The Most Important Thing Today Is:

 

Posting this with some delight and relief, as I sip a celebratory glass of wine after dealing with ArriveCAN for more then a few hours this morning.  If anyone is considering international travel anytime soon, I have a few helpful hints for you.   The most important one is that someone needs a functioning IPhone, because security codes must be forwarded in order to open certain documents, like this one, above.   Thank goodness for Dave’s cell plan or we would not have been able to access this delightful news, nor upload it to ArriveCAN along with our vaccination certificates, passports, potential quarantine plan, contact information and pretty much anything that they request.   When it’s time to come home, you just bend over and take it.  Then say thank you.  Because, you know, we’re Canadian, eh?

The Smart One of the family checked on bike rentals this morning to find they are closed on Sundays.   Fortunately this was before we boarded a series of trains and buses to begin the grand Biking Holland Adventure.   So, we have rebooked it for tomorrow, and what a fine way to spend our last full day in the Netherlands.   This morning we revisited Prinzengracht for our last canal stroll, stopping again at Hans & Gretel house for a bite and a hot chocolate.  Then by unanimous vote, returned to our little apartment for a few hours of down time.

The cab has been ordered for Tuesday morning 0830, plenty of time (one hopes) for our 12:30 flight to YYC and from there, to YQQ.   It’ll be a 13 hour trek but if the flight home is anything like the flight here, entirely pleasant and calm.  It is always a major reality shake to imagine being home after being so far away and it will take days until the full essence and flavor of this incredible holiday really settles.  I won’t flatter myself to compare it to a Hero’s Journey, but I will say that the takeaway is deep and has yet to be tapped and fully assimilated.  It will take time to sift and settle.   Once home, my plan is to self-quarantine for at least a few days, curl up with my happy papillon and dig into some office work that waits impatiently. Island reality.  It’s all good.