Home Sweet Home!

We are home safe and sound! The last few days of our trip we spent in Hooghalen with aunts, uncles and cousins. We had a great time! Thank you! We felt right at home and picked up a little bit (kleinebeitchen) of Nederlands. We had a chance to visit the birthplaces of mom and dad Sikkema, we visited Oma Timmerman and we were able to see Opa Timmerman's grave. After a whirlwind day and a half of visiting, we left again from Hooghalen to begin the trek home. I call it a trek because it involved large distances, different types of transportation, five countries (Netherlands, Belgium, France, England, Canada) and many hours! We began in our car and travelled first to Hulst, a town in the province of Zeeland that was the ancestral home of the Hulst family from the very early days - beginning approximately in the 12th century. There is an old fortress/castle there from the 12th century so we did a lot of exploring and inventing stories about my ancestors. From there we continued on to Paris through Belgium. Once we were in Paris we took a flight to London Luton Airport. From there we took a train to Gatwick Airport and then a shuttle to our hotel....by then it was 3:00 am. Three and a half hours of sleep later, we were back at the airport for our flight to Toronto...then to Fergus to pick up our car and finally in Cambridge at 6:00, Ontario time (which is 12:00 Paris time...which our bodies are still on!) A trek....40 hours of travelling, 3 1/2 hours of sleep, 5 countries...now SLEEP...zzzzz..