Nieuwerkerk aan den IJssel - the first week (Purmerend, 's-Hertogenbosch, Eindhoven)

Monday 16 September 2019

This part of the trip will be the least interesting for the reader, although a great one for me personally.  Since I will mainly be visiting friends and relatives I won't be posting a lot of pictures, because it would just be repetitive after former trips.

I will try to summarise the week and post the pictures as I go.

Monday I spent the day at 'home' acclimatising a bit and doing some shopping at one of my favourite shops: Blokker.  No, I don't have shares and besides this is just a personal blog and not facebook! 😉 I had a few items on my list that I can't buy at home, so I made a few purchases.

My digs at Nieuwerkerk (bedroom)

Shared bathroom

Backyard

Cheese shop - stocked to perfection!

Some of my 'real Dutch' purchases

An egg slicer that works (those from China don't!)

Tuesday I was allowed to take the car so I went to Purmerend to visit long time friends Moenie and Paula, whom I hope to see back again in Australia one day.  It strikes me every year again how busy the roads are in the western part of the country.  It takes a lot of concentration to keep up with the many lanes, the high speed and the high density of traffic.  

Alex, the Mechelen Shepherd, visiting for a few days

Wednesday I made another trip to the shopping centre and had my hair done.  To my satisfaction I may add.  Hardly ever have I had such an understanding hairdresser.  She cut my hair to perfection and I was so happy with it that I asked her to take pictures of all sides so I can show them to my hairdresser at home!

My new hairdo - pretty stoked with it

Thursday was spent with my bestie, José, in 's-Hertogenbosch. (I was on a home exchange in England with her last year) I left after peak hour time and therefore it was a fairly easy drive. I was received with a Chocolade Bol, a delicious treat from my home town.  I will never get sick of them!  😉 We had lunch together, talked a lot and went to the town centre on our bikes.  There we had coffee and cake (!) at one of the outdoor terraces at the market.  From there we walked around, I always love to get the feel of the city again, and walked back to our bikes, but not before we stopped at another favourite shop of mine where I bought some clothes that I didn't need, but I am sure will be able to put to good use...  After a delicious dinner at home we talked till the wee small hours.

Coffee with a Chocolade Bol

Lunch

The nice Dutch bread tastes soooo good

A selfie, not quite to perfection

And yes, Appeltaart too!

'Memory lane'

My dad used to work here - the main entrance to the office

Just around the corner a reproduction of a character of
the painter Hieronimus Bosch

So Dutch!

City streets towards the end of the day

The tower of the St Jan's Cathedral

Shopping for clothes, but there was nothing to my taste here
(found a few items elsewhere though!)

Only a small bike parking lot

We park bikes underground, not cars.....

Enjoying an almond flavoured coffee and Amaretto
while catching up with loved ones overseas...

A different, but delicious lunch again

Me getting into my (borrowed) hippie car

Friday as we had made the arrangement that I would stay the night we had an easy morning.  We slept in (after that late night) and I talked to Kevin for a while.  We spent the rest of the morning talking together and I left after lunch to visit a geocaching friend in St. Oedenrode.  Carin had given me a list of caches to be searched for, but in the end we decided to do a multi, which meant walking a fair bit.  We had a very pleasant afternoon, walking approx. 7 kms, but in the end we didn't get the cache because we ran out of time.  We only had one waypoint left, so when Carin returns and finds the cache she will log it for me. I do make exceptions sometimes.  At 5 pm we called it off and I drove on to Eindhoven where I met cousin Jos. Jos had not only a new partner, but also a new house and I was pleased to hear all this positive news.  After meeting Carin (not the geocaching one) we went to have a look at the house and finished off the evening with a pleasant dinner at Herberg in 't Wilde Zwijn at Bergeijk on the Belgian border. 

Tiny pansies in the forest

Remembering Operation Market Garden
at the end of War II - 75 year commemoration

The parachute is part of the commemoration.
They were placed all over St. Oedenrode

Marion next to the parachute

I would have loved to pick a bouquet of these old-fashioned wildflowers. 
Haven't seen cornflowers in the wild for years.

A walk in the forest

Herberg in 't Wilde Zwijn at Bergeijk (on the Belgian border)

Carin, cousin Jos and Marion

A very decadent dessert: pecan meringue icecream with fresh cream

For insiders: it looked like an Anton Pieck scene

Saturday was a quiet day again, as I had wanted to recover from two intensive days. I also had a lot of computer work to do, research and other work, and spent most of the day doing so after I had spoken to Kevin in the morning.  At the end of the afternoon Chantal, Fred and I went for a walk in the park nearby where I also found a cache.  Fred was so enthusiastic about it that he signed up and will be doing a lot of geocaching with his wife when they go on holidays. 

Chantal, Fred and the dog on an evening walk

The park behind the house

Hazelnuts found in the park under
one of the many hazelnut trees

#2106 - Oscar (cache)

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Sunday found me having a quiet day again.  The only excitement was in a shopping spree for groceries at the supermarket (!) together with Fred.  They had a kind of family get together to watch the Formula 1 races followed by a BBQ.  Suffices to say I was more interested in the BBQ than the races.  😁