Alone Again

Our friend, Ome Geoff, flew back to California early this morning, thus ending a five-day trip to Amsterdam.

Our Google reunion burger at the Irish bar called Aran on the Max Euweplein was a hit. Our other friend, Brian, also flew in from California with his wife, Victoria, making the event no less well attended than many an old burger meeting at Clarke’s in Mountain View.

The next day, we took Geoff to the Apenheul, a free-range simian zoo close to Apeldoorn. Neither Sarah nor Wiesje had been there before, either, so it was a real revelation for the majority of our party. Of course, I still can’t be sure that Wiesje actually saw anything, as she’s just as interested in someone’s hat or a leaf blowing in the wind as she is in exotic animals.

Sarah and I became members on the spot, which allows us to continue to visit the park on Sundays during the winter months, when it is closed to the general public.

The next day, we took a Greenwheels car to Maastricht, where we had lunch close to the Vrijthof. Afterwards, we headed further to the Drielandenpunt, where Geoff and Sarah got a kick out of managing to be in The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany… all at the same time.

In the late afternoon, we crossed into Germany and parked in Aachen, where we wandered around the old town and then settled down for dinner in a pub/restaurant. We didn’t get back to Amsterdam until about 22:30, which proved a trial for the little one, but we had a great, fun-packed day.

I took Geoff to Artis on Monday, making this my third trip to the zoo in the last couple of weeks. Sarah was at the Volksuniversiteit around the corner, enjoying a Dutch lesson.

Geoff was here for such a brief stint that he didn’t even get around to needing to hire a bike. Well, I’m sure there’ll be a next time.