Leaving Dordt

I turned left out of our apartment and walked the twenty paces to the Kuipershaven this afternoon. There, the beautiful old boats chafed patiently at their moorings in the familiar, frigid harbour. I was rugged up with coat, scarf and gloves, comfortable in the fading light and light breeze. I felt a sudden sense of loss to be leaving.

We have been here two months now. I have walked this route perhaps thirty times through late summer, the greying autumn and into the depths of winter. I have watched the boats at harbour, seen them come and go, be covered with snow. I have admired the old houses, red shutters open, leaning into the street, peering past each other.

Our apartment has been a cosy second home. We have mastered the terrifying ladders that the Dutch call stairs - with just a few bruises. We have learnt how and where to provision the house, to stock up on Saturday, because a calvinist heritage still closes the place down on Sunday. It has been our base for journeys to the surrounding cities and into Belgium.

We have hunted down the fast food treats of Dordrecht. We have noshed on broodje rookworst - rolls with smoked sausage and mustard from the Hema, crisp patat frittes with mayonnaise - a paper cone of hot crisp chips from Bram Ladage, kibbeling - deep-fried fish with a salty curry dusting from the market stall, and ollebollen, massive hot donuts without a hole from Ron's stand at Centrum.

We have found and favoured coffee shops, whoops, sorry - cafes. A coffee shop sells dope, a cafe does not. For us, La Place in V&D has offered delightful coffee and cake, chocomel and free wireless. In September, we sat outside and watched the market below in Statenplein. In winter, we have snuggled inside with the locals and peered into the snow and ice outside.

In the Vriesestraat we have noshed on hot appeltaartje met ice met slagroom - apple meringue tart with icecream and whipped cream and an airy hazelnut tort. Many times! Two doors down,we have lingered in the GertJan Kaasboer - Dordrecht's prize winning cheese shop, always welcoming us to try and buy more kaas than our fridge would hold.

Dordrecht's streets and harbours have been an unending delight. Just walking the cobbled streets and standing watching the boats has been an ongoing entertainment. The scale of the old city invites you to go back to places, revisit outlooks, houses, bridges and boats that caught the eye.

In late November, Dordrecht re-opened its magnificently renovated museum for us. Although our names were inadvertently left off the opening night celebrations, we secured a viewing the next week. It is a beautiful gallery with a focus on 16 to 18th century Dutch art.

The extended clogwog family have been so warm and welcoming from the moment we arrived. Api, Renee, Joyce and Gerard met us at Schipol and whisked us to Dordrecht for celebratory hazelnut meringue tort and coffee before delivering us to the Schijverstraat. We have been invited into so many homes and celebrated the birthdays of Heidi, Lisa, Maud and Nick, the christening of Phenix. Caity and Hugh have discovered a huge extended family, made friends and played into the night.

I have slowly picked up bits and pieces of Dutch, not much. Social events sometimes leave me exhausted. My brain expects to understand everything, but can't. I feel like a mobile phone searching for a network for three hours!

Api has cooked every traditional Dutch dish for us - pea soup, stampots of all sorts, with endive, kale, cabbage, hashe, all served with superb wines from Italy and Alsace. Delicious! Short visits to Joyce and Gerard invariably turned into meals. This was not negotiable - if we said no, the food arrived anyway! Erna welcomed us to her house in Hoek van Holland and showed us the delta works and port.

We saw Sinterklaas delight the kids and we travelled to Hoek to watch him leave, amid fireworks. We walked the old city with an ancient guide that Api arranged, who taught us a great deal more about the long and layered history of Dordrecht. It was a painfully cold, grey afternoon that began, in a very Dutch way, at a cafe on the Voorstraat, had a pit stop in a cafe at Jongepier and ended with dinner back on the Voorstraat.

So, we leave Dordrecht in two days for the delights of Hong Kong. Staying here over two months has been a great luxury, a rare treat for all of us. We have seen and done so much, yet only scratched the surface. Now, when can we come back?!