Last Day in Hoorn

Friday, August 26, 2022:

The overnight rain never materialized, but we had very light sprinkles on and off all day, and it was cloudy and much cooler. It actually felt like fall!

We slept like babies in our comfortable bed and reluctantly checked out of the Heavens Hotel. Marius and Anne-Marie picked us up in their car, and we loaded it up with our bags.

They had one last plan to occupy us. They arranged for us to take a canal tour of Hoorn! It was a short walk from their house to where we boarded the boat.

All of the other tourists on the boat were Dutch, so the tour guide spoke mostly Dutch, but Marius and Anne-Marie translated for us when necessary.

We boarded the boat by an old prison that is now a hotel. We could have gotten a room there, but we passed:

We went under quite a few bridges, some draw bridges and some not. We had to duck under most of them!

It's a very beautiful town to see by water. The clock tower that dominates the landscape was built with heavy-duty light-colored stone on the side facing out, and with red brick on the side facing in. The light-colored stone was better able to withstand an attack:

This is a popular view of Hoorn for photos:

Everywhere you look, there are boats and bridges:

From water, this is a better photo of the Saint Bernard dog made from Lego's:

Some interesting sculptures on the wall:

What a decorative boat:

Pretty canal lined with house boats:

One thing I regret not getting a photo of: the front door of the smallest house in Hoorn is actually in the house next door!

After our canal tour, it was time for lunch. Along the way, a museum provided us with several photo ops:

Except for the sunglasses on top of his head, Marius looks pretty authentic, doesn't he?:

We chose to eat at the Hotel Ysbrantsz, which is where I was originally hoping to stay. It worked out great, because we loved our stay at the brand new Heavens Hotel. Still, I was eager to try out the Ysbrantsz kitchen for lunch:

We had a delicious lunch with a homemade caesar salad and fish stew. But what really stole the show was their homemade Dutch apple pie! Yum, yum!

After wishing a grateful farewell to Anne-Marie, Marius drove us about 30 minutes away to the Amsterdam Airport and dropped us off at the brand new Hilton Schiphol. It was an architectural wonder with a beautiful lobby. Our room faced the atrium and was quiet as could be. We never heard any air traffic.

I got dizzy looking down into the lobby:

The hotel restaurant, the "Bowery Restaurant", featured an Asian menu. We both enjoyed our Asian-inspired dinner selections. Not ones to stay up late partying, we retired early to prepare for our big Saturday travel day.

Saturday, August 27, 2022:

It was very convenient staying at the Hilton! We enjoyed our hot breakfast there and began walking under cover to the airport around 8:15 a.m. We needed every minute, as we got to our gate with maybe 30 minutes to spare before boarding. The line to get through security at Schiphol is very long, and once you get through, you have to walk a very long way to get to your gate. I estimate that we walked about 3 miles at Schiphol. That's ok, we needed the exercise! The passengers on this flight were rowdy, loud, and colorful!

Our British Airways flight to London departed at 10:50 a.m. and arrived at London Heathrow at 11:10 a.m. It was about a 50 minute flight. Amsterdam is one hour ahead of London.

Compared with Schiphol, it was a breeze navigating Heathrow. We had plenty of time to collect our baggage, re-check it, get through security, and find our new gate. There was a very short walk involved at Heathrow. We even had time for a quick airport lunch.

Our British Airways flight direct to Nashville departed at 2:55 p.m. and arrived in Nashville at 5:55 p.m., for 8 hours and 20 minutes of flying time. Brock got a nap in, but I stayed awake and watched 3 movies. We were served dinner and a small snack. The time passed pretty quickly. It was great to have the direct flight! We're so lucky to have that! I believe this is the only international flight that flies into and out of Nashville.

We caught a taxi home and were really glad to get home. Needless to say, we got to bed early and slept soundly!

Thank goodness we both remained healthy for the entire trip! Brock's foot got a little sore from all the walking we had to do, and I hope that didn't set his healing back from his plantar fasciitis.

We are really happy that we were able to make this post-pandemic trip to Europe. We had a very memorable visit. We appreciate everything that Marius and Anne-Marie did to make our visit to the Netherlands so special! We can't wait to go back!