Day 27. Harlingen to Utrecht, by train.

I said a very sad farewell to Melba the barge this morning as Deb and Mark drove me to Leeuwarden to catch the train to Utrecht. It had rained all night and was quite cold but very comfy on the train. One and a half hours later I arrived in Utrecht and met Hans and the son of a friend, Nick who had been on exchange in Spain for a year. We waited at the station until Evelin and Chris arrived from Cologne then got on the bus back to Hans place. Hans had to go to a meeting so Chris, Evelin and I walked to their hotel and back again through the lovely streets of Utrecht. Hans arrived home, settled us all with drinks and nibbles and proceeded to cook a beautiful dinner of white asparagus, ham and cheese, potatoes and salad. Delicious. Followed by his homegrown strawberries and he specially whipped cream for me!!! We chatted all night. They really are the nicest people. Hans insists on cleaning up so I have retired to bed while he and Nick chat. Its nearly midnight so am a tad weary. Another wonderful day with friends.





Comments

  1. abroadabroad2 June 2018 at 21:17

    What a great time you had on the boat. Lovely to catch up with Deb and Mark too, and see how they are going with their new life.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Friday 3rd May. Columbus Zoo.

Image
 A leisurely start to the day and off to pick Roarke  up from kinder then, with baby Emma, we headed to the zoo. Kate was there with  her school along with 100s of other school kids. This is almost the  last week of school for the year. We found Kate and her kids were excited to see Emma and Rourke.  Unfortunately Roarke was not happy when she had to leave. Paula and I tried to distract him and eventually the carousel and lunch helped.  I love the mac and cheese, and by this time most school kids had left so the zoo wasn't as crowded.  We saw the flamingos, seals, penguins and gorillas. We finished the day with another carousel ride for me and Roarke this time and a weird ice cream, Dip and dot. Tiny balls of ice cream?? A tad exhausted we dropped back to Kate's and headed into Free Friday in Delaware.  Candy floss and coloured ice meant Roarke was full of beans!! I had a hot dog and lemonade.....squeezed lemons, water and huge amounts of sugar.  Delicious and a good sugar boos
Read more

Wednesday 1st May. Bike ride along the Kokosing Gap Trail.

Image
 A little sleep in and then after breakfast we headed off in the truck with our 3 bikes in the back. A beautiful  sunny day and we drove for about 50 miles to Kenyon College near Mt Vernon for the start of our bike ride. Once our seats were raised, helmets fitted and deciding to head left rather than right on the trail we headed off. A well maintained trail with wild flowers and a river by our side. 5 miles to Mt Vernon over 2 bridges. We met people along the way to chat to and when we arrived at Mt Vernon we chatted to a marathon trainee.  We headed back to Gambier and checked out the old trains. We drove into the Uni village and had a sandwich at the students Cafe. Lots of wealthy international students attend here and it the 2nd oldest uni in the US.  Love the scenery returning.  Wide open spaces, very green neat grasses and some fields being ploughed.  Time for bed as an early start  to help baby sit Tom and Paula's grandchildren. 
Read more

Saturday 25th May. Bodrum, drive to harbour, tender to boat The Admiral l

Image
 I'm finally on board and ready for our first ride tomorrow morning. So a delicious  breakfast again and a leisurely wait for my pick up at 2am. I changed a $20 us into Turkish lira which I may need out in the countryside.  My driver was excellent and took me to a very rocky beach where I couldn't  see my boat. Finally we went to another Cove where I could see the Admiral. The guys take your luggage and I manoeuvred into the rubber ducky. And we were off. Not far to the boat, then up the side steps, no time to feel unsure. On board, guys brought up my luggage. Shoes off and no paper in loo. Shown to my cabin 3 and unpacked, settled in and used the throne, the loo, literally up on its own platform, like a throne!! Compact but comfy and very clean. Only 5 others there so me makes 6. A couple from Colorado and 2 sisters from Oz, one lives in Canberra the other in Brisbane.  And Paul also from Oz. All my age or older and great company.  So nice to talk Aussie!!! Then more arrived,
Read more