Winter Wonderland in Don Papa

This blog is not about our favourite city of excellence, Lagos, but about this tiny little village in Austria where we are the proud owners of a very cool house.

We left Lagos on the 17th of December. Lagos traffic was kind to us that day. We have had rides to the airport taking more than 4 hours, but this time only two hours which isn’t too bad. Only on one occasion did it take 40 minutes as there was no traffic owing to lockdown.

But the international flight process with all Covid protocols remains a puzzle. Especially the Netherlands this time made it complicated. You needed a max 48 hours old PCR test and a max 24 hours Anti-Gen test. This Anti-Gen test is not an official recognized test so you can not get a certificate for it. So basically you need a PCR test of max 24 hours. But since there is only 1 flight a day and it departs Lagos at 23 pm, you can only do it on the day that you travel in the morning and pray that you have your results back on time. Then you also need a color printed version to show at the airport. Black and white is not accepted. The conclusion in our case was that we did all for nothing, since we only in transit in the Netherlands and a few days before our departure, Nigeria was ‘upgraded’ by Austria and our vaccinations were enough to fly.

We arrived 05:30 in the morning at Schiphol airport and had to wait for our connecting flight to Graz at 11:30. Rob had a nice breakfast with two portions of bitterballen, a typical Dutch snack, crunchy from the outside and meat ragout on the inside.

At Graz airport Robin was waiting for us at arrivals. We drove to our car at her office in Graz and from there we drove home. Robin joined us at our house a few days later.

There was a lot of snow on our driveway, Rob started to shovel the snow straight away. We just like being outdoors and do anything in the snow. The next day we went skiing. It is sometimes very surreal skiing in Austria during Covid-19 because we could count the number of people on the slopes on one hand. It was gorgeous weather, the slopes were super prepared, and the restaurants were open. Last year we couldn’t get a hot chocolate or coffee because all restaurants were closed due to Covid. Rob and I were two happy people at a very happy place, it was just magnificent.

We also had ordered all kind of small improvements to the house. We had a refurbishment of the wash and bathroom on the groundfloor. Although agreed that it would be done latest early October, not being there, resulted in getting it done a week before we arrived. We got also window blinds for all rooms, which look really nice. Anew rug in the living room and Rob hang our new name Don Papa. Next steps for the house is a rebuild of the top

floor entrance and ground floor will get a new door. And we will get a new dining table. So next time when we go we will have made progress again.

Jack, Ailsa, and Zara, their dog, were coming as well. They left the Netherlands on Tuesday before Christmas. Drove with our mini to Colmar (France), stayed overnight there and the next day they had only drive another 2.5 hours to get to Hugo in St. Gallen (Switzerland). They slept at Hugo’s apartment and the three of them drove to Don Papa in Wiedweg the next morning. They were just on time. The day after their arrival, the Austrian government imposed new quarantine rules for four countries, including the Netherlands. Sadly, our dear friends Louise and Ard and their girls Annabelle and Fleur couldn’t make it. It’s not working for one ski week, spending 5 days inside…. We missed them dearly.

The day that Jack, Ailsa, and Hugo arrived; Robin left Don Papa again. She is always celebrating Christmas with her Austrian family. She came back with Armin on Saturday, and they stayed till January 9th. We missed only one more child and that’s Noa. In hotel business it’s hard to get days off during Christmas. She flew on the night of the 3rd and arrived on the 4th of January.

There’s a little story to tell about her PCR test in Doha/Qatar. On New Year’s Day, Noa went to the clinic where Rob and I also went in November. She came in at 8pm and saw so many people, she texted us that it would take a long time. Her battery of her phone was almost dead, but she made “friends” and used someone’s charger. We were texting all night long. She finally got her test at 03:15 in the morning!! She sat on an uncomfortable chair for more than 7 hours, poor girl. Apparently, they’ve closed a few clinics, so it was all narrowed down to only two clinics. Noa went back with the taxi via a Mc-drive to her resort, that’s an hour drive away from Doha. She was home at 04:30 and had to work again at 09:00, so it was a very short night. Monday, she worked all day and still didn’t have her PCR test result back. She flew after midnight so after work she drove first into the city back to the clinic to see what they could tell about her results. They couldn’t help her, they said if you don’t have it by 9 pm you will get it tomorrow after 8am. This was not helpful at all of course. Rob and the boys were already looking at other flights to Austria for her, but the PCR test made it impossible. Noa said that she was going to the airport anyway and see what she could do there. She went to the check in desk, she told the man behind the counter that she didn’t receive her test result yet. He looked into it and said for Germany she didn’t need a test and so he checked her in for both flights. We were all so relieved. She got two boarding cards, and no one checked her. Finally on Wednesday morning she got her test result, luckily it was negative, but it took more than 3 days!

The family was complete, Sinterklaas could come to Don Papa. Everyone was running around with glue, scissors, boxes and I don’t know what more. The funny thing was that I had Rob, but he didn’t know until the last week I think. We always share who we have, but now I was in trouble, so I texted both girls who they had and I choose Armin, Noa’s victim.

It was absolutely a crazy night, where we were wrapped in paper ourselves, had quizzes and games, dirty surprises, and much more. Our two family members from Scotland and Austria are so good at it, they made amazing “surprises” for Jack and Robin. The photos will tell it all.

So, Noa arrived on the 4th of January, and with her a lot of snow came!

The went skiing and snow boarding and we had lovely dinners in our favourite restaurant Ariana in Bad Kleinkirchheim and we played games, mainly “boeren bridge” every night.

Rob, Jack, Ailsa and Hugo left on Friday the 7th. I stayed with the girls and Armin and we all worked hard to clean the house again after all the mess we made with Sinterklaas night.

Noa drove with Robin on Sunday to Bad Gleichenberg, stayed overnight, and the next morning Robin brought Noa to the airport in Graz for her return flights to Qatar. Armin brought me on Sunday to Graz for my flight to Amsterdam. Tineke picked me (and Ayo) up from Schiphol airport. I went to the Netherlands to organize Ayo’s travel papers, this takes approximately a week before you get the official documents that he can travel.

I got my booster shot in the Netherlands which made me really sick. Also due to all the cases in the Netherlands I decided not to see many friends. I was really scared I got covid just before my flight to Lagos.

So, I was in the Netherlands with my birthday and therefore also Cisca’s birthday, my twin sister. She’s born on the same day and same year in Wassenaar, I was born in Voorschoten, this is maybe 6-8 kilometer away from each other. I went over to Haarlem to see her for lunch and met her partner Henk-Jan. It’s been a while I have seen her, it was wonderful.

In the evening my cousin Nikki and her partner Guido came. Ailsa cooked for us but unfortunately she had to leave to work in Leiden.

I couldn’t do any shopping because everything was still closed. It’s not a good season for us/me to shop anyway.

On January 18th I flew back with Ayo to Lagos. Ten days later the boys and Ailsa arrived safe and sound in Lagos!

So they're re here now, we or they will write about our “adventures” after two weeks. Probably much to tell.

Enjoy the photos of Austria and in the meantime stay safe!