Striding out

This life-size Delftware figure of Johnny Walker is a splendid feature of Amsterdam's Schiphol airport.
 
Our host drove us to the airport in good time but once there, we had a stressful - and unsuccessful - time trying to connect to wifi to make urgent payments we hadn't managed to make before leaving the UK. Luckily, once on board, a lovely, cheerful member of the cabin crew let us use her Whatsapp to phone someone in Brazil to sort the situation. Phew! She also comforted me for the fact that multiple searches of our bags hadn't revealed the whereabouts of the documents pouch, containing my ID and driving license. I worried about it on and off throughout an otherwise uneventful flight, but got through the police check without much difficulty on arrival - and while we waited for the baggage to come out, HH found the wretched pouch in one of those virtually invisible velcro-closed pockets. How the heck...???
 
We waltzed through customs with the cheeses and patês we are now allowed to import, and Ronaldo was waiting for us at home and carried all the cases upstairs. Bless him! Now it's just a question of adjusting to a difference in temperature of some 40 degrees Celsius...