Homeward bound

Carol, Matthew and I took the Inter City train to Schiphol and there we separated. My flight back to South Africa was already boarding while Carol’s and Matthew’s flight to Canada was at 2:10 in the afternoon. While half the passengers were through the final boarding check in and I was just about to go through, the boarding gates changed. The custom officials closed the gates while they tried to sort out what was happening. The aeroplane we were supposed to fly on had an engine problem so a new plane had to be brought out. All the baggage, food, water and cargo had to transferred from the broken plane. After a two hour delay I was onboard and fuelling started. They announced us to stay seated, unbuckled and follow any of the air hostesses instructions. Finally we took off and on my way to South Africa. Soon after takeoff, it was announced that the new plane had over 100 more seats than the fully booked old one and that we could sit anywhere. I found myself three empty seats and made myself comfortable, very comfortable. As standard the food was very good but the flight very long. I arrived back at Johannesburg at 11:45pm only to be told that my luggage was still in Amsterdam. Not a good ending but anyway what can I do? So I briskly sailed past the sole sleeping policeman at customs and was home before I knew it.

Ammersoyen Castle

Matthew and I visited my sister Raquel, her husband Ronnie and their daughter Judith who stay in Ammerzoden. After lunch we rode bicycles around the town and countryside. We stopped by Ammersoyen Castle which was built around 1350 and some ruins of an old church. The sun was out and the ride in the countryside was fun.

De Grote Kerk

Visiting the local Market at Dordrecht started with us catching the Waterbus across the Beneden Merwede River from Papendrecht. We then walked along the Wijnhaven looking at the beautiful boats moored in the canal and small shops in Voorstraat. Soon we reached the Grote Kerk, which the building of started 600 years ago. It has the largest carillon in Europe and took us 275 steps to climb to the top of the tower which housed the carillon. Here we took quite a few photographs of Dordrecht and surrounding areas. We then walked down the Nieuwe Haven and through Scheffersplein and found a quaint pofferties and pannekoeker restaurant in an alleyway where we had lunch. We finally reached our destination, the market in Statenplein. While we here I need to post a photo of our kind hosts Irene, Graham and their family. Here is Carol (hu hum notice her wheels), Matthew, Heather, Mom, Irene and Graham outside the Grote Kerk in Dordrecht.

Kindedijk

Today is tourist day. Off we went to the Kindedijk. This is a group of 19 windmills built from 1738 to discharge access water into the Lek River. The windmills or is it windpumps form an impressive symbol of the Dutch struggle against the encroaching water. A steam pump was then built in 1868 and converted to electricity in 1924. The windpumps are still in working, keeping the Alblasserwaard dry.

De Brandaris

Sunday, we went to De Brandaris or in English The Lighthouse in Rotterdam. It is the church that Jan den Ouden attends. Jan works for Operation Mobilisation and travels a lot to exotic places, like South Africa. We joined Jan and his wife, Martha for lunch in their garden, later we all took a walk in the local park just around the corner from them. There are many parks and walks along the waterways in Netherlands. When the weather is beautiful, like today many Dutch come out and soak up the sun wherever they can.

The flight

I had a terrible night on the plane. Well I had the leg room but not the width. The food on KLM was great and would recommend it anytime. The Boeing 747-400 “Rio de Janeiro”, I think was on the old side with one TV screen not working (the only one that Matthew could see from his seat), the seats were quite worn and Matthew’s night blanket had a hole in it. It was a long fight and I was very tired afterwards but the views over the Alps were striking. I was expecting that we were going to catch a train to Rotterdam and then onto Dordrecht but Graham met us at Schiphol International with his car. While unpacking we found someone else toiletries’ bag full of perfume and other stuff in one of our bags from the hold. After checking to see that there are no drugs in the bag, we are left to decide what to do with it. Matthew and I wasted no time riding around Papendrecht on bicycles. It was a wonderful evening looking at new and old buildings along the Merwede and Noord Rivers.