At the end of last week, we spent time exploring the Mookeheide by foot. What an enjoyable day it was and a nice break after all the emotional two days before that. It was very warm as we walked and hiked but once we were within the shade of the trees in the Mookeheide, it was cool and refreshing. Thursday, July 24 we went back to Oosterbeek to visit the Airborne Museum and then on to Arnhem to visit the small but surprisingly thorough Arnhem Museum. The Airborne Museum was very interesting and in the bottom floor, there was a display with live sounds and shouts to make you feel you were there in the midst of the battle and evacuation. The Arnhem Museum was good but there was no one there to give us a tour in English so we were loaned a guide book with the labels of the artifacts in English. We saw a German mortar gun and shell which is most likely similar to what hit my uncle's boat as he went across the Neder Rhine. I found the museums brought forth quite a bit of emotion again and by the end of the day, I was exhausted.
On Friday, July 25, we decided to do something totally different. We went to the Krohler-Muller Museum of Art which was recommended to me by a friend of mine here at home. To get to the museum, we drove through a nature reserve/park and we were very surprised to see a desert area complete with sand dunes. The Krohler-Muller Museum was full of orginals of Dutch painters, Vincent Van Gogh and a special exhibit of Seurat paintings. After going through the museum, we wandered through the grounds which was another exhibit area of sculptures. It was very interesting. After our tour of the museum and sculpture exhibit, we borrowed two bikes from the bike loan area and went for a short tour through the surrounding parkland by bike (on the bike paths of course). This was fun although I know that scared a lot of the other bikers around us as I haven't been on a bike regularly in over 30 years. I was a little wobbly and so when I met people on the paths or they were passing me, I would deliberately go off the path so I wouldn't wobble into them. I obviously need practise but I think I could get into riding a bike again. It was a day of wonder and something completely different to what we had been doing in Holland up to that point. When I arrived back at our cottage/house, I immediately went to work on doing laundry so that I wouldn't have mountains to do when I arrived home in Canada. It made for a very late night.
On Saturday morning, we said good bye to our "home" and set off for Amsterdam as part of our travels home to Canada. We arrived in Amsterdam too early to check in at the hotel, so we decided to drive to Zaanstreek as this was also on our "to do" list while in Holland. We parked the car and enjoyed a stroll through the area. I loved all the old windmills, sawmill, cheese house and various boutiques. This is obviously a tourist area but we did enjoy it. Then we headed back to Amsterdam to our hotel where we checked in. Our breakfast for the next couple of days was a combination of the herbed gouda cheese and clementines that we had brought with us from our "cottage". On Sunday, we took the train into Amsterdam and spent the day there. I really enjoyed seeing all the old architecture as we took a canal tour by boat. The boat tour started out as an adventure. While we waited onboard for the captain to be ready to go, we were banged with quite a jar from another boat. Thank goodness these tour boats are built to withstand such abuse. It really did make me wonder about the qualifications of the people they hire for "captains". However, once we were underway, it was an enjoyable tour. After the tour, we had some lunch at a café terrace and then we walked to the Anne Frank House where we had a tour booked for 2:30 p.m. I found the visit to the Anne Frank House very poignant and I could almost feel the terror of the residents of the "house" because as we walked on the wooden floors, the slightest step would create a creak which would definitely be heard down below in the warehouse. The house is deliberately not furnished so that we have a sense of what Anne Frank's father witnessed when he returned after the war. The living area had been completely ransacked and emptied out by the Germans.
After our visit to the Anne Frank House, we wandered the streets making our way back up to the train station. We enjoyed a lovely dinner on a terrace that overlooked the canals. It was interesting to notice the smell of marijuana as people walked by enjoying their smoke. We made our way back to the train and once on the train, we were seated opposite a young couple from Wisconsin. We chatted and before we knew it, we had arrived at our stop at the Airport. Our hotel was directly beside the airport.
On Monday morning, we had a leisurely morning and caught the hotel shuttle to the airport so we would be there for our check in time of 1:00 p.m. There had been thunder storms throughout the early morning but our flight indicated it was still on time. However, this was not to be. Due to the storms in the morning, everything was backed up. Our flight from Amsterdam to Frankfurt ended up being delayed by 3 hours. This meant we missed our connecting flight from Frankfurt to Toronto. We were treated very well though by Lufthansa (the airline) who put us up in a Ramada Inn for the night and included a dinner buffet for Monday night as well as a breakfast buffet for Tuesday morning. The agents at the airport found a new way for us to get home. We would catch the United Airlines flight from Frankfurt to Newark, New Jersey and then catch a connecting United Express flight from Newark, New Jersey to Toronto and then on the last flight from Toronto to our hometown. So off we set on Tuesday morning with the hotel shuttle to make our way home. All the flights were running on time so this was a good omen for us....or so we thought. We got on the flight from Frankfurt to Newark, New Jersey and before it took off, we were informed that we were upgraded to Business Class (first class). What a bonus!!! I had positively been drooling with envy when we walked through the Business Class area to get to our Economy Class seats. I ended up with a tremendous amount of leg room. The seats could be fully reclined to make beds! We had complimentary and unlimited drinks (alcoholic or non-alcoholic) as well as a three course meal! Oh the luxury!! I loved it!!! This certainly helped pass the 8 1/2 hour plane trip in comfort!
When we arrived at Newark, New Jersey, we had to go through "Passport Control" (customs) and then pick up our baggage and re-check it to continue on to Toronto. Ooops....our enjoyable glow from our Business Class experience came to an abrupt end. The line up was tremendous and the United States government had only 4 kiosks open. We stood in line for 1 1/2 hours to get through "Passport Control". We missed our connecting flight to Toronto! Now we had to wait for another flight which was 3 hours later. We finally made our way home and arrived in our house at 1:00 a.m. this morning. We literally dropped our luggage in the living room and I fell into bed. We had been up for more than 24 hours and I was exhausted.
I'll spend the next couple of days getting back into this time zone. This has been the trip of a lifetime even with the glitches in the air travel. I'm a little numb but there are some definite highlights to the trip. I'll get adjusted and then I hope to organize my self and memories. I took tons of pictures which always nudge open the door of my memories. My pictures will help me feel and remember this wonderful trip.
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