What a Day!

Today was Tuesday, so I did my usual Tuesday morning bit and rode my bike the 6.5 kilometers into Overveen to go to the Mom's group weekly get together. I took my camera, as it was misty and foggy, and stopped a dozen times along the way to try and capture the stillness and mist that had settled over Noord-Holland.







Mom's group was relatively uneventful- I was adopted by a totally adorable 1-year-old named Sophie, who is a complete scoundrel and is quite mad, according to her mom. No wonder we got along just fine!

After the gathering had disbanded, I rode back through the little wooded area near the path that takes me back towards Heemstede- Megan was staying at school through lunch so I had some time to take time going home. I had a nice long walk, and surprised myself by finding a more beautiful way back to the main road than the way I had gone that morning.







After I had emerged from the woods and thought, "You know? Lunch might be nice." I headed towards home, stopping at the Albert Hein (grocery store) that is on the way to grab a bottle of water and some ground beef for dinner. When I opened my purse before I went inside, I discovered my wallet was missing, and decided to head back to the house to see if it was sitting next to my bottle of water that I had left on the stairs.

Well, it wasn't. It wasn't anywhere in the house. So, after running around and swearing and muttering, "Ohhhh, this is NOT good" about a thousand times, I saw that the answering machine was blinking, and sure enough- there was a message in Dutch, with the very recognizable "Kah-ree Eee-lee-zabet Nosher", so even though I had no idea what the gentleman was saying, I knew he had my wallet.

Then, as I was standing there, the phone rang. "Do you know where your wallet is?" said Kip. "Uh, I'm guessing some man has it, from the message on the machine," I replied. We both chuckled at the fact that the message was completely in Dutch, even the phone number, and I had tried several times to extract the number from the message, but never came out with enough digits. Kip said he asked the gentleman to email me, and when I ran upstairs, he in fact had done so.

Dear ms noser,

A visitor of our estate reported your wallet, found without any money, but plenty of creditcards still in it.

You can collect the wallet at the address in my signature untill 18:30 hours today.

Regards,

Met vriendelijke groet,

Tom van Spanje
Opzichter Kennemerland c.a

Beheer Noord-Holland zuid van Noordzeekanaal t/m Muiderberg.

Elswoutslaan 12a
2051 AE Overveen
T 023-5240360
F 023-5440128
M 06-51365964
t.spanje@staatsbosbeheer.nl
http://www.staatsbosbeheer.nl
http://www.elswout.nl


http://www.npzk.nl
http://www.haarlemmermeergroen.nl
http://www.nieuwamsterdam.nl/videodetail.aspx?ID=1278
http://www.haarlemmerliede.nl/projecten/herinrichting-houtrakpolder.html

Well, I quickly Google-Mapped the address and replied to the email that I would be there by 2pm. I downed a half-bag of Maltesers and chugged some water, grabbed an apple and hit the bike again. I then rode another 6.5 kilometers back to Overveen and found the most magnificent location I have seen in the Netherlands to date.















For those of you who were wondering, I had about 4 Euros in change in my wallet, and it was all there when I retrieved it. I think there may have been a little divine intervention at play- I had ridden past this estate 5 times at LEAST and never knew, nor would I have any reason to know, that it was open to the public, and was one of the most popular locations for weddings and bridal portraiture near Haarlem. Was I panicked that I lost my wallet? Maybe for a few minutes. But the treasure at the end of that adventure was worth it 100%.