Geo: 52.1081, 4.27309We enjoyed a late Sunday morning breakfast with the family, then it was off to het Keringhuis, part of the WaterWerks. It's a giant gate that can be closed across the Maas. It was pretty cool! It was a rainy day, but this was mostly inside. The Dutch have learned a thing or thirty about managing floods and storm surges, and the engineering is truly amazing.After the Keringhius, we headed over to Scheveningen. This is a a resort area of Holland, with beaches, a boardwalk, rides -- a very pleasnt place to spend a morning.Unless of course, there's a bit of a storm coming in off the North Sea.Oof. It was SO windy, and off-and-on rainy. We had lunch on the boardwalk, and then Dejo & I went to find a geo-cache on the ... read more

Geo: 52.1058, 4.72639After some breakfast, Joop drove us around Reeuwijk, and the plassen. Those are kindof like plots of water, and there are roads connecting them. Water, water, everywhere! We stopped for coffee (naturally) at a restaurant next to the ferry in Schoonhoven. We had the yummiest appelgeback met slagroom. It's hard to describe, as it's not a cake, but it's not really a pie, either. I need to find a recipe that might come close. But the Dutch have all their sweets, it seems, with slagroom -- whipped cream.In the afternoon, Jerome, Dejo & I walked down to a shopping center nearby and picked out some flowers and a couple of small potted flowers for Ans & Joop. it was their 50th anniversary, after all -- it seemed appropriate to get something!A hired minivan taxi ... read more

Geo: 54.506, -0.692334Before breakfast, Dejo & I went for a short stroll down the lane the other direction from the Chequers Inn. A custom-cooked breakfast gave us enough energy for the morning, and we headed up towards Whitby. On the way out of the village, we stopped to grab a picture of the Pedestrian Crossing sign that some of the local lads had some fun with. It was a very pretty drive along the south edge of the Yorkshire Moors National Park. We happened to drive past the Hole Of Horcum, so we stopped off to have a peek. Uncle John -- Wil's youngest brother -- is a harpsichord maker/restorer who lives in Lythe, just outside of Whitby. We arrived at Uncle John's in time for lunch (a really yummy homemade curry soup), and then we ... read more

Geo: 51.836, -0.629815First thing in the morning, we headed over to Westminster Abbey. At my insistence, we joined the next verger-led tour. Your entry fee gets you the audio tour, which is nice enough, but you get a whole different experience by paying the £3 extra to have one of the abbey staff show you around. We were seated in the Shrine of St. Edward the Confessor (not accessible to the general public) while the verger pointed out the folks laid to rest around the area: Edward I, Richard II, Henry V.....nobody special. You also get to sit in the choir stalls while you learn some more of the history of the abbey. Oh, so much history there! Though we were sorry to cut things short, we needed to get rolling, in order to get checked ... read more

Geo: 51.5002, -0.126236Since Jerome is a huge music fan, specifically of the Beatles, going to Abbey Road was a must-do. Unfortunately, you can't tour the studios, but you can do your own version of the "Abbey Road" album cover -- if you can find a spot in between the traffic. However, an early start to the day (like, 7 am....on a Saturday) meant that we had the zebra crossing pretty much to ourselves. We got some good shots of the boys paying homage to the album cover, then it was off to St. James Park, for the Trooping the Colour.We found a spot that we thought would be really stellar – affording a view of the grounds as well as the road – but after the boys had gone off to find a Tesco (to get ... read more