Europe: Nieuw-Vennep, Leiden

Marlies Wobbenthe Netherlands2 Comments

Aalmarkt, Leiden

Europe 2019, blog 1/9

With dad being 101, we can’t stay away for years at a time. So we went back to visit again this past year. We pushed the date a little bit, so we could combine the visits with Christmas markets in Holland and Germany! While we were there (November 19 – December 5), I just barely found the time to share some pics on social media. But now it’s time to write about the places we’ve been to!

November 19/20

Flights

We left Regina on the 19th and since we traveled into the future going east, we arrived in Amsterdam on the 20th. We got there safe and sound with smooth flights from Westjet (to Edmonton) and KLM. I was able to cross off a bucket list item – we got to see aurora borealis, the northern lights from the plane! I actually booked seats on the north side of the isle for this reason, but hey what are the odds?! We were quite far north, above Baffin Island, Nunavut probably, and they danced beautifully for us! I’m quite happy that my fairly new phone (Galaxy S10e) has a setting for night photos. Therefor I was able to capture it, although not all that sharp. The plane wouldn’t hold still, ha!

Nieuw-Vennep

At Schiphol airport, we picked up our nice rental car (Jeep Compass) from Hertz (we always book through Auto Europe). We drove to the nearby town of Nieuw-Vennep where my brother Ton and sister-in-law Rita live. Great to see them again of course and we stayed for lunch. After that we went to Hotel De Rustende Jager (the resting hunter) in town to settle in and have a nap. This atmospheric hotel is being run by the 3rd generation of the “De Jong” family. It has been in the family since 1941!

Leiden

In the evening, Ton took us to Leiden, a centuries old university city, with gorgeous old architecture and canals. Kind of like a mini-Amsterdam in my opinion! Two years ago we were there during the day, but now we had a chance to take some night pics 🙂 My nephew Martijn lives in the city centre, so we walked around for a bit and went to the Febo, a snackbar, for frikandellen, bami blocks and fries with sateh peanut sauce. The first Dutch food items on our wish list!

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2 Comments on “Europe: Nieuw-Vennep, Leiden”

    1. Oooh the one in the footer of the website you mean? Well that must be our good friend Randi, you might know her 😛

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