Friday 23 June 2023
Friday. Time for another visit of 's-Hertogenbosch (den Bosch for short).
We have morning tea and lunch at Jose's place and after that she kindly dropped us off in the city for the boat tour, saving us a 20 minute walk in the heat of the day.
At 2pm we start the canal tour in an open boat, showing us the old canals, partially hidden beneath the city. Their functions have been varied, from facilitating supply to houses and traders, removal (dumping) of waste and defending the city. Locks could be used to assure water surrounding the city would be kept knee deep: too high for horses and carts to pass through and too low for ships to come close. Some of the canals had been filled in in the past, but have been restored in the 1980s, some are still being opened up and restored at the moment.
We walk through the streets of the old part of town, visit the St. Jan's cathedral and walk back, passing a fish stand at the market where Marion could not resist a fresh herring!
Finishing with dinner and coffee at Jose's place again, followed by our difficult farewell, because we don't know of we will see each other again...
Saturday 24 June 2023
On Saturday, we visited Heidi, Guido and Niels and spent a pleasant time together. Tom even joined us at lunchtime, which was great, because we are running into our last week and there aren't many opportunities anymore to see each other.
The boys took some of our group photos but were in a bit of a rebellious mood... 😉
Sunday 25 June 2023
The photos are a bit out of order, but we visited cousin Jos on Sunday and his partner Carin. As Carin had to work we had coffee with Jos after which he took us to restaurant the 'Negende Zaeligheyt' for lunch. Kevin couldn't resist a delicious tosti!
Next Jos showed us the border markers of the border into Belgium. We went past this point and visited the abbey Postel in the municipality Mol followed by a stop at a Belgian chips take-away where we enjoyed another of the famous Belgian fries.
As we had had drainage problems in the kitchen, a plunger was awaiting us, dropped off by one of the neighbours. The end result of the job was flooding in the kitchen (not our fault!) and a message to the owners of the house. After mopping up it was very much time to go to bed...
Tuesday 27 June 2023
Today is our last opportunity for a day out. We had Gouda in mind, but then I realised the cheese market wouldn't be on, so we went to Muiderslot (Muider Castle) instead. We walked through Muiden, a quaint little town, according to Kevin, and found the castle. After a cup of coffee (and the famous Dutch hot chocolate for me), we did the rounds through the castle. We had lunch in an outdoor seating area and looked through the castle gardens, which mainly held plants for dying, herbs, and medicinal purposes.
Thursday 29 June 2023
After a day of cleaning, packing, and meeting with the homeowners, Dirkje and Jan, we finally arrived at our last day in the Netherlands. Was farewelling my best friend José hard, this moment was a lot harder. My loving brother, all the family... When will we see each other again? However, we can look back at some lovely days together and in the knowledge that Kevin is now part of the extended family. 🙂
Photos were taken at Schiphol airport. Coffee with the family. They never fail to assure that I am actually leaving the country! And judging by the app they were using (and sent me photos of), they even made sure the plane left and all.... 🤣🤣🤣
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