Writing Prompt May 7th – First time

Thanks Oloriel for this prompt. You can check out the details here:
https://wordpress.com/read/feeds/19271780/posts/1449084003

Loads of firsts come to my mind and I did a post on them when I first started my blog, but today I will go with my first trip abroad.
It was May 10th 1991 and we had just got married. I was thirty four going out of the country and thirty five coming back in as we celebrated my birthday on the canals in Amsterdam on honeymoon.
I was so excited about having a passport and visiting a foreign country, getting married took a back seat as it was the second time for both of us anyway.

Hubby had booked our passage via British Rail, so after our registry office ceremony, we collected our things from home and caught the bus to the train station for the first leg of our journey to London.
From there it was a short tube trip to Harwich for our ferry connection. That was another first, our ‘honeymoon suite’ being an inside cabin with bunk beds and a suction flush loo which I played with for ages (I can be such a child!).
From The Hague, we had another train journey to Amsterdam Central.
Wow.
I was greeted by organs playing which made me feel like a million bucks, though this was all down to timing and nothing to do with our arrival.
We dropped into the VVV to arrange accommodation for our visit and got booked into a family hotel just outside the city centre for B&B. Our room was on the top floor (no lift) and we shared a bathroom, separate toilet and wetroom with one other room. Everywhere was spotlessly clean.

I discovered the joys of chips and mayonnaise, Dutch confectionery and the friendliness of the people. We found a little bistro where we had my birthday meal where the food was so good, I patted my tummy afterwards and said ‘British piggy full’ to a charming smiling waitress.
Our journey home was not quite so straightforward due to a public transport strike so we ended up hiring a car, having a Sweeny-type taxi ride to The Hague to find our ferry had been delayed by an hour to compensate, a rush on British soil getting on and off the wrong tube train to Waterloo, and walking what seemed miles on the correct train home to find a seat.
It was a great experience!

About pensitivity101

I am a retired number cruncher with a vivid imagination and wacky sense of humour which extends to short stories and poetry. I love to cook and am a bit of a dog whisperer as I get on better with them than people sometimes! In November 2020, we lost our beloved Maggie who adopted us as a 7 week old pup in March 2005. We decided to have a photo put on canvas as we had for her predecessor Barney. We now have three pictures of our fur babies on the wall as we found a snapshot of Kizzy, my GSD when Hubby and I first met so had hers done too. On February 24th 2022 we were blessed to find Maya, a 13 week old GSD pup who has made her own place in our hearts. You can follow our training methods, photos and her growth in my blog posts. From 2014 to 2017 'Home' was a 41 foot narrow boat where we made strong friendships both on and off the water. We were close to nature enjoying swan and duck families for neighbours, and it was a fascinating chapter in our lives. We now reside in a small bungalow on the Lincolnshire coast where we have forged new friendships and interests.

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2 Responses to Writing Prompt May 7th – First time

Oloriel says:

May 7, 2017 at 2:15 pm

Thank you so much for sharing your experience with us, it really sounded lovely, and I am so happy that you had a great time and can cherish the memories of it.
- pensitivity101 says:
  
  May 7, 2017 at 9:11 pm
  
  It was wonderful, and we still laugh about the cabin loo. Actually, we still laugh quite a lot, and that’s 26 married years on and 28 in total!

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