To the Netherlands - with Neil

I travel to the Netherlands quite regularly, but this time it would be different. Neil was coming with me. He had been interested in meeting my family. 

Normally, I take the train, and sleep (mostly) at my mum’s. But Neil wasn’t keen on the Eurostar, and it would be a bit much to stay at my mum’s with the two of us. If only because her guest room only features a single bed. So everything would be different, including travel mode and stay location. 

We would fly, and it would make sense to fly from Manchester. I found some convenient flights, and they went to Eindhoven. That is considerably further away from Amersfoort (where I wanted to stay) than Schiphol, but I stuck with it anyway. And I had never used that airport.

I also had to sort accommodation. I hoped there would still be nice options. Amersfoort is quite beautiful, and I can imagine people go there for touristic reasons. But when I plotted options on the map, I saw that there was some sort of holiday park just outside the city. That actually looked quite good! It would only be a 15 minute bike ride from my mum. But you would have the advantage of being out in the countryside. The place rented out little cabins, and they still had availability. I could imagine us after a busy day of meeting family, sitting outside our lovely cabin, looking out over the fields and having a drink. It sounded idyllic! 

As it would be a drag to walk to our accommodation, or take the bus, it did mean we would have to rent bicycles. But I had found a nice family business in the old city centre that rented out bikes. So I suppose that meant we were sorted!

On the day of travel, I got up early, and drove to Llandudno. I jumped into Neil’s car and we were off. He had sorted airport parking.

I thought we would be on one of the standard parking lots, but instead we were booked on a park-and-ride. That was fine too! It was a bit hidden away, but it worked fine. Soon we were in the correct terminal. There was hardly anybody at security, and passport control also went smoothly. We decided to have a coffee while waiting for our gate to be announced. And we also took the time to talk about my family. I had made a little cheat sheet for him, with pictures and names of everybody I thought would be there. I had raided group pictures of earlier family gatherings.

Going to the gate went fine, and boarding, and flying. In Eindhoven we had to do quite some walking in the blazing sun; I think they are doing quite some work on that airport. But it was fine. When we got to passport control, I was through a lot quicker, being an EU citizen. I had plenty of time to refill my water bottles. Then we had to venture out into the heat again, finding a bus to the railway station. That meant walking past some bicycle parking. Neil didn't know what was happening to him! And this wasn't even a particularly big one.

There was a bus standing ready. When we got to the railway station, there was a train about to leave in only a few minutes. Changing trains in Utrecht was easy as well. Neil was very impressed with how smooth public transport in the Netherlands was! He was also amazed by the double-decker trains. And how comfortable they are.

In Amersfoort, we first went to the bike rental, as it was still open. We got ourselves two typically Dutch bikes: heavy, comfortable, and for sitting upright. And with inbuilt lights, and fixed locks. I thought they were lovely!

On these bikes we could go to our accommodation. Again, Neil didn't know what was happening to him. There were bikes everywhere! And quite a lot of them were going quite fast. And it wasn't always particularly clear to what extent they would stick to the rules. But everything went fine.

The reception of our holiday park was closed by then, but they had emailed me the code to a little key safe. We found our cabin, and were happy to put our bags down. I had had an idea of what to expect, but Neil hadn't. He was impressed! We were right on the outside of the park, with next to us fields with horses in. Very peaceful and quiet.

Neil posing on his rental bike by our cabin (the rear)

The view from our cabin

We both wanted to have a cold shower, as it had been a hot day, and we had just travelled quite a distance with five different modes of transport. And after that we were ready to face the rest of the trip. Travelling in was now over! And it could barely have gone any better!