We, like so many travelers, were caught in the lock downs that crossed the world due to Covid-19. We were incredibly fortunate to have an excellent place to cool our heels and wait the first part of the pandemic out.
We were very grateful to have access to such a great set up in March, April, and early May. With a large house and plenty of room, we had everything we needed. The kitchen was well stocked with pans and tools and the kids could play outside in the yard. Our beds were comfortable, Keller had an excellent set up, and we had plenty of screens to entertain ourselves on rainy days.
We quickly fell into a routine — as pretty much everything except essential stores was closed, our options for amusement were limited. Keller stayed home most of the time, but the kids and I ventured a little bit further afield.
Breakfast. School. Lunch. Games with Daddy. Outside play time if it was dry, inside activities if it was raining. Dinner with reading the Anne of Green Gables series aloud. Then screens and bed.
Giethoorn
Just before everything totally shutdown, Keller and I took a little trip to visit Giethoorn. This is a famous little town that has almost no roads except on the perimeter and the “main street” of the town is only accessible on foot or by boat on the canals. Usually this town is overrun with tourists and Dutch alike, enjoying the lovely weather and exploring the area. But it was pretty deserted when we were there!
The weather was still a bit chilly and we didn’t rent a boat, but we wandered up and down the main canal, popped our heads into a couple of local shops, and stopped for a friets snack. 😉
This was also the perfect opportunity for me to practice driving a manual. With minimal traffic, straight forward directions, and plenty of time, I managed to drive us safely there and back again. So while I’m not nearly as comfortable driving a stick as an automatic, I can do it in a pinch now too. We returned the rental car the next day, and that was the last time we drove for the rest of the trip!
Biking
Thankfully, we all had bicycles in good condition thanks for an arrangement with the local bike shop. Both kids were allowed to bike around the small portion of Lake Bussloo on their own. They also had free reign to go play in the water or on the beach during the day. Literally just down the street, it was easy to hop on my bike and go find them if I needed to. They were really good about being home before it got too late though, so I wasn’t usually worried.
They really appreciated the increased independence that the bikes gave them — in general, the Dutch give more responsibility to their children at a younger age and many will bike to school alone in elementary school. So while in the US it would be unusual to see an 8 year old biking alone, that’s not the case in Wilp.
Both kids crashed once or twice, but for the most part everything went as planned and no one got too hurt. The Dutch are known for their bicycles, for good reason — when everything is flat it’s a lot easier to get around on a bike!
Some days, we all took the bikes out and did a full circuit around the lake. We also biked to nearby Wilp and along the river. I was definitely grateful for our bicycles.
Bussloo
Kamy and Caden really took advantage of having Lake Bussloo just down the road. Only a few minutes by bike, they could do the small loop around the lake in about 15 minutes. Once they knew the route, they were allowed to go alone. I figured I could always bike the other direction to find them if necessary.
The beach and water were definitely a hit too. They would spend hours down in the sand — digging holes, making canals (so Dutch), or messing with the water. It was a bit chilly at the beginning of the trip, but by May it was usually quite pleasant!
I registered Caden for a fishing license as well, since he wanted to fish in the lake. When it came in, I ordered him a rod and reel kit and he headed off to the lake. He tried fishing in several different locations but unfortunately never caught anything. Rudy said it was really too cold and early for the fish to be biting.
Oh well, it was a fun diversion anyway. Though he did catch one fish — just not with his lure!
Groceries
My bicycle became my primary mode of transport for grocery runs. I got pretty good at judging how much I could safely carry home on my bike. Between two saddle bags, a front basket, the back rack with bungee cords, and my backpack, I could carry a LOT. I only got in over my head a handful of times. 😉 I will say I can get a lot more groceries with a bike than I can just on foot like we usually do while traveling. Most weeks I’d bike to the grocery store about 3 times, every other or every third day. It would take me about 15 minutes each way, assuming it wasn’t raining or windy. Then it took longer (or at least it sure seemed to)!
I’d usually head out in the afternoon once we finished lunch and gaming together unless the weather meant the morning was a better option. I’ve never really had to consider what the weather report said when deciding to go to the grocery store before. LOL!
Occasionally I’d hitch a ride with Greet if she was going to the store, and I took the opportunity to pick up bulkier things like Coke Zero liter bottles or toilet paper. Those are harder to drag home on a bike. LOL!
I definitely found items I liked at particular stores, so I frequented multiple grocery chains in town. The Turkish butcher was almost always on my list, for freshly ground beef and chicken thighs. Both Aldi and Deka would take my credit card, so they were my top choices from there, but Albert Heijn and Jumbo were options if I couldn’t find what I needed at the other stores and I could pay with cash there.
