St Albans

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We spent two days in St Albans with Scott and Amanda - had a fantastic time (they were so hospitably (even giving up there own bed to sleep on the couch for us!)). Scott is in between jobs at the moment, so was great for us as he was able to show us around a bit.
We slept for 13 hours after we arrived so managed to recover from some of the jet lag. The next day we did all the admin stuff - got bank accounts sorted and UK cellphone numbers etc. So fantastic having Scott there to show us what to do and where to go. The people here are really friendly too - quite different from the UK - like the shop assistance actual have a smile and chat to you! Maybe because they can get fired with the first year with no reason - that should be motivation enough!
Of course we visited every bike shop in St Albans - all two of them! One of the shop owners was really chatty and had been to NZ - even did the rainbow rage. So Daniel drawled over his titanium bike frame worth 1,300 pounds - I don't think so!
We visited the Saint Albans Abbey - it was amazing. He was the first Christian maytr in Britian, so had this town and massive church built for him. I'll attach some photos so you can see what I'm talking about.
After we had finished we started walking home and the good old English rain started! Luckly Scott had umbrellas for us - but it was funny watching all these umbrella's popping out everywhere in the park while people still carried on with their picnics!
Oh, and we saw our first real live squirrel! It was really cute - and man can they run, especially when a little yappy dog is coming after them.

Now we are in the Netherlands - where Daniel was welcolmed home by customs! We got up at 3am to catch the train to Liverpool and then on to Harwich where we caught a 6 hour ferry across to the Hook of Holland. The Ferry was like a cruise ship - it was huge - 10 levels high. It can carry 900 people. Daniel's Oom Jan and Tante Nancy meet us at the terminal. Considering we didn't know what each other looked like we still managed to find each other pretty quickly. We drove home through tons and tons of fields of glass houses, got to see a few windmills and even had to stop while the road lifted up and a boat cruised past! We're now back at Oom Jan and Tante Nancy, and have meet Daniel's cousin Ester. They are all really lovely - and have the fantastic farm house with a pretty big section and yummy home grown veges! I'm struggling to understand anything going on as Daniel quite happily yaks away in Dutch (I thought they were talking about cars at dinner but it was actually cheese - kaas - opps!) Anyway, Ester and Tante Nancy both speak English so I can chat with them. Oh, and Mum H - you will love Tante Nancy's cards - they are quite similar to yours with the stiching patterns - really nice!

Well, better sign off. Hope you are all enjoying the floods, just remember us sitting outside in the 27oC heat - ahhhhhhhh!!!!!!

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Photos

St Albans
The size of the church/abbey

St Albans inside view 1
This was what we walked into - and this is only half the size of it.

Woodwork inside St Albans
Amazing details in this woodwork.

Mary & baby Jesus
The Stone carvings in one of the rooms

Comments

[Steve Capill]

Far Out!
Far out that be a big as church...how many go on a Sunday?Gud to hear things are working out as planned. Not much news from poor old New Zealand except for the fact that we have sun...first time in how many days now!?!lol guess I shouldn't complain.what other bikes did the shops stock Dan?

[DanMons]

Yo Yo bro.
The ti bike was a frame only Lite speed. Twas second hand. Very nice. The other bikes that they had were Specialized and Canondale, oh and some road bike brands (gay). The bikes here in holland are funny as. They look really old fashioned.