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Published: September 10th 2018
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After 18 months of travelling we headed home to spend exactly one month in the Netherlands. What a month! We were looking forward to and needed some serious TLC from our loved ones, as most of them we had not seen for 1,5 years. Being in the Netherlands as part of our travels was quite an intense experience. On a daily basis we have met for dinner, drinks, a coffee or tea or lunch with different friends and family. Some of it planned, because we wanted to make sure that we could spend sufficient quality time with them, but we also left time open for spontaneous meet ups.
We felt loved by our friends and we felt at home with our families. We laughed, drank wine (a lot!), we ate great food (a lot!), partied. We cycled around Amsterdam which felt like it was only yesterday or last week since the last time we’d been ‘home’. Lighting the Big Green Egg to prepare our favourite dishes was such a good way to get back into cooking our own meals. It was a very reassuring and warm feeling that we could just easily slide back into Amsterdam life.
Some true
highlights were the little ‘normal’ things. Spontaneously stopping by family or friends for a quick cup of tea, walking or cycling around Amsterdam and running into friends on the street, the intimate conversations over a glass of wine, meeting all the new little people in our friends’ lives and seeing the happiness and pride in the newfound parents’ eyes.
It was beautiful to be cared for and spoilt by our parents and spend some time at our hometowns Middenbeemster and Etten-Leur. We loved spending time with our little nieces Ruby and Lotta, who have doubled in age, size, and wisdom. We enjoyed waking up early at their house to have breakfast together, to play with them, to go swimming and and to cuddle them. Wouter (Merijns’ brother) and Fleur took great care of us, we immediately felt part of their family.
Merijn’s mum Ineke organised a lovely family reunion for his birthday and Judith loved feeling like a child again in Brabant, getting all her favourite food and lots of cuddles. A getaway to Dishoek with Wendy (Judith’s sister) for some long overdue catching up, lots of laughter, a glass of wine (or 2) while catching some rays
of sun and getting their hairs blown away by the wind on the beach was nothing but amazing. Followed by a mother-daughter day in Den Bosch where Judith and her mom went shopping, ate a giant local delicacy Bosche Bol and enjoyed spending quality time together.
Amsterdam is more beautiful than ever. We realise after such a long way gone travelling what a friendly, easy going and pretty city it is. And the food is great, being able to eat good quality and extremely tasty food from any kitchen of the world and having everything available at supermarkets was a treat. We now realise even more what a luxury that is and that we do love the typical Dutch treats as well, like worstebroodje, pannenkoeken, drop, haring, Tony’s Chocolonely, eierkoeken, bitterballen, hagelslag, stroopwafels, great coffee, the best cheese of the world, great beer and the fresh tasty brown bread.
Now that we have recharged our social and love battery, we are ready to continue our travels and are excited to explore the rest of the world. Thank you Netherlands, dear friends, lovely family, we enjoyed every second of you!
Next stop: Tehran, Iran.
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