The Tudors and their friends

Viv & Rob Kleinjan
Jun 3, 2024
11 min read

April started with Hugo’s graduation of his second master in Switzerland. It was such a memorable day at the University of St Gallen. The sun was out, with temperatures around the 25 degrees Celsius it was a beautiful day. We had a wonderful walk through St Gallen, also good for Ayo because we had him with us. The place we stayed at was really nice. Two bedrooms, one for Anna and Hugo, one for Rob and me and Jack had a comfortable sofa in the living room. Jack spent all day on the train and arrived around 10:30pm just like Anna did. We had a lovely dinner with an ex-colleague of Rob from Heineken, Patricia Heemskerk and she is living 15 years in Switzerland now and she’s working for the university. Hugo often walked in at her office and they’d like to have coffee together.

Hugo graduated in International Affairs and Governance. His first master’s degree was Public Administration with a Specialization in International and European Governance.

We are incredibly proud of him. It wasn’t the easiest journey this second master, but he was determined, and he did it. On our way to Switzerland, we realized we haven’t had many graduation ceremonies of our four children mainly due to covid.

We have missed 7!!:

Noa’s Bachelor in Canada BC

Noa’s Master in Luzern Switzerland

Robin’s Master in Innsbruck Austria

Jack’s first Master in St Andrew’s Scotland and his second master in Leiden, Netherlands, but the boys got this covered together.

We also missed Hugo’s Bachelor’s in Brighton UK and his first Master in Leiden, Netherlands, but as I said above, the boys got this together, which was pretty awesome.

This means we have only been to 3/10 graduations, big milestones we missed.

However, we feel blessed and fortunate that our children love studying and finally (hopefully) Hugo’s off the payroll soon ;-)

Jack left very early on Sunday morning to get the train back to Leiden. A long journey ahead for him. Also, Anna took the train early. Rob was the only one who flew back to London. Hugo, Ayo and I took the train to the border, then we had a two hours bus ride and then we had a long train ride because of a detour to Graz. In Graz we fetched our car at Robin’s office and drove to Wiener Neustadt where we slept that night, needless to say in a Hilton, as family member we pay a really friendly price. The next day I went for my checkups and Hugo took Ayo to see a friend and an old colleague of Rob from his Vienna years.

Checkups were all good, so off we went to Carinthia to our house in the mountains.

On Friday the whole Kleinjan family arrived at Don Papa. Piet came with Rob on Thursday night. Maxime flew from Lisbon. Caroline and Peter and Kim arrived after a, long drive Friday night. Jack came on Saturday, he had the night train and stopped at Spital an der Drau, where Robin fetched him. After the whole family gathered, we went up the mountain to spread my mother-in-law’s ashes. It was wonderful weather, sunny, great temperature and there was still a bit snow on the mountains. It was special being there almost all the Kleinjans, Noa couldn’t make it as she had the marathon of Rotterdam and in her hotel the top 50 runners were staying. In Carinthia the whole month of April is low season, super low season, all the restaurants are closed, it’s extremely quiet and so our weekend was perfectly planned.

We also had a little surprise for Hugo’s graduation, we gave him new handmade wooden tour ski’s, something nice for his ski collection.

The first two weeks of April Armin and Robin were working hard in their garden to realize a nice terrace. Armin’s a true handyman! Also the barbecue he made it himself.

The week after Austria we had Monique and Cock (CJ) van Boheemen over.

CJ is Rob's colleague at Heineken, and I went with Monique to highschool together.

It was planned precisely this weekend to see the football match, Tottenham Hotspurs against Manchester City, but Man City made the next round in the FA Cup and therefore it was postponed by 2 weeks. With Monique and CJ we went downtown on Saturday and on Sunday we strolled along the canals to little Venice. We had not seen them for some years so we had a lot of catching up to do.

Cock came back for the match with his son Thomas, also working for Heineken. The atmosphere in the stadium was weird. Already for the match the Spurs fans were singing: "If you hate Arsenal stand up", then everyone stood up. Arsenal wasn’t even playing there. Some of the Spurs fans near us were upset that the own fans wanted Spurs to lose. Reason was that if Spurs won than Arsenal would be champion but Spurs would qualify for Champions League. But if City won than they would be champion, which for most Spurs fans was more important than reaching Champions League.

Noa and Mahdi celebrated King's night in style. With orange hair and dressed up properly they went to a festival in Leiden and had a lot of fun.

