Friday 21st June, 19:30
There have been a few days out since my last catch-up post but I’m going to have to come back to them. Right now, I’m busy sitting on a plane destined for Amsterdam, my rather nice Italian dinner sitting uncomfortably in my stomach after the plane arrived early and we had to run (well, the wife had to run, I had to catch up) to get on board.
As I say, our destination: Amsterdam. The purpose: honeymoon/40th birthday celebration (mine not hers, I hasten to point out)/resurrection of the birthday tradition. And while that all sounds a bit Mission: Impossible, it’s because this trip seems very much like that.
In the build-up, I’ve been describing this as “Finish work! Drive to airport! Go to Netherlands! Have a good time! Come home!” Considering I didn’t get home from two days teaching outdoor bouldering in the Peak District until around 24 hours ago and have a work Zoom on Monday morning, there’s good reason. Em had it even worse, not finishing work until 3pm this afternoon, a mere four hours before our flight.
Yet, where there’s a will, there’s a way and while I’m always driven to make these things work – often to the detriment of both myself and those around me – I’ve gotta hand it to Em that we’ve pulled this one together. We are indeed on our way, with the wheels of the plane leaving terra firma literally as I write this sentence… Oh no, wait, we’re taxying, my mistake. You get the idea.
A Non-Climbing Climbing Trip
While this trip is certainly not climbing focused, I have managed to fenagle myself a couple of hours on Sunday morning at an indoor wall. That’s the plan, anyway, watch this space. The interesting part here is that I have hitherto not actually climbed on an indoor wall abroad. Ten foreign countries, countless rock types, no plastic.
Indeed, that was part of the plan in selecting the Dutch capital. It’s somewhere we could go for a very short trip, spend time together and not have me dragging my poor wife to some chalky rocks in the middle of nowhere. I’ve only even suggested an indoor wall and it is my 40th birthday and that in itself is a tradition.
Amsterdam, though, has added significance for the two of us. Way back in 2016, having been together for around four months, I partook in a mammoth (some may say ridiculous) road trip across Sweden. In a Land Rover. With a dog. I’ll spare the details, all of which were well-documented at the time. Needless to say, there is a connection to this trip some eight years later.
Back then, I had various partners in crime. I collected old friend Simon from Kobnhavn, dropped him in Stockholm, went to stay with another old friend, Fredrik in Gavle a couple of hours further north. It was then that Em agreed to fly out to meet me and join me for the return journey. [Slight aside: both of these friends were in attendance at our wedding last month, which thinking about it now makes me incredibly happy]
It was an eventful trip home, bouncing from city to city as we headed slowly South. One such city was, unsurprisingly, Amsterdam, sandwiched in between Kobnhavn and Brugge. We weren’t there very long, mainly as an overnight stopover on the way, staying in a campsite in the city and taking poor Tess with us on the train into the city evening, including an infamous encounter with an escalator (Em’s fault, not mine).
Eight Years Later
In truth, we were there so little time, we saw hardly anything. I have one endearing image of us by a canalside (I think) although a glance at the map and that doesn’t seem to narrow it down. While we’ve said that we have been, I wouldn’t say we really got any sort of impression of the city, it’s culture or it’s people.
Thus, we begin a weekend stacked with meaning. A throwback to our past together; almost right back to the start. A celebration of our recent matrimony. A rekindling of my old tradition. A celebration of my continued existence stretching into it’s fourth decade. And a chance for us to have an adventure and experience somewhere that may not be entirely new but will undoubtedly feel so.
“No, it’s okay” she replied
Half way through the flight…
11:18 CET (Local Time)
This certainly feels like a very new experience! We seem to have booked in to a hotel from a Cold War film, with a concierge who, in Em’s words, “looks like something from the Grand Budapest Hotel”.
Still, we’re here, it’s very pleasant, everyone thus far has been very nice and I’m watching Ronald Koeman’s thoughts on tonight’s 0-0 draw with France. I wish I could understand what he’s saying but I guess that’s more my bad than his.
I shall doubtless update at some point over the next few days. In the meantime, I need to very quickly learn some Dutch. I’m guessing ‘keeper’ means ‘goalkeeper’. That’s about as good as it’s got so far.
chezdelabloc 