De Boer Family Travels

We woke up from our nap in Singapore and decided to explore the airport before our flight.

We had a little bit of time before we had to check out of our hotel. We had a look at the bus tours to the city but we didn’t have enough time left to do one.

There was so much to do here it was more like staying in a resort rather than an airport! There was a free movie theatre that ran 24/7, massage places, a butterfly garden and much more!

Auke had secretly booked Ali in for a massage, so he surprised her with that! Meanwhile Auke took the kids to the butterfly garden.

Ali met them there afterwards. It was so cool to see lots of different butterflies. We were surprised to see them eating pineapple!

We hadn’t eaten since the plane so we went upstairs to find some food. There were so many options! Ali and Lana got lemon chicken with rice, Mila got a bowl of fruit and a fruit smoothie, and Auke got a pork and rice dish. The rice was the best rice Ali had ever tasted. It looked plain but it had so much flavour you could eat a whole plate just like that. Titus loved the rice too and also had some of the smoothie.

After this, we did some duty free shopping and the girls bought a toy robot. We boarded the plane - our next destination was Melbourne.

Titus was a bit unsettled on the plane, and the plane trip was not nearly as nice as going to Singapore. Every time we asked for drinks they kept ‘forgetting’ to bring them, and then they forgot to bring Ali a meal so they ran out of food. They ended up finding a spare meal which was fish which also doesn’t eat so she said no, and then they found a left over lamb curry which wasn’t very nice.

Lana crashed on the plane as she had been awake the whole trip before that, while Mila stayed up. Mila even ate all her airplane food!

Finally we arrived into Melbourne. We went through security again in preparation for the final leg of our journey to Wellington. The stopover in Melbourne meant Titus had officially been to ten countries in his short little life.

We boarded the plane once again, and the flight felt really short compared with all our other flights. Ali couldn’t do much on the plane because of Titus but before long we landed.

We did some quick duty free shopping, and then we walked out to meet Ali’s parents and sister.

We stopped for lunch near the airport, went home, and spent the evening having dinner with the family and giving all our presents to them. We were home again!

Today we had to get up early to leave for the airport! We had to leave at 6.30am to get to the airport on time, so we had to get up at 5.30am!

We quickly gathered our last few things, and hopped in the car.

We drove the car back to the hire car place, and then checked in for the airport.

We hadn’t had time for breakfast, and we wanted our very last McKroket before we left the Netherlands, so we went to McDonald’s. Sadly, they didn’t sell McKroket’s at the airport! In the mean time, Titus had a quick nap.

Before long, we were boarding our flight.

We were sitting in seperate rows with a Auke and the kids in front, and Ali behind. This time we were flying with Singapore airlines which was really nice!

They had a menu, and the food was good. They also had a page of things you could request such as socks or earplugs.

Much to Ali’s excitement, they even had cocktails (although when she asked which ones they had, they only had a Singapore Sling, but it was still great!).

The flight went well, and Titus even had a nap in the bassinet for a couple hours. Sadly, every time the seatbelt sign went on we had to take him out of the bassinet which meant he had to keep waking up. For the most part, the turbulence was minimal, although there was one patch for about 15 minutes that was very bumpy.

After what seemed like forever, we finally reached Singapore.

As they somehow how checked our flight through to Wellington, despite them telling us we would have it in Singapore, we used one of the airport prams which Titus seemed to love.

We had tried to book a hotel online, but it hadn’t worked, so we were turning up with nowhere to stay!

Thankfully, the airport motel had a spare room that was available straight away so we booked that, all had showers, and crashed into bed! This time there was no maintenance going on!

Today the morning was free, and then we had a boat tour organised for the afternoon.

We decided the best way to spend a free morning, and our last full day in Friesland, was with a sailing trip!

We got up in the morning, and ate the delicious breakfast they provided.

We then got changed into our swimmers, and off we went in the sail boat! Berend, Gus, and us piled into one boat (without Titus who was sleeping), and Thomas and Aagje hopped into the other boat.

We went out into the middle of the lake again, jumped off the boat and swam in the beautiful water! It was just perfect as the day was turning into what was to be a 37 degree day!

The girls were very excited that they each got a turn at steering the boat.

Once back, we headed to a nearby town to quickly do some souvenir shopping. We found it hilarious as they even sold Friesland undies! Auke bought some Friesland shorts (much to Ali’s dismay), and we bought Ali’s Dad a Friesland tie as a joke.

We quickly headed back home, as the boat was due to come to pick us up at 1.00pm.

We had the hot part of the lunch before we left, and they packed a picnic lunch of cold things to take with us.

We all boarded the boat, with the exception of Sander who was sick, and we headed out to cross the lake. Pake wanted to show us where he used to stay in the school holidays as a kid, and where he used to do a lot of fishing.

We enjoyed the piping hot sun while we relaxed on the boat and ate the wraps they had packed for us. Meanwhile, Titus had a quick catnap.

They had large tubs on the boat that you fill up with water and use as a foot bath so people were using them to cool down. Titus loved using it as his own personal swimming pool!

Eventually we made it to the other side of the lake and Pake pointed out places he spent time at.

We headed back out - the plan was to find a nice spot for everyone to go for a swim in. Instead of swimming in the middle of the lake like we had done that morning, we ended up near the edge of the lake in a super muddy area!

Jumping in was unlike anything we had experience before. You sunk straight through the mud and it was shin height or knee height depending on how tall you were. It felt awful, and every step made you sink in more. When we hopped out of the water, we were all covered in mud!

