Farewell, so long, auf wiedersehn, goodbye, adieu, adieu to you and you and you

Ok, I can't believe we have come to this point so quickly,  time has flown but we are definitely experience and memory rich again.

We started out with a business class (compliments of the travel agent) flight from Malta to Amsterdam. 

Great to see the family again, my brother and sister in law picked us up at the airport. 

Error number one; Wendy ended up with the wrong suitcase that looked similar ( sort of, NOT), we didn't realise until we got home and found out it belonged to a certain Jesus de ??? from south America. 

Hmm, that meant numerous phone calls to the airport, which were no help at all.  Finally were told to bring it back to a certain airport location; but as you know amsterdam airport is huge. 

Finally dropped the suitcase back and collected Wendy's which was still near the same carousel,  5 hours after arrival.

Made the trip back home again and by that stage we were all knackered.

The following day we had a walk around the local town. The day after we went to the goat cheese farm which was great. Plenty of cheese tastings and a very cute animal farm.

From there we continued to the water barriers that block off the rivers from the ocean.  A huge project that was implemented after there was a major flood back in 1952 which flooded a large part of the country.

Holland is very experienced in containing the water or building around,  over or under it.

Tunnels, bridges, aquaduct, you name it, they build it. 

The other thing that is noticeable is the amount of wind farms,  no matter where you look, a patch of land or grass or vacant river or ocean, everything is used, as they are aiming to be 100% green energy by 2030.

We have also visited Rotterdam harbour as that is not far from where we are staying. 

The second largest work platform named "Thialf" was in the harbour for maintenance.

It normally floats around worldwide and works on oil rigs or any other structure that need maintenance. 

We also visited the townships of Goes and Brielle.

Goes is a very pretty little town,  lots of old original houses dating back to 1400.

After the day out we had a lovely dinner at a local restaurant. The spareribs were awesome.

Good to walk around the dutch supermarkets again, familiar food although I have been very controlled and have stayed away from most of it. 

One thing noticeable is the much wider selection of foods.

One example which I still very much dislike in Australia is how smallgoods are handled .  In Holland everything is sliced and nicely placed overlapping on a small packaging tray, easy to separate.

Go the Coles in Australia , it is sliced an inch thick or when they call it shaved it comes of the slicer like scraps of meat, then they grab a handful like a mini crane, squash it in a bag, roll it around, wrap it in paper and call it quality meats. 😭😭.

Ok, enough of my complaining.

We also spent a couple days with my mother who lives in a different city.

It was fantastic to see her again,  the first time since 5 years.

She is still fully self sufficient at the age of 86, and despite a temporary set back due to some eye issues,  cataracts and declining hearing she is still extremely fit,  rides her pushbike, still manages a vegetable garden and walks faster than I can.

We had quality time with her and took her out for dinner as she doesn't get out at night anymore by herself.

Unfortunately like anywhere else the crime rate is on the way up especially to the elderly as they are an easy target.

We reminisced and had a look through some old photos,  which brought up a lot of old stories. 

A couple of days ago we caught up with an old friend of mine that I have known for almost 50 years.

She visited us in Australia prior to Covid and now it was our turn to catch up with them again. 

They took us for a canal cruise around the city of Delft, which is also the birthplace of the famous painter "Vermeer". 

A very informative cruise indeed,  which was presented by the captain, being one of the students that had just completed his studies at the technical university in the city. Delft is a university city with more than 20.000 students; 1 in 5 locals are a student, which creates a very young and vibrant feel around the place.

We had lunch together and caught up on what is happening in our lives.

The next day we went with my brother and sister in law to a place which originated as an orchid grower.

This has now grown into a beautiful couple of large sheds that have been turned into a jungle with tropical plants and flowers (including orchids), monkeys, parrots, butterflies, tropical birds etc. Truely wonderful and very well put together.

After the park visit we had a nice Japanese dinner on the way home.

Today is our last day in Holland and also brings an end to our holiday across 2 continents, many different modes of transport and meeting family and friends.

Once again we feel extremely rich that we have been able to do all this.

Next week we are back to normality?,  work, real life, home coking, cleaning etc but we will also be grateful to sit on our own couch,  cook in our own kitchen and sleep in our own bed.

A 24 hour flight awaits us before we are home again.

I hope that all of you have enjoyed our trip and may we have given you inspiration to do the same one day.

Cheers, Michael and Wendy.