This is the start of my homeward journey. I am sad.
Originally, I was going to go from Amsterdam to Bruges this weekend, then on home, but I couldn’t get that to work so am instead visiting the friend in Dirksland who put Companion and me up on the final leg of the Interrail Extravaganza.
When I woke up this morning it was quite early, so I had plenty of time to get it together to have breakfast, pack, and attack the tat emporia to get myself a fridge magnet. This required planning, because there are a lot of weed, sex, windmill and bike-themed fridge magnets, but I just wante a plain cityscape to go alongside those of earlier adventures.
I found a huge tat emporium on Singel which had a good mix of both tat and, as I was looking for, culture on their fridge magnets. 1€ a piece.
Bargain.
I resisted the urge for a final relaxing cup of coffee round the corner and took myself to Centraal for a train to Rotterdam. For a brief moment I flirted with the possibility of either having a coffee in the restaurant at the station or immediately activating my Interrail pass and getting on a train going east, but I had to be sensible and as a result did neither as Host had sent a text saying she was waiting for me near Rotterdam.
The 11:08 to Breda journey was uneventful. There seemed to be more legroom in second on a normal NS Intercity service than in first on the Thalys from Antwerp on Monday.
A sea of tulip-filled greenhouses quietly slid past the window and 41 minutes later we pulled into Rotterdam Centraal. I had time to take a picture, then get the metro to Akkers where Host was waiting for me with a cup of coffee.
We bought a mountain of cheese — I got a free cooler bag from the nice woman in Alexanderhoeve who seemed amused by my excitement at finding Stilton and Blue Shropshire — and things to eat, then drove back to Dirksland for an evening of… cheese and things to eat.
I know there’s a windmill round here somewhere.
