There are three parts of travelling that I always look forward to – discovering a new place, coming home and sharing it with the people I love. And though I often travel alone, I find the most enjoyment in the latter. Just recently, I share the joy of travelling to the most important person in my life – my mother.

The idea of bringing my mother to Holland came when both mine and my husband’s father got very ill to the point that we almost lost them. Our parents have never met so we thought, while they are still alive and capable, they should meet each other at least once. It took two years before it finally happened but at the last moment my father got cold feet and decided not to come. But Nanay pushed through with the plan.

It was my mother’s first time out of the country as well as her first to ride a plane. It must have been very stressful and quite scary for her to experience these at her senior year, while her legs gives her much pain during long walks. Travelling by plane from the Philippines to the Netherlands takes at least 16 hours with a lay over in another depending on which airlines you use. Fortunately, my boss who frequently travel to the Philippines, offered to accompany her on the flight to Holland. It lifted a great deal stress from both me and my mother.

In July, my mother spent a whole month with me in the Netherlands. Because of work and tight budget, we weren’t really able to travel much outside the BENELUX area, except for that four-day family visit in Barcelona, Spain. In all the years of my weekend travel, this is the only month when I was a real weekend traveller. I made the most of all the weekends of her stay to show my mother my life in Europe and the places that makes this part of the world unique.

This series of stories about weekends with my mother is probably the closest to my heart. I hope you will enjoy it.