Holiday Celebrations

Viv & Rob Kleinjan
Jan 26, 2024
8 min read

Our last blog was a tribute to Rob’s mum. We try to go back to Rotterdam more often. Luckily, we found a way we can keep Ayo with us. Flying out is no problem at all, or we take the ferry from Harwich. To return to the UK we have to take the ferry back from Hoek van Holland, this works perfectly, it only takes a lot of time.

In the first weekend of November, we went back to see my father-in-law Piet to see how he was doing on his own. A last-minute decision was made to stay at the Hilton in Rotterdam where Noa works as Jack and Ailsa both had Covid. We didn’t want to bring anything to Piet nor to ourselves. The first morning we went down to have breakfast and we were so surprised to bump into friends from Vienna years. Piet-Henk and Sandy were there as well. They live in Brussels nowadays and had to be in Rotterdam and stayed in the same hotel, so we had breakfast together. It was dreadful weather, storm, wind real Dutch weather. Rob was looking for a barber at the Nieuwe Binnenweg, while we were walking there, we saw great shops and ateliers. What we also saw was Kabouter (Gnome) Buttplug in front of a typical Dutch oliebollen vendor, these are deep fried doughnut balls, always eaten in December. The people in Rotterdam give nicknames to their buildings and statues. Kabouter Buttplug is actually Santa Claus holding a Christmas tree. It’s made by American Paul McCarthy, this nickname is very clear, photo speaks for itself.

At the end of October Margot Kunst came to London. Her mum was British therefore she has cousins and more family in the UK. One of her cousins got engaged and she combined it with a stay at ours. I took her to van Gogh London Exhibit: The Immersive Experience. It was a 1000m2 light and sound spectacular exhibit featuring two story projections of Van Gogh’s most compelling works. It was brilliant.

After this we went to Spitalfields Market a great and big market where you can buy lots of handmade things. We drank something at the loft, and I knew that this would be a place Rob loves to visit, not van Gogh but the market!

A week later I took Rob there and he did enjoy it! It was busy though; due to all the great Christmas things you can buy there.

Half of November Rob went to see his dad first and then he would leave with Jack and a truck full of big stuff from our move from Nigeria and bring this together with Jack to Austria. When he checked in at the airport the lady behind the counter said, sorry Sir, you are not in one of our flights, you are at the wrong airport!! You must be at Heathrow airport and not City airport. Well, you can imagine that he didn’t have enough time to get on time at Heathrow airport so he decided to buy a new ticket à 450 euros. Luckily, he could still fly that evening. Rob had a very detailed trip planned and needed to pick up a rental truck at 8 am, drive fast to the moving company to pick up stuff and then go quickly to the next stop to pick up our Kekenape. It was put together again by Nick Lankau and we wanted the kekenappe in our house in Austria.

Rob will write how this trip went:

From Nick we went to my dad to be there for his 91st birthday, have dinner with him and then start driving with Jack to Don Papa. All went well until we reached Salzburg. We discovered that the tunnels in the direction of our house were in maintenance and there were huge traffic jams and delays. So we decided to drive over the mountains and passes via Obertauern. When we started to go up the pass there were flashing signs that all trucks > 3.5tons should have snowchains. We were below that so decided to go for it anyway. And since it was not snowing, we should be fine. It was only the middle of November….. Halfway up the pass it started snowing. 15 minutes later we could not see the road anymore and it was getting worse. Jack also noticed that things were not looking good. And then we got stuck behind a truck that was slipping and sliding upwards. And could not overtake, so needed to go back to first gear. We were not there yet. Finally it was possible to overtake and we were like 5 meters per hour faster than the other one, crawling up and made it to the top. On the way down we realized that the next pass was even higher so we decided to go back to the traffic jams…. It was one of those moments that you see on television and you see a truck sliding backwards down the mountain and you think, how stupid can that person be… It was great to do this together with Jack. We made it safe and sound to our house Don Papa!

At the end of November Mathilde and Dennis came from Esjberg Denmark. It was wonderful to have them over. We explored the city together, went back to Spitalfields market and now I know why Rob went into an Art Café. They said it was for their son Dave, he could maybe open something like this in the Netherlands. In reality Rob was booking this for 10 people for my 60th birthday in January. This is a story for the next blog!

With Dennis and Mathilde, we went to a candlelight show in the heart of Covent Garden. First in the afternoon we went to Greenwich, walked around there, and took the boat back to Westminster. We noticed that we were late, Rob had to run to bring Ayo home, we went straight to the church where it was held. Rob came maybe 5 minutes late, founds us and we enjoyed it until three rows in front of us a lady got unwell and fell on the ground. She needed medical care. We were all summoned to leave the church and we waited a few minutes in the cold outside but then decided to leave. The show never continued. In a few days’ time they refunded our money, without asking for it. They do this so well in the UK, whether it is train delays or something like this.

