After the fabulous weekend-long 80th birthday celebrations for my sister Sarah in Sussex, England, we drove straight up to make a quick visit to Jonathan’s brother Simon and his partner Ruth near Thetford in Norfolk.
We had another big birthday to celebrate there as Simon had just turned 70 so we took him out to lunch to commemorate his special milestone.
It was only a fleeting visit as we were keen to get back to the Netherlands to spend the last few weeks on this side of the world with our one-year old grand daughter.
This time we took the ferry from Harwich (just over an hour’s drive from Simon and Ruth’s) to the Hook of Holland (just over half an hour’s drive to Hannah and Pieter’s). Although the crossing is much longer it saved the drive on crowded roads to Dover and then a long drive from Calais to Pijnacker.
When we arrived at the Hook of Holland we were very fortunately one of the first cars off the ferry – the new digital border control process had just been introduced and was causing long delays.
This process has replaced the traditional passport stamping for non-EU travellers and means each and every driver and passenger from each and every car, has to get out of their vehicle and go into a little hut where their photo, fingerprints, and passport details are taken electronically.
Even though we were quite near the head of the queue we had a long wait before we were processed. The poor people at the end of the queue would have had to wait for hours to get going.
The day after we arrived in The Netherlands was Good Friday so the next couple of days were busy decorating eggs with our grand daughter and preparing for an Easter feast with our son-in-laws large and welcoming family.
On Easter Saturday there was an Easter fair on in the village square – just a short walk away from where Hannah and Pieter live so of course we had a lovely time watching the children enjoying rides and eating Easter treats.
The following week there was another wonderful Spring festival – The official start of Dutch spring: the “koeiendans”or cow dance – when cows that have been kept indoors all winter are let out into the fields, and literally dance with delight!
There was a huge crowd – and even a television crew – at the farm that Pieter works for where we witnessed the joyous and exuberant cows prancing and dancing as they moved from their shed into the lush green field. What an unusual and beautiful experience!
With the weather warming up it was lovely to be able to spend more time outside – gardening, cycling and walking.
We also made a trip to Rotterdam Zoo which was great fun, especially as being springtime, there were lots of newborn animals to see. The baby giraffe and zebra were special favourites.
Our little granddaughter was transfixed by the aquarium which had all sorts of beautiful fish and other sea creatures swimming all around us. What an excellent day!
Meanwhile our twin granddaughters in Brisbane were doing really well. Born at 28 weeks, they had experienced a rocky start but were (and still are) making excellent progress.
The best piece of news is that Matilda officially came off her feeding tube just after the Easter weekend! For the first time in her life she was able (and willing!) to drink bottles and eat solids any time she wanted.
After such a long time being fed through a tube you would think she would be a fussy eater but the opposite is true! She will try anything and eats everything put in front of her! What an amazing transformation.
The twins are also both crawling, standing up and “cruising” up and down holding on to the sofa.
We feel so fortunate to have three healthy and happy granddaughters- albeit on opposite sides of the world!
Salty tales from Bali Hai on Sunday 
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