The Durneys Go Dutch: It's Always an Adventure!

A Durney first: A vacation where we arrived, but our luggage did not. We are going on 33 hours of not having our luggage. There were apparently major baggage issues at the Amsterdam airport, though the checkin assistance failed to notify us of this when we voluntarily checked our carry-ons so that we wouldn't have to carry them and two kids through the airport... lesson learned. When we arrived in Bristol, England, the pilot announced that only 12 bags from Amsterdam had made it onto the plane. We checked 6 (2 car seats, stroller and 3 carry-ons). Things were not looking good.

We made it through immigration and were thrilled to see that the car seats, stroller and one of the carry-ons had made it. When we packed for the trip, I gave Pete a hard time that while his clothes took up one entire carry-on, mine, Jude's and Maeve's clothes all fit in one! So which carry on arrived? The one with all of Pete's clothes :) We joined the long line to file a claim to get our luggage back. We were told the bags should arrive in ~24 hours and that we would be reimbursed by KLM for necessities. Fine. A long wait for the car rental shuttle in the rain, a long wait to rent the car and finally on the road to Porlock in Exmoor National Park, our home base for the week. All I have to say is thank goodness for Peppa Pig on the Ipad and beautiful scenery.

Stores to buy clothes and necessities are limited in the park, but we are making do. The only underwear I could find are serious granny panties, but I did score a great new pair of pants :) Have to look on the bright side in these situations. Still no bathing suits for Jude or I, but we'll look for some tomorrow. And we are hanging on to the hope that the bags will arrive any minute now... wishful thinking I'm sure.

Why Exmoor National Park? We wanted a trip to the English countryside. Pete wanted to go to little pubs to try real ales and I wanted to see spectacular scenery. At first we thought we would take a ferry from the Netherlands and tour Northern England with our own car, but were then advised by some British friends that the South was likely to have better weather. A British genetics colleague from New York had posted a facebook album of beautiful English scenery a few years ago. The photos impressed me enough to stay with me and when we were planning our trip, I found his album and noted the locations posted- all in Exmoor. I messaged him for recommendations and the trip was booked!

He got back in touch with me this week with lots of info on the area as this is his hometown. The emailed started "Get ready to be charmed." Charmed we are!

We headed out around 11am after Maeve and I got in a morning nap. The kids immediately fell asleep so we kept driving West along the coast until we reached Ilfracombe. Pete did really well navigating the narrow, steep, winding roads, driving on the wrong side of the road. Not having a destination in mind other than "the beach," we found a parking lot adjacent to the "tunnels and beaches." Perfect! This was a historical site of man made tunnels leading to bathing areas at the sea. Admission included access to an indoor play space so it was an afternoon of fun. Jude enjoyed throwing rocks into the small tidal pools and made a fast friend at the play space. He seemed so happy to be around kids who all spoke English. It made me a bit sad that he can't communicate with kids at the Dutch playgrounds. We'll need to figure out how to fix this!