Friet Saus

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Last stop, the home stretch.

I arrived in Amsterdam, and it was cold! And rainy, what terrible weather. I ended up buying a jacket since I had mailed mine back when I was in Hong Kong. I spent a couple days in Amsterdam looking around before Opa, Uncle Andy and Steven arrived. The hostel I stayed at, Inner Amsterdam, was not that great. Don't stay there. There is mice in the room and it has bug beds! Not a good way to start your trip in Holland. There were several guys from Britain in the dorm I was in and we looked around for a while. Went to the red light district but it was pretty touristic. I went to do a walking tour, the Anne Frank Museum, Rijks Museum, Van Gogh Museum and took a canal cruise among others.

On the Sept 3 morning, I went to the airport early and met Johan who came to pick us up at Schipol, and everyone came off the flight from Canada! It was really great to see some family after a long time away. We drove to Middelburg, where Johan lives. He rented us a really nice cottage, it's under a year old! We had an easy day today, and walked around the market in Middelburg and tried a Dutch treat - fresh salted herring with onions. It was actually pretty good!

We went to visit my Opa's brother near Den Haag, and where he stayed during the war. We also went to Brussels for a day to try waffels, beer and chocolate! And also went to the reunion with all of his war buddies from the Indonesian war. This is what we came for and it was a great event. There was plenty of food and the veterans were very friendly, one spoke very good English. I think everyone enjoyed their time. We also went to see the Delta Works nearby. Pim, Johan's cousin was there with us. He is an engineer who worked on the projects measuring water currents so he was able to tell us a whole lot about it!

After the week, Uncle Andy, Opa and Steven had to leave from Amsterdam, so they went back. They dropped me off at the train station in Middelburg, we had a coffee and parted. I knew I would see them in a week anyways, but its too bad to leave. I took the train to Dusseldorf where I met a friend that I had made in Shanghai. She is working there right now for several years and we had a great, authentic meat and potatoes dinner with German beer. The next day I went to Brussels and visited my friend from Ottawa. She is working there right now on contract. We had a great Belgian meal with two of her roommates and had some more Belgian beer! There is just too many to try.

The next morning was my last day of vacation. I took the flight from Brussels to Montreal. It was uneventful, and at customs there were not many questions so my cheese made it through no problem. I took the greyhound to Ottawa and my family was waiting at the bus station. It was so nice to see everyone! It felt really good to be back and can really rest now. But not for long since I had work the next day. I guess that didn't last long!

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