Mutual benefits of flights from city to Amsterdam

THERE was great excitement in our house when the airline KLM announced it was starting daily flights to Amsterdam from Exeter Airport last month.

- BECKY SHEAVES

"We could pop over for the weekend," I said to my husband John. "Wouldn't that be lovely?"

We are fans of The Netherlands in our house. John plays keyboards in a very fun party/soul band and most years (Covid permitting) they go on a mini tour there in the autumn.

This is because one of their musicians used to live in Holland and so knows how to make it all happen. Booked the bars for them to play in, sorted out travel and accommodation, did all the scary travel agent stuff that puts us off venturing overseas.

Now, back in the day, when our children were little, this was always John's annual, family-free jolly. A rule I believe in passionately is that every mum or dad should be entitled to at least one weekend away from their beloved children per year. Lord knows, when you are at the coal face of parenting, you sometimes need a break. So I would hold the fort at home and off he'd go to play keyboards with his pals in various bars.

Memorably, they once ended up booked to appear at a heavy metal festival, performing in between two leather-clad, thrashing-guitars-and-screaming bands. But usually it was in cool little bars where a lot of fun was to be had and the Dutch audiences were hugely appreciative.