June 6 – D-day

Today was a travel day. Got up early and moved all the luggage downstairs for a trip across, under, the English Channel. Taxi picked us up on time and we got to St. Pancras Station in plenty of time to go through security and "customs". We went through French port of entry at this station and just got off the train in Lille and did our thing. The train was nice, generally quiet. Dozed on and off during the ride and watched the countryside go by. Look very much like the upper midwest in the US with farms and small towns dotting the landscape.

Once we got to Lille finding the Hertz counter was no problem. The gentleman that waited on us was not very helpful and there are no maps available from Hertz. Took us almost an hour and asking three different people to find the car. Once we did we loaded in the luggage and walked to a restaurant to have some lunch, breakfast anyway the first meal of our day. The food was good and the waiter, who didn't speak English was very helpful. Our first experience was to have him find a customer that spoke English to tell us about the the daily special. We got a table and Ed and Kay ordered and got something different than they expected. Oh well, life in a different country where you don't speak the language. My omelet was tasty and Bonnie had the special which was also tasty. The waiter found someone else to "guide" us out of town with some directions.

We went back to the car. Escaped the garage. We drove around the station twice before we got on the correct road. Once that was accomplished we were off to the Netherlands. We got into Belgium shortly after we left Lille, France. Lille is very close to the border. Thought we had missed a place to pay a toll but it turned out trucks were the only vehicles required to pay a toll so off we went.

The countryside was mostly farmland. A lot of rapeseed is planted and the yellow blossoms were all over the country. When we got near Rotterdam, Netherlands we missed a branch off outside of the city and ended up going a number of kilometers out of our way and getting into rush hour traffic. But that hurdle was crossed without too much difficulty and we were back on the road to Alpen a/d Rijn.

Once we got to Alpen a/d Rijn Ed's directions took us right to Dirk Stuit's home. He was very surprised to see us. Seems my brother gave very sketchy information about when we might arrive and when we would be departing. Dirk's wife Bea was in Italy with her younger daughter when we arrived in Holland. Dirk was is a gracious host and even guided us to our hotel. We got checked in at the hotel and then went back to his house for coffee, an apple tart, and wonderful conversation.

Soon we drove back to the hotel. All of us were very tired from the long day.