Bikes, dijks and likes

There was not such an early start this morning which was nice, although we are not quite yet at the stage of our holiday where we have time to relax. So we did still have to get out of bed and get moving which I could have done without. We packed a couple of small bags for our trip to Amsterdam, I don’t think we will have much call for snorkels or water shoes while we are here. The girls managed to get all their clothes into one small wheely suitcase and Jess and I were forced to distance ourselves from them as we are the sort of travellers who think that backpacks are the only way to go. In fact you could say it’s like someone ground some salt and pepper over us, we are seasoned travellers. We were out the door in reasonable time for the first leg today, a bus trip to the train station, with Lily (check one) almost leading us on to the wrong bus but eventually working it out and getting us safely to the station. We like to play a little game where i pretend that we are running a little late and Jess gets all stressed and says I should have organised things better and then I laugh, I amuse myself greatly. We needed to get tickets for the train to the airport but out of 7 or 8 ticket booths, 7 or 8 were shut so we stood around working out the app and downloading tickets, the curse of the modern traveller, bad luck if you have a question you need to ask. This was all navigated though without too much trouble and we were on the way to the airport and Jess was reading Ruby’s (check two) blog and laughing out loud, a reaction I don’t get very often (melancholy sigh).
We arrived at the airport with time to spare, just as well because those of us with backpacks were able to zoom up the stairs while those with a wheely suitcase had to join the throngs taking the escalator which caused us to have to wait for them, condescending head shakes greeting them when they caught up. Although we were at the airport we were not flying, it was actually where our train station was so we just had to wait around for our train which gave us time to pick up some lunch. Everything was going very smoothly and before long we were on board Eurostar and zooming through the French countryside while Jess and I got stuck into some work and then we were zooming through the Belgian countryside getting stuck into work and finally zooming through the Dutch countryside getting stuck into work. We stopped at Brussels, Antwerp and Rotterdam and didn’t see much countryside apart from some obligatory canals and windmills before reaching our destination station at Amsterdam airport, very confusing taking a train between two international airports.
We managed to deal with getting tickets to get to our hotel with no problem, all the travel today has worked like a dream, I can obviously say that now as it is too late to jinx anything although the hotel slightly messed up our reservation so we had to deal with that on our arrival. We got to our room and it was nice to have a bit of time to relax and shower off the big city grime to feel refreshed while the girls busied themselves with getting ready for the big concert tonight with the excitement level building, especially for Olivia (check three). I feel that by this point of the day that Allegra (check four) should have either said or done something to justify being mentioned in today’s edition but unfortunately this was not the case so I guess this is just a token mention to make sure everyone was included.
So the it was time for the grand depart, with the obligatory photos and ‘fit checks, as usual I was rocking a jean shorts and polo shirt look, and all the women in my life were looking amazing. I was a lucky man walking down the street with all of them. Another straightforward train journey and then we descended into K-Pop hell, Johan Cruyff would have been Cruyff turning in his grave at the thought. We walked the girls to the entrance and Lily and Ruby, despite being explicitly told in no uncertain terms that Tate was not to have a light stick (plastic overpriced merchandise tat) paid absolutely no attention to us and bought her one anyway. If she wasn’t already attending a concert tonight it would have made her ding dong day, she was almost in tears. Then they left us, without so much as a backward glance, as we were standing there waving them goodbye like a couple of sad empty nesters.
We had a reservation for dinner and managed to get over it after about half a beer. The restaurant was a bit strange but after about a beer and a half we managed to get over this as well and we also managed to have a very tasty vegan meal so that was nice. After we had eaten a DJ started playing some absolutely bopping tunes so we just chilled out and played a bit of ‘what’s their story’ about everyone else in the restaurant and did a bit of seat dancing, we would have got up but no one else was and we were at least a couple of beers short of that. Eventually the concert was finished and the girls came to meet us, Tate was on an absolute high and had loved every minute, the best night of her life (it was fire?) and the others had enjoyed themselves as well. The DJ had given up on the bopping tunes and was trying to attract a K-Pop crowd but we decided to have dance anyway and got through a few tunes busting our moves on the dance floor. Then it was time to head home, and also for the jinx to kick in. A very helpful steward who knew nothing sent us to the wrong platform and by the time we made it to the right one our train was just pulling out. So it was a 25 minute wait until the next one, which at least gave me time to finish off today’s blog. If there is no post tomorrow it means we did not make it home, so please send out a search party.Lue lisää