Supply chain shortages were definitely a thing, but it was pretty manageable. There were certainly times during my grocery runs where I would have to go to numerous stores to find something in particular. One day Aldi would be out of milk but I could find it at Deka. Or Albert Heijn would have flour but I couldn’t find it anywhere else. There were a few times that I had to do without, but most often I could find something that I was hunting for. Just maybe not at my first stop. 😉
As all the restaurants were either closed or take-out only, we essentially ate at home for every meal. While this is our “norm” at home, that’s not really what I was expecting to do in Holland full time! I did bring a bag of spices with me, but I was definitely getting creative with my recipes or inventing new ones based on the ingredients I could find. It was easy to find the ingredients for nasi though!
Keller was particularly fond of an afternoon snack / dinner of sausage, cheese, and pretzels!
Later in the season, I started frequenting the pop up market in the center of Twello. There were two large produce stands that I always stopped at, plus the little stand that sold Keller’s favorite — dried sausage. They were offering sausages at 3 for 10 euros, so each week I’d get him a set of three to eat. Keller would have been happy for one sausage per day … but we compromised at 3 per week. Favorite flavors were blauwe kaas (blue cheese), berg kaas (mountain cheese), and knoflook (garlic).
There was also a flower stand where I’d treat myself to a bundle or two of tulips each week. I kept a vase on the table near where I spent most of the afternoon, so I enjoyed seeing them daily.
By the time we came home, my legs were definitely stronger than before! 15 minutes of biking each way, multiple times per week will help build muscles. I will say, biking into a headwind with groceries can be brutal though!
My Dutch is also quite a bit stronger too! A majority of Dutch people speak English, but I definitely found myself among people who didn’t speak much English, if any. If we were in Amsterdam it would be a lot more common, but Twello is small enough that really only locals spend time there. I was definitely a novelty!
By the end of the trip I feel like I was at least competent in “transactional” conversations at the grocery store and the market. I knew which questions to expect and could respond as long as they didn’t go “off script” and throw something new at me. LOL! The employees at Deka recognized me and knew what to do with my crazy American credit card and the sausage vendor at the market knew Keller’s favorite flavors. 😉 I certainly wouldn’t call myself fluent by any means, but I could muddle through at the Turkish butcher and exchange pleasantries at the post office or toy shop. Goedemorgen!
Activities
With everything locked down, activities were in short supply. The local pool was closed, and all gymnastics classes for both kids were cancelled. Boo!
We definitely needed to come up with some things to do at the house. Fortunately, the toy store in town remained open, so I was able to get some basic toys like chalk, jump rope, bean bags, and art supplies. I also borrowed a soccer ball from the cousins and we played with that frequently.
I bought Kamy her own cross stitch kit and taught both kids how to create the stitches. They picked up the idea quickly and Caden liked making little hearts on my scrap fabric.
Another popular activity was creating little diamond art pieces where the kids place individual “jewels” into a grid to create a picture. By the time we left, the kids had done nearly all the different kits that were available at the store.
A stop or two at the local kringloopwinkle (second hand store) netted several games too, including a chess set and travel sized Battleship.
We also played a LOT of dominoes. Both kids are very proficient at playing 42 now and it was a quick and easy game to pull out after lunch. We almost always played for 45 minutes to an hour after lunch, before Keller logged in for work.
Keller managed to order Pandemic Legacy from Amazon UK. It felt a little surreal playing a board game where the world was being taken over by disease (a little close to home!), yet it was a really fun game! Keller and I played it years before with friends, but it was completely new to the kids. So while we remembered some of the twists and turns, the kids made a lot of the decisions for how to “fix the world” and strategy. Ultimately we did save the world, though our score wasn’t flawless by any means. 😉
Personally, I needed a project to keep myself busy too. So I ordered a counted cross stitch kit and started working on it. Since we were unable to acquire a piece of art from this trip, at least (eventually) we will be able to display this as our “covid” art. Now a year later, I’m about 75% through the pattern. Maybe I’ll finish it by 2022? We’ll see — I’ve definitely done more cross stitching in the last year than I have in a LOOOONG time.
Due to time zone differences, Keller was able to reliably play online games with Garin and Payton at night. It gave Keller a chance to talk to someone other than just us or co-workers and they had a good time playing.
We also revamped how the kids can earn screen time. Pre-corona, the kids usually were on screens for about an hour per day. With such limited options for entertainment, we felt it was appropriate to allow more screen time. BUT! Not just for ‘free,’ the kids have to earn it. We created a big list of activities that the kids could do to earn more time — in addition to school earning screen time, they could go biking or play outside, read, read aloud, typing practice on the computer, and even do a list of conditioning exercises. Between all these options, most days the kids landed on about 2 hours of screen time daily. While this was a big increase percentage-wise, we felt comfortable with the compromise and level of screen input they had, given the circumstances.
