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Camping in Weert
For the last two weeks of our three and a half week stay in the Netherlands, Annigje and her family stayed at a campsite in Weert. At just 45 minutes drive from oma Bep, this allowed frequent visits. At this campsite they had rented a
teepee tent to appreciate the inner peace of Indians (and to provide a little bit of comfort with 18 months old Maartje pottering around). The kids bonded well. They drew
drawings together,
climbed trees together, played
football and one day even did a treasure hunt (speurtocht). Nowadays, treasure hunts are set out with an
iPad by taking a picture of each location where an assignment needs to be performed. At the first location, we sang
head, shoulders, knees and toes. The kids were so enthusiastic, they kept
running in between
locations. The final destination was the sandpit with the
treasure. One night, the kids and dad stayed over in a tent Jan's father had bought second hand 15 years ago (and used once). That night, we had a campfire with marshmellows. In total we visited the campsite six times and always had marvellous weather, good enough for a
water fight. One day, we even met Jan's cousin Daan with his family who had unexpectedly arrived on the campsite.
In between visits to the camping, Piet and Emma enjoyed their time at oma Bep's. We played on the drive way. Piet took a picture of his family, and where Piet goes, Emma typically follows closely behind. Lining up cars is a passion Emma shares with Piet. Oma Bep brought out a book with drawings from Rien Poortvliet, which served as inspiration for Piet (and oma).
London
Our third weekend in Europe we went to London. We stayed at the Hoekemas. Piet and Emma drew with
Melissa (who is just a
month younger than Emma, see
June and
August 2009) and watch some
television. That evening, the boys played cricket down the road, where
the others enjoyed the playground. On Saturday, we had a big braai in marvelous weather with lots of our London friends. We were too busy for pictures.
On Sunday night we stayed with the Klamps. The kids had fun in the paddling pool. Emma got on especially well with Vivian. We flew back with Ryanair from Stansted to Eindhoven. Booking the flight with Ryanair was slightly worse than the usual nightmare, as we tried to avoid the extra costs of 70 euros for printing boarding passes and 50 euros for checking hold luggage (all per person). But the airport had deteriorated as well. It was a hot day, we could not take water past the security checkpoint, toilets only had warm water, water vending machines were out of order (but still accepted money), so in the end we had to pay Raynair for a miniscule amount of water on the plane. While Jan has flown this route many times before, he vowed he would not do it again. The channel tunnel it will be.
Back in Eindhoven, we met up with Jan's cousin Frits and his children Julie and Marijn. Then we made a few more visits to the campsite, staying one night with dad, while mum visited The Hague with oma Bep.
Zurich
On Friday, we said goodbye to oma Bep and
Laure, who had stayed over for two nights, and took the train to Schiphol and a flight to Zurich. Unfortunately, one couple we had hoped to meet there was on holiday, so we spent two very relaxing days with Rashmi and Gerald. First, we enjoyed an afternoon at the
lake Zurich, at walking distance. The next day, we went to a nearby
deer park, where we received instruction on antlers and sat down for a
family snap. Back home, Sanjay
proudly demonstrated his (and his father's/brother's) electrical
steam trains, which Piet and Emma were allowed to
operate as well.
On Monday, we took a short train ride to the airport and flew back to Sydney, where we spent the next few nights fighting the kids' jet lag. Piet managed to go to school from the next day onwards, but slept through Dutch school, which Emma proudly started to attend as she has turned four. Her Dutch was dramatically improved during the holidays and in contrast to the past, she often speaks Dutch to her father. She keenly does her Dutch homework, so fingers crossed she will keep her speaking up.
