Phillip gets a birthday card every year from his “Aunt” Olga that lives in the Netherlands. When I asked how they’re related, no one could say for sure, just that her last name is Van Reijn so must be through Phillip’s fathers’s mother. We meant to mail her a letter months earlier, but with wedding stress and work to-do lists we forgot. Finally, when leaving London, we wrote the postcard, mailing it on our arrival in Paris. Fingers crossed, she would get it in time for us to meet up while we were there.
Olga emailed Phillip just in time for us to arrange to take the train from Amsterdam to The Hague. We passed through beautiful countryside and found Olga’s apartment easily. She didn’t speak a lot of English, and we didn’t speak a lot (or any) Dutch, but we showed her pictures of the family, especially of Phillip’s twin niece and nephew, and told Olga about our honeymoon so far. She showed us a few family pictures, even one where she met Phillip’s grandmother when they were young children. Turns out, Olga and Johanna (Phillip’s grandmother) were first cousins.
Even though we struggled with the language barrier, Olga fed us a wonderful apple dessert, delicious coffee, and were entertained by her bird “Schnoopie.” She graciously drove us back to The Hague central station, where we embarked on the train back to the Schiphol Airport.
From Schiphol we took a KLM into Basel airport (on the France side), took a train into the Basel train station, from there alllllll the way to Fiesch, Switzerland, way up on the Rhône river. We arrived close to midnight (a growing trend on our trip) and thankfully the hotel met us there with a car.
Right now, sitting by the pool in San Gimignano, I’m having trouble accessing pictures, but promise my next post will make up for the lack with the beauty that is the Swiss Alps!