I’m sitting in a cabin in the woods near Eelderwolde, just outside the northern Dutch city of Groningen. It’s 7pm, a pleasant 20 degrees Celsius, and the sky is impossibly blue.
I had an early start to my journey, at 5.30am this morning in Gustavsberg.
Off we go! I whispered, as I crept out of the house and walked the 1.4km to the bus stop.
I caught the 474 to Slussen. Then I took the T-Bana to T-Centralen, from where I jumped on the Arlanda Express.
For reasons I dont want to go into here, I was catching a flight from Stockholm to Hamburg. The flight was slightly delayed but that was no big deal.
What was a big deal was that the passenger sitting next to me got out of his seat about halfway through the flight. He then apparently collapsed at the back of the plane.
Then came the loudspeaker announcement everyone dreads. A flight attendant, failing to disguise the panic in her voice, asking if there’s a doctor on board.
Long story short: the guy made it.
I faced another long delay at the airport in the queue for subway tickets. But I still had an hour to two in Hamburg before my bus to Groningen. So I went and had a beer or three in the sun.
The three-hour bus trip to Groningen was a little boring, and stiflingly hot. But we made it there on schedule.
The weather was sunny and the old town was bustling with holiday visitors. I grabbed some supplies and hit the bus station, which is right next to the train station.
From there, it was a 20-minute ride south to Eelderwolde, which is actually not in Groningen province but in Drenthe.
So that’s how I got to my final destination for the next three days. My very own private cabin in the woods.
It’s time to get back to basics.
