“... With a hey ho the wind and the rain ...
For the rain it raineth every day”
(Feste – Twelfth Night) are we in Illyria or what (you will)
The weather here in Holland is again atrocious: wind, rain and set-in grey skies. We gather that it is pretty much the same in England – no change there then.
However, we noticed, after we had first moored here on Sunday, that the floating platform which we had so narrowly avoided on our way in, had spray-painted writing on it which Louise translated as ‘20m for rent’.
Never one to hang about, Alex spoke to the young man in the houseboat behind us (though chic, picture windowed, floating two-storey house would be a better description) and was told that ‘our’ mooring belonged to the house opposite and that the old people living there were rather difficult.
So with some trepidation Alex went the next day to talk to them with a view to our mooring for a few weeks.
‘Aari’ (Harry?) turned out to be as nice as you could want, and the upshot of the long conversation covering boats, batteries, generators and moorings was that:
yes we can moor on his moorings
no the friend to whom it had been promised would not need it after all
until the end of September
yes we could have it for 8 weeks and
no he couldn’t possibly take any payment from us of any kind!
Result or what?! (though we do feel bad about not paying anything after such kindness).
Added to that, the water and electricity available only yards away is provided by the local council for free (well apparently they can’t be bothered to mend the coin slot operation).
So, we have a place to moor for the next 8 weeks where we can come and go (with or without boat) as we please, and where we can guarantee to be able to take on water and fully recharge the batteries which are beginning to show signs of weakness. Most importantly though, we can leave the boat for 2 weeks in comparative safety while we return to GB. This means that we don’t have to plan in a dash to Dordrecht for those two weeks and can look around more in this area.
By the way, the comment made by the houseboat dweller re Ari being difficult, may have had something to do with the fact that the houseboat’s little dinghy is moored illegally and slightly overlapping Ari’s own mooring and perhaps words have been said on that subject between them!
If we could just access the wi-fi which is in the vicinity, but firmly locked, we would have it all! As it is, it is still a bit of a business trying to get onto the internet and our last effort at the library was only partially successful, as we were able to upload our written blog but not the photographs. We’ll be trying again to post the latest pictures from our trek north from Amsterdam to Krommenie when we can.
2 comments:
Hello you two! Well I've just caught up on the adventure after a busy week away from the computer. I've been in Leeds for three days learning how to edit proper quality video so we can start offering video podcasts. Or Vodcasts as they are also known. It was in the Old Broadcasting House (where Mum took us all for Richard's birthday years ago to look round Radio Leeds. That has to beat another group trip to Wimpy's!) It's been somewhat refurbished since then though, with state of the art media facilities. Anyway, after three really quite exhausting days, followed by three equally exhausting nights at Dad's, I passed the exam. So I'm now officiallu qualified by Apple to use their video editing software. If I ever manage to catch up with you both in Europe, I'll do a video of your exploits so you can add that to the blog! It'll take me about three weeks - it's a bit like Alex trying to plug in his 3G dongle. He knows how to do it, it just takes longer than it should;-)
Anyway - we're really enjoying the blog - you've both got quite a flaor for bringing the whole thing to life. I wish I could have been there to see Alex "joining in" with the Pink Pride thing the other week! Hope you were well behaved. We're going to see the Bodyworks exhibition in Manchester tomorrow - the one with the preserved human bodies - we're taking Janine's little brother and having a night over there. Anyway - enjoy the next few weeks - congratulations on the free board and lodgings- you two really are spawny! Jamie
Hi!
Free mooring? Could it be the Sisson charm or the winning ways of Louise??
Hope to see you in September when you may or may not have a bed! Eve went home on Tuesday to the Czech Republic with the one and only set of keys for caravan. Hmmm. I think we might get round to having a spare set cut.
Julia
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