Today I returned from a VERY busy weekend, full of travels, meeting friends, meeting new people, vacation planning, Mass and lots of talking. On Sunday I even anticipated a travel of NINE hours in the train. Not in one go, but I bought a ticket from Amersfoort to Groningen via Bunde (in Limburg). So what drove me to go from Groningen to Ulestraten in Limburg with a stop in Amersfoort? Vacation.

From August 16 until August 29 I planned a vacation with a group of friends to Eastern Bavaria and Sunday after Mass a meeting was scheduled to discuss our plans. It’s great to do so, but the downside was that the place we were to meet was in the deep South of the most Southern province of the Netherlands, over 300 kms from where I live. Since I am dependent on public transport, the trip would take 4.5 hours by train to get there and of course another 4.5 hours to get back home. Since we scheduled a meeting at 2pm I never would make that in time after attending Mass. That’s why I travelled via Amersfoort to go to E. a friend of mine living there. She also will go with us to Eastern Bavaria plus we used the occasion to meet each other.

We met on Saturday evening. I left a bit earlier to explore downtown Amersfoort on bargain hunt. I didn’t exactly find what I was looking for, but dinner with E. and the video we watched was a lot of fun. We went to bed early because we had to be in time for the 9:30am Mass of course. E. had to do Confession, so she made an appointment to get the sacrament before Mass. Which meant we had to be there at 9am. That’s early. We were very lucky, because some people had an anniversary and treated the parish on coffee with cake. Mmmm! We couldn’t sit there very long, because we had to catch our train (which we nearly missed, by the way).

We were an hour late in Ulestraten because our bus didn’t show up. It turned out to be that’s very normal in Limburg. Lucky us that we will leave from Heerlen train station in August, so we don’t need to bother again with the unreliable bus system over there. The priest who will be our tour guide was very nice and German. I liked that (of course ). We had dinner at the rectory and it was past 8pm when we were back at our train, so I never would make it back home in time. Therefore I had to spend another night in Amersfoort. Good thing I didn’t have anything scheduled on Monday!

While on the train, I realized I would be still in Amersfoort on Monday and I didn’t have had the chance to talk with an acquintance there, so if he would be around in the morning I could catch up with him. Thanks to the mercy of having wireless internet I could contact him and make an appointment. I so LOVE my hotspots account! We had a cup of coffee at the railway station and a very nice conversation. And after putting me on the train to Groningen I really had the feeling I got everything out of this weekend I possibly could get. I felt very satisfied.

Back in Groningen I discovered a new hideout: Puur! Natural Food. It’s a place you can hang out to have coffee, smoothies and sandwiches for lunch. And everything was fair trade or organic. It’s a brilliant place, not too expensive and I definately will visit again!

References:

• Puur! Natural Food website (Dutch)
• English review site mentioning Puur! Natural Food

Posted under Daily Life