Highs, Lows, and Everything in Between!

Did I scold myself for being such a naughty old gal!

My fabulous holiday at the kiddos in the Netherlands came to an end after almost six weeks. I had never seen and experienced so much in such a short space of time.

Being reluctant to leave, I left packing to the last minute, I did not take too much with me after all. I don't know about you, but travelling for many hours with hardly any legroom, is not for me. I tried squashing the bare essentials into a smaller bag so I did not have to place my bulky daypack by my feet.
That's when things started going wrong, but I'll tell you about that a little later;)

My son, his gal, and I, often sat with our heads glued to our PC screens on our rest days, kind of anti-social socializing with chitter-chatter in between. We were just enjoying the togetherness, and fortunately are on the same wavelength, if you know what I mean.

Hauser - Rebel with a Cello

My son had spoken of wanting to take me to a live concert, and while I was listening to Hauser on YouTube, he discovered that Hauser was performing at the Ziggo Dome in Amsterdam on the last Sunday of my stay, so duly booked tickets.
It was drizzling that night, and we were travelling by train, with an approximately 20-minute walk to the venue. It started raining heavily, most unusual for the Netherlands, it felt like I was back in Durban, as it came down in buckets.

Needless to say, our shoes were drenched, as were our socks, so there was much squishing and squashing as we walked into the Ziggo Dome. We both headed for the loos to try and get our feet a tad dryer, quite a job, but we weren't the only ones!

We did not get to strike a pose in front of Hauser though, it became too crowded by the time we had rescued our shoes!

Walking through that rain was so worth it, as the show was absolutely fantastic, and, it did not rain when we walked back to the train station afterwards!

Autumn leaves

All good things come to an end, so it was a sad goodbye to my view of the trees with their autumn leaves.

The Bag was to Blame

We were enjoying a leisurely sandwich and coffee before check-in, so I casually checked if I had everything I needed in my bag, but, my Asthma pump, the one thing I may, or may not need, was missing!
I had not transferred that very important item into my daypack, but it was too late as the smaller bag was inside the checked-in suitcases.

Of course when in a hurry, the place you need to go to, will always be on the furthest side, so my son and I had to almost run to get to a pharmacy at the very end of Schiphol Airport, as it was almost time to check-in.

Here in SA, that pump can be bought over the counter, but the pharmacist advised that in the Netherlands, one needs a doctor's prescription, and directed us to the airport medical services.

That Asthma pump ended up costing 78 Euro including the doctor's consultation whereas here in SA it would have cost me around ZAR 40, around 2 Euro!
Yep, I was flabbergasted that I forgot, but my son in his usual calm manner, insisted on paying, and said it gave us an opportunity to have one last walk together;)
At a cost though! I will try to claim from travel insurance, so will see how that pans out, and yes, it was in that red bag after all!