Advertisement
There’s a saying that it’s the little things that count……and I thought we would share some of these with you. But before I do that, just to say that this blog covers the route from the aforementioned large jachthaven where we had the most excellent meal and a bike ride to stock up, to Oudewater the witches village but no witch’s shop which we saw with Mike and Jacqui last time, to Brassemeer, a large but comparatively small meer close to Leiden. To do the last leg of this journey took 6 hours and entailed a very large sluis with floating boards at water level which are no help at all, and 9 lifting bridges. The route was quite pretty as we are well in the area of commercial flower growing and the gardens of all the house are stunning. We must ask Don W where he gets his bonsais from. We needed a break when we got here so we have stayed in this excellent little JH for 2 nights and today have cycled right round the meer – 12km – and then cycled some more to see some windmills. I think Heather has done well because she hasn’t been
on a bike for a number of years!!
And so to the little things in no particular order.
When we got here we were met by Theo, the havenmeester, who welcomed us with a big smile, help with the ropes, details of everything available – and a large jar of gherkins! A local speciality he said. We asked him where he would suggest we cycle to – and he said round the meer and here’s my card in case you get a puncture you can phone and I will pick you up!
And we had an excellent cycle and near to the end stopped at a little café in a fascinating little harbour (maybe Paul will get round to putting some photos in). The guy asked if we were on bikes – we said yes and he said I will give you a map for the area and you can see the windmills – and my tel no is on it so if you get a puncture……..is this kindness or apparent frailty of the Schroeders or their bikes? The former I believe – in general everyone is so helpful and friendly.
I know we went on
about it last time but you have to go cycling to realise how different it is in this country. The fact that the world is designed round the bike – down to the rubbish bins at shoulder height designed like a large basketball net that you can lob rubbish into as you pedal away - and everyone – yes everyone cycles. And here is an interesting fact – we say UK is too crowded and the population is too dense for us to really make the difference with bikes – but Holland has a quarter of the land area and a third of the population of the UK – but it is flat of course!
More mundanely I have been meaning to tell you that you must never moor on the pontoon next to the crane at Penton Hook – we left Isabela overnight before being lifted and the next morning she was covered in sticky things – we scrubbed her while she was glamping, we then scrubbed the decks with a scourer in Drimmelen and we still haven’t got them all off. Other than that the service at PH was excellent. And as I said it’s the little things……….the only impact of Isabela going on her lorry all those miles was that the generator key dropped off, into the depths of the bilges. This meant that Paul had to pinch the engine isolator key every time we wanted to put the generator on with of course the risk that it could drop off into the bilges too – and then where would we be? After several goes at crawling and crouching around and threatening Heather with the urgent need to visit a chandlers for a replacement – and we know that that must be avoided at all cost – or indeed one incurs great cost - that the skills of the surgeon were utilised – a long tailed mirror in one hand, a torch shining onto the mirror to give light into the corners and a screwdriver in the third to fish it out – victory was had and the visit to the chandlers avoided! Said key now has its own hook and tie.
And almost lastly you need to know that Paul has given into boating tradition – and has bought himself a pair of pink trousers and wears them everyday- some of you will know that he has been hyper critical of such behaviour up till now. But he even has some tops that go with them – Colin eat your heart out!!
There have been lots of other little things of course – like the croaking of large toads when we thought they were an exotic bird, our first demand for bruggeld in a clog – bit of a surprise when it was €4.50 - the 8 storey building with a big tulip up every side of it, the pic and mix, not of sweets but of tomatoes – red, green, yellow, orange and nearly black - and our first storks….. I could go on but given how near to the UK Holland is geographically, and culturally, it is lovely seeing these differences.
For anybody interested in a map of Isabela's travels, go to the very first blog and we will keep that map up to date. If Paul get's his finger out we will add some photos to each blog very soon.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.102s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 11; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0433s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb