Cruise

Little Man and I lived in the Netherlands almost two years now, and we haven't been on a canal tour, until today. One of the nice things about having visitors is that we'll do things that we wouldn't normally do on a day to day basis, even during the holidays. My parents have wanted to make memories with Little Man and myself whilst they're here. Last Friday we went to the airplane museum in Lelystad and today we went on a tour in a canal boat in Leiden, which we all really enjoyed. I learned quite a bit, like that there are over 190 bridges in Leiden, and this particular one was built during one of the COVID-19¹ lockdowns, so that people could get out and exercise easily (one of the few things that people were allowed to do during that time).

My parents really love Leiden and whenever they've had guests come over to visit from England, they'll take them to Leiden for a canal boat tour. Since Little Man and I moved in with them, they've not been able to host any foreign guests, but they've taken us to Leiden a few times since we moved here. Within six months of us arriving in the Netherlands, they went to Uganda for an exploratory trip, and to see how they were needed in the church there. At the end of July 2024 they moved back to Uganda indefinitely. So when they do come over to the Netherlands, these trips are holidays and opportunities for them to spend time with the family.

Today has been really hot. It was about 31⁰C (87.8⁰F) this afternoon, but not too humid. So it was lovely being able to get out of the house and away from the constant organising. My parents have been storing a lot of their possessions in our spare room whilst they've been in Uganda. Since Little Man and I will be moving out of our current home in October, to a yet unknown location, my parents have spent much of the last week going through the boxes in their room and the contents of the cupboards. I hadn't realised how much stuff in the house belongs to them, since there's a lot of random storage places that I tend never to use (as its completely full of their things). It's why we've made several trips to the second-hand shop in Oudewater (its the nearest one to us).

¹Its crazy to think that only 5 years ago, the world was plunged into a state of lockdown and that most of us spent the better part of a year and a half in confinement in our own homes. Lockdown would lift, people would do stupid things, and we'd all go back to being stuck in our own homes.