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Holland, day 4
Sundays is usually quiet in Holland, today no exception. But we had another beautiful sunny day. Met Miriam and Els on a farm/bakery/restaurant called “Vroeg” (Dutch for early) for brunch and a lot of tales about our family history. Making new memories and reliving old ones.
The rest of the afternoon was just relaxing, and tonight we’re looking forward to fast food Dutch fish and chips. They are really 👍 . Our favorite place is called “Manneke Pis”, after the Belgian statue. They have some of the best French fries!
I mentioned our Hampton hotel room is small, but it is perfectly located, actually inside an upscale shopping mall. It has an unusual shape, kind of all rounded edges and different color windows. It is right adjacent to the main station for train, tram and bus service.
I have been increasingly nervous about our upcoming COVID test. If you don’t pass the test one day before flying, you don’t go. That would really be a problem for us as we have to be back home this week. Holland is a crowded place, and now almost totally mask free. It is impossible to avoid others, even just walking down the street.
We brought two home COVID tests with us, and it was a real relief that we were both negative. Makes us feel much better about going for our “real” test tomorrow!
Holland, day 3
This was mostly a family day. Jaap, Els and us started by going to a “rommelmart”, Dutch for flea market. This was in a small town named Benschop, their mart is famous for having household items. Not much for us, but Els found some things for her son.
We then had lunch at a very nice restaurant located on the river Lek. I had one of my favorite sandwiches as a kid in Holland called “uitsmijter”, this was my first one in about 60 years!
Later that afternoon we went to Hans’s new house, met up with the whole family for a take out Indonesian dinner. Sure, good food again, but mostly just good family time.
Holland, days 1 and 2
Our 15 hr. travel day from Dallas to Utrecht was quite uneventful, except for for a mad dash in Heathrow. Got to the Hampton in Utrecht and checked into the smallest hotel room ever. But it’s got a good shower and bed.
Met brother-in-law Jaap and niece Els for a wonderful dinner. A new concept, a high end kitchen serving small gourmet dishes. Fixed price for as many as you can eat. Only limit was that you could order only two at a time. I recommend it, try http://www.deutrechter.nl for full info. Then to bed with a time zone interrupted sleep.
Got up this morning and a short walk on the market. Yes, cheese, fish, and street food a plenty. But didn’t eat much, still absorbing last night’s meal.
Took Els’s advice and visited the University of Utrecht’s Botanical Gardens (she works at the university). Site of an old army fort that is now preserved as part of the garden. The walk to the top, maybe only two stories high, did give a good view. Probably one of the few times we got above sea level 😀.
Back to the hotel with some fast food to tide us over until dinner. Transportation is so quick, easy and cheap in Holland….. no car needed. A relaxing dinner is planned tonight, then on to more family fun tomorrow.
Back to cruising
COVID caused us to cancel two booked cruises, but it seemed safe to finally start cruising again. So we booked a simple cruise out of Galveston, along with our friends Naomi and Larry Shirey. Easy drive down, five day’s on board, and an easy drive home.
The ship was the Royal Caribbean Adventure of the Seas, a class of ships we were quite familiar with. The crew appeared very pleased to be back, and we were treated very well. The food was good, although we felt it was a little below what we were used to. But Romola and I each managed to gain 5 lbs, so it wasn’t all bad!
The entertainment was pretty basic, a mediocre comedian, a funny bolero gaucho, and the ship dancers and orchestra. This ship class has an ice rink on board, we rather enjoyed the ice show. We’ve seen them doing their routines in rough seas, and that is quite amazing.
We didn’t get off the ship, electing to go to the hot tub when everyone else was on shore. Good idea, we enjoyed the hot tub when we had it mostly all to ourselves. On sea days, the hot tubs looked like people stew. Wouldn’t want to go in them no matter how much chlorine they added to the water!
Barking accompanyment
We have a nice paved walking trail in the green belt area in front of our house. Just right for a quick mile or two walk to keep the joints loose. And we’re not alone, we have Dog in Wall and Dogs on Balcony the greet us every time we walk by……
Flamingo Gardens
While we were in Fort Lauderdale, we went for a visit to the Flamingo Gardens and Animal Retreat. This is about 60 acres of reserve for local birds and animals, and has become quite the tourist attraction. We enjoyed our relaxed visit, both for family time and visiting the animals.
End of the road
We have been living in our motor home for almost 14 years, and enjoyed most all of it. We have been wanting to quit and settle down for the last 5 years, but always found an excuse not to. But this year was different. The warranty on our motor home would expire soon, we are seeing an increased need to visit our doctors, and we wanted to be close to family. So we put the motor home up for sale, figuring it wouldn’t take too long to sell it. But first, we had to find a new home.
It didn’t take too long to find a rental house we liked. Located in Mesquite, it was much closer to Stacy and since Tanya and Shane were about to start a new adventure (more on that later) that seemed like to be the best location. It is relatively quiet, with a green belt in front of us, so looking out the front window we see trees, not suburbs. So we signed the lease papers.
Meanwhile, we had found a buyer for the motor home, and he was willing to work with us as we moved from one to the other. So it was some hectic work, moving all our storage stuff to the new home. We received a lot of furniture from Shane and Tanya (later) and were able to find in stock most anything else we needed. But it will take a lot of adjustment time….
Santa Fe, NM
Next on our journey back to the DFW area was a stopover in Santa Fe. There are some nice hikes here, but more importantly, we wanted to visit Jim van Early and Joanie Malone, who we met on our trip to the West Coast several months ago. We enjoyed our visited going west, and looked forward to meeting them again.
We spent a pleasant couple of days with them. Since they are locals, they know the good places, so we stopped for some excellent coffee and pastries. And a delicious brunch at the Tea House. Then, to work it off, we had an enjoyable hike in Santa Fe’s Nature Conservatory.
Sunset in the Arches
Decided to take a drive into Arches at dusk to see the sunset, and possibly some stars. We got there about 5:30, no lineups. We were still a bit early so thought we’d drive to the end of the road, where we’ve never gone before.
We should have gone here before! There are arches and bluffs and trails and rock structures that are simply beautiful. We stayed as the sun set to see the arches we’ve never seen before.
The Sand Dunes arch, Broken Arch, Tunnel Arch, Skyline Arch and more. Also a quick visit to Devils Garden. On the way back a quick stop at Balanced Rock for some star shots but didn’t have time to wait until full dark.
Sand Dunes Arch 
Unknown handprints… who made them? 
Setting sun 
Broken Arch 
“Fin” rock structures 
Skyline Arch 
Tunnel Arch 
Unnamed arch 
Balanced Rock at dusk
Arches NP, Utah
Our trip back to Dallas provided a great excuse to make a Moab stop over. Now that it is off-season, it should be more relaxing, right? Nope, we got there at 8:30 and had a 30 minute wait just to get in the park. and on our way out at 11:00 the park was full and closed the entrance.
We wanted to do the old Delicate Arch hiking trail but the parking lot was full when we got there. So we went to the Delicate Arch viewpoint, and since we had more time went to see North and South Windows, Turret Arch, and Balanced rock.
Tomorrow, if we get up early enough, we’ll try for Mesa Arch.
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