Day 12

Day 12 Our last day in England and we were ready to come home. England and France had been welcoming hosts but it was all drawing to an end. However as it was Christmas eve and were set to arrive on Christmas day we thought it would be a good idea to go to a normal centre and do some shopping. Ryan came to fetch us in his mini cooper bright and early in the morning as he too needed to do some last minute shopping. He brought Olivia and Cameron along but Cameron opted to stay with Joe which was going to guarantee him not getting a present from the shop. This did however mean that Ryan was going to have an opportunity to get his present. So off we went. Fortunately Sandra joined us in the morning because the Mini would have been a bit of a squeeze. We decided to go to the Harlequin which was an affordable centre quite close to Watford. The Harlequin was a typical centre pretty similar to kind we are accustomed to in South Africa. Similar to Canal Walk but not as big. So first mission Ryan had to find something for Natalie. So he bought him self a new pair of adidas trainers. In the mean while we had a mosey through Marx and Spencer where Lyndsay got a new bad to fit absolutely everything in (as it was huge) and she bought me my Christmas present a dress shirt and a tie. There was quite a weird market there they sold raw fish, cell phone covers etc. I could imagine this must have been what the Goodwood market must have once looked like. Olivia was sitting on my shoulders as she was quite tired of walking. In the market she decided she was really hungry and she wanted to eat there and then. We had planned to go to burger king, mostly because they are coming to South Africa and I really wanted to beat the hype. But Olivia insisted she was hungry now. So I took her to the fish store and asked her what she wanted. She promptly said fish is disgusting. So I said well if you are hungry now we can have fish. Or if you can wait we will go to burger king. She opted for burger king. When we arrived at burger king, Lyndsay informed me she really liked the charm bracelet that Ryan got Natalie, so I found a jewellery store and when and found Lyndsay a bracelet only to find out now that I could not have found a more expensive charm bracelet. Pandora Charms. So I bought her a bracelet and one charm of a little puppy as it is meant for special occasions. So burger king was pretty mediocre, we then had to make a move and get back home. So the four of us crammed into Ryan’s mini and back to the house. Joe was kind enough to get us back to the airport so we said our good buys at the airport and off we went to check in. We were really early at Heathrow so we checked in and decided to join Jono at Heathrow 3 terminal, we were 4. We had quite a leisurely lunch at an Italian themed restaurant at the airport. Alas were a bit too leisurely we said goodbye to Jono and rushed off, as Lyndsay and I found ourselves stressing out about missing our plane because we got stuck in to longest check in line possible. Where this child was kicking and screaming endlessly to the point that I began to think are these people kid napping them. Then of course I set off all the sensors. I had to take off my shoes my belt. Eventually though I made it through. Lyndsay and I made it to our line and we were able to breathe. We boarded our KLM flight back to Amsterdam and one and a half hours later we arrived. KLM slights have best waffles they give everyone. They were possibly the best waffles I have ever had. We had a 10 hour stopover in Amsterdam. This time we had booked a hotel the Ibis Hotel which was very nice. In my opinion the best hotel we had stayed at. Other then the Le Pierre which had the view of the mountain. A clean room nice shower and soft bed was all we needed as were just there to get some sleep. While we were waiting for the shuttle service to come fetch us and take us to the hotel we met a women from London. We asked her where she from and she informed us she was from Enfield in London. We were like oh we were there just the other night we walked through when we left the stoke game. She looked agasp! You weren’t walking around at night were you? She said astonished. We said yes we were trying to find a station, she responded you can’t to do that it’s not safe. We had a bit of a chuckle to ourselves and thought you live you learn. We arrived at the hotel and settled in for the night. Amsterdam is great it really is very beautiful and clean. It’s nice to be able to understand the mother tongue thanks to Afrikaans. Really a good experience however short.