The first weekend of May I took the train up north to Scotland with my travel buddy Ayo to see Rob there, this was on Thursday May 2nd. We planned a long weekend on the West Coast of Scotland. It’s an amazing country, so beautiful. I drove mostly that Friday afternoon as Rob was still in meetings and on the phone the whole time. We stayed in a remote place in Kilchrenan Taynuilt the name of the hotel is Ardanaiseig, with a fantastic view over Lake Awe, or in Scottish Lochawe. The weather was on our side, it started on Friday with a sunny day, Saturday and Sunday were a bit cloudier and a few showers but always when we were in the car. Rob and I travel without a plan, sort of; the plan is there’s no plan. We arrived the first night in Inveraray, “Inver” means the mouth of, the mouth of Aray, it’s a town in Argyll and Bute. It’s on the western shore of Loch Fyne. It is a formal Royal Burgh. If you are looking for a wee trip or short scenic break on the west coast, Inveraray is just perfect. This small town is irresistibly charming and calming. We had dinner at King George hotel and pub, with a full stomach we drove back to hotel Ardanaiseig. The last half an hour to the hotel was a narrow road, only one vehicle fit on the road, this was interesting and not a bit was straight! Now and then you saw a house or two, unbelievable that you could live so remotely.

On Saturday we drove to Oban a lovely fisher’s town where they have the famous Oban whiskey distillery. We parked the car, strolled around Oban and found the distillery. Optimistically Rob asked for a tour, “no sir sorry we’re fully booked,” the lady replied. “Well maybe tomorrow then Rob hopefully asked.” “No sir, fully booked as well.” But you can go upstairs to the bar and try a few of our delicious fine whiskeys. Up we went, Rob bought four different whiskeys and here at that very moment I tried my first whiskey ever. You may ask yourself did she like it? The photo says is all. But like with bad wine, after the second glass you don’t taste it anymore. I tried three different ones, but honestly, I don’t think this is for any repetition.

The third day we drove back to Oban to catch the ferry to Isle of Mull. We drove to the gates of the ferry but were sent back since the ferry was fully booked for several days. The only option was parking the car and go as foot passengers, so we did. It was a Sunday so maybe we should have known better, but we are totally unorganized when it comes to planning ahead while traveling. We had a lovely boat ride of an hour. We arrived at a little harbour, there was nothing there!, except for maybe 5 houses. Luckily they had a tourist information, but believe it or not, it was closed, like on a Sunday there aren’t any tourists coming to the island…..

The island had a bus system but they only drive three times a day on a Sunday, that wasn’t working either. But then like an angel, a taxi driver stopped. We asked him if he could drive us to the nearest town. This was Tobermory he said, half an hour drive, 30 pounds. In the same sentence he said that he could bring us back to the ferry in the afternoon for 50 pounds. We sayd “yes please”. He probably thought, here we go, it worked again to rip off these tourists. Stupid people to come on a Sunday!

The ride was beautiful, the drive, he was a New Zealander, was nice, but he knew where the accelerator was. These narrow roads, you can’t see anyone coming, because it goes up and down the whole time, need a reduced speed. Even I am saying this, me who’s always in need of speed. We arrived save and sound in Tobermory. A lovely little town with a harbour, where boats are anchored, and all the houses are in bright colours. In Oban Ayo was allowed in every single shop and they all had treats for dogs under the counter. Ayo went from treat to treat basically. In Tobermory it was the opposite, he wasn’t allowed in the shops, in none of them. The restaurant we choose to have lunch, we didn’t even ask if he could come in, we sneaked him in, in his back pack. He knows then that he must be quiet, it always works. We had a look at the distillery in Tobermory and also here we tried to get a tour, but as you can guess 'no tours on Sunday'. So we bought two bottles of whiskey, one for Gary who turned 60 recently and one for ourselves. On the way back to the hotel we made a few stops at lovely places. Monday Rob had to work again; he had his first meeting at the hotel room. Later Rob discovered that the Tobermory distillery is owned by Heineken South-Africa, so we could have gotten a private tour. If only we had planned.

On Monday we came back in Edinburgh where we stayed near the airport. The next day I went back to London by train with Ayo and Rob stayed in Edinburgh for work. We had a lovely short mini holiday.

The weekend after, on May 11th we went to see the Chowns in Saltash, Cornwall. So, from the very northern part of the UK went went to south west. We took the train to Plymouth from Paddington station. After 3,5 hours we arrived at our destination. We saw Gary Shelley and Tony and Paula waiting for in the lobby of the train station.

