Arrival in the Netherlands

Our flight was uneventful although I was a bit uncomfortable now and then. Having short legs I find it a bind not being able to reach the floor to rest my feet on flights so I ended up putting my legs on Paul's lap now and then so that at least I could even out the blood supply a bit! We also didn't sleep very well – more dozing than anything else.

We arrived at Schiphol airport a bit earlier than expected but it didn't matter – we didn't have anyone waiting for us. We got through passport very quickly – having chip EU passports. The scanners for chip passports was waaay shorter than the queues to see a human. We had a bit of a wait at the luggage carousel. Unfortunately a lot of luggage from a previous flight was still on the carousel and the computerised system could only load a suitcase as and when it found a space on the carousel. So our flight's luggage took a while to get onto the designated carousel. We finally got our luggage. Paul discovered that a padlock on his suitcase had been cut and a tie-wrap was in its place. No doubt customs had seen something suspicious in his luggage on x-ray and opened it. We think it was 3 bottles of vitamin water lying next to each other in the suitcase that heightened suspicions. At least someone was doing their job!

We ended up taking a train from Schiphol Airport to Den Haag and then caught a connecting train to Breda. We almost had the carriages to ourselves – silence was golden! When we arrived in Breda we found the respective bus number that would take us home to Rijisbergen. We were the only ones on the bus apart from the driver. We got off near the local doctor's surgery and walked the rest of the way to Paul's mum's place. I was knackered when we arrived. The weight of pulling 2 small suitcases plus the early morning heat of the day tired us out further.

After something to drink and a few moments to catch our breath, we went to fetch Paul's car from storage just down the road from his mum's house, and then went to Aldi to do a bit of grocery shopping. Unfortunately the car's air-conditioner has packed up so it felt as if we were travelling in a sauna, even with the windows wide open.

When we got back home (Betty's place) we had a refreshing shower and a well deserved afternoon nap. We managed, sort of. The heat in the attic room was almost unbearable despite windows being open so Paul found a fan and aimed it at the bed. The resultant breeze really helped to keep us cool.

After dinnertime we were able to relax. Melvin, the cat, came in to greet us but didn't stay for too long – I guess he was seeking a cool concrete floor to zzzz on to keep cool.