Back to the Netherlands

Everybody got up early for a change, because C had to catch the Eurostar back to London so we had to take her to the station to catch the connecting train to Lille. After that we did a bit of supermarket shopping and had breakfast. Then the niece and P went back to sleep. I cleaned up the kitchen and wrote in the diary.


After lunch the niece showed me pictures from her last trip home and I showed the ones I had taken so far, using the TV output from the camera. Then it was my turn to leave. In the carriage I found a free seat opposite an attractive woman. The niece and P outside my window made encouraging gestures. I sadly signed to them that she had a ring on her finger. P made a pretence of looking at the other windows for alternatives. All in good fun.

As the train crossed into the Netherlands, immigration officials came through the carriage, checking passports. They took away a black man for questioning; I wondered what his problem was. The train rumbled past typical Dutch landscape: canals with waterfowl and fields of tulips in stripes of colour. I could not help thinking that I would not see those fields more than once.


At Den Haag, I changed trains and then instead of going to all the way to Haarlem NS and catching a bus, I hopped off at Heemstede station and walked the rest of the way home, perhaps 2 km since it took me ½ hour. It was fun to be in company for a while but I was glad to be alone again.