Part 2 /Eembrugge-Deventer-Huizen-Baarn
We all walk like cattle to the baggage claim...some of the more-endowed passengers even sounding like bovine. Everyone stands around the conveyer watching the bags go round and round. Each pass reveals fewer and fewer bags. The monitor eventually says “All Bags Offloaded.”
All the bags but MINE! Of course!
Once again, just like Boston, there is no one at the baggage service counter. I see the office for Servisair, the baggage handling company. I mosey across the baggage claim floor and this place, too, is deserted, save for two other passengers with missing luggage. I decide to wait a few. It pays off: they come back from lunch (nice 2 hour lunches, they have...).
The agent makes a report of my lost bag. It takes a while for her to figure out my actual routing. Now check this: my bag could be in: Boston, Shannon, Dublin, London or Amsterdam! OMFG! The report is filed so I go outside to meet my uncle. Servisair says they’ll deliver my bag to me when they find it.
Oom Rob is nowhere to be found. I am, after all, 1 hour past my arrival time by now. When I go outside I see a group of 3 people sparking up a cone! Smells SO good!
Damn!damn!damn!damn!!! I want to smoke!!!!!!!!! I call everyone I can call to find him, because his number says it is out of service! Then my phone dies. Now all I can do is wander the airport. Another hour later and I finally run into him and his granddaughter, Sjuul. The car is parked in the garage and the walk to it is another 15 minutes or so.
It is now rush hour so we have no choice but to drive the hour it takes to get to his house in Eembrugge where I can borrow a change of clothes from his wife and he can drop off Sjuul. Eembrugge is literally a population 130 village!
We give rush hour a chance to die down so I have a cup of tea and watch a DVD with Sjuul. Of course it is in Dutch...and Sjuul doesn’t speak English yet (she’s only 3). I practice my Dutch words with her and we have a lot of fun. When Tante Nora arrives home from work, she loans me some clothes. and then Oom Rob takes me to Tante Ilona (his sister). Being so, so, so tired makes the possibility of car sickness a near-reality. Thank goodness I don’t!
I stay with Tante Ilona in a small town called Deventer. When I arrive at her house, she has dinner ready and waiting! She made homemade kippensoep met brood en boter (chicken soup with bread and butter). She puts the bread in the oven when I arrive. LEKKER!!!! I am so hungry I have 2 bowls of soup and several pieces of bread. Dessert is vla (custard). When I am nicely satisfied and after we do the dishes, I tell Tante Ilona that I am exhausted, go up to the bedroom, and fall straight asleep. Around midnight I awaken to use the bathroom and then I can’t go back to sleep! Argh! Luckily I brought some movies on my laptop, so I watch
Pineapple Express. Hilarious! Only problem with it is the in-my-face-I-have-no-weed I keep thinking!
When I awaken in the morning (after having fallen back asleep around 4 am), Tante Ilona is gone already. Darn...that means I can’t do laundry (don’t know how to use her machine)...can’t get on the internet (don’t have her security code) and I can’t explore the town (have to wait to see if they found my bag). So, I have breakfast and take some photos.
Here is a bit of the inside of her house:
Even Sake likes it:
Since I have no entertainment, I decide to see if there are any coffeeshops within walking distance... The guest room is also the office so I look for a phone book. There it is. ONE coffeeshop in Deventer (at least only one in the phone book I have). The place is called
Coffeeshop Maya. I write down the address and also commit it to memory. (Brink 10!) That is the excitement of the day. I have no maps and no internet to find it! The entire day ends up staying this lazy...even when Tante Ilona gets home, we eat dinner, look at some photos and go to bed!
The next day is more active. When Ilona gets home we eat lunch and walk to the post office to exchange some of my USD into Euros. I need to save some USD as I will need Danish Krone later when I go to Copenhagen. Tonight we are eating out with Oom Rob and Tante Nora. Ilona has no car, so we walk to the train station to buy our train ticket to Baarn. Since there is time to kill, she shows me around.
Deventer is a cute little town and Ilona takes me to the Centruum where I snap away:
De Brink:
Deventer Koek (where they make their famous honey cake):
The so-called “Crooked Building”:
Train sign for a store:
Bridge over river Ijssel:
Shuttered windows:
Bierencafe de Heks:
Grote Overstraat:
Welkom in de Walstraat:
When I see that we are on The Brink, I remember that Coffeeshop Maya is at Brink 10. I SEE IT! Now I know EXACTLY where it is, AND I know how to get here! A camera store is spotted so a couple rolls of Ilford are purchased in case my luggage is in Siberia or something.
Our train is eventually caught and after arriving in Baarn, Oom Rob tells us he is taking us to his daughter’s new house that she and her husband just purchased. (They are the parents of Sjuul.) We drive to the cutest little town called
Huizen. Their house is GORGEOUS! We stay for about a half hour then drive to Rob’s place back in Eembrugge to wait for Nora to get home from work. Once Nora gets home we go out to eat in a nice place over in Baarn. Everyone seems to know Rob...after all, he is retired from being in sales at Heineken for over 30 years! I’m sure ALL the restaurants know him! The dinner is fantastic...from the cheese...the bread with olive spread...to the delicate fish main course...and on through the cappuccino and chocolates! Mmmmmmm...
When we are done waiting for Rob to say his farewells, Ilona and I are taken back to the train station. Deventer arrives quickly and the sleepy feeling the wine gives me (yes, they MADE me drink...
) is rudely blown away by the biting cold wind we brave on the walk home. Once inside, I warm up my laptop to check the Servisair website. OMG! IT SAYS THEY FOUND MY BAG!!!
Happy!Happy!Joy!Joy! That is all I need to hear in order to finally get a good night’s sleep! And I do.
