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Tuesday, August 8

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Nothing quite prepared us to say goodbye to Hans and Anneke on Tuesday morning when they took us to Brussels Airport following a fabulous nine days with them.

Selfie by Hans

We are all smiling but it was incredibly difficult to say goodbye, knowing that we may never see them again on this side of Heaven. I am grateful for Facebook so we can “see” them online.

We left the house just before 7 am, after giving Hannah and Rebekka final hugs. Our final sight of Hans and Anneke was when they were in their car, and we were pulling our suitcases to the check in at the airport.

We went through check in and security without any issues. The flight was delayed for about forty-five minutes due to a mechanical issue. The pilot assured us that it was now in perfect working order.

We looked over the city of Brussels as long as we could.

Our final sight of Brussels probably 11:00 am. Brussels time.

I spent most of our 7 1/2-hour flight watching cooking shows and another few home improvement programs.

This flight was all in daytime hours, so there was no need to sleep.

Cerwin kept the flight pattern on his screen and watched mine on occasion.

This scene and the scent of warm food let us know that a meal was coming. We continued to lose time as we flew west so we were never sure which meal we were eating. 🙂 Cerwin’s screen kept us informed of Brussels time and Newark, NJ, time, but not the time where we were – high above the earth.

I was surprised at how delicious the airline meals were and how the things that were supposed to be hot were very hot.

A few hours later we got a cracker snack and something to drink.

Our late morning meal consisted of a hot turkey and cheese sandwich and something to drink.

It was close to 1 pm – EST time when we began seeing the ground in the New York City area.

Looks like the New York City skyline.

We knew our pilots had indeed gotten us to the correct country when we saw the Statue of Liberty. 🙂 That is always a good sight when we have been away from home for a while.

Customs took about half an hour, which wasn’t too bad. It seemed like we never stopped taking a few steps forward. Then we had to find the Air-train to the place where the Hilton motel van would pick us up. We went to the wrong place, then asked an airport worker. He said, “I will go with you.” Again, we had an “angel” at the airport to help us. Summary: Always ask questions at airports so you don’t get in a wrong line.” 🙂 The van arrived almost before we adjusted our suitcases and sat on a bench. They come by every twenty minutes.

It was 6:10 pm when we arrived home – following a three-hour drive from the Newark, NJ, Hilton Hotel parking lot.

Our souvenirs included a few seashells that I picked up at the North Sea. I put them in a goblet in the guest room with seashells from other places.

When you go to Belgium, you must get some chocolates. We bought two boxes and a box of cookies the day we were in Brussels. One box of chocolates was for us and the other for Jere and Kristen who took care of our house, yard and outside flowers while we were gone. The large variety of chocolates on the right were from Sem (Hans and Anneke’s son-in-law). We took him some requested items from the USA. He promised equal weight in chocolates! I think he outdid himself. If you come to our house, or see us in the next few weeks, you will probably get a sampling of Belgium chocolate. 🙂

Now you know when the customs guy in Newark asked if we have anything to declare, I said, “Chocolates.” He smiled and motioned us on.

Oh, the memories we have from our Belgium trip. I am grateful they can never be removed from our minds. I know we will talk about these memories for many years.