Advertisement
Published: April 15th 2010
Wilsum in winter
My mate Willem on skis standing on the pond in his backyard in January.Unfortunately I was only a few minutes late checking in on the net for my Singapore to Amsterdam leg of the flight and missed out on my preferred seat in the last row, middle section aisle on the starboard side (that’s the right side when facing the bloke in charge up front for you non-yachting types). Why that particular seat you might ask - because there’s nobody behind to annoy you, which is exactly what happened to me.
You see, when the bum of an average 6 year old is firmly belted in, his/her feet are too short to hang down over the edge of the seat so they naturally stick out straight against the seat in front. Well, that seat in front happened to be mine! Consequently, the darling little chap behind me only stopped jogging against the back of my seat during his all too brief periods of sleep on the 13hr trip.
Now you all know that I’m normally an easy going sort of bloke, but even I can only take so much. The little darling’s mother however, a pathetic Sudoku disease sufferer, ignored my plight and my complaints to the crew only resulted
Dennis at Wilsum
Me standing on more or less the same spot in Willem's back yard now in Spring. in a well-practiced ‘what can we do’ shrug. Eventually, my only consolation was that the annoying little bug..., um, boy, got horribly air sick during turbulence an hour out from our destination. Of course I felt terribly sorry for the little chap when he spewed into his mother’s lap. But that messy addition to the rest of her scribbles on the sudoku puzzle certainly got her attention away from her addiction.
To top off a flight that I’d rather forget, there was trouble with two toilets and an oven in the galley, meaning that there were queues to take a leak, many of the meals were not very hot and there was no coffee for breakfast. That problem alone resulted in outrage from the mostly Dutch and German passengers who were obviously used to such a heart-starter of a morning.
Needless to say that I got off the plane looking and feeling like I had been put through a tumble dryer, only to be confronted with a security alert which prompted an additional passport check even before being allowed into the warmth of the terminal. In contrast, and for those of you who have been there before would have experienced, Passport Control when entering mainland Europe is a joke compared to entering Australia and Customs is virtually non-existent.
There, now I’ve got all that off my chest, I can settle down to enjoy the rest of the trip.
So, having retrieved my backpack at the airport (almost last to come out, of course), it was then the now familiar and pleasant two hour train trip from Amsterdam to Hardenberg (Holland) where I was met with warm (despite the 8°C temperature) greetings from my friends, Willem and Ann, and the final short car trip to the beautiful rural village of Wilsum (Germany). I remember the first time I did that train trip when I excitedly dug my camera out as the first thatched roofed cottage came into view, only to find out later that they were everywhere. I realise now how inexperienced I was then.
I’m now looking forward to a few days of relaxation (yes, I can do that sometimes) before some cycling trips around rural Germany for the next week or so.
The two attached pics are of the same backyard in Wilsum; Willem in his skis on the snow covered pond in January and me standing at more-or-less the same spot now in Spring. And that’s about it for the first blog of this trip.
Stay safe and ciao for now.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.238s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 10; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0491s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
Ann
non-member comment
Lucky you are here
We are very happy to have you here in Wilsum. You can rest as much as you like. Only Willem don't leaf you alone I ges. Hope you enjoy your stay with us. Cheers Ann and Willem