Back in Holland again

After the 18 hour car ride back (with another overnight in Les Gets midway) arrived again in Soest with my sister Han. That evening Mary called me with the sad news that her father had passed away. I shortened my visit this time in order to be back for the funeral in Canada. Before flying back to Canada, I did have time to visit my old boss at Fokker Aircraft (1985 - 1988) together with my former colleague Aad.

Teun is at 83 still a lively and energetic person with many hobbies, among them building boats. His wife Ilse made us mussels and large shrimps (the region where they retired to - the province of Zeeland - is famous for its excellent quality fish dishes).

Aad drives a Tesla and we had to charge the batteries on the way back. These superchargers are in Holland located near some of the hotel locations, so we had a nice coffee and some Dutch treats.

The day before flying back I had a reunion scheduled with ten old friends from high school in Bilthoven. Before starting that reunion I cycled past the former house of a classmate from elementary school. His family was old "blue blood" and owned the estate pictured below. Back then they could not afford such a large piece of real estate and they lived only in a few of the rooms (the rest of the building were a memorable place for young kids playing hide and seek). The family later sold the property.

The town hall of Bilthoven is still another one of those properties with a long history. With the ten old classmates we hopped on our bikes and cycled past all the houses we grew up in, where each of us had to tell a few anecdotes from those days (1962 - 1968 elementary school + 1968 - 1974 secondary). We had some good laughs along the way.

At a few of the houses we chatted with current owners of these houses (none of these houses were small and all built pre-WW 2). It is certainly a very nice town and it was a privilege to grow up there....

This small tunnel (going under the railway) was know as "het tunneltje" (the little tunnel) and we all passed under there hundreds of times during our childhood. We ended the tour with a nice dinner together. The following day I flew back to Canada. It was again a very nice memory lane visit...