Guests arriving, must travel ... writes the smiling Kiwi

So here I am, sitting down for the first time all day ... well that's not quite true, I sat down for small amounts of time through the day, resting from cleaning, hoping death wasn't as close as it felt in those moments of pure exhaustion.

Note to self: Never attempt to clean the apartment from top to bottom in 30 degree celsius heat again.

We have guests flying in from America ... ML is an old friend of mine; a travelling companion from two trips through my South Island world back in New Zealand ... veteran of an Istanbul and Gallipoli trip with Di and nows she's arriving in Europe to check out my new life and the Belgian bloke who lured me here, bringing her lovely new partner Al.

Gert is down emptying the car as I type, in preparation for picking them up from their Amsterdam train meanwhile I'm investigating the restorative powers of Appel Jenever (apple-flavoured Dutch gin) from the fridge.

It's not bad, highly recommended in fact however one must be careful as it's 20% alcohol and an egg cup-sized glass is more than fine when mixed with an adult portion of cleaner exhaustion.

We spring-cleaned the apartment today, slightly late and yet perfectly timed for our guests. They have two days here then we're hitting the road for a few days ... wandering through a little of France and Luxembourg, then on into Germany ... Strasbourg, Heidelberg, the Black Forest, the Rhein and Mosel Rivers (with wineries) then home.

Al flies out early from Amsterdam, leaving us in the city exploring. We have Paris, Flanders Fields, Brugge and Antwerp on our to-do list so yeah ... let's see how it goes.

We're heading into a heatwave (= 5days over 25 degrees celsius) - hot until Wednesday at least ... so there's the chance of a suntan on this small Euro tour.

I hope to write from the road as there will be more than one computer chick in the car. If not, my blog may idle along for a few days.

Tot ziens.