Ah well,last day in Zeist,last day in Netherlands and indeed last day in mainland Europe.Once again it’s been great and once again I’m also eager to get back to Blighty too…
To honour my Dutch hosts I’m sporting my vivid orange t-shirt( the last clean top in the bag!) was going to wear black shorts too but looked far too much retro full kit wanker.The kit once again being circa 1974 where I could imagine myself as Johan Cryuff but that would be blasphemy as all we had in common was our smoking habit.Probably more of a Johnny Rep with my mad hair…
Working out the times for tomorrow earlier.I have to get a bus to the railway station then a train to Amsterdam to hook up with Eurostar.My train back to London isn’t until 1-40pm.I deliberately booked a later than normal train to give myself plenty of wriggle room…went across the road to my local bus stop and there’s no ticket machine so had to go app hunting on my phone yet again…
It says on my North Netherlands transport app I can get bus tickets but there’s no evidence of it but they have a specific local bus app so I downloaded that and hopefully it’s gonna work tomorrow morning ok…had a count up of how many local transport apps from all over Europe I have and it’s approaching forty.I have no clue where half of them are for and most of them are probably out of date and I’d imagine the vast majority need some sort of update…oh and at least 75% I’ll probably never use again but I’m loath to clear them away…
Be interesting to see if the Dutch border control is any different to the others,I doubt it is.The old joke of “ do you have any drugs? No? Want some?” Won’t ring true these days and I’m not making that joke either…
Barman just saw my Wolf’s head on my phone and we had a good John de Wolf discussion…
So coming to the end of the trip and i say this every time but it bears repeating.Not one ounce of shit from anyone.Everyone I have met in all the different places have been top notch with me and I’ve been made welcome everywhere.Take no heed of what Farage & his clan of Trump lickspittle spineless goons say…Europe is fine and I just wish we as a people would admit we’ve been suckered by liars,cheats & opportunist Putin/Trump suckups into Brexit and demand a re- vote into the EU sooner rather than later…
Even the little things make a difference.In a supermarket earlier getting some salami & rolls hovering by the bread section and a young girl comes over talking to me.Of course I asked if she spoke English,which has to be the most redundant question in this country “do you want rolls? “ “ yes,two” “ can you wait thirty seconds?” I wasn’t sure what was happening but she came back with two piping hot rolls from the oven.No need to do it but it was a sweet gesture…the rolls bin was already rammed but she just wanted to help me out.Sweet eh?
I was saying earlier about everyone has been cool to me the last month.Well the fella I was chatting to earlier about John de Wolf sent me a drink over on the house…popped into the other bar and had a nice convo with one of the women with a dog.Strange but feel a bit connected to this odd little town…
Sorry this blog’s a bit longer than most but trying to cram a wee bit in on what will probably be the final one this summer unless Wolves do something extraordinary and I have to write it down.We have got Man City first game so…
Good start to the morning.Waiting at the bus stop trying to buy a ticket on the app( only valid an hour) bus came but it was 5 minutes early so obviously gonna wait…nope.Next one 25 minutes.This is why I give myself time in these circumstances but also whilst writing this a woman could see I was’nt paying attention to the bus sitting at the stop( a different one) and tapped me on the shoulder to tell me that it’s ready to go.Again helping for no other reason but to help…I like the Dutch.
Ok peeps i think this blog’s long enough.Currently waiting for the Amsterdam train…see you all soon and as the Dutch say…Doie Doie.