We also came across “the ever after” garden; this is a tranquil haven where everyone everywhere can remember treasured friends and family they have lost. Over the festive season each year, Grosvenor Square in the heart of Mayfair is lit up with over 25.000 illuminated white roses. You are invited to dedicate a rose in memory of a loved one, whilst donating in support of The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

There’s a cool place we like to bring our friends to, it’s a church also in Mayfair, this church is converted into a food hall, but a nice one.

Unfortunately, when Mathilde and Dennis wanted to go back to Heathrow airport, we learned that the Heathrow express and the Elizabeth line were closed due to rail works. They took a taxi instead, that works too especially on a Sunday.

Beginning of December I went to Austria. I always go first; I have all the time to decorate the house for Christmas and make all the beds ready for the invasion that would then soon follow.

Hugo also arrived on the 8th of December together with his friend Alex from University of Sussex (Brighton). We wanted to get groceries close by home, the car was already filled with many boxes that arrived at Robin and Armin’s house. When we arrived in our village all the supermarkets were closed! It was Maria Empfängnis or the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, of course we didn’t know. We decided to have a late lunch and went for schnitzel und pommes at the Einkehr. We also noticed that not all lifts were open. The next day the boys went skiing at Turracher Höhe, there everything was open. Alex could rent his stuff and they made their first meters of skiing.

In the weekend of the 16th of December, Alex left and Noa and Mahdi arrived. This was the first time we met Mahdi. Rob and his dad Piet arrived the next day, so was Anna.

Noa and Mahdi were flying very early from Schiphol to Salzburg, they decided to sleep at the Hilton at the airport. The evening before they walked into the restaurant of the hotel and Noa heard her name shouted! Sanneke and my niece Joe Ann were there too. I got a photo send by Sanneke saying “look who’s here?!”

Robin came also to Don Papa but had to work. She kept opa Piet company. He was reading a lot. Jack and Ailsa arrived on Tuesday; they always make a little 2/3 days trip of it when they come. We were all prepping for Sinterklaas. Jack asked if he could use a lot of old rugs…. No idea why he needed that. Hugo and Noa were skiing and snowboarding with Anna and Mahdi. Both had never done it. Mahdi never had seen snow before, and I think he leaves it to these two days when it comes to snowboarding or skiing. Anna was very enthusiastic about skiing, she will definitely continue.

And then Sinterklaas came!! Everyone was there, also opa Piet. His return flight was cancelled and so he stayed two days longer with us. We bought him some gifts too, but no “surprise”. The Sinterklaas marathon took us 10 hours this year. We started 14:45 and were ready 00:45 the next day!! The photos speak for itself! But funny enough the theme maritime came back a few times. Jack with his game Sea battle for Robin, but then a live version, it was hilarious.

I had to do my boating skills in the hot tub and Armin was dressed as a true Captain of the boat of Sinterklaas.

Hugo interviewed Herman and Roland, two friends from Rob’s childhood and university.

It was very funny, first time the tv was used with poems. There was also a lot of Karaoke. The two rookies, Anna and Mahdi had to sing in Dutch Sinterklaas songs, and they were good! Hugo had to wear a hospital shirt and got cocktails in an intra venous drip, Hugo had a tough year with glandular fever. All the surprise and poems were so funny and well made. Can’t wait for next year.

Anna and Hugo and Robin and Armin left on the 24th because for them and their German/Austrian families, Christmas is important to celebrate. Mahdi and Noa stayed two days longer. They all had to work again between Christmas and New Year.

On Wednesday after Christmas Pieter and Tineke came and Ard, Louise and their daughter Fleur. Both hit a lot of traffic unfortunately.

Pieter and Tineke didn’t want to go skiing, they had relaxed mornings for themselves at the house. The walked Ayo at the end of the morning. The weather was amazing, sunny and plus 5C, which is not good for the snow conditions, but we could ski. In the evening we played games and it was just very relaxing and great to have the house filled with friends.

On January 3rd everyone left again, Rob and I had a few days for ourselves.

We organized a New Year's barbecue for the neighbours. Rob tried to get the gas barbecue working again but had a problem with the gas. In Nigeria they had changed the connection to the gas bottle and result was that we could not get a replacement part. So after 3 trips to DIY markets he finally got it working again. Just In time, two hours before everyone came. We had also a bonfire and Emanuel came with our favourite white glühwein. Although I was a bit under the weather, we did have a great time together. We did everything outside but at a certain moment we ended up inside drinking our Don Papa rum! We need to order a new bottle (4,5 liters) soon!