I have given myself a goal to update our blog in the next few weeks, as I want this to be a full circle story of our travels; our sabbatical did not end with a flight from Entebbe, Uganda, to Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
At the end of March, we reunited with our campervan, spent a few days with friends to get ourselves organized, and then we drove to the middle of the country where our friends Mari and Dickie live. They were travelling in the USA themselves at the time, and we were generously offered their house to use, while they were gone. This meant we had a homebase in The Netherlands for the weeks to come.
The first few days, we literally felt sick. All symptoms led us to believe we had a culture shock... We slept poorly, our bodies had to get used to the western food again, we got a cold, and we felt very out of place.
But there were good things too! We were close to a lot of family and friends, we enjoyed the luxury of having drinkable water from the tap, hot showers never felt better, and we could find a wealth of gluten free products for Raija in the stores. She was so excited to eat a slice of bread again!
After a week of simple things, like grocery shopping and getting a haircut, we were ready to venture out again. We took the train to Utrecht for a day of sightseeing.
Both John and I spent a lot of time here when we were younger. He lived close to Utrecht and I studied in Utrecht a lifetime ago.
Mari and Dickie's house quickly felt comfortable. John had a lot of conversations with people at Schneider, as we were still contemplating where to move to.
The Dutch shuffleboard gave us a lot of entertainment, which was necessary to give our brains a break.
The children and I continued their homeschooling as well. There are still a few months left of the school year.
We drove to my mom in Almelo, where we got ourselves ready for a short trip.
We took the direct train from Almelo to Berlin, Germany. We always have said, one day we will take this train and check out the city. We now did!
We stayed a few days to enjoy the sights of this historically rich city.
We visited places like Checkpoint Charlie and the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.
We walked along the remainders of the Wall, teaching the children about the history of this once divided city.
We learned a lot and had a lot of fun together.
Once back in the Netherlands, we prepared the campervan for shipping back to Canada. We drove it to the harbour of Hamburg. After all the formalities, I parked it at its designated spot, in a secure area of the harbour. Early May it will be driven aboard a roll-on/roll-off ship that will sail to Halifax, NS.
We took the train back 'home'.
The house we stayed in, was very close to Zaltbommel, where opa and oma Huijgen and friends of ours live. We love Zaltbommel and the river Waal. On this day, a 7 meter high bust of Gerard Phillips, was transported on a barge across the Waal, on its way to Eindhoven. It stayed a few days in Zaltbommel for all to see, as Gerard Phillips was born in Zaltbommel in 1858. Later on in his life, he was the cofounder of the company Phillips.
Famke and William visited the Netherlands around the same time as we were there. We spent a lovely day together and we took them to Zaltbommel, to enjoy the Waal with us.
It was so much fun to see each other again and to enjoy each other's company.
Early May, John finally signed his contract with Schneider Electric. He is very lucky to be able to return to the same company that he left last year. Ontario, here we come!
We spent the last days visiting family and spending time with friends. Gerard, Margriet, and Vincent, are dear friends of ours, and we thoroughly enjoyed living close to each other for a while.
Myron really has enjoyed the freedom a teenager has in a country like the Netherlands. He biked up and down to Zaltbommel a few times to visit opa and oma, and to see a friend. One day, he kept a close eye on the Marine Traffic app, to see where this one specific barge was sailing. When it finally came close, he quickly biked to Zaltbommel to see this unique transportation of a submarine. It was on its way to a technology museum in Sinsheim, Germany.
On May 15, 2023, we packed our backpacks for the last time and headed to Schiphol Airport. Anticipation for the time ahead mixed with a healthy dose of sadness for everything we leave behind in Europe and Africa.
It is always a joy to spend some time at Schiphol Airport. The 'man' in the clock, who painted a new minute hand every minute, was fun to watch!
It was time to head home...
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