The misery of public transport with a cold...

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I had a great week in the Netherlands, although it turned out to be completely lazy and un-adventurous! I'm still a baby about trying to pronounce dutch words, but when you're in a country where everyone speaks better english than you do, it's easy to shy away from sounding like a "cute foreigner". At least that's my excuse!

Yesterday I travelled from Groningen, Holland, back to Chartham, England, which is probably only a few hundred kilometers, as the crow flies... And it took 12 hours exactly. Local bus, then train, then waiting, then plane, then train, then waiting, then coach, then (hurrah!) a ride in a fancy Mercedes! Well, at least I got to see a lot a dutch countryside (aka lots of canals and freisian cows! And those horses with the black stipe in their manes and zebra striped legs!)

And, of course, during all of this I went through a thousand tissues, cough drops, and tylenol as I have, of course, managed to get a cold! Oh well, nothing to do about it except to use it as an excuse to sleep an awful lot!

I really felt like I was returning home when I arrived in England, even though I was once again grilled by customs, "you're grandmother lives here does she? And what's she doing in this country??!!" Fortunately she isn't a doctor, huh! She has of course prepared all my favorite english foods for today (scones and clotted cream, roast beef and yorshire pudding, etc etc) sp at least I'll have plenty of reserves to go on when I switch to a less extravagant diet next week!

The Tour de France is coming through Canterbury this Sunday so we'll get to watch. Doesn't entirely make sense to have the Tour de France in England, but I suppose it raises a lot of money!

I leave for Bangladesh on Monday!! So before then I just have to get healthy and see if I can re-pack my pack in a way that it will weigh 20 pounds less!

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Comments

[alison]

tour de france
Miranda, were you watching the cyclists from the front or admiring their behinds?