We walked around the center of Plymouth before we sat down on a lovely terrace at the harbour. In the evening we had a lovely barbecue at Shelley and Gary’s house.

The next morning after a full breakfast we went out for a long walk through their beautiful neighbourhood and at the end we stopped at a biergarten for a few drinks.

And after spending great time together it was time to go back home again. Tony and Paula brought us to the train station around 2pm. By 5:30pm we were back at Paddington station. We got some groceries from the station and had a simple meal at home.

The weekend after, on May 17th, Anna’s parents came to meet us in London. They stayed at our house for a week. Anna came with them by train from Brussels. Hugo was already at our house for a few days.

Saturday morning, we took the bus to Buckingham palace, or at least nearby. We passed a few shops and Barbara saw a store where you can dress up in different genres and she asked if we were up for it. Of course we were! Half an hour later everyone was dressed in Tudor style. First Barbara was the Queen and her husband King Henry Vlll. Hugo put on all the rings that the shop owner had, to look cool. It was fun. Barbara and Bernard got a few photo’s printed, for us and also for Anna and Hugo together.

From Buckingham Palace we went to Regent’s Park. Barbara and Bernard bought tickets for a Shakespearean play, 12th Night or What You Will, the beloved Shakespearean comedy of mistaken identity. The play which was likely commissioned by Queen Elizabeth l in January 1601 as part of the 12th Night Celebrations, has stood the test of time. I was sitting next to Hugo, we had a bottle of wine in front of us, it was beautiful weather and sometimes he’d look at me and laughed, because I looked so helpless or desperate, there was so much going on on stage that I was utterly and totally utterly and lost.

Rob chose to go back home with Ayo, which was good because he could lay the table since we had another show in the evening. We came home, ate quickly and went to the next show, ‘Standing at the Sky’s Edge’, is about three generations weaving a narrative that spans the full spectrum of human emotion. A love letter to Sheffield and a history of modern Britain told through the stories of one iconic estate. Standing at the Sky’s Edge charts the hopes and dreams of three generations over the course of six tumultuous decades.

'Standing at the Sky’s Edge' is a new musical in Westend, who won the Best New Musical Award 2023 of the Oliver Awards.

Tired but very satisfied we took the bus back home. On Sunday we had a walking tour through London with Anna as our tour guide. At the end of the day Barbara and I went back home, both our knees were protesting and Bernard and Rob went for grocerie shopping and Anna and Hugo went for a bit of shopping together. Barbara and I sat down in our beautiful garden with a pint, a port and some snacks. Bernards was cooking a German dish that night. It was delicious!

On Monday was in most countiries day off at work because of Pentacost but not in the UK. Rob went to work, I had a doctor’s appointment, so we all went our own way.

Tuesday morning Anna left the house very early, around 04:30 am to catch the train to Brussels. Barbara and Bernard strolled around their favourite city.

On Wednesday we had another show, this time Hadestown, an amazing show.

Thursday we went to our favourite pub the Victoria where we had a good lunch.

On Fridaymorning Jacqueline arrived around 11 am. She wanted to see Camden market. We waited till Barbara and Bernard came back from church and said goodbye to them.

They took the train back to Brussels, stayed one day with Anna and then the next day they drove back to Mainz.

In the evening Rob came back from Edinburgh, and Milo was also ready with work. We went out for dinner close to Covent Garden at an Italian restaurant where they serve you delicious food in tapas style.

Saturday I was exhausted and so Milo and Jacqueline explored London on their own. Rob left for the Champions League Rugby Final. In the evening we ate at home and then we went for another show; "the Book of Mormon". This was so funny, we laughed out loud, just hilarious. I can recommend it to everyone. Sunday Jacqueline and Milo left again.

On Wednesday Hugo left London to be with Anna again in Brussels. I prepped the house for the next friends, Pieter and Tineke came last Friday, also for a weekend. It was busy in town, the champions league final was at Wembley Stadium between Borusia Dortmund and Real Madrid. On Saturday we strolled around the city, from Spitalfields Market to Trafalgar Square where many football supporters gathered around the Square. Unfortunately my knee was killing me, the story of my life at the moment. In the evening we ate in China Town.

Rob was trying to fix our projection clock, he had hoped on Pieter's skills. Sunday late afternoon just before they left the clock was fixed! I'm glad that it's working again. Sunday we went to Greenwich a lovely little village in London, at least it feels that way. We took the Uber boat back to Westminster.