Birthday 
• Coming back a second time to my hometown to attend morning church service. So special
• Standing in the building which was once my home. The place where I was born
• The kindness of everyone I met. It was overwhelming. Simpy wonderful

 As I wrote in a card to thank my sister Mieke:
"I feel rather teary as I write this (I even had a little cry during the night) - after all, this quaint country was also once my home and I reckon my roots are actually pretty deep, deeper than I thought."

Will I return once more?
Only time will tell...

Hugs and love to all my readers.
XO

Sunset over Waterland, near Amsterdam - last evening in Holland around 10.30pm

It's been a little while...

It's been a week since I last wrote and what a wonderful week it's been.

Tuesday saw me venture out on my own for the first time in this Kikkerlandje (Little Frog's Land - as Holland is affectionately called by Netherlanders). There is an Bus terminus just across the square from my sister's unit, so it was just a quick walk with my suitcase rolling along behind me, to catch the bus into Amsterdam city. It takes about 15 minutes to get to the terminus which is situated on the large square in front of Centraal Station. People were milling everywhere in the huge station, but I managed to find a 'loket' (ticket office) easily and quickly. Platform 4 is where I needed to be, but I still had to wait quite some time before the train to Gouda would arrive. It really was very cold, so I headed for the open end of the platform to stand in the sun. In the end I nearly missed the train as the trains have the destinations on the back not on the front of the trains.
The train trip was comfortable and I enjoyed seeing the country side as we sped along. I arrived at Gouda about 50 minutes later and was greeted by my cousin Henk and his lovely wife Sonja. We all hit it off straight away and after hugs and (3) kisses, alternating between each cheek, we headed off to their home in the burbs. After a bread table lunch, we headed off into the ancient city of Gouda. It's a very old city, with many buildings dating from the 1500's or even earlier. The streets are laid with cobble stones or bricks and comfortable shoes are really a must. The Dutch mostly wear sturdy shoes and simple clothing such as jeans/pants and warm jackets. There is lots of short grey hair about and sometimes I find it rather hard to distinguish between men and women because of their similar clothing and hairstyles they wear, because of the cold and/or windy weather.
Daylight saving is also in force at the moment, so the evenings are long and bright. The weather has been very mild this spring, so you can stay outside into the evenings because it is still light.

Anyway, I had a great week with them. We had loads of fun reminiscing about our childhoods, parents, siblings and places we had lived. On Wednesday we went to the Kinderdijk (so called because a child was found there many years ago, drifting in the water in a basket, like Moses), where there are many windmills all in one place. Then to the Biesbos (reed wood) where we enjoyed an hilarious boat ride which ended in three young Dutch men having to rescue us from destroying the small boat because my cousin couldn't get the steering and power right, and kept steering us into the mud banks. We in turn rescued them, because their motor wouldn't start. After dropping the boys at the small river harbour, we three ended up sitting in the sunshine with a lovely white wine each for us girls and a Pils beer for my cousin, safely back on shore.

Thursday was wonderful, as we visited my cousin's brother in The Hague (Den Haag), a very different city from Amsterdam and Gouda. The buildings are quite different there, as are the wide and treed avenues and thoroughfares. I had a great time catching up with my cousin Bert and his wife Els, who live in a typical Dutch, older style unit. We browsed through an album he had put together about his parents, which also contained a number of photos of my dad, my mum and even us all as kids. So many memories. I also heard some new stories about myself as a kid, and also their view on why we left Holland and went to Australia. Very interesting.
After a lovely bread table lunch, we said our goodbyes and headed off to the North Sea for a walk in the sand dunes and the beach. It was special for my cousin Henk and Sonja, because it was there that they had scattered the ashed of their son, who died of MD some years ago.

