Angie's Page

 

 

 

A LOVELY TRUE STORY

 

 

In 1973 I moved to a town in Holland called Roermond. My flat had one bedroom, a small bathroom, a small kitchen and a lounge/dining room. It is shown below, the shorter building first floor three windows. The bedroom was half of the attic space.

Next door (the taller building) was the El Pinar bar. This bar was owned and run by Jan & Tose. These two lovely pleople were so good to me. I spent two wonderful Christmas days with them and their family.

As often happens, I lost touch with them. When Tony and I decided we would like to arrange a holiday in Holland we took time out and flew to Eindhoven, which is only a short distance from Roermond. This was an oportunity we just could'nt miss. A visit to the El Pinar bar.

I found the street where I lived immediately. But alas, the El Pinar bar was now an estate agents. We were so disappointed.

We returned home after four wonderful days in Holland. Performed a number of gigs and decided we needed to return to Holland to find the right hotel and choose the correct excursions to take our friends on our 'Jet Stream' holiday in September 2008.

Tony said it was such a shame we never met up with Jan and Tose. He suggested I try to contact them by phone.

I knew their last name so asked international directory enquiries for phone numbers in Roermond of people with that name. They came up with a few and I nervously dialled the first one. This turned out to be a cousin on Jan's.

He told me sadly Tose had passed away and Jan along with his lovely partner Mia had a bar in Roermond called The Cavalier bar.

He gave me Jan's telephone number. I phoned him and said cast your mind back 30+ years do you remeber that crazy English woman who lived next door to you. He yelled Angie!

It was so good to finally have contact with him after 31 years.

On our return to Holland we visited Jan and Mia. It was very emotional. Our friendship was back in full bloom. Mia is such a nice and beautiful person. The bunus is she is a country music fanatic.

We are so pleased to say that they will be at 'The Marriott' hotel in December for our four day holiday.

The holiday will certainly be an Anglo/Dutch holiday. We have our usual gang of Dutch friends joining us also.

It was Tony's first visit to Holland and he fell in love with the Country and the people. I had forgotten how beautiful the Country was and how honoured I was to have lived there for three and a half years.

In fact we have just spent another week in Holland. Of course we visited Jan and Mia again. We also met with our other Dutch friends at a big outdoor festival in Geldrop. It was really good to see the dance floor full when the DJ played 'Battle Hymn of Love' and 'Voices of the Highlands'.

Can't wait to share Holland with all our friends from the UK in September 2008.

 

 

 

Back