Den Bosch, here we are!

Saturday morning we woke up around 8.30. The evening before, we discussed with Harry & Brenda that they would come to Patricia’s around 11.00, so we thought we’d have enough time to have breakfast and get ready. As usual, time flies when you’re having fun, so by the time Harry & Brenda arrived we still had to get showered and dressed. So rush….! We left around noon and Jaap & Patricia led the way. We followed in our car until we reached the Transferium (parking lot with free shuttle service to the centre) After parking the cars, we didn’t have to wait long for the shuttle to arrive. The bus took us to the centre of Den Bosch and we got out at the St. John's Cathedral.





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We took a quick peek inside and were impressed by the enormous amount of pipes of the organ. Okay, enough religion for the day, so we left the cathedral (but not before lighting a candle for my grandmother) and walked towards the shopping area. Before starting any serious shopping, we dropped into a cosy café/restaurant for a coffee and decided to go for the specialty of Den Bosch: “Bosche bollen”. A “Bosche bol” is a pastry made from a light dough filled with delicious light whipped cream and to finish it off, it’s covered with a layer of dark chocolate all around (see picture).











We all had this yummy piece of pastry and all enjoyed it in our own way. So did Brenda….


After the coffee break we were ready for the shopping battle of the day. Watch out stores, here we come!! While shopping we enjoyed the great atmosphere of Den Bosch. It offers a wonderful friendly ambiance. We went in and out of shops during a few hours and came out with several new things. Shopping makes hungry, so we stopped at a “Febo”, one of the many snackbars you’ll find all over Holland. We enjoyed our junk food lunch and continued our shopping tour afterwards. At a certain moment, we arrived at a square where a big band was playing their music loudly (we thought we could escape the noise of the Basler Fasnacht!). A part of the square apparently was shut closed after shopping hours with big metal fences. While waiting for Jaap & Patricia, who were looking for birthday presents, we waited at those huge gates. It gave me the feeling of a huge prison (see picture).

Unfortunately, the stores closed at 17.00 hrs, so time put an end to our shopping mood. We strolled back in the direction of the shuttle service and checked for the time the last bus would drive to the Transferium. Harry, our top-athlete of the day, sprinted to check the schedule and informed us the last bus would leave in a little over an hour. Great! This gave us time to go into one of the bars to sit down for a moment and have a drink before going back.

We enjoyed a nice drink, or two in a cosy bar and then made our way to the shuttle. Bye-bye Den Bosch, see you next time!

Left to right: OrangeX, Jaap, Brenda, Patrica, CS

We drove back to Nieuwegein, about half an hours drive, arrived at Patricia’s place, kicked off our shoes and sat down for the next drink. Jaap & Patricia had planned to have a cosy dinner at home and did the shopping the day before already. The menu stated “stone-grilling”. Jaap, Harry and I had the pleasure of preparing the sauces, cutting the meats and veggies and basically had a fun time in the kitchen. Harry and I are Bacardi junkies and we realised earlier we would have to get some as the stocks at Patricia’s were running out. What a pity, we had forgotten to buy some and there was no evening store selling Bacardi in the direct area. Luckily Harry & Brenda brought a little something for CS and (most of all) for me as they were coming over to Switzerland the weekend after. Surprise! Harry bought a bit of Bacardi for us to bring back home. A full sized 3-liter bottle! Now we were sure not to run out of it this evening, but it takes skill and concentration to mix the drinks….

With utmost concentration...

Dinner was in one word “gezellig”. There are somewhwt equivalents to this word (German: Gesellig) but it never reaches the meaning and uses in Dutch. We sat down at the table, preparing our own food, grilling on the stone, chatting, laughing and taking funny pictures. When the bunch is together, there is no time to get bored. The pictures say it all….

What a "small" bottle of Bacardi can do...

Friends will be friends...

Harry & Brenda drove home around midnight and we enjoyed a last drink before going to bed. The next morning, we got up around 10.30 and really took our time to get ready for the drive back to Switzerland. Before leaving, we checked the internet to see which weather conditions we could expect as snow and storms had terrorized the southern part of Germany and larger parts of Austria and Switzerland. The forecast showed us we had nothing to fear, so no worries. We decided to make a quick stop in Utrecht before driving back, but it was a shopping Sunday in Utrecht. The city was overfilled, parking garages loaded with cars, so we decided to turn around and leave for home. The weather was great, traffic was smooth and 5 hours later we crossed the border in Basel. That’s when we got the biggest surprise of the weekend. Half a meter of snow in the area we live in! Big packs of white guck everywhere we looked. Trees had fallen over and we had to fight our way to the front door. The stairs going down to the front door had vanished under a thick layer of snow, so the steps were completely invisible. Once we got in our “son” welcomed us with loud meowing. Yes Dale, we’re back and all yours for the rest of the evening…