Wednesday 22.5.2024

My start to my vacation was once again a little unusual. I had just taken a letter to the post office on the way to Marlies, but hey presto. I parked at the post office and so did a patrol car. Two young police officers got out and said: "General traffic check. Please show me your driver's license and vehicle registration. Do you know why we're checking you?" I said no, of course, but I wasn't wearing a seatbelt again. And I was fined 30 euros. Fate.

On the way to Marlies I fought my way from traffic jam to traffic jam. It was a good thing I had left the house very early. When we arrived we packed Marlies' things and headed off into the next traffic jam, but on the 31 it was over and I didn't have to hold back on the accelerator anymore.

My Henry, who is always standing in the car all agitated, finally sat down after a long drive and then even lay down, but not to sleep. He had to keep an eye on things. Poor little guy, he has to go through so much.

Marlies and I were chatting and at some point I noticed that she had blue fingernails and I commented on that, to which Marlies replied laughing: "I always do that when I go to the seaside, and my toenails are blue too." We both laughed. It's a method after all.

We reached our ferry on time, quickly shoved a few chips into our hatch, I took a ride with Henry, who was so excited that he didn't do anything. He still walks on double leashes, because sometimes he still reacts when he's scared and rears up like a little circus horse. That's what happened when a man put his suitcase down next to him. Of course he was far too excited to have anything to drink.

Then we went on the ferry and Henry stayed in the car because the activity on the ferry would not have given him any peace. The sky was overcast so we looked for a place inside the ferry. Marlies organized two coffees for us and what happened? I tipped over my half-empty coffee with a stupid gesture and the lady next to me said, offended: "You should be glad I didn't get anything." What a stupid woman, as if it had been intentional. She was generally unpleasant and of course she didn't become my friend.

After two hours the ferry docked on Borkum. Henry had survived the time well and I stopped at the first opportunity to take him for a walk. But far from it. The walk was unsuccessful. So we walked the next 6 km to our apartment, where we only stopped to unload. Because you are not allowed to drive everywhere on Borkum. There are red, blue and green zones. After we had unloaded, we drove the car out of the blue zone to a parking lot, which of course costs money. But fate, the stupid machine did not accept my EC card. Luckily Marlies still had change so we could pay for two days, because the machine did not accept notes. Then we had to walk back. About 19 minutes, at the rate I am walking at the moment. Your hips and buttocks hurt again! Getting old is not for cowards.

Our holiday apartment is quite bare and impersonal, but it will be fine for the time being. Everything we need is there. So we first had a coffee and Marlies is just unpacking her suitcase. I have to do that right away, too, and since Marlies even thought of a bottle of wine, we'll make ourselves comfortable.