Family
The Dutch government imposed restrictions on how many people could gather together. We were trying to be cautious and follow the guidelines, so we did severely limit our interaction with those outside our immediate household. This was particularly frustrating for us since half of the reason we wanted to come was to spend time with family — especially letting Kamy and Caden spend time with their cousins. Greet and Alie were always available to answer questions or help with issues we would run into.
We did make some exceptions and visit with family occasionally, always outdoors and attempting to social distance. We also made a point to play at the beach with all the cousins a couple of times before we flew back home.
Holidays
We scheduled our time in The Netherlands conscious of the approaching 75th anniversary of VE day (the end of WWII in Europe). While pretty much all the events marking the date were cancelled, we did participate by flying the Canadian flag on the day that Canadian troops liberated the area.
We also flew the Dutch flag with the orange little flag on Koningsdag (King’s Day). Again, all events were cancelled, so we’ll have to experience it again the next time we are in The Netherlands.
Masks
We needed to wear masks for our flight home, so I had to get creative. I rifled through the linen closets at the house and pulled out two old pillow cases to use, one of which I distinctly remember from my childhood. I borrowed two different sewing machines from my aunts, but I couldn’t get either to sew correctly. I’m sure I was threading it wrong or something — they were just too different from what I use at home. They would qualify as vintage though!
I added some elastic that I bought at the market in Twello and ended up hand sewing the majority of the seams. We made it work!
Heading Home
Our original flight plans had us returning on May 13th, and United finally resumed flying from Amsterdam on May 6th. We slightly shifted our itinerary to fly on May 9th instead. We weren’t able to have a direct flight to Houston as only a handful of airports in the US were accepting international flights. So we flew AMS -> Newark -> Houston.
We left early early in the morning and Barbara very kindly delivered us to the airport. The morning fog was beautiful. Once at the airport, it was so incredibly eerie — with practically no one there. No lines anywhere. A handful of departures on the board. No wait for security.
We were required to wear masks in the airport and on the plane, so we were grateful for the cloth masks that I cobbled together. Less than fashionable, but they met the requirements and worked with the materials I had on hand.
Our first flight was on an enormous 767. I counted at least 11 crew members who boarded the plane while we were waiting. We were, literally, four of the twelve passengers on the entire flight. TWELVE. It was crazy!
Since our seats were all the way at the back of coach, we wiped down our seats and try tables and started to unpack. Surprisingly, one of the flight attendants asked us if we wanted to move closer to the front of plane. Definitely! We hurriedly grabbed our things and followed her up the aisles. She led us to the United Comfort+ section and it was really nice! Just a step below business class, there were 6 seats across the entire plane — two double window seats and two large seats in the middle. Foot and leg rests, more leg room for Keller, plus extra wide seats, plus larger screens meant we were traveling in style! LOL! These same seats were $600 each as an upgrade for a one way flight.
Still so eerie to be on the empty plane though. I think I saw one person in the back half of coach where we were originally sitting.
Landing in Newark wasn’t a big deal. Some extended covid screening (temps, etc) but nothing major. They did snag our sandwiches at declarations though. I wasn’t sure what food we would be able to get in Newark (answer: essentially nothing), so while I was annoyed at the waste, we really were missing the food while waiting for our next flight. We made do with the apple pie I brought with us though! 😉
Second flight was much busier than the first, but not totally full. We were pretty strung out by the time we landed in Houston. Payton and Corinne kindly dropped the truck off at the park and ride, so we picked up the car and headed toward home. Both kids were starving, though they wanted different food, so we made two stops — one at Firehouse Subs and the second at Torchy’s Tacos. We ate on the patio outside at Torchy’s before heading home. It was quite late by the time we pulled in the driveway, but we made it! Considering all the possible challenges, it went about as smoothly as it could have.
Summary
Overall, I think we did a pretty good job of making the best of a different situation. No one expected Covid 19 to wreak such havoc around the world and escalate in such a short amount of time. Or still be a major problem 18 months later.
I’m grateful we were in such a good situation overall — if we were going to be locked down anywhere, this was about the best possible option short of being at home. We were able to do some things that we wouldn’t have done if we were still in Texas at the time and we got a feel for the countryside.
We’d love to return to The Netherlands for an extended period of time again — hopefully NEXT time to spend more time with family and get a feel for what living in NL would really be like. I don’t feel like it was quite like we expected our trip to go.
Regardless, we are thankful that we were able to travel, to spend time abroad, and to continue to expand Kamy and Caden’s perspectives and experiences.
Until then … remember, we’ll be back!
Well done as always!
Joan xoxoxo