Smith's Away

 Not sure how this blog will turn out. I'm sleep deprived and having a shandy on an empty stomach. I left my room this morning at 3.30am for the 4am shuttle bus. Once at Schipol I navigated myself around and found my gate. Had to put the luggage tag on with a machine then off to wait at the gate. A full flight and when we arrived in Madrid the thought of a bus to terminal 4 then the metro to the main Charmatin station was too much trouble esp as the taxi was a set price, no haggling just driven in comfort.  That meant I had hours to wait at the station. But read. Chatted to people, esp those heading to do the Camino. Then found some of my COST friends. On the train I met some girls heading to the Camino. Rhonda spoke English as a Canadian(actually from New Foundland) and has married and settled in Spain. Train travelled at over 225kms an hour. Arrived to sunny weather and shared a taxi to our hotel with COST friends. Have been for a walk and love the atmosphere.  Some places remind

 Up for my last breaky on Melba with Deb and Mark. We do the quiz while I check in for my next flight. All too soon it's time to head off to the train station. Its a beautiful sunny day and I have helpers to cart my luggage. We hug goodbye as Deb and Mark head off to shop and celebrate their cuz finally heading off!!! We've had a wonderful time together and I love being on Melba with them. Train to Leeuwarden, change platforms, then onto Merpel, where similar to Melbourne there are works going on so bus replacements.  Get on the train again at Zwolle and finally arrive at the airport.  I find the shuttle bus that takes me to my hotel, about 10 minutes away. Unfortunately no souvenirs at this one. Last time I  stayed at the airport the hotel had lots of souvenir shirts. I went for a walk but no other hotels. I had dinner and now for bed as a very early start.  4.00am shuttle back for my flight to Madrid. Next blog in Spain!!

 Up bright and early, out of our tight mooring,  backing out and whipping around(I assume as I was still in bed!) A grey day with smatterings  of rain. Only one bridge to ask them to put up. We passed through a number of places I had been before and finally Franeker where we stayed another time I was here, so I was familiar with the mooring.  Last time I was here, we were moored and woken in the morning by a big dredging barge asking us to move. No such drama this time and Mark reversed into our mooring extremely well again, with Deb having to loop her ropes through rings. Again  they do a wonderful  job. Deb and I walked into town and bought my train ticket for tomorrow.  The town was fairly quiet but we went back to the lovely tea/coffee place I went to last time. Bought some fruit, yes Kanzi apples here too. Packed my case and read for a bit.  For dinner we had the racklette, cooking chicken on the top and potatoes with cheese on underneath and of course Debs famous salad. Delicious

 Another lovely sleep in. Up to a beautiful blue sky day. We got our bikes ready and headed off to Joure a town a bit bigger than this one. Dutch flags were out and lots of orange around. We rode fairly flat tracks through little towns and along the Sneekermeer, a big body of water that is about 2 metres deep, except in the channels.  The town of Joure was jumping. This is the one day where everyone seems to have a spring clean and bring out all the junk they no longer want, to sell. A bit like us with stuff on our nature strip's.  We rode back and stopped to watch the boats on the water. It was getting busier. Another beautiful day. A late lunch and then took my bike back. A shop in the church was open and I found a nice woolly bike seat cover!! Tomorrow we motor to Franeker, my last motoring day.

 A lovely sleep in as no motoring today. Very cold but no wind or rain and the water is very smooth. We decided it was too cold for riding so a quiet day on Melba, doing a wash, cutting and dicing for Debs cooking and playing quordle.  We then headed off for a walk to the bike store to see if we could hire for tomorrow.  I rode back a bit while Deb walked. I rode down little roads and checked out the homes. This place is jumping in the summer time but is very dead in winter.  Very much a holiday place.  Tomorrow is Kings day, bit like our Queens birthday holiday, so I imagine there will be lots of orange everywhere and little boats out on the water. We plan to ride to Joure tomorrow to check out the market and their festivities.  Tonight we'll  watch some more of Why Women Kill. 

 A very long trip today, down canals, under bridges, through a sluice and across 2 big lakes. The lakes are shallow so you must keep in the channels between the red and green buoys. The weather was very unpredictable.  Beautiful sun, little wind and then suddenly when I was out on deck ready to put the coins in the clog under the bridge, hail whipped up and stung me on the face!!!  Great scenery again, and the water level, even in little Venice is monitored so that flooding doesn't occur. Let's face it, most of the Netherlands is reclaimed land so they sure know what they're doing. Also the water is fresh water not sea.  It was a long day for Mark and Deb ascwe arrived into our mooring at 3pm. Mark parked Melba between 2 other boars. A bit like parallel parking. Deb then does her ropes and the team soon has us parked, tied up and power on. A well oiled team.  Deb and I walked into town and checked out bike for hire for tomorrow.  We're here for 3 nights so we'll do

 An early start out of Zwolle in cold, wet and windy weather. It rained the whole way with Deb getting very wet. They are definitely a well oiled team that works so well together.  Under bridges and one sluice today and a mooring at Giethoorn. It was quiet on the water and no one at our mooring.   Deb and I got  off to explore the Venice of the North. The little canals were dug by hand to get the peat for fires etc so it would have been a very poor area. Now it is a very popular and wealthy area. As they dug they found lots of goat horns, hence the name Giethoorn. We walked for hours along canals, over little bridges, beside canals and houses with tulips and all sorts of flowers growing.  And a couple of souvenir shops!!! Little boats ply the canals taking tourists. In summer it must be like dodgem cars!!.  Absolutely beautiful walk thr the canals. Back on Melba and the wind has come up to buffet us around. We head off again tomorrow morning  for Terherne.