Anyway, we planned to meet on April 6, in Arnhem. By the evening of April 5th, it seemed it was just gonna be me, Marjanne, Marlene and William at the reunion (a.k.a just another day in North East England...and William) the plan was to visit our old school (there were no classes, but I received word that teachers were having a meeting) and then drive up to Amsterdam and possibly meet up with Beerd.
Well, meet up at Arnhem Central Station we did, and drive to the AIS we did as well, only to be confronted by a locked gate, and what seemed to be a school building devoid of life. It seemed by intel* was incorrect, nobody was here, cars were parked in the parking lot, but no one was in the building. Desperate, we spent about 10 mins walking around the school looking for entry points, but every door was firmly locked (side note: the front gate is quite pointless as you can easily get to the school from the back...just sayin')
After hanging around and thinking of various (illegal) ways to enter the building, we decided to call it off and head up to Amsterdam. With Marlene driving, we got on the highway and headed to the capital.
With William in the car you can be sure the discussions were lively, crazy and sometimes absurd (William's trademark) but it was fun.
Arriving in Amsterdam, we found a parking lot and promptly found a toilet as I felt my bladder was at tipping point so to speak. It was the best urination experience I have ever had, unexplainable relief and lightness, it was bliss!
Anyway...we headed off to Dam Square to meet up with Beerd, who I hadn't seen in four years.
He arrived in a cloud of smoke, well not really a cloud...with a cigarette perched daintily in his right hand and and iPod earphone hanging from his left ear. After embraces, compliments and salutations we headed off to find PANCAKES!
Finding a spot next to the flower stalls (and blocked from the shining sun) we settled at the 'Old Dutch Pancake House' which billed itself as having the 'best pancakes in town', right next to it was another pancake house which also claimed to have 'the best pancakes in Amsterdam' clearly one had to be false, but we didn't have time to sample both menus and decide. We talked, laughed and ate our pancakes and then decided to head up to another cafe in Rembrandt square.
This time we were exposed to the full rays of the sun (and also exposed to noisy trumpet players and tone deaf guitar players) but it was a nice place, soaking up some sun and catching up.
Learn to sing before performing in public
Afterwards we headed back to Beerd's place and chilled for a while, drank some good tea and discussed whether or not Avatar was a good movie before we had to head off back home.
We crowned the day with a few pictures and were greeted with extensive posing and modeling by William.
It was a very good day!
Hopefully at the next reunion we would have a higher turn out. It's always good to see what former classmates are up to and to have discussions that cannot be had on facebook or msn. You can poke on facebook, but nothing beats a real hug! (I've copyrighted that phrase)
* intel was provided by my younger brother, Daniel
Here are some pics! (click for a larger rendition)
