Tour TransCanada 2013

Photo of John on Silverstream Bridge near Upper Hutt. Well, this year has seen John training for a ride across Canada. The tour leaves Vancouver on June 11 and finishes 24 August at St Johns in Newfoundland.
John has been off work since mid December 2012, a great summer to be out if work! The weather has been the driest for 70 years in Wellington.
John and Liz will be spending a month in the north east of Canada and the USA on tour after the cycle trip.

Update: now in KL

We are now in the lounge in KL. It is 3.30 pm on Thursday here, 9.30am in The Netherlands, so an overnight flight. Our next flight leaves at 10.20pm, so we get another - shorter- night flight. It is about 30 degrees outside, but lovely and cool inside. John has just gone for a shower, Liz can't because of the difficulty getting her compression stockings on and off! Well, difficult for John to do, they are extremely tight fitting.
Flight went well, small pockets of turbulence occasionally. Will go for a wander around the airport later with Liz in the wheelchair.

Checked in at last

So we arrived at the airport and went to the KLM check-in desk. We were in the system but she could not find our ticket. It took over half an hour to get our boarding pass! Then we went to the KLM lounge which took ages to get to with John pushing Liz in a wheelchair. Arrived there to be told we must go to the Malaysian Airways lounge. We walked all the way there to be told we must go to the KLM lounge. Ok, we were getting rather fed up at this point. Went back to KLM lounge and they discussed it and let us in. Not very acceptable from our point of view, but at least we are ticketed through to Wellington now!

Catching up with Tante Johanna

We visited Tante Johanna in Bergin today.

Recuperating in The Netherlands

We are now booked to return home, leaving next Wednesday 22nd and arriving on Friday 24th at 2.45pm from Melbourne. So we have one week left to enjoy the European summer -it is currently 26 degrees, with weekend temps due to hit 30.
It was lovely to have Amy here for a few days, she and John collected our bikes and gear on Sunday from the hotel in Amsterdam, and took the rental car back into Amsterdam on Monday.
Liz went to Beverwjk Hospital and had her stitches out, and a full cast from the hand to over the elbow put on. So hopefully that will be all ok until back in Wellington.
Luus and Theo have gone on holiday today, so we are house and cat-sitting until we leave.

Have both been to the nearby hairdresser this morning, so are looking a bit neater.
Will go out for a drive later in our loan car - thanks Berry!

Liz and cousin Luus in Heemskerk

Recuperation underway!

Amy in Heemskerk

Well, Liz Amy and John have now arrived in Holland for the required 2 weeks recuperation time before Liz is allowed to fly home. John hired a car in Oelde and we all drove over Saturday. 320km. 

First time for John driving a left hand drive car in Europe and a manual to boot!

Amy flew to Dusseldorf and took a train to Oelde,but since Liz was discharged Saturday she has joined us in Holland and flys home Tuesday.

We recovered the bikes and gear from the hotel in Amsterdam this morning - many thanks to our cycling colleagues who packed up my bike.

Amy and I have reassembled the bikes so I can go out riding. She has indicated she and Jerome would like bikes in Lonfdon so she may take them....

A relation of Liz's has offered to lend us a car for a couple of weeks, so we should be able to get around. May buy a GPS so navigation is easier.

Will send another post later.

--
John & Liz Pfahlert
P O Box 9740
Marion Square
Wellington 6141