Holland

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Saturday 16th. Goodbye to Scotland: We left Kinloch Rannoch at 5 am as planned and arrived at Edinburgh airport at about 7 am. The Easyjet flight was interesting - we could sit anywhere we wanted. We were met Schiphol airport by Jill's aunty Sjaan then caught the train to Utrecht and Ermelo - about 2 hours all up. The weather was warmer than Scotland which we appreciated.

Sunday 17th. In the morning we went to Sjaan's reformed church in Ermelo. The service was in Dutch and very formal but we recognised some of the tunes. The church was built in about the 1600's with brick/cobble floors and well-polished brass chandeliers. We did some obligatory cycling around Ermelo in the afternoon.

Monday 18th. There had been thunderstorms and strong winds and rain during the night and early morning which had disrupted train travel. (They don’t get them much so are likely not prepared to cope.) It was still raining fairly heavily in the morning by Holland standards. Sjaan strongly advised that we delay a planned train trip to Delft until Tuesday but we decided to go anyway. We travelled from Ermelo to Amersfort then from there via Amsterdam to Den Haag and Delft. By the time we arrived at Delft the rain had stopped and we had a lovely time in the quant old city. We visited several churches built in the 1400's, and the lovely shops, cafes and canals.

Tuesday 19th. We woke to a lovely sunny morning and had coffee on the lawn in the sun. We convinced ourselves to cycle to Haardivejk on the coast and ignore the sore butts we got from our Sunday cycle. It was well worth the effort - it is a bigger town than Ermelo and with more history. It started as a fishing village several centuries ago and still has a harbour with old and new style Dutch boats. That night Sjaan cooked a typical dutch meal with boiled potatoes, fried potatoes, witlof and deep-fried fish. Lovely and nostalgic, and an appreciated farewell dinner.

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Photos

Aunty and Jill
Trying to prepare a meal, but not making much progress!

Jill and uncle
Jill dressing up Kees. He is recovering from a bout of shingles. Nothing like some Jilly medicine to "shock" him into recovery. Works for me!

Sunning ourselves.
A lovely time in the sun - and some good Dutch coffee

All the bikes
At the Delft train station

And more
Almost like Venice

Jilly and the clog
Outside one of the many Delft pottery shops in Delft!

In a Delft pottery shop
Jilly admiring the art of the pottery

The steeple of the "new" church
New is relative. It was built in the late 1400-1500's

Time to relax
Part of our dinner after our day in Delft. We found a "Jillz" apple cider. The bottle will accompany us home.

Our excercise
Cycling to Hardewijk

And the after-effects
Jilly nursing a tender ??? while admiring the coast at Hardewijk

The windmill
Scenery of the waterfront

The boats of Hardewijk
Beautiful wooden sailing boats. Don't know what the "wings" are for!

Some horticulture
I guess I had to include this one of tree training.