Last week in Nederland

The last week in Holland we spend again visiting friends. On Monday we first have to be in the AMC for our last vaccinations. Then we drive to Baarn for lunch in De Generaal, the restaurant where Ellen and Menno both work. Also Esther drops by again. In the evening tante Meinie has prepared a lovely dinner for us, and Tjes, Egbert and Kees, in Harderwijk. We catch up on family affairs and have a lovely evening. Driving back to Spannum we encounter a thick fog and have to drive very slowly and carefully.

Tuesday we don’t do much at all, and again Tjes prepares andijvie stamppot! These weeks in Europe seems to be all about food and drinks, no chance of losing any weight despite the skiing activity! Wednesday we are invited by the Simons family, Bas’ parents in Gouda. Of course also Bas, Marjan Isa and Tjes are there. With all of them we spend a lovely week in France a year and a half ago. Of course Isa is the centre of attention again having opa and oma and beppe around, which she seems to enjoy enormously!

On Thursday Hans meets Koen and Jonas in Amsterdam. They go for dinner and a couple of drinks and Hans takes the night train back to Delft. Joly and me chat over dinner an a bottle of wine…

Friday we go and admire baby Stijn. Stijn is the son of Jon-Erik, alias De Vakantieman, and Marije. The Smelik family seem to be doing really well and Stijn is een schatje with beautiful big eyes. We met Jon-Erik years ago on our first paragliding course ever. Friday night we split up again, Hans to meet the boys and see Joost’s new place in Rotterdam. And the girls and I have a ‘girls night in’ with homemade maragrita’s, tapas and some dvd’s. Saturday we meet Joost for lunch, while in the evening we attend Pierre’s birthday party. A great way to see most of the Delft crew for one last time. Sas and Pierre are very well organised: the kids entertain themselves by preparing the pizza’s, while the adults just chat and drink. Of course the kids are running around covered head to toe in flour, but the food they’ve prepared tastes great.
On Sunday we have to make our contribution to the big ‘klus’ cycle. We go help Jouwert in his new house with painting. They just got the key to this brand new house last Friday and now have to do a hell of a lot before they can move in next month. Most of our Delft friends have had to ‘klus’ on their houses at one stage and traditionally the Delft crew shows up to help out. It is great to see Jouwert again after a very long time! Jouwert being one of the few of our Delft friends that actually moved out of Delft years ago and now lives in Brabant, close to where I grew up.

Tonight we are meeting with Tjes, Marjan, Bas en little niece Isa for the last time, tomorrow we fly out to Lisbon, Portugal. Dag Delft! Dag Nederland!