The European trip would not have happened if not for Chester. While I was recovering in 2025 from my extraordinary berry adventure, Chester repaired, outfitted, and arranged the shipment to Europe of the youngest member of our Delica fleet. In December 2025, when I was still spending 3–6 hours a day on rehabilitation, Chester and his friend Tim drove our Delica to Toronto and left it there to be shipped to Europe. Our Euro-Asia Delica is named Koliba, which in Slavic means a rustic shepherd’s hut.
In January, while we were still travelling in Mexico, Chester learned that Koliba would arrive in the Netherlands on February 16. We had two weeks of free parking, so we bought tickets from Calgary to Amsterdam for February 24. As it turned out, the timing was perfect. A cartel boss in the Mexican state of Jalisco was killed, which resulted in intense activity in Puerto Vallarta just a week after we departed for Calgary. We were lucky to avoid all of this.
Flying to Europe is always harder than flying to Mexico. The trip is much longer, it requires a connection, and there is the time change to deal with — which means working through jet lag. This time, however, everything worked perfectly. All our luggage arrived on time.
Our friend Krzysiek picked us up at the airport and took us to his place. After a wonderful homemade soup, he gave us a map of Amsterdam and two transit cards for getting around the city, and let us go off to explore.
I had no idea how charming Amsterdam is! We enjoyed its narrow brick houses, canals, millions of bicycles, and lively atmosphere. We were surprised by city urinals (sorry, no pic), interesting selection of museums, like the sex, prostitution, Maritimes, van Gogh…..We really only scratched the surface, and I will certainly return. I think this may now be my favorite city in Europe.
And then it was time move on and pick up our Koliba. The next day, on Thursday, February 26, we took an electric Uber and, for 132 euros, made it to Marlog Car Handling company in Roosendaal . And there she was.
Well — Koliba’s battery was drained — but Chester was prepared and brought with us a battery to meant to power our fridge. He used it to revive Koliba.
The first day of travel in an unfamiliar place is always a challenge — for more reasons than just driving. Food in Europe is the least of the problems. There is a Lidl in almost every town, and food is easy to find. Gas stations are not a problem either. But drinkable water was a challenge. We usually carry more than 20 liters of water in Delicas. In Mexico we would go to a purificadora. Here we searched for drinking water. Apparently there should be free water available, but the first place did not exist. The second place did exist, but there was nowhere to park our car, so we parked farther away, paid for parking, and hiked about 1 km carrying 10 kg each.
Then there was the question of gas for our cooking stove. We found some in a hardware store, although it was not the right form factor. Then Chester suggested checking Decathlon, a French sporting goods chain. The density of Decathlon stores here is amazing, and yes — we found what we were looking for: butane/propane gas for camping stoves with a 417 standard connection. We were set!
Finally, where to sleep? We sleep in Koliba, but we still need a place to park it. Our first choice was Zeeland, the least populated peninsula in the Netherlands. But when we arrived, we learned that the campsite was closed for the season. The owner offered that we could stay for the night by their shed with the sheep, at no cost. Yes — since Koliba means a shepherd’s hut, it could not have been more appropriate.
The sheep were loud, but that was easy to tolerate. However, the shepherd left techno-music playing all night, and although it did not bother me, it bothered Chester. He could not sleep, and as a result he started getting sick the very next day.
Friday, Feb 27 we travelled through 3 countries. We started in the Netherlands, drove through Belgium, and crossed the border to France. I was surprised how different Belgium felt from the Netherlands. The later one is very designed. Everything, including even the trees, is well taking care of, designed, trimmed, perfection. In Belgium, which we did not really visit but just drove through, it felt more free and less designed.
In the afternoon we were already in France. Here Chester was interested in visiting areas significant during the WWII.
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Marta and Chester's Maleficent Adventures 