Friday I insisted on a quiet day of shopping in Gouda with Sonja. We didn't go till  mid afternoon, but it was nice even so. I picked up a top and some Arnica cream for my aching hands, which has worked wonders for them.  We watched the very modern Dutch live production, 'The Passion' on TV on Friday night which was totally brilliant. Talked till 3am with my cousin that night. Next day we said our goodbyes and I headed back to Amsterdam on the train.

Got home and virtually immediately had to head off to the city once again, to attend a performance of the St Matthew's passion which was being held in an old Catholic church building, De Duif (the Dove).  I didn't think I'd really want to go, but went because we had bought tickets for it even before I left Brisbane. The church filled up slowly and finally when not a sound could be heard, the conductor waved his stick for the music to begin. Don't know what happened inside me, but I was sobbing as soon as the first notes filled the building. It was unbelievable...just seemed to throw up a whole lot of deeply buried emotions and memories. The music was brilliantly played, the singers were unbelievably talented and 2 1/2 hours went by so easily. Could have listened longer to such brilliance. Afterwards we savoured the beauty we had just experienced over a coffee, followed by a beautiful meal.  We headed home by tram and bus and got home around 11ish.

Well, that brings me to today.  We slept in, then had a lovely Easter brekky of cereal, softly boiled eggs, toast and cups of tea.  This afternoon we walked in Het Amsterdamse Bos (woods), got lost and finally found our way to a quaint farm house used as a pancake house. I had a huge pancake sprinkled with icing sugar, some tart strawberries and an absurd amount of whipped cream while Mieke had a bacon pancake. We washed it down with coffee and tea. Really was far too much cream and ended up eating only about a third of it...way too much of a good thing I reckon. Walked back to the car and then headed off to Mieke's friend's place for another cuppa, then home by about 9pm. Loaded up photos to my usb stick, wrote my blog and now will add  some more pics for you to enjoy.
Night all...missing you lots, but also enjoying all my new experiences. xo

Photos will be uploaded later. Sorry..x

I'm here!

It's my third day in Amsterdam.
We (my sis and I) arrived safely at Schiphol airport from Brisbane, via Singapore on Thursday morning to a bleakish 9 degrees Celcius. First stop was at an airport coffee shop (not THOSE coffee shops!) for a typical Dutch Chocomel (Hot chocolate) with a small dish piled high with whipped cream on the side and a small biscuit - stroop wafel (syrup waffle). Very yummy.  Outside to catch a taxi and $82+ Euros !!, ($122AUD) later we arrived at my sister's small but lightfilled flat on the Northern outskirts of Amsterdam. Her 2nd floor, 1 bedroom unit  balcony looks out over a treed area, which in turn borders onto farmland crisscrossed by the typical Dutch 'slooten' or ditches or small canals. It's quite amazing how close she lives to rural Holland. Yesterday morning we went for a long walk along the dyke with views of a typical old fashioned farming village with a church steeple popping out through the morning mist. Ducks, grey herons, geese, bustards and all kinds of waterbirds abound.
Birds also feed off the seed trays that my sis puts out on her balcony. A big fat grey dove fed for some time yesterday without it worrying him.
Yesterday we also visited some friends in a special garden village. It was a lovely sunny day for it.
I am still feeling the jet lag and am trying to get onto Dutch time, which will happen soon I hope.

Friday we went shopping at the local shopping centre which is right next door to where I'm staying. I am amazed at how low, especially the food prices are. Even though they are in Euros, they are considerably cheaper than buying food in good old Brisbane. There is a weekly (every day) market at the end of the shopping mall with cheeses, tulips (very cheap too  - 20 tulips for $4.95EU about $7.50)! and clothing...the usual market stalls that you find anywhere.

This coming week I hope to get into some sightseeing in the inner city.
The weather has been very warm this spring for Dutch standards and the people are amazed at the temperatures and how early  the foliage on trees has come on and flowers have blossomed. I haven't been cold hardly at all and ofcourse shops, house and vehicles are at a constant temperature of around 20C.

I''ll post a few photos for you to enjoy here now.