My parents final day in Holland :'-(
Today was a sad day - my parent's head back to England this evening, the past few days have absolutely flown by. Nothing really too exciting to write about this day, other than Jaap now being a local celebrity!! Me and Mum were noseying in the gift shops down the Hoogstraat, Jaap and Dad preferring to take a seat outside the Grand Cafe at the end of the street, just as we re-joined each other we were approached by a reporter for the Groot Vlaardingen, local newspaper! Jaap was asked what his thoughts were on the prospect of Vlaardingen and Schiedam councils joining together for local improvements to which he gave a great little speech about it being a very good idea as they are practically one city anyway, the boundaries are blurred and it isn't clear where Vlaardingen ends and Schiedam begins so it makes sense for them to join and work together, etc etc.
After this brief episode of excitement, we made our way to our new regular spot - the Cafe Concordia bar on Westhavenkade at the side of the canal to enjoy a couple of beers and review the holiday. Time soon passed as we supped Heineken and disagreed on where our farewells were to take place. I of course wanted to ride the train with them to Schiphol but Dad insisted we go only as far as Rotterdam Centraal to save our brass. We had only 5 minutes between connecting trains to make our way from platform 1 to platform 9 and then bid our farewells to one another, which secretly I am glad about as I hate goodbyes and didn't want Mum getting all emotional as that would only set me off!
It was with mixed emotions that I waved goodbye through the train window - happy that we had got to spend a great holiday with them, good catch-up, fantastic weather but also sad of course that time had flown by so quickly. Although I don't think it will be long before we see them here again, Mum emailed me as soon as they were home the next morning to say she was already thinking about their next visit. :-D
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