We were woken at just after 5am to the sounds of sirens and people (presumably Police) shouting over loud hailers – it was like a scene from the 1st season of Hidden Assets!! After about 10 minutes, things seemed to return to normal, so we were able to get back to sleep until about 07:45, when Jezza made me a cup of tea and suggested we have a sauna. The day before, the receptionist had told us to call down if we wanted to use the sauna and they would turn it on, ready for use 20 minutes later. As the phone was on my side of the bed, Jezza told me to call reception, however, I was doing important things like Wordle and Quiz of the Day, so he rather grumpily got up and came to the phone, only to find it was dead as a dodo 😂😂. Huffing and puffing, he got dressed and went to Reception and came back with 2 robes and a couple of pairs of rather fetching slippers!!
We went down to the sauna at about 09:00 and had it all to ourselves! After 15 minutes, Jezza got up for a shower, only to find a big bucket of water with a rope by the side. Rather than going for the easy option and use the normal shower, he decided to pull the rope- I don’t think he was expecting the water to be freezing! 😘😂😂. It was lovely and relaxing and we spent an hour in the sauna before going back to the room to get everything together for the journey to Amsterdam.
When getting ready (bearing in mind we hadn’t unpacked our bags because of the short stay in Brussels), I searched through my case, panicking because I couldn’t find any socks – at this point I reminded Jezza that I could’ve bought some in Primark yesterday 🤦🏻♀️. The search went on and I unpacked my case, but no socks. Jezza then very nonchalantly said “did you pack them in your other trainers?”. I had! It was the first time I’ve ever done it because I saw it mentioned as a space saving tip, which indeed it was, however, as I’d packed a couple of days previously, I’d completely forgotten- another Hilda senior moment 🤦🏻♀️🤦🏻♀️.
Everything then went quite smoothly with our preparations for the journey ahead. We ordered some rather nice sandwiches for lunch on the FlixBus, checked out of the hotel, then made our way to the FlixBus stop which was about a 15 minute walk away.
We had a smooth journey on the FlixBus which passed very quickly as I got out my knitting and watched a few more episodes of The Other Bennet Sister – only one left now! After a train to Amsterdam Centraal and bus journey and a short walk, we found our AirBnB- a converted barn/garage. Jezza had carefully picked this accommodation because it was in one of the prettiest villages in The Netherlands and easily accessible to Amsterdam. What he didn’t realise was that the bathroom was downstairs and the bedroom upstairs was reached via what we call “a Brian staircase”…. So no venturing to the loo in the middle of the night for me whilst we stay here… Still it’s not for long and it makes us appreciate home all the more 😂😂.
Having not unpacked our cases because we couldn’t get them upstairs 🤦🏻♀️, we decided to go out for a bottle of wine and some barnibbles. We passed three goats in a neighbouring garden who were very inquisitive and came up to us at the fence – they were very funny!!!
We took a short walk to the local mini supermarket where the wine choice was a bottle of Spanish white, Prosecco, or a bottle of La Croisade rosé which we buy from our Co-operative in Cébazan (normally for 2.50€) 😂😂😂. We obviously plumped for the rosé and explained to the lady in the shop that we were from southern France and that the wine we were buying from her was bottled down the road from us!! She found it very amusing and told her husband who then asked us if we could bring him over a few hundred bottles 😂😂😂.
At 18:00 we took a bus to Monnickendam where Jezza had found several eateries. We walked through some very quaint cobbled streets and saw some stunning houses en route to the waterway where the restaurants are – it reminded us a bit of Marseillan without the sun!!!
There was only one restaurant open (presumably because it was a Monday) that appealed to us – De Waegh. It was full due to a large group booking, but we were told we could have a table in 45 minutes. As there was seating on a covered terrace out front, we decided to while away the time with a snifter – something that comes easily to us Wainfords!!! Jezza opted for a Dutch beer and I went in search of the perfect Aperol Spritz 🤪. I feel sure that I won’t find one like the ones I make (Emma & Thomas find mine deadly 😂), but I shall persevere for the rest of our holiday 😜.
Once seated inside, we opted for another round of the same drinks and ordered our food. Jezza decided on the beef tenderloin with veg and chips and I couldn’t resist the fish and chips- it’s such a treat for us, so the memories will last me for months 😜. Whilst waiting for food, our 2nd round of drinks came and, much to my dismay, I had to send mine back because it had no fizz. I watched my drink being remade and saw how much Aperol went into it – they were obviously trying to make amends!!!! Our food arrived – mine was an enormous serving – at least 2 normal portions!! It was delicious and I enjoyed every single bit of it. Jezza’s meat was mouth watering and he (thankfully) was able to help out with my fish – which he savoured…. The end of another meal and we were both unable to find room for dessert again. We enjoyed our dinner so much that we reserved a table for Thursday night.
We took a leisurely walk to the bus stop and arrived home to see Leeds 2 up and Man U down to 10 men, which cheered us up no end after the weekend’s results!!
A cup of tea and an early night tonight as we have the highlight and main reason for our holiday tomorrow 🌷 – I’m so excited!!!
A big thank you to Jezza today for navigating our way from Brussels to Amsterdam without any hitches today – the boy did good. 💙
Á demain 😘😘
Total steps : 12,122
