Finney leaves North America April 28-29 2025


Today is the start of our adventure. 5:30 am came very early today. After showering and throwing the last stuff in our packs (of course we still forgot some things like a certain book i had sent to me so i could read it before we got here), we were ready to set of with lots of luggage. I have to say it was much easier to pack for the Camino de Santiago last year than it was for this trip. 
At 6:45 our chauffeurs, Gord Woodward and Aquila Coxsford-Heather loaded us up and we headed for the ferry. We were much too cheap to take a vechile across and park at the airport. So there we were hiking our stuff on the ferry, then onto the bus to downtown Vancouver and to make our way to the Canada line skytrain to the airport. We arrived at the airport around 11;30 only to find out we couldn't check in until 3-4 hours before. Finley was a trouper and kept us all entertained until 1:30.


Check in was a breeze and we spent a few hours chilling at the Skyteam lounge. We got to load with the first group and man i will never travel long distance without a bulkhead seat if at all possible. The stewardess was amazing and helped us a lot as Finley had trouble settling down. They gave us a bassinet for him but he kept popping his head up to look at us. Eventually he slept on either myself or Kesa. We had very little sleep and for Kesa it was none. We had found out last Thursday that Fin had a double ear infection and thrush. Well then we discovered he had hand, foot and mouth disease. No wonder the little man couldn't settle down. On top of everything he won't nurse. Thank goodness Kesa brought her bottles and pumping equipment.





We arrived in Amsterdam at around 12 pm April 19. It was a long walk to get to our rental. We rented a Renault Trafica. Lots of room but a tin can. We headed out of the city heading for Winkel.




Our airbnb, it is a lovely little house in the backyard of a home that overlooks a golf course. Check out how steep the roof is. And the door with no stairs or balcony. Reason? to get furniture upstairs because the inside stairs are so steep. The bathroom is on the first floor but the bedrooms are the top floor. Needless to say you waited until you really had to pee before you got up in the middle of the night. We left our bags downstairs and only took up what we needed, hopefully this doesn't become a habit.

Grocery shopping was one of our stops. I love the dutch grocery stores. Lots of packaged foods that are easily turned into a meal. Par cooked seasoned potatoes fried up (2 euros), huge fresh cauliflower (1.6 euros}, sausages and slightly burnt green beans for dinner. Kesa says our trip hasn't started until mom burns something.  Of course we had to buy cheap beer, pindakaas (peanut butter) and chocolate spread.


Finley was early to bed so Kesa, Ed and I went for a walk. Very cute little town.
Lovely little church with a common wealth grave.


Villages back right onto farm fields.

Horses in town. Big horses.
Note the lean on the church steeple.
Their graves are covered in lovely flowers and plants.



Lots of parking for bikes at the church.

No space wasted when you can share gutters.

Our Airbnb had a lovely host and these beautifully pruned apple trees.
And a fig tree or 3.


These are the inside stairs.

Inside the downstairs.

Jose our host in front of her home.

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Our Airbnb came with Cane Corso puppies.Spleen, Bear and Cody


Comments

  1. JolindaMay 4, 2025 at 11:45 PM

    Great pics Cindy!! That Airbnb looks awesome!! Looks like you guys are having an amazing time!!

    ReplyDelete

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