Auke and a few of the others swam to a different area of the lake so we picked them up in the boat, and then we left.

We opened up a bottle of wine, and the captain pulled out a harmonica and handed out song books. Everyone sang along while we headed back.

After this, a few people had a turn being pulled behind in the boat in a ring.

Once back, we had dinner, and then the kids said goodbye to everyone.

We put the kids to bed (not before we had attacked them with aeroguard and killed all the mosquitos!). We then spent most of the evening packing as we had an early flight the next morning.

When we had finished packing, we headed outside to relax for half an hour or so and say goodbye to the family. During this time we saw some people on boats pretending to be firemen while holding a fake hose and with a speaker playing a siren. They ‘put out’ a fire on another boat. It was entertaining to watch!

We then headed to bed for our last night in Europe!

Today, we woke up absolutely covered in mosquito bites. We had had a very restless night and kept hearing them landing on us all night. We walked down to get breakfast, and it turns out nearly everyone else had the same problem! As we were right by the water, there were thousands of mosquitos.

We had a delicious breakfast that they had made for us - bacon, eggs, fruit, croissants, and lots more!

Beppe gave Titus a bottle, and it was so funny! Titus couldn’t drink because he couldn’t stop smiling at her!

Today we mostly had a free day to do whatever we felt like doing! In the morning, we had a family photo planned. We talked to family a bit in the morning.

Once the photo was done, Auke took the girls sailing with his uncle, while Ali stayed behind to look after Titus. The weather was beautiful and there was plenty of wind.

Auke came back for a short time, and then he left again with the girls to take them swimming at the lake with some of the family. It was about a 15 minute drive away. When they got there, it was quite busy. They got in the water and the water was really warm. As it wasn’t very deep, Auke tried to swim out deeper while Anne Roos looked after the girls playing in the sand. They walked almost 600 metres out but it never got deeper than about 60cms and was still very warm which wasn’t great for cooling off on such a hot day!

In the mean time, Ali decided to take Titus for a walk as he was getting upset. As she had walked one way the night before, she decided to walk the other way this time. She walked and walked but there wasn’t really much to see except farms and a few houses. Eventually she came across a church but there wasn’t much else to see so she went back home.

About half an hour later, Berend and Ida got home and Ida offered to watch Titus while Ali went sailing with Berend, Pake, Thomas and Ollie. This was Ali’s first time ever sailing! There wasn’t much wind, but the weather was brilliant.

They stopped in the middle of the lake for a swim and the water was perfect for swimming in!

Afterwards, they settled back in the boat with a beer to cool off a bit more on the way home.

Once they were back home, we all had a bbq for dinner, and then we got the kids to bed a bit early so we could visit our friends Magda and Frans.

We drove just under an hour to visit them and it was so nice catching up!

On the way home, we saw the most stunning sunset!

Tonight we knew to look for mosquitos and we killed as many as we found before settling in for the night. We also covered ourselves and the kids in aero guard.

Today we were going to leave Garderen and move on to Friesland!

We spent the morning packing, and handed the keys back in for our bungalow.

We drove over to Oma and Opa’s to say our goodbyes. It was sad to have to leave, but as we were heading straight to the airport from Friesland, none of us were going to see them again!

Oma and Opa had already hung up the big family photo of all of us one the wall which was cool to see!

We had coffee and appeltaart, and then it was time to go. Titus gave Oma a big kiss goodbye.

Before we left, we stopped in at a store to buy clogs for Ali and the girls to take home with us!

One thing that we noticed and is very different to NZ, is that when you are leaving a place, they out a red line through the street sign. It is like this in the whole of the Netherlands.

We drove about an hour and then we stopped at McDonald’s for some lunch. The McDonald’s here is ridiculously fancy. The people who work here dress like flight attendants, with full her and makeup. They used proper soap in the bathroom, and they wait on the tables constantly clearing rubbish etc.

We of course got a McKroket again (have to make the most of it!) and Ali made the most of the sweet potato fries. We don’t know how they do it, but they manage to get them so crispy! We then hit the road again to drive the last half an hour to get to where we were staying.

Pake and Beppe (Auke’s other grandparents from his dad’s side) had paid for a giant home with sixteen rooms for the whole family to stay in. It was situated right on the lake. It was fully catered with unlimited drinks and snacks, and it had pool tables etc. We got there, said hello to all the family and settled in.

They had sailboats and motorboats for us to use, so Ali and a few others headed out on a motorboat to enjoy the lake while Auke went swimming with the girls, and Titus had a nap. Some others went kayaking.

The lake was huge! It looked more like a sea. As it was windy, we got absolutely soaked on the motorboat as the waves were splashing water at us! It was hilarious to watch as all the sail boats were getting blown over and people were ending up in the lake. As we were sailing, we had a bird follow us the entire time, it was really cute!

That evening, we had make your own pizza which Lana thought was great fun! Ali also made her own!

After dinner, Ali went for a walk to enjoy the sun. Friesland is absolutely beautiful! The sun shining on the lake was breathtaking!

It was fascinating that on one side of the road is farms with cows, and on the other side of the road are sailboats and people doing water sports.

There was a cute horse and foal there too!

Eventually she went home, and we stayed up chatting to family. We saw a beautiful sunset too!

Eventually we all got settled in for what was going to be a very restless night - Lana and Titus has both been sick for about a week at this stage but for some reason Lana was up all night! Also, as we were right by the lake, there were mosquitos all through our room which kept us up all night!