Lonely Cabin in the words

April 18, 2014 (By Ben)

So today was a lazy travel day, we slept in lounged around in bed, and had breakfast. Then we went out to the car in our cheap parking space, only to find that there was some random pink ticket on the window. It was wet from the rain and in a language that we don’t speak, however it didn’t have any type of $$ amounts on it so we figured if you don’t know what it is, don’t worry about it. 

So we loaded up the car and headed out, it was 9:30, and our goal was to meet my mom and rest of the family at a Cabin outside Doorn at around 3:30pm, however since Europe is so small it was only a 4 hour drive away.  That 4 hour drive route was the longest route I could possibly make on the maps.  So we headed out, driving as slowly as possible.

The Route took us along the ocean highway, and through a couple tunnels, and near some awesome beaches. We stopped at one beach,  the wind was blowing so strong, we were getting sand in our mouths, so we just took a couple pics and headed on our marry way. 

After about an hour or so we saw a bunch of kite type things over a sand dune so we stopped again to investigate, this time we came across a HUGE flat sandy beach with hundreds of people on it using kites for fun activities. 

Some were just flying kites, others were using sails to move wheeled boards over the sand, and others were using kites to pull these 3 wheeled karts around it looked like a fun time, however it was super cold and everyone was in winter gear, or dry suits.

We continued on ‘til we got to Doorn but it was still early so we decided to go shopping and get some food before heading to the cabin. After picking up some groceries we headed down a long single car path to the location the GPS was suggesting the cabin was at.

The Area was nicely treed and away from the main road, had bike paths and camping sites along it.  After we parked the car we decided to just wander around to the cabins and see what they looked like, since we figured that since it was barely 3pm the others probably weren’t there yet. We found the first cabin pretty easily as it was close to the front gate. As we were just heading down the little driveway towards it when out popped Mom, Aunty Nora, Auntie Joan and Uncle Rick.. Yay, everyone one was here already. And they were super excited to see us; all talking over each other in their excitement like little kids (but I guess when you are end up spending a lot of time around your siblings and your mom, no matter your age, you must revert back to some sort of child-like state…).

So since they had already checked us all in, we were able to get into our cabin right away and get settled while they all went into town for groceries. We decided this was the perfect time to find a Laundromat; we asked at the reception desk and their washing machine was broken but they said there was a Laundromat in Doorn. So we blindly headed into town figuring we would be able to spot it since there were really only a couple of small roads that had businesses on them. Of course we couldn’t find it so Alissa went into a random store and asked, but the girls working there said there was no Laundromat in town. Since we were obviously wasting our time we decided to head back to the cabin, but on the way stopped at another resort hotel since we figured that their staff would have more reliable information. They told us there was a Laundromat in town but it was probably closed, so we decided to check tomorrow morning.

Once we got back to the cabin we relaxed for a bit and made up our beds before the others got back. They had to pick up Oma from a relative’s house after picking up groceries; 

Oma was so happy to see that we had made it to Holland. Since we were all here now, we organized dinner and relaxed and visited for a while. This was definitely a “too many cooks in the kitchen” situation as everyone jockeyed for space in the small kitchen since everyone wanted to pitch in and help prepare the food. But we managed to all eat and after dinner we went for a walk to see if we could find Oma and Opa Van Exel’s old cabin.

 Since no one had been to the cabin in some 50 years, no one was really positive as to which cabin it was, but they figured it was one of two in a certain area. The one cabin had someone in it who came out and talked to us and invited us to come see his garden. He had owned the cabin for 15 years and was very proud of the work he had done. It turned out that this was the right cabin and everyone was pleased that the current owner was so happy there and was proud of his house. After our walk some of us had some wine and we decided to play cards and visit. We ended up staying up until almost midnight (we didn’t realize until it was very late that the clock in the cabin was an hour behind). Once we realized how late it was it was bedtime for everyone and we said goodnight.