When Thursday arrives, I am awakened by my cell phone ringing: “Hallo, Ms. Luvtick?” “Yes.” “We are calling to tell you we will deliver your suitcase between 2 pm and 7 pm today.” “YAY!”
What a way to wake up! Good news! Looking outside, I see that it’s still rainy and a bit windy. It LOOKS cold too!
Looking out Ilona’s front window:
I get dressed in my freshly washed clothes that I left in (FIVE DAYS AGO) and walk down to the Deventer Centruum, taking photos along the way, of course:
Church behind trees:
Be afraid...be VERY afraid:
I am finally able to go to Maya today. Being the first time I am getting high since arriving, I am determined to do just that. I brave the cold, biting, icy rain and walk down to the Brink. I see Coffeeshop Maya, but I feel a little conspicuous (read: scared...lol...) about going inside...To build up my courage, I take the opportunity to take some photos of the area:
Anchor near the river Ijssel:
Sculpture:
Sculpture detail:
Now that I am frozen, I NEED to go inside! Once getting inside…and knowing my rolling skills are non-existent…I buy a pre-rolled cone of Northern lights for 2.50 Euro. No one inside speaks Dutch, which cements the decision to go pre-roll. There are no people smoking in the rows of empty booths, only one person drinking a coffee. Everyone else is inside the “fish-tank” looking room. The bud tender lady tells me I can smoke in there. At least I
think that is silhouettes of people I see through the smoke.
I walk through the fog and find a stool against the wall, near the door. The heavy winter coat is removed revealing the same “boobie shirt” I wore on my flights here. Everyone watches me as I find my lighter and proceed to light the cone.
The first drag is slowly and deliberately inhaled...and…ARGH!! It is mixed with tobacco!!! ARGH!!!
(At least it’s smoke.) I explode with a cough. So embarassing! I may even be turning green! Looking around the small room, I notice I am the ONLY female inside this room. There are two Italian men next to me and the rest (NINE others) are locals, I assume. We try to communicate, but there are not too many English words flying about. Besides, as I get ready to go back to Ilona’s house, I notice that my shirt had been unbuttoned! Probably the entire time! No WONDER they were so smiley…
Knowing that 2 pm is fast approaching, I layer back up and walk back to Ilona’s for my suitcase! However, every step I take back to the house makes me more paranoid. I feel like I totally REEK! I have NO CLOTHES in which to change…not yet, anyways.
When I get to the house, I frantically look around the bathroom for “something smelly” to cover the smell. I don't have any other clothes to change into!! I find a tray of perfume! Yay! Oh no! EVERY BOX IS STILL WRAPPED IN CELLOPHANE! So...I wash my hands several times...put a bit of hair conditioner in my hair...I suppose being in the fish tank…with everyone smoking tobacco…will saturate clothes and hair with the stench of tobacco smoke. What could I do? While walking back, I braved the cold with my jacket unzipped, but now that I’m here, I can still smell the smoke. Then I laugh. I am an adult. I am allowed. I didn’t smoke in her house. Blahblahblah… Oh well…I leave for Amsterdam tomorrow…there will be PLENTY to smoke, I’m quite sure!
Ilona comes home and we continue to wait for my luggage. The man shows up right at 7pm with my suitcase…with everything still inside…wow…
The next morning when we wake up, Ilona is sick. She cannot go to work. She also is too sick to help me WALK to the train station. (I’ve already mentioned that she’s never had a car…never will…) I look outside and see snow! Oh man. Good thing Ilona showed me where to buy my train ticket when we went to Baarn.
By the time the afternoon arrives, I am hugging Ilona goodbye, and confirming that she will come into Amsterdam on my birthday for lunch. My backpack is slung over my back and my suitcases are rolled along the cobblestone streets until I arrive at the train station. Luckily it stops snowing as I walk to the station. As I stand inside buying my ticket, it begins to REALLY snow. I duck into a store to buy a water and when I get out, I see the snow has ceased. Quickly I roll everything up the ramp to my platform and sit on the sheltered benches. Once I am safely in a dry spot, it again begins to snow...and stop...snow...and stop... More pics are taken while I wait:
Deventer train schedule:
Partly cloudy, blue skies...for now... :
Wachtkamer 3e Klasse:
mmmmm....fries!! :
The yellow and blue train pulls into the station and Sake and I get on board. No one is in our car, so we take the opportunity to get some photos:
Deventer from the train:
Sake’s seat:
...but he prefers the view of the window:
No more blue sky:
Sake sneaks this shot of me:
When we get to Amersfoort, I sit on the train and wait for departure. I am still the only person in this car. A few minutes later, the conductor tells me this is the end of this train…I will need to transfer. OMG. Embarassing...again... I get all my stuff together and make my way up to the station to see what train I need for transfer. After reading the board, I go to the platform I think is correct. To be sure, I ask another passenger if this train is going to Amsterdam...and she says it is not. So I lug the bags BACK upstairs and ask a station employee. Guess what? I WAS at the correct train…be-otch… I lug everything down again and get a seat on the train. The train car is filling up quickly with school kids on their way to Amsterdam for Friday night partying when the conductor gets on the speaker and tells us the train is delayed due to the snow. Of course it is. I am not frickin’ moving. I will wait. I am going to Amsterdam, damn it. I think we wait for about 30 minutes. As suspected, the train eventually departs. With each passing stop the excitement increases. The school teens are amping up…and it’s amping me up. Amsterdam is three stops from now!!!
I am FINALLY off for my birthday adventures in Amsterdam! ...and, boy, do I have some adventures there...
The last five days were all just a series of challenges. Challenges I passed with flying colors. Never once did I freak out on anyone...
...and I am HANDSOMELY rewarded later...
