The magic happened again… Sitting on the plane and taking off, I felt like I was once again connected to the universe. And to make it even better, Emirates have fibre optic lights on the roof of the plane up the aisle, so it looks like little stars when you turn the lights off. Magic!
The travelling gods must have been smiling on me, as the flight was fairly empty and I got 3 seats to myself. Heaven! I had dinner, watched a movie, then passed out. As did most of the plane.
Reading the inflight magazine (as you do when you have 14 hours to kill) I came across a great article about explorers, with this paragraph, which I think sums up how I feel when I travel…
When we travel, we are reunited with our ‘adventurer selves’. With destination set and path determined, our senses are heightened, our souls tuned to the frequency of the expanding universe, we are aligned with its flow, its energy, its force. We feel at home.
Transited through Dubai. Getting off the bus and onto the plane to take us to the airport though and it was HOT! 32 degrees at 5am. I guess everyday is a hot day when you live in a desert. Taking off out of Dubai the view was amazing to see a city in the middle of a desert. There are patches of green in some housing estates, but otherwise, just sand.
So, after 25 hours flying, I finally reached my destination, Noordwijk Beach. I’m not staying in Amsterdam, as the conference is out of the city. Noordwijk Beach is only just outside of Amsterdam, but it is like a quaint seaside village, and it is just gorgeous! It comes complete with wide sandy beaches, people flying kites and walking dogs. My hotel is directly opposite the beach and it is so peaceful. The town itself is tiny, but so Dutch! Small little streets and terrace houses. Driving in from the airport I can’t tell you how many people I saw riding bikes along canals, and the canals had windmills dotted along them. All I needed was for someone to walk along wearing clogs and eating cheese and it would have been perfect!
Once the sun starts to go down it gets cold. There are restaurants set in the sand dunes of the beach that remind me of old 1980’s American midday movies. I promptly headed into one and ordered a red wine (strictly to keep me warm!) and di what I just love to do when travelling…watch the world go by.
