Man Flu, Man flew and the journey from hell!

 Monday 

I had developed a bad cold over the last few days and had a sleepless night.  It’s what women in England call “man flu”. To a woman it’s “a bit of a cold” but to a man it’s as if he is at death’s door.  Suffice it to say when we got up ready to start our journey to England I was feeling more like lying than flying.

Yolande and Leo kindly came to collect us from the apartment and took us to the station in Wormerveer where we said our fond farewells. It’s been so nice to see everyone here and we will miss them all until our return in a few months time.

The trains took us efficiently to Schipol airport where we were advised to allow four hours for check in.  

Then the nightmare began.

It did take us four hours of queuing to get to our departure gate. Most of this was spent waiting to get through the pathetically understaffed security checks and then further waiting to get through immigration.  There were only two immigration officers on duty and they seemed to delight in taking as long as possible with each person. 

We know several people missed their flights because of these delays. It was just totally bad management by the Schipol authorities and reflects very badly on the airport and gives travel from the Netherlands by air a really bad name.

I have resolved never to travel through this airport again unless I hear that they have sorted out the queuing problem.

We are looking at travelling by train in future or maybe flying to Rotterdam or Brussels. I know many other people in that were in the queue feel the same.

Anyway we eventually got to our gate only to find our flight was delayed for 25 minutes due to a late inbound arrival. 

We were in the cheap seats and boarded after most of the other passengers. This meant there was not enough room for all our hand baggage and one case had to be stowed in the hold.

The flight itself went well and a very efficient Heathrow whisked us through baggage claim, customs and immigration. 

We were met by our stalwart friend Brian and his new Mercedes in which he sped us quietly and comfortably to our house in Basingstoke.

We were exhausted after our journey so after a light meal of bread and cheese we went to bed.

Tuesday.- my birthday! 

We tried to get back to our normal routine and went grocery shopping.  We included some fresh cream cake and a pint of “old peculiar” for my birthday. I was so pleased by all the greetings cards and messages I received for my birthday- even though I didn’t really feel much like celebrating. But as always my lovely lady makes things feel good for me.  Being with my Elizabeth is the best birthday present of all.

Wednesday.

Today we fell back into our normal daily routine.  I am now feeling somewhat better. But Elizabeth has injured her toe and can’t walk so far or so fast. So we took a shorter walk than usual.  We looked around our garden which is mostly settling into Autumn and winter mode.  But we have been delighted to see that the stocks which Elizabeth grew from seed have bloomed for a second time.

We love these blooms and hope that they will self seed for a bigger display next year. Elizabeth has also collected lots of seeds which she will propagate in the spring. 

We have finished with mowing the lawn for this year.

Thursday.

We went grocery shopping. It was not really a fun experience for either of us and we have decided to go back to getting home deliveries from next week. 

Now we are in England and doing routine things I will not be posting here so often. But check back for news